Dear Gatchamaniacs from the US -- just remember, you are not alone! Enjoy the election night!

Thanks, DT...I'm just going to hunker down until this is over! (And, in case you're wondering, I did vote.)

FOR ALL AMERICANS SICK OF ELECTION DAY COVERAGE: The Weather Channel is showing pastoral scenes with gentle, soothing music in the background until midnight.

Well, whoever wins tonight, Good Luck USA!

I did vote. Definitely not enjoying election night. Ugh.

so Trump has triumