SOS from the US
I’m trying hard to hang on to the feeling of exhilaration from seeing Richard Armitage on the stage in NYC, but all I feel today is grief and fear of what’s going to happen next. Not just to me, but to the goal of universal health care, to women’s reproductive rights, to my queer friends, to Muslims, to journalists, to poor Black people in the inner cities, to all the people rotting without lawyers in immigration prisons, and worst of all, to the planet. I’ve never feared the future in the U.S., but I do now. I have never felt as socially and culturally devalued as a woman as I do this morning.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I’m devastated and I’m not even in your country. The comments from males – especially the Bernie Bros- has been horrifying. It is clear that being a woman has no value at all in society.
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Yeah, at the time my whole RL FB feed was up in arms at me for my worry about the Bernie Bros. I was right, not that it gives me any pleasure at all.
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I haven’t felt so viscerally effected by words in a long time. I actually feel like shit reading their comments.
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Bernie Sanders and is brother? (Sorry, slightly confused and not sure what you’re referring to)
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“Bernie bros” is a slang tag for the male supporters of Bernie Sanders — most of them young, white, misogynists — who said they would never support Hillary Clinton.
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Ah, I see. Now it makes sense 😉
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“The righteous will never be shaken; They will always remember him.
He will not fear bad news; Your heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”
Psalm 112: 6,7
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Thanks.
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Yeah… I wish I knew how to reassure you there….
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There’s that German proverb “nichts wird so heiß gegessen wie es gekocht wird” or however it goes … however, I am predicting that I lose my health insurance in March. But I’ve become such a fatalist on certain issues that I am starting not to care. I honestly don’t understand how Americans can be so cruel to each other. Then again, why should I feel solidarity with a society that feels so little solidarity with me? My feelings of preparation to cooperate with anyone are falling precipitously.
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All I can do is offer (((hugs)))… and refuge, should you ever feel the need to flee the country…
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Thanks. My TX friend who now lives in the NL also said she’d work hard to find me a job at her university … I’m thinking about it more seriously now.
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Would you consider the UK? Despite looming Brexit?
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I have to think about dad.
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I understand, of course.
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Man sagt das genau so und tatsächlich hat das heute mein Vater genau so zu mir gesagt, um mich in meiner Aufregung zu trösten: “Nichts wird so heiß gegessen wie es gekocht wird.”
Obwohl das oft stimmt und obwohl ich weiß, dass “in der Ruhe die Kraft liegt”, kann ich mich einfach nicht beruhigen. Ich befürchte, dass auch nach einer gewissen “Abkühlung” noch genug Hitze da sein wird, um großen Schaden anzurichten. Solidarität steht nicht hoch im Kurs.
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Supposedly, the ACLU plans to sue the government over anything that is blatantly unconstitutional, and they should find plenty of donors.
Oddly, my father likes to eat things extremely hot. Usually when I put something on a plate for him he wants it warmed up. So I don’t know how generally applicable the proverb is.
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“Manche mögen’s heiß” 😉
Trauriger Versuch, die Stimmung etwas aufzuhellen…
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🙂
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Ich war stolz auf Angela Merkels Worte an Trump. Theresa May kann sich da mal eine Scheibe abschneiden. Merkel hat Grenzen aufgezeigt.
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I agree.
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Es wird ihr natürlich schon wieder vorgeworfen, überheblich und belehrend zu sein.
Obwohl ich sie noch nie gewählt habe, bin ich in diesen Zeiten öfter mal stolz auf sie. Hätte da früher nie geglaubt.
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If I were only voting based on conviction / ideas, I’d never vote CDU, but I agree. She’s done the right thing repeatedly in the last few years.
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Die AfD verspricht sich nach diesem Wahlergebnis Aufwind. Sehr besorgniserregend.
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All right-wing eurosceptics cheered today.
(Something that makes me a tad sick, especially when they still collect EU paycheques.)
Die nächsten Wahlen in D und F werden machen mir Sorge. Und wenn UK im Frühjahr womöglich eine frühe General Election machen muss, je nach dem wie das Urteil im Dez ausfällt…. Dear me 😦
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Me too, I’ m afraid of the election in F and D next year.
” das war Wasser auf die Mühlen von Front National und Afd”
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Hugs from Canada. We are all kind of freaking out too.
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Yeah — us being on your border and all. I hear the Canada immigration website is crashing intermittently.
I really feel bad for México. If NAFTA truly bites the dust, they’ll be the first casualties … free trade is no panacea by any means but the shock will be severe (and will probably spawn more illegal immigration to the US).
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Sending puffs of hope from Canada. We are definitively freaking out too.
This morning the Canadian Immigration and Citizenship web site crashed under heavy traffic 😳
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Two words: Kellie Leitch.
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She really makes me ill. And with Donald Trump winning she is only going to get worse and emulate him all the more.
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I think her attempt to define herself in the pack is going to backfire. I am optimistic now that I see Lisa Raitt (as an example) entering the race. I am not a conservative but I really like her and she is way more high profile than Kellie Leith.
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Good reminder before we go all smug and such. One hopes the CPC learned the lesson of last year’s election where support for our diversity strongly beat out racist ideas like the snitch line (which she announced). If it didn’t it deserves what it gets at the polls.
Servetus, I truly have no words to express my sorrow for what happened. I’m still getting over the shock and trying to process what it means. I sincerely hope this does not begin a period of darkness for minorities. And I do think those of you who represent strong social values of inclusiveness and compassion for others will have to work / fight hard to ensure that remains a core value of the US.
I also weep for HRC who – as you said in an earlier post – was ultra-qualified for the job. I will miss her.
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Thanks.
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I’m still in a stupor of shock and can’t believe what happened. My 11 year-old son was inconsolable this morning when I told him who’d won. It took everything in me to tell him that disappointment should not become debilitation when all I wanted to do crawl was crawl under the blanket and hide for the next 4 years.
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yeah, we’ve gotta somehow find the energy to remain steadfast but it’s so hard. Minorities are going to find it hard in the next four years and we will all need to build alliances against what are likely to be horribly xenophobic government policies.
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I’m sorry to write for the very first time today, but I’m scared! I would reassure you, but I can not even reassure myself.
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Thanks for the comment and welcome.
I can’t reassure myself either. I’m at a cafe writing and listening to a table of women next to me crowing over how now we will get the inner city problem in Milwaukee “under control.” I don’t know what that means but I can guess.
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What a nightmare!!! For months I’m bearing in mind, that in 1933 likewise the political elite (and the press?) considered the possibility of Hitler becoming Reichskanzler as quasi non-existent!!! (Brexit!!)
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I’m absolutely shattered and there are absolutely no adequate words for this. Besides I’m not in the slightest over the BREXIT disaster yet!!!
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I’d like to think that we can at least avoid the genocide aspect of it — but war is much more likely now. After Congress drives the poorest third of Americans even further into penury. At least National Socialism lifted the German economic situation for about five years. I don’t think we’ll have that here.
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Always believed the US would come to their senses. Honestly, I’m lost for words. {{Hugs}}
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Yeah. Thanks.
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I’m really sorry for you and those in your country who didn’t support Trump. What a complete mess. It looks like everything Obama achieved (health care, environment aspects) will go right down the toilet, and the latter will affect all of us, Germany included. I really don’t understand the people who voted for Trump. (Or Brexit for that matter. To it’s the same kind of thinking and attitude behind both.)
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You know, the health care situation is horrid, but the environmental problem is terrifying. Somehow the US just voted to trash the whole planet …
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Er kann das alles einfach wieder ungeschehen machen, so wie die Mehrheiten sich jetzt entwickelt haben… ? Einfach weg damit?
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Yup. That was one of his main planks. Repeal Obamacare. That’s something that a majority of both houses will now stand behind — they will find it uncontroversial. Trump said “we will replace it with something better” but he (a) has no plan and (b) the majority of both houses are against universal health care, so they will blockade anything like that. 11 million people will lose their health care access.
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Wem hilft das? Was hat die Gesellschaft davon, wenn so viele Menschen benachteiligt werden. Würde nicht die christliche Nächstenliebe…
Ich verstehe das wirklich nicht. Es macht für mich überhaupt keinen Sinn und erscheint mit völlig herzlos.
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Many Christians in the US do not see the provision of social welfare to the poor via government as a social good. They believe it should only be done privately. It is an attitude I disagree with, but is held by many (including my parents).
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So sind bedürftige Menschen aber immer auf den guten Willen Einzelner angewiesen (die sich ihre Hilfsbereitschaft von Gott hoch anrechnen lassen wollen?) und diese können dann je nach Sympathie entscheiden. Das hat mit Gerechtigkeit nichts zu tun. Befindet man sich am falschen Ort, ist nicht mitleiderweckend genug oder hat die “falsche Einstellung”, dann hat man Pech. Wahrscheinlich ist das ein sehr deutscher Blickwinkel. No offence.
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I completely agree with you, but that’s not how a lot of Christians in the US feel. I don’t know that it’s a German perspective in particular. Just one that it is only partially shared in the US (as opposed to nearly universal in Germany).
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My thoughts are with you and a big big hug. This affects everyone in the US but also everyone around the world, we’re all full of fear and anxiety about what comes next.
And although we’re not all that much better off on the island the door honestly is open if at any time you feel you need to get out and catch your breath, and i mean that!
But i worry about the future. It’s not ‘we the people’ who have decided, the huge number of absentees is scary, i wonder what those people think about the world they find themselves in today. And we the people isn’t a huge majority, it’s very minimal in terms of numbers which leaves us all very divided. People of certain ages might dream about turning back time to some happier memories of their youth but reality is that we can’t go back, the world is a very different place and we need to deal with it. It is slowly dawning on me however that we can’t just duck and close our eyes and despair. I’ve done that since June and it’s made things no better. We have to fight. Within the systems that have been built through history for our democracy. They don’t always protect us but they can’t silence us. We can’t let the future be decided for us without us. We have to raise our voices and find a way to fight and contribute, for ourselves, for the children and young who largely didn’t agree with this, for the week and vulnerable. We just can’t afford to give up 😦
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I don’t plan to change my attitudes or actions — or rather, I plan to become more open about certain things in my real life. I think people around here really think that everyone agrees with them about stuff. I really freaked someone out yesterday by saying that I was excited about Hillary Clinton’s ideas — it’s like people think everyone thinks like they do and so they can make decisions for everyone based on what they are most concerned about.
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Es wird nötig werden, auch im persönlichen Umfeld viele politischen Diskussionen zu führen und die eigene Haltung deutlich zu machen. Die schweigende Mehrheit führt dazu, dass relativ kleine Gruppen eine überproportionalen Effekt haben.
Ein Verweis auf die deutsche Vergangenheit drängt sich hier auf. Als Jugendliche bin ich fast an der Frage verzweifelt wie so etwas geschehen konnte. Und jetzt kommen die überwunden geglaubten radikalen Ansichten überall wieder aus der Deckung. Oh, es ist zum Verzweifeln…
Das ist alles so schlimm, weil ich vor noch nicht all zu langer Zeit glaubte, dass sich die Welt seeeeeehr langsam (aber immerhin) eher zu einem besseren Ort entwickeln würde.
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I think that is the most discouraging thing. You think certain ideas and sentiments have disappeared, but they are still around and suddenly it becomes to articulate them again.
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Es kommt mir vor wie bei der Gegenreformation.
Neue Ideen, die den alteingesessenen Überzeugungen widersprechen oder ihnen gar überlegen zu sein scheinen, werden mit der größtmöglichen Brutalität niedergeschlagen. Die glorreichen alten Zeiten werden beschworen, als alles noch klar und einfach war. Obama hat die konservativen Kreise zutiefst erschreckt und das ist jetzt die Gegenbewegung?
Nur so ein Gedanke…
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I’m kind of a fan of the Counter-Reformation — it was great for the Catholic Church and it was fairly conservative. The Protestant Reformation also had a series of unattractive, violent manifestations.
But I understand what you’re trying to say about reactions.
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That is spot on, Serv! Exactly what I talked about with friends in the UK, France and Germany this morning. The realisation that we were obviously wrong in believing to be part of an open-minded, enlightened (and yes, globalised) world/society where those racist and limiting ideas are only represented by a small minority, is a shock.
I still don’t get why – if you were poor and disenfranchised – you’d vote conservative in order to help the social change to bring you up the ladder.
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I think this is the other concomitant shock, although it’s not getting as much publicity as some of the other info from the election — pundits being as invested as historians in the idea that turns to fascism / authoritarianism are primarily the consequence of economic shock — is that middle income people were more likely to vote for Trump than the poor were.
But the poor vote against their economic interest all the time in the US — suggesting that they constitute their understanding of their lives differently. I suppose a parallel question in Germany is: why doesn’t everyone who could attend a Gymnasium do so? Why do parents with a Realschulabschluß encourage their children to pursue similar careers rather than move up educationally?
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Well, back then my parents and their friends, my friends’ parents all encouraged us (to put it politely, especially when we were teenagers) to move upward on the social ladder “have a better life” ambition, so basically get a good Abitur and then preferably uni education. Only very few of us (us being the people with whom I graduated) moved into an apprenticeship.
I think it’s the people my age who react differently to their kids’ education now. (Isn’t that also a bit what LLL discusses?)
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Es könnte vielleicht daran liegen, dass das Ausbildungssystem in Deutschland verschieden ist? Dass man (zumindest war es das zu meiner Zeit) mit einer ca. dreijährigen Ausbildung bei einer Firma auch noch 3 Jahre auf eine Berufsschule / Berufscollege gehen muss?
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Berufsschule war/ist doch parallel zur Ausbildung. Zwei oder drei Tage die Woche zur Berufsschule den Rest im Betrieb. So habe ich das bei meinen Azubis kennengelernt.
In den letzten 15+ Jahren wurde aber auch wieder verstärkt Werbung fuer Ausbildungsberufe gemacht, da bestimmte Skills in der Industrie rar wurden. Alternativ kam dadurch auch das Duale Studium auf. D.h. jemand macht eine Ausbildung, verdient Geld und die Firma finanziert eine Studienabschluss parallel zur Ausbildung. So kann die Firma gleich die internen Fuehrungspersonen anlernen.
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Danke für Deine Antwort Vanguard; so wie Du es beschrieben hast, kenne ich es auch bei uns. Was ich damit halt kurz andeuten wollte, ist, dass man als Facharbeiter / Fachangestellte zwar nicht unbedingt akademisch gebildet ist, aber eben kein formloser Wackelpudding in den Gehirnwindungen. Man muss im Laufe seines Lebens jede Menge Kompromisse schließen, aber warum gerade beim Wählen? Warum wähle ich jene, die mich definitiv nicht vertreten bzw. schaden? Dies trifft leider nicht nur auf die “angry white & young men” in den USA sondern auch auf so manche in D / EU zu schüttelt in Unglauben den Kopf.
Zu der Sache, warum viele Kinder von Arbeitern (im Gegensatz zu Akademiker- oder Beamtenkindern) kein Gymnasium besuchen / ihr Abitur ablegen und studieren und folglich auch bildungsmäßig aufsteigen? Nun, die Antwort kann man sich denken: es ist immer noch eine Kostenfrage und sowas wie eine gläserne Decke vorhanden, die sie davon abhalten. Vielleicht teilen die “Reichen” selbst solche Sachen wie eine angeblich “kostenlose” Bildung in D nicht gerne? Oder Männer den freien Platz, der für ihren (männlichen) Freund “reserviert” ist? Wobei wir wieder bei der Sache wären, warum die sogenannten Nicht-Privilegierten solche wählen, die mit geschickter Rhetorik solche Dinge gerade eben zementieren wollen?
Wir drehen uns im Kreis: ein großes Sorry für meine lange Litanei – sorry Servetus for that long rant…
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Emotionally shredded. And I’ve never been happier that I don’t have kids.
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SO TRUE.
I’d already been worried about the college situation for my nieces. This will hopefully get me to take care of a few things that I’ve been putting off. But you know, they’re girls and I had hoped we could send them out into a world where behaviors like the ones Donald Trump regularly exhibits toward women were clearly rejected and punished. The nation just voted to legitimate open sexual harrassment. It’s already had its vicious effect on me; I’d hoped future generations would be spared.
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I wish I could say something positive, but I feel more or less the same, and very sad for the messed up world that my daughters will be inheriting. For my part, I have decided to be kind and respectful of other people as sort of an antidote to the hatred that has emerged from this election. And I am going to work on educating people from underrepresented groups in technology careers to address some of the income disparity issues that have contributed to this situation. So perhaps my way of fighting is to try to make my corner of the world better.
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I’ve been kind and respectful my whole life and it’s had no effect, but I’m not planning to change my behaviors now.
