random chance

Sadly no but surely they aren't all working for Russia.

I've seen some people on Twitter call the whole safety-pin thing "the real-life equivalent of signing an online petition" and then some Oranganistas saying they would wear one "to fool people into asking for help and then blammo," not that I took that threat even remotely seriously because there's no way they'd want to be mistaken for someone with compassion. So, I would like to offer some anecdotal evidence of my own. I'm in a red state and, currently, in a hotel that's mostly staffed by black women and that has a lot of guests with darker skin tones and/or non-American accents. I've been wearing a safety pin for a few days. The old white Jimmy Johns sandwich delivery man gave me quite the stinkeye along with my sandwich, and on four separate occasions in the elevator someone has pointedly looked at my shoulder and then looked me in the face, smiled, and said something cheerfully conversational like "nice night isn't it!" And I know they were all looking at the pin because I'm a woman; I have had years and years of experience of someone looking at me somewhere other than in the eye. So I will continue to wear it, even though the original Twitter account was trying to turn it into some damn Unity thing the last time I looked (NO UNITY, NO NORMALIZING HIM), because I would like people to know that I'm not going to menace them. If any Oranganistas take up with me I'll just ask them in German if they speak German until they give up and go away. If they menace me, I will be delighted to pepper-spray the crap out of them and then call the police, but I don't intend to engage them otherwise because I could not possibly care less what they have to say or what their reasons are or how they feel about anything. Could. Not. Care. Less. Anyway. Someone upthread said they felt like they had fallen into an alternate timeline - that is a great description for how I feel. Like I was watching some time travel sci-fi show and suddenly I realized I was actually the character, not the viewer. (Someone on Twitter: "I'm convinced that this is the result of the Krenim trying to fix the timeline.") I expect that in the future, a lot of sci-fi novels and TV shows will center around this election.

Birth control is not 100% effective and human beings are not 100% perfect.

Remember Trump's stupid talking point about how Hillary had 30 years in politics to fix things and never managed it? From the looks of it they're dismantling every single safety net we've got. It's going to bite them in the ass hard. Too bad it bites the rest of us as well. I don't know anymore what to post where, I guess I should probably move over to the Trump thread soon. It's hard to talk about election anxiety without mentioning him. But meanwhile, since I asked someone earlier to recommend some way of showing solidarity and letting people know I was safe, I've been seeing mentions on Twitter about the safety pin movement.

My favorite from back in the primaries, when I thought that surely the general population wouldn't elect this man (so I could still laugh) -- "I love the poorly educated!"

At best he's merely delusional (exhibit A: first tweet as PE), but I truly believe he's a sociopath.

Fear-mongering or just common sense? If we don't learn from history we're doomed to repeat it.

They'll probably bring in Ted Nugent to shoot it with a musket.

I'm already reading some of this thanks to links on Twitter - privatized roads (pay to drive on them), no more having to accept pre-existing conditions for insurers, something else I didn't understand about a high risk pool (whatever it was, nobody thought it was a good thing).

I'm sure that back in the day plenty of people were saying "stop being so dramatic" about Hitler.

As a first-generation U.S. citizen and the daughter of a German, I consider it to be my civic duty to oppose him. As far as I'm concerned, "we have to support whoever wins" is the same difference as "I was just following orders."

Someone needs to come up with an App for that, because I would be totally happy to walk with anyone anywhere, or sit on a bus with them, or whatever. Like Uber but free. I am not going to respect or gently judge positions like, "grab her by the p**** is just boys locker room talk." I mean that's not even a position, it's outright delusion. I don't know why so many women went along with that, but I am goddamned if I'll be one of them.

Yes, me either. And there is no amount of kumbaya we-can-overcome optimism that will change that, because I know it'll take at least a generation before this country is what I thought it was the day before the election. And that's only if the white men and women who voted him in figure out his values are evil. Which probably won't happen.

I still wonder if Trump is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. His father died of it, and he has some signs - the limited vocabulary, that sort of swaying thing he did when on his feet in the debate, the sniffing, the way he couldn't seem to remember what he lied about the day before (because perhaps he didn't know it was a lie), the complete lack of focus and short attention span ... he never did release a full physical, it's not impossible. Does he have to release the results of a physical now that he's PET?

They've become the thing that they purport to hate - a radicalized religious group. I've heard their hatred first hand, from people I grew up with, one of whom is a pastor in a church.

Yeah I'm done with them. I don't alternatively want an echo chamber though, because that lulls you into a false sense of security. But I don't really care what they do, because I know I won't be able to stomach TV news for at least the next four years. They can go Full Trump Fanboy for all I will know or care.

Exactly. I'll move on when I'm good and ready and not a minute sooner. Not even a hardship. It'll be months --maybe years -- before I can bear to watch them again. I had a look at that Wiki of Trump's endorsements. I guess he's going to drain the swamp right into his Cabinet.

Sometimes I "like" a post where someone is really upset and I just want to explain, I do that because I want you to know you were heard, not because I like that you were upset.

Wow that swamp is emptying out fast. The way 2016 has gone I'm surprised it didn't take out the Cubs.

This is excellent, if you're feeling horrible please read it, the first part made me cry but in a good way.

And those who do show up will be wearing trash like t-shirts with "you can grab MY p****!" and swastikas and so on.

You should embrace apathy for awhile if it helps. You should do whatever gets you through the initial stages of grief (we all should), with no guilt. It was a body blow, nobody should be expecting us to leap up off the floor immediately with a hearty "now I fight back!" (Unless you're a comic book hero.)

I'm not actually sure that doesn't make us patriots. Obviously his failure isn't going to make my own life any better, but I'll take the hit because that's the only way to make sure his ilk never comes back. I don't want to be better off than the people he's targeted just because I'm white and I kept my mouth shut.

Yes, I'm with you. Do not legitimize him with your cooperation and platitudes, let everyone see him for the sociopath that he is. Let him do all the deranged crap he promised. Let him take revenge on all his Republican enablers. I hope he goes down in flames and takes his weasel pals with him. That's the only way to make sure a Trump never happens again.

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around that. I had completely forgotten that we have that option here - thank you!