November 9, 2016

[MtnMan]

What were your thoughts on November 9, 2016?

I was completely surprised, but so where the polls. I did not like Hillary at all, or Trump, so I voted 3rd party. After Trump won, I was like, well how much damage can he do in 4 years? Our government is a huge cumbersome behemouth and change comes slow if at all. We had just watched a president that is pretty smart fail to implement things he wanted, though he had his successes.

And trump said, hold my spray tan

 

[Thump553]

This song summed it up best for me (but I wish someone would sing it without the electronic distortion):

 

[ewdotson]

This was my starry-eyed facebook post on 11/9/2020:

Two thoughts as a registered Democrat this morning

I feel the need to embrace Mrs. Obama's "We Go High" mantra. I hope last night's results lead to us refocusing on being the party of hope and love rather than to us focusing our energies on tearing Trump down. To be very clear, that doesn't mean rolling over for him. We still need to fight for things like minority rights and free speech. But let's be the best damned people we can be.

If you're in a position where moving to Canada is a real, actual option - consider moving to a swing state instead. If you aren't but can volunteer, consider doing so. We seriously need to mobilize.

Which is clearly *exactly the same* as the lies about election fraud the right has been feeding us since even before the 2020 election.

 

[Indus]

I said prepare for an assfucking with a katana if you can find my post and I was right. Democracy is bleeding from its bum and I have a feeling in 3-4 months the union won't exist anymore.

There's more insurrectionist and seditionists than institutionalists now.

 

[nakedfrog]

I lived in a deep red state, so I voted third party as well.
This time around I live in a deep blue state, but still voted for Biden, because I wanted the popular vote to be as high as it could.

 

[tweaker2]

There I was, thinking the voting would be close yet Hillary would, as all the signs pointed to, win and go on toward building on the successes that Obama brought to bear during his tenure.

Then BAM! the Orange Menace won, striking a blow against "the establishment" by creating his very own version of "the establishment" replete with corporate thugs, very wealthy greed mongers, racists and white supremacists, religious nutjobs trying to educate the rest of America about the evil of their ways, a plethora of crimes against The People, violations of oath of office and the rule of law, Constitution trampling, numerous convictions of close associates, lies and more never ending lies, alienating our allies while coddling our enemies, all while having his supporters completely ignoring the damage Trump was causing the nation and encouraging Trump to keep on keep'in on with his looting and scooting.

All of it due to his singular intent of profiting from his position to the fullest extent while being shielded by that position and his enablers in Congress.

 

[MtnMan]

There I was, thinking the voting would be close yet Hillary would, as all the signs pointed to, win and go on toward building on the successes that Obama brought to bear during his tenure.

Then BAM! the Orange Menace won, striking a blow against "the establishment" by creating his very own version of "the establishment" replete with corporate thugs, very wealthy greed mongers, racists and white supremacists, religious nutjobs trying to educate the rest of America about the evil of their ways, a plethora of crimes against The People, violations of oath of office and the rule of law, Constitution trampling, numerous convictions of close associates, lies and more never ending lies, alienating our allies while coddling our enemies, all while having his supporters completely ignoring the damage Trump was causing the nation and encouraging Trump to keep on keep'in on with his looting and scooting.

All of it due to his singular intent of profiting from his position to the fullest extent while being shielded by that position and his enablers in Congress.

Yea, in 2016 they typical politician was the problem, at least who I saw as the problem. Same old tit-for-tat bullshit, same games, same bureaucratic tsunami of procedures, that someone that is not an old school politician might be an option.

Well that might still be true, but a fucking narcissistic fucktard isn't a solution.

But still if you have shown me a summary of 1/6/21 four years ago I would have laughed at the absurdity. Yea, right...

 

[Stokely]

Turns out, quite a lot of damage. The utter shit people he hired to head up departments alone hurt us severely. Of course, that was Bannon's goal, to tear down everything in the government. When my kids grow up and have kids, they'll likely have fratboy Kavanaugh and the other turds Trump appointed in the Supreme Court. Welcome to Evangelical-land, where your body is ours to control as our morals see fit. Ironically in bed with the most unChristian President ever.

Only a few trillion on the Debt in order to give a giant raise to the ultra-rich. Er, I mean, tax reform.

Gotta love all those pesky environmental regulations tossed out, especially those put in by Obama. Because he has bottled water handed to him anyway. The rest of us bathing in mercury aren't really a concern.