Not sure what I will do next. If it weren’t for dad I’d have been one of those people crashing the Canadian immigration website last night.
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Sending strength and good wishes from Canada. My teenager and friends went to school today wearing black after hearing the result. I hope that our countries can still work together on issues that affect us both, but we have gone in a more liberal direction with the election of our new prime minister one year ago. Hopefully, the president elect will surround himself with people who can give him good advice and hopefully he will listen to it.
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I’m not hopeful, given that he wants to put Newt Gingrich in his cabinet. But I can’t control it, i can only respond and only control my responses. I guess I’m hoping he doesn’t add any white supremacists to government.
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I hear Palin was mentioned too and Giuliani? But Pence is not exactly a ball of charm either, is he? (What will happen with Planned Parenthood?)
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In practice, it will be Pence running the country; Trump doesn’t have the intellect for it. Pence is also frightening, although at least he’s not a demagogue. Planned Parenthood will lose all public funding and become dependent on private donors; women’s reproductive health care (not just abortions) will become much harder to obtain. With the repeal of Obamacare will come the end of the mandate for insurers to cover the cost of birth control.
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What a bleak prospect
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I know. It’s like they’ve forgotten what century we’re all living in.
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Serv, not saying your a smug elite but have you seen this article: http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism
I think you once pointed out the example with President Obama. I don’t agree with everything the article says but i will definitely rethink the initial impulse to label the people like Trump as lacking intellect.
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Some of them do; some of them don’t; there are some very smart conservatives. I potentially feel this way because I was ‘raised conservative,’ but there is definitely an intellectually legitimate conservatism. I don’t think Trump per se was a representative of it, but some of the people who supported him had solid reasons. And you know, even if they didn’t — those people live here and vote too. We don’t restrict the vote to people who understand the issues. They will also have to be persuaded and we can’t figure out how to do that unless we respect them on some level.
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Gutted. I don’t live in the country I thought I did. How does Billy Bush lose his job for listening to Donald yet Donald can become president. I have family members who are in biracial and gay marriages. They are terrified. I have personally been very upset by Donald. He was exactly the type of man who abused me as a young person. It’s even more frightening because the Republicans took the Senate and the House. No checks or balances for this unqualified president. Tree
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it’s weird because I think of the values of Today show viewers as sort of least common denominator American ideas — but apparently not. We’ll tolerate things in our president that we won’t in our talk show hosts? Frightening.
I’m really worried about what this administration and Congress will do to the defenseless.
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Shocked and very much saddened at the outcome of the election. It chills me to think what could happen not only in the US but the rest of the world as a result. I pray for all those who will inevitably suffer in one way or another. Your Canadian friends are grieving for you today.
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We appreciate it 🙂
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{{{Hugs}}}
You’re always welcome in my part of the woods!!!!
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thanks 🙂
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Mom! Dad! Trump! 😦 that was my daughter’s shriek early in the morning. “sigh” hugs from Poland,Serv.
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In Poland the situation also is not easy.
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so true! 😦
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Sigh. The lights are going out at the moment. Pray we have the strength to turn them back on soon.
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We will pray together. 🙂
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2 years. We have to survive 2 years till the next Congressional elections …
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2 years are long enough…
Es kann viel passieren in diesen beiden Jahren. Auch Trumps Anhänger beten ja sehr intensiv und halten seinen Sieg für ein Geschenk Gottes. Das hat mich während des “Auslandjournals” erschüttert, obwohl es natürlich zu erwarten war. Ein wahres Wirrwarr, das wieder mal vor Ihn getragen wird (wie zu allen Zeiten).
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yes, one thing that’s disturbing is that they actually got less than half of the popular vote but are already talking like they have a huge mandate to change everything.
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Ich schaue gerade die deutschen Nachrichten. Es ist kaum auszuhalten.
Sie arbeiten all die Wahlaussagen und ihre Auswirkungen auf die europäische und die deutsche Politik auf und das Ausmaß der Verunsicherung ist wirklich beängstigend. Die Freude in Russland ist besonders bezeichnend. Europas vereinigte Rechte feiern Trumps Sieg wie den eigenen. Marine Le Pen wittert Morgenluft.
Und das heute – am 9.11.1938 ereignete sich die Pogromnacht.
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Yeah.
