Juliajms

I don't think anyone is really acting like they are the only ones who count. One of the main reasons they are getting attention is that they are the ones who switched parties. Their loss led to Hillary's loss. I don't think there's really any getting around that. Now Democrats have to figure out what the coalition looks like without them. And yes, I know she one the popular vote, but so what? That doesn't change the situation at hand. And when it comes to manufacturing in general the loss of those well paying jobs are a hit to the middle class in general. When you lose millions of well paying jobs the ramifications to the economy at large are pretty big. This has been a problem for decades and it's just adding to the income gap at large.

The sheer amount of anti choice legislation coming up in Missouri is really disheartening. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/new-gop-control-missouri-primed-anti-abortion-blitz-2017 Before my genetic tests came back for my son (all was well), I asked the doctor if I would have options if something were seriously wrong. She basically said that by the time there was a definitive diagnosis (15 weeks) I would have to go to Kansas City. At the time I was sad for all the young girls and poor women who would have to make that 8 hour round trip to get what should be basic care. Looks like now they might have to take a 20 hour round trip to Denver. It's downright shameful. Like I told one of my husband's aggressive a-hole friends, you can never stop middle class or rich women from getting abortions. We'll just fly to California, Canada or Europe to get the care we need. The only people you are stopping are the poor. The same people you denigrate for needing welfare. Ugh, these people piss me off so much. The sheer stupidity is unbelievable.

Honestly @Khan I think your scenario is more likely than mine. I just felt like my post was coming off bitchy so I needed to come up with something positive. The fact is I think we are the highway to hell and I'm feeling kind of matter of fact about it at the moment. I'm only wondering which horrific thing Trump will do first. @JaneAusten I'm glad you are feeling optimistic and obviously I hope you're right.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 4m4 minutes ago Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love! Tell me this guy isn't a complete nut job. Heaven help us all.

Yes. I have to give Paul Ryan credit for playing people so well. Old people vote and the AARP has clout, so he just grandfathers them in. He knows younger people aren't good at realize old age will happen to them soon enough. I'm sure the AARP will try to fight it, but I won't be surprised if Ryan gets his way. I wasn't trying to make anyone feel better. I think authoritarianism is very dangerous and I'm worried that the media is losing sight of the role it's played in this election and is about to play in this administration. To make people feel better I have to dig pretty deep. I suppose 4 years ago we were getting ready for a second Obama term and we never could have seen Trump coming. Perhaps in four more years things will change again in ways we can't imagine and a decent, stable person will be taking office. That's really all I've got in terms of optimism.

One thing about the coverage and professional analysis of the election is that a lot of the talking heads have stopped talking about authoritarianism, but I'd say that's still at the heart of the election of this particular man. If it were just about people taking back "their" America or punishing "the other" nearly any of the (relatively) normal Republican candidates would have won. Most of them are every bit as racist as Trump and they don't really hide it in terms of policy. Obviously, Trump certainly would have won if not for racism (and sexism), but I think in many cases it was a more passive kind of racism. To be more specific, I think a lot of white people voted from a place of privilege. They may not have liked or even agreed with some of the things Trump was saying, but racism wasn't a deal breaker for them because it wasn't going to affect them directly. Otherwise we have to believe that there are 60 million rabid racists (and sexists) in this country and I doubt that for a lot of reasons. It would also explain why some of the people who voted for Obama twice turned to Trump. Kellyanne Conway alluded to this idea when she said that her polling showed that there was a difference between what offended people and what affected them. I also heartily agree that it's a huge mistake to believe that demographics will just naturally turn this country towards democrats. I fell for that this last election, but I never will again. It's actually sort of arrogant for Democrats to just think non whites will turn to us by default without candidates having to earn their votes. A lot can change in the next few years and I think it would be a big mistake to just assume the numbers will turn in our favor because people have no where else to go.

I know. Same with all the white women that voted for him as far as I'm concerned. Whenever I think of women voting for that man, I just feel hopeless.

How about the argument that over 25% of Latino males showed up for Trump and 13% of black males? Given that black women paid that man in the dust he deserved that's quite a high number.

Let's hope that's true. I think Trump won because of a perfect storm of reasons, I won't even pretend to understand them all. Sure, racism and sexism were a big part of it. Still, Trump blew by a lot of conservative white men in the primary, so that makes me suspect there was more to it. I do think a lot of people just wanted "change" and as Marceline has said, they didn't really care or think through what that meant. And yes, I do think HRC was a flawed candidate. She won the popular vote, but it seems very likely someone else would have won the electoral college without her issues. I'm not saying that's fair, she was highly qualified, but there were a lot of people out there who simply do not like her and too many of them were democrats or at least swing voters. At one point I knew that and then as the election cycle went on I started to deny it to myself and cast all of the people around me saying they don't like or trust her as outliers. I was definitely living in a bubble for awhile there. I remember Ana Narvarro and others saying that Trump and Clinton were both running against the only people they could beat in the general and I think that's probably true.

That's the one bright spot. He probably won't annihilate the human race with nukes. He'll just use carbon and at least many of us alive now will get to live out our days.