Let's not mention the "War against talking about Climate Change". Did I mention kids of kids? I reckon the Court will be the least of their concerns in 50 years....Let's not mention the much smaller concern of the Pandemic, great response there. Ironically that should have handed him the election on a silver platter, if he had managed to act like only a typical politician and made concerned noises, everyone would have given him a boost. Easy win, end result is an own goal because he acted like an ass about masks and everything else.

There's very little he "accomplished" that I agree with, and that's not a surprise at all, because he's consistent--he's exactly as bad as he's always been as a person and as a businessman. He's a bully, cheat and fraud who has one solution for everything: sue. Sounds like a great symbol for modern America.

I'll give him credit for one thing, especially compared to the only worse modern President, GWB: He didn't start a war that killed more than a million people, destabilize a region for years and help start Isis. I'm sure the reason for no war was, no angle for him in it--I sure as hell don't think he gives a crap about dead people that aren't him--but credit where credit is due.

 

[dank69]

It was the moment I realized our country was much further gone than I thought.

 

[kt]

I admittedly thought, "How bad could it be?"

 

[Muse]

What were your thoughts on November 9, 2016?

I was completely surprised, but so where the polls. I did not like Hillary at all, or Trump, so I voted 3rd party. After Trump won, I was like, well how much damage can he do in 4 years? Our government is a huge cumbersome behemouth and change comes slow if at all. We had just watched a president that is pretty smart fail to implement things he wanted, though he had his successes.

And trump said, hold my spray tan

You were clueless. It was obvious a ton of damage was going to be done from the getgo and it turned out to be far far worse. You were a fool to not vote for Hillary Clinton.

People get coopted, including the Obamas. But he did get the ACA done, which was HUGE! No, it didn't solve America's healthcare issues, but it was a decent start.

 

[nickqt]

I felt defeated as an American, since it became clear that yes, there are enough Americans who will enthusiastically vote for an outright Fascist wannabe.

Anyone who believes they know anything about politics should have known for over a year at that point who Trump was, and how it was going to end up working out for our country.

Also this isn't my Twitter post, but, ahem, check the date.

https://twitter.com/x/status/796524541950513153

NONE of this is a surprise to anyone who has paid any attention to politics the past 30 years.

 

[woolfe9998]

You know what occurred to me on that very day? I told my wife that if Trump lost in 2020 he wouldn't step down and there was a chance we would never be rid of him until the day he died. That's how long ago I predicted Trump's antics over this election.

 

[MtnMan]

You were clueless. It was obvious a ton of damage was going to be done from the getgo and it turned out to be far far worse. You were a fool to not vote for Hillary Clinton.

People get coopted, including the Obamas. But he did get the ACA done, which was HUGE! No, it didn't solve America's healthcare issues, but it was a decent start.

May well be... Perhaps those that watch crap like his TV show where more attuned to what a shit storm he would be. I never watched it or paid any attention to his background noise.

 

[Heartbreaker]

You know what occurred to me on that very day? I told my wife that if Trump lost in 2020 he wouldn't step down and there was a chance we would never be rid of him until the day he died. That's how long ago I predicted Trump's antics over this election.

Bill Maher predicted this publicly since Trump won in 2016.

 

[Muse]

May well be... Perhaps those that watch crap like his TV show where more attuned to what a shit storm he would be. I never watched it or paid any attention to his background noise.

I didn't watch a single episode of The Apprentice. I was NOT in his thrall. Now, I did encounter someone recommending his (ghostwritten) book, The Art of the Deal, bought a used copy, read it and WAS impressed. When he'd thrown his hat in the ring I found out that the ghostwriter had repudiated tWump, said it was pretty much all a lie, that tWump was a compulsive pathological liar, who never stopped lieing, it's just his nature to lie. Eyes opened, I followed the 2016 presidential election, saw tWump pick off the ~20 GOP candidtates with insults and smears one by one. I wondered where he was getting his ratings and realized that the television addicted public was giving him a pass because of the TV show! I hated him, laughed at him, hoped he'd be demolished by Hillary. But I wasn't confident, watched Michael Moore's documentary about all this and saw MM's glum expression in a network TV studio at 8PM PST election night and knew, the USA's in big trouble.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Here is what I said after Trump won.

This time the dumb half won. It happens. We work to keep them from destroying to much in their slow witted rampage, and then rebuild after. The entire history of the world is this cycle. Smart people build up civilization on complex and sophisticated ideas, then slow witted people get angry that things are to complex for them to understand and demand simple answers to complex problems and when they are told that is not possible they rage and tear civilization down, then when the dumb people realize their lives are worse for their tantrum they settle down and let the smart people build civilization back up again. We are just seeing the next phase in this cycle, the dumb people are demanding simple answers for very complex questions. Civilization will soon fall.

