While many of you continue with your daily routine, today I have to look into the eyes of my students that will be filled with fear because the nightmare of this election is now set into reality. When I casted my vote, I had my students in mind because this is not simply a check a yes or no box for myself, but for my parents, for my sister, for my friends, and for the very reasons I wake up and go to work each and every day. I type this with a heavy heart and seek wisdom and hope to carry with me to instill in my students and those whom I love. Congratulations America for have taken one giant step forward and 4 steps back.

gr wrote:i want to post something in here that is sort of related to politics, but personal?

this has been an eye-opening campaign for me, not because it taught me anything i didn't already know about politics or the campaigns, but because the woman and i love and about to marry has been pretty emotionally invested in seeing HRC win and deep down i didn't feel the same, but i voted for HRC because I trusted and believed in the conviction of my absolute favorite person in the world. she is crushed by the results and even more seriously, worried about what it means for woman and for her work, which is by and large, defending women against sexual harassment, gender discrimination and the all around "lockerroom talk" that some people feel excusable. all things i've taken for granted for years and never thought so much about.

our lives are going to be different now. the city is going to be overrun with Trump folks. they'll be at bars, restaurant, in jobs, and neighborhoods that we've come to know to be a certain thing. they may not be those things anymore. it really remains to be seen that i can maintain my still fledgling business here and for the missus, the courts could change in a profound way as to make her work even more thankless than it is now. i've been in this city for 16 years, and she for 10. we've built our lives here, have friends, a church, and most importantly, social capital that allows us to pursue the work and lifestyle (modest at best in a tremendously expensive city) that we're trying to achieve. there is a very real chance that we'll have to move out of the area. if her firm is affected, if budgets for my type of work are affected.

we've been talking very seriously about having kids -- she really wants to have them, to the point that we've been planning on the timing and how to adjust our careers -- and last night, she said doesn't think she wants to anymore. i know that sounds like an overreaction, but i cannot state in any accurate terms just how painful it was to hear that. even the possibility of an election -- and a president -- that would cause us to change the plans we have for our lives, that seems like something a democratic republic should absolutely not have to consider in any wide-ranging terms in this day and age.

some of this is ironic for a white person to complain about. it sounds like the gentrification that took place just as i was moving here. maybe it's another learning experience and an illustration of the need for perspective. white privilege? i don't know. maybe it's time for us to move on, geographically and emotionally. i don't have the answers. i do know that i don't trust anyone who does. those people are called phonies, btw.

i love analyzing messages and communication, it's what i (finally) do for a living. but, i understand, not everyone likes to be analyzed, and some don't like it on behalf of others, even candidates or media pundits. i never understood why people get emotionally invested in people they don't know, or concepts that seem extrapolated at best. but, i do at least have a better appreciation for it after this election. not everyone can be detached all the time. some hopes are aspirational, even those specific hopes seem suicidal.

anyway. i'm sick of politics. i just want to get on with my life. gonna start some new threads.

gr wrote:i want to post something in here that is sort of related to politics, but personal?

this has been an eye-opening campaign for me, not because it taught me anything i didn't already know about politics or the campaigns, but because the woman and i love and about to marry has been pretty emotionally invested in seeing HRC win and deep down i didn't feel the same, but i voted for HRC because I trusted and believed in the conviction of my absolute favorite person in the world. she is crushed by the results and even more seriously, worried about what it means for woman and for her work, which is by and large, defending women against sexual harassment, gender discrimination and the all around "lockerroom talk" that some people feel excusable. all things i've taken for granted for years and never thought so much about.

our lives are going to be different now. the city is going to be overrun with Trump folks. they'll be at bars, restaurant, in jobs, and neighborhoods that we've come to know to be a certain thing. they may not be those things anymore. it really remains to be seen that i can maintain my still fledgling business here and for the missus, the courts could change in a profound way as to make her work even more thankless than it is now. i've been in this city for 16 years, and she for 10. we've built our lives here, have friends, a church, and most importantly, social capital that allows us to pursue the work and lifestyle (modest at best in a tremendously expensive city) that we're trying to achieve. there is a very real chance that we'll have to move out of the area. if her firm is affected, if budgets for my type of work are affected.