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Au feu! Après le Brexit, voici Trump, L’Europe voit l’extrême droite reprendre la parole en A, PL, F, D, …Cuba fait des exercices militaires,… Nos démocraties tremblent, vacillent serait ce les prémices d’un tremblement de terre? Comme radagast je vois les accords de la cop 21 PARTIR DANS LE BROUILLARD;;;D’accord sur le reste avec vous. Trop triste, je suis trop triste.
Ma main droite est hors d’usage, j’arrête d’écrire. J’ai dû trop cogner de dépit, au vue des résultats. Je blague à moitié. De tout coeur avec vous.
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Thanks for the solidarity.
I spent a lot of time teaching the leadup to WWII — it was clear to me how WWI might have been avoided, but I never found a reasonable explanation to myself how the second one could have been circumvented. For about the last five years I’ve been toying with the idea that we’re in a cycle (most working historians no longer believe in cyclical theories) but I’m starting to think it’s WWII that we’re headed for.
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Les réfugiés seront de + en + nombreux, pour des raisons de précarité économique ou écologique. La population mondiale grandit, les réserves en matière première, en eau, en nourriture sont mal réparties ou s’amenuisent. Les inégalités sociales s’ accroissent au sein de sociétés autrefois prospères, maintenant de – en – généreuses.
La résolution imparfaite entre les grandes puissances, de la fin de WWII, a laissé plein de points de conflits en puissance.
Plus que R Armitage, il reste des sages à écouter de manière attentive. Certains crient des vérités, l’information existe il faut la chercher et ne pas écouter celui qui crie le plus fort des contre- vérités.
Je finirai sur les risques des nouveaux médias interactifs. Internet peut CONFORTER les personnes trompées, dans leurs erreurs, car elles ne communiquent, qu’avec des personnes ayant la même opinion. Il faut ouvrir les écoutilles et sortir des sous marins apparemment sécurisés, mais qui prennent l’eau. Quitte à risquer de se noyer.
J’espère ne pas donner trop de leçons, mais des idées de réflection.
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It is a terrible feeling to see who has been voted in as the President and feel “fear”. One can only hope that like every other president he is kept under control. The whole world will be watching this one. I know it made me sick to see it happen. This is also another time the candidate with the most popular votes lost out to the electoral college. When is this outdated system going to be removed?
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I think the concrete problem as far as “holding him under control” is that the House and Senate are also GOP controlled now. So they will automatically do whatever things of his that the GOP agrees with. In practice, because of the Tea Party mood at the moment, this means that they will be happy to defund anything he wants defunded, but they will not endorse new bills that require spending apart from military expenditures.
as far as the electoral college goes, I have mixed feelings, so I’ll stay out of that.
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I guess I needed a bit time and a rest – yesterday it was the main discussion at the university. And many of us asked: Were you surprised? Well… I have to say many say they were not. Somehow we have this shift in the whole western world of fear, anger, insecurity and “We need a change”. My first question was:” What went wrong, that people believe this is a way to solve problems?” I don’t see it there but i hope that we still can change the way and create politics we all can believe in.
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I’m not optimistic but I will leave it at that. I remember the Reagan and Bush years — and what people did was mount an ongoing game of creating obstacles. It wasn’t very successful. The “new politics we can all believe in” was a right-oriented feel good politics that many did not believe in, but just got tired of. Inner emigration.
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Me too, everything you said.
I’m so sorry.
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Thanks for the sympathy.
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“I have never felt as socially and culturally devalued as a woman as I do this morning.” Same. And I don’t even live in the US. I felt like crying. All those people who did not vote…. do they regret that now? Hugs and strength to you xox
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I think that if they didn’t vote, they probably don’t care. Except 18-25 year olds; they tend to not vote and then get angry about what happens. (Have watched this for years.)
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Hugs from France.
……..
(hope we’ll wake up before voting for the “wrong” president in 2017 here, meaning Sarkozy again or Mrs.Le Pen)
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G-d, the Le Pens. i remember the 2002 elections and how upsetting that was. Frightening to thing that Marine le Pen is potentially even closer now …
hugs back.
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Someone might already have said this (I haven’t looked through the comments), but if you ever decide to come here, notwithstanding Brexit, you have a place to stay while you get set up. There’s a rather large University here 🙂
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