 

[Sunburn74]

Pretty much expected all of this. Even the sedition.

I felt that it was odd to see a man no one would trust to watch their kids overnight alone appointed to a position where he had the nuclear codes. I mean who honestly would feel comfortable leaving their 5 year old home alone with trump for a few hours or overnight?

 

[Muse]

Here is what I said after Trump won.

SMOGZINN said:
This time the dumb half won. It happens. We work to keep them from destroying to much in their slow witted rampage, and then rebuild after. The entire history of the world is this cycle. Smart people build up civilization on complex and sophisticated ideas, then slow witted people get angry that things are to complex for them to understand and demand simple answers to complex problems and when they are told that is not possible they rage and tear civilization down, then when the dumb people realize their lives are worse for their tantrum they settle down and let the smart people build civilization back up again. We are just seeing the next phase in this cycle, the dumb people are demanding simple answers for very complex questions. Civilization will soon fall.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein

 

[Commodus]

What were your thoughts on November 9, 2016?

I was completely surprised, but so where the polls. I did not like Hillary at all, or Trump, so I voted 3rd party. After Trump won, I was like, well how much damage can he do in 4 years? Our government is a huge cumbersome behemouth and change comes slow if at all. We had just watched a president that is pretty smart fail to implement things he wanted, though he had his successes.

And trump said, hold my spray tan

This is why, like it or not, you have to participate in the two-party system in the US for now.

Was Clinton a great candidate? No, but she offered things that were infinitely better than Trump: competence, relevant experience and at least a basic shred of compassion for others. it was important to vote for her just to be sure Trump didn't win. Of course, had we known how close the vote would get without extra motivation, I wouldn't have to say that... because Clinton would've won.

 

[Grey_Beard]

I felt defeated as an American, since it became clear that yes, there are enough Americans who will enthusiastically vote for an outright Fascist wannabe.

Anyone who believes they know anything about politics should have known for over a year at that point who Trump was, and how it was going to end up working out for our country.

Also this isn't my Twitter post, but, ahem, check the date.

https://twitter.com/x/status/796524541950513153

NONE of this is a surprise to anyone who has paid any attention to politics the past 30 years.

This one is even more telling.

https://twitter.com/x/status/796527980021510149

I thought this would happen. Told everyone it could. Constantly heard back, “How bad can it be? You are overreacting.” I guess I was not given what the last four year told us with the insurrection the cherry on top.

Edit: grammar and spelling.

 

[hal2kilo]

May well be... Perhaps those that watch crap like his TV show where more attuned to what a shit storm he would be. I never watched it or paid any attention to his background noise.

I'm still trying to figure out if, people in this country are so stupid, they let the fake life of a "reality TV" show make them believe Trump was the kind of person, who should be running the country. I have no way of knowing because I would never watch a show like The Apprentice, and never did.

 

[Muse]

I'm still trying to figure out if, people in this country are so stupid, they let the fake life of a "reality TV" show make them believe Trump was the kind of person, who should be running the country. I have no way of knowing because I would never watch a show like The Apprentice, and never did.

I don't want to sound conceited, but have to say, Americans are indeed very very stupid. 70% of Republicans still say they approve of you know who after the insurrection he instigated last week.

Um, I too never watched The Apprentice BTW.

 

[pmv]

I dimly remember thinking my American liberal friend will now have to stop berating me about the Brexit referendum result as though it were my fault.

 

[nickqt]

This one is even more telling.

https://twitter.com/x/status/796527980021510149

I thought this would happen. Told everyone it could. Constantly heard back, “How bad can it be? You are overreacting.” I guess I was not given what the last four year told us with the insurrection the cherry on top.

Edit: grammar and spelling.

Driftglass is a great writer. His great fight is with the BothSidesDoIt™ enablers, because it is ultimately the Big Lie that allows the Republican Party to continue destroying this country for power and profit.

Every time some BothSidesDoIt™ liar spends their time enabling Republicans to destroy this country, you have to point it out, otherwise they'll keep doing it.

That Trump was a wannabe Strongman was a surprise to nobody, and that he would attempt to overthrow the government to remain in power was a surprise to nobody. The people still denying it are right-wing authoritarians who are actually cheering it on, no matter how many lies they tell about how they don't pay attention to politics...claim they don't even know who Trump is. Or disagree with Trump about most things, but to point out that Trump is a wannabe dictator is just Trump Derangement Syndrome or whatever. They're fucking liars and enablers. They're the ones most responsible for all of this, because at least the vocal fascists are telling the truth about what they want.