we've been talking very seriously about having kids -- she really wants to have them, to the point that we've been planning on the timing and how to adjust our careers -- and last night, she said doesn't think she wants to anymore. i know that sounds like an overreaction, but i cannot state in any accurate terms just how painful it was to hear that. even the possibility of an election -- and a president -- that would cause us to change the plans we have for our lives, that seems like something a democratic republic should absolutely not have to consider in any wide-ranging terms in this day and age.

some of this is ironic for a white person to complain about. it sounds like the gentrification that took place just as i was moving here. maybe it's another learning experience and an illustration of the need for perspective. white privilege? i don't know. maybe it's time for us to move on, geographically and emotionally. i don't have the answers. i do know that i don't trust anyone who does. those people are called phonies, btw.

i love analyzing messages and communication, it's what i (finally) do for a living. but, i understand, not everyone likes to be analyzed, and some don't like it on behalf of others, even candidates or media pundits. i never understood why people get emotionally invested in people they don't know, or concepts that seem extrapolated at best. but, i do at least have a better appreciation for it after this election. not everyone can be detached all the time. some hopes are aspirational, even those specific hopes seem suicidal.

anyway. i'm sick of politics. i just want to get on with my life. gonna start some new threads.

Trump won Pennsylvania by roughly 63,000 votes, and three-quarters of those votes can be attributed to shifts in four counties: Luzerne, Lackawana and Northampton in the North East and Erie in the North West.

In other words: Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Bethlehem and Erie – all former industrial powerhouses fallen on difficult times.

Clinton got 177,000 fewer votes than Obama in 2016, and yes, that’s bigger than Trump’s winning margin. BUT… Trump got nearly 207,000 than Mitt Romney did in 2012.

That’s the enthusiasm story.

ReadingPhilly wrote:

pacino wrote:feel safe, gays

i know two great guys from the bar. have been together for 20+ years. voted trump.

PSUsarge wrote:Sorry if already posted, but some numbers related to Rust Belt areas of PA:

Trump won Pennsylvania by roughly 63,000 votes, and three-quarters of those votes can be attributed to shifts in four counties: Luzerne, Lackawana and Northampton in the North East and Erie in the North West.

In other words: Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Bethlehem and Erie – all former industrial powerhouses fallen on difficult times.

Clinton got 177,000 fewer votes than Obama in 2016, and yes, that’s bigger than Trump’s winning margin. BUT… Trump got nearly 207,000 than Mitt Romney did in 2012.

That’s the enthusiasm story.

https://blog.triblive.com/orp/2016/11/0 ... nsylvania/

Slowhand wrote:I hope we're all just being a bunch of overreacting chicken littles and we'll look back at this in a few years and laugh at ourselves for being such crybaby pussies. There's a chance of that happening, right?

A lot of people think there are only two genders—boy and girl. Maybe they're wrong. Maybe they should change that view. Maybe it's insensitive to the trans community. Maybe it even flies in the face of modern social psychology. But people think it. Political correctness is the social force that holds them in contempt for that, or punishes them outright.

If you're a leftist reading this, you probably think that's stupid. You probably can't understand why someone would get so bent out of shape about being told their words are hurtful. You probably think it's not a big deal and these people need to get over themselves. Who's the delicate snowflake now, huh? you're probably thinking. I'm telling you: your failure to acknowledge this miscalculation and adjust your approach has delivered the country to Trump.

There's a related problem: the boy-who-cried-wolf situation. I was happy to see a few liberals, like Bill Maher, owning up to it. Maher admitted during a recent show that he was wrong to treat George Bush, Mitt Romney, and John McCain like they were apocalyptic threats to the nation: it robbed him of the ability to treat Trump more seriously. The left said McCain was a racist supported by racists, it said Romney was a racist supported by racists, but when an actually racist Republican came along—and racists cheered him—it had lost its ability to credibly make that accusation.

Soren wrote:

Slowhand wrote:I hope we're all just being a bunch of overreacting chicken littles and we'll look back at this in a few years and laugh at ourselves for being such crybaby pussies. There's a chance of that happening, right?

lol no. Top to bottom the country is going to be run by the extreme far right.

@benshapiro
Trump won fewer votes in victory than Romney did in defeat. Never underestimate what an awful candidate Hillary was.