Like Khan usually points out, even if Trump is impeached it won't help that much. We'll just have Pence in his place. Maybe Pence isn't quite as dangerous, but he's even more focused.

It seems clear to me that he used anti Semitic tropes to fool the rubes into voting for him. If Trump loves anyone on this planet it's Ivanka, so she and her husband were probably on board. Meanwhile, we'll see what Jared Kushner has up his sleeve when it comes to Israel. I absolutely believe he's pulling the strings and I find it worrying. The status quo is ugly, but if Trump upsets it we could very well have a full on war in the middle east. I'm pro Palestinian (and plain old pro human) enough not to want to see anything like that happen.

^ Yep. I think this UN resolution is unfortunate in a number of ways, but Netanyahu tried to go around President Obama twice, so I can't be sorry he got his hand slapped. I do worry about Trump and the Republicans using this as an excuse to defund the UN and who knows what it means for the future of Jews in the Democratic party. What's done is done though and I guess we'll see how things play out. I'm a little skeptical of the idea that settlements preclude a two state solution. Israel has an Arab population of over 20%. Is there some reason the land Palestine uses for it's state has to be totally devoid of Jews? Why would the international community think it's ok to support that?

^ I think that's a stretch. It sounds to me like they are still talking about Jesus. Every year his birth (when he became the new King or King of Kings) is celebrated. Otherwise the implication is we had an old King and I'm pretty sure no one in the Republican party saw President Obama as a King. Nor do I think many people in the Republican establishment think of Trump as a King or even like him all that much.

I think undocumented immigrants have unrealistic hopes sometimes, but don't we all? A year of his life spent in detention and then back to pay the debt of a lifetime. All after that insane trek through jungles and hostile territory. That's a hell of a price to pay. I hope word spreads that coming her illegally under Trump is a bad idea. I'm legitimately worried about how people are treated with him in charge, not that they got the red carpet this time around either, but it can get worse.

The way I see it if he gets us nuked we have no more problems. If he doesn't we are going to be billions more in debt, while his defense contractor buddies rake in cash hand over fist. Meanwhile, poor kids go hungry and sick people aren't treated and the social safety net is being gutted. It's ridiculous to spend money on an arms race when we already can blow up the planet 100 times over. It's so frustrating that it's come to this.

^ "Let's make it an arms race". Brilliant! Let's waste a lot of money on nuke we don't need.

I'm sure most of you saw this case in Texas where the black mother was arrested after calling the police when her son was assaulted. I'm really at a loss on how these types of bad police can be reigned in or how the system can be changed to prevent them from getting this kind of power over people. Then again maybe under Trump no one is even going to try. The officer is just so calm and collected, which I suppose his way of baiting this woman, it's really upsetting to watch. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/22/a-black-mother-told-police-a-white-man-assaulted-her-child-they-arrested-her-instead/?utm_term=.619b3091aa2e

I wonder how Ms Quartermaine is doing? I know she was having a hard time with the election results. Michelle Obama is certainly right. Now we really now what it is not to have hope. Not that I'm completely hopeless, I don't think this dark time is forever.

How the Republicans are afraid of Trump and his minions. I find this article very disturbing. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-congress-republicans-232800

^ Israel doesn't trust the UN. Even the Secretary General just came out and said that an unfair number of resolutions have been brought against Israel and I don't think anyone would call him pro Israel. And let's be real, the United States would never leave it's fate in the hands of the UN, so why would any other nuclear power? The population of Gaza is exploding, so something is going to have to happen, I just don't think there is any solution that leads to peace. I hope I'm wrong. The occupied territories are a small space full of children. I hate to even think about what a large scale war would mean for them, after we saw the carnage summer of 2014 brought. Meanwhile instead of leaving bad enough alone Trump is determined to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Obviously, I'm pro Israel, but why on Earth stir the pot? I imagine Kushner is behind this. Maybe they want to push the conflict forward so he is President when it happens, I don't know. It's pure folly from my perspective. As to Carl's article, wow. I had no idea things were getting that ugly in the Florida democratic party. I'm getting less hopeful that we can get our s*it together and rebound from this loss anytime soon.

And a large number of major donors, not just in Florida. It seem obvious to me that after the Holocaust the number one priority of the Jewish people is having and protecting a homeland. No matter what. This tends to be a topic where I keep my mouth shut in real life and discuss only very lightly online. As far as I can see there is not a good solution. Eventually there will almost certainly have to be two states and that will almost certainly lead to a terrible war. I bet if we could check in on planet Earth in 200 years this conflict will still be going on.

Safe is a relative thing. Of course we are safer than war torn countries, but we still have a target on our backs. Just because most of the people who have tried to attack us have mostly failed doesn't mean our luck will hold out. It's only a matter of time before someone manages to pull off another major attack. Especially when you consider some of these terrorist are state sponsored. That's way more dangerous than a guy with a truck who can only kill a few people at a time. Of course, I don't think we are safer under Trump, quite the opposite.

^ Got it. I looked her up and saw she was in Clueless. How appropriate.

I have no idea how Stacey Dash is, so I'll take your word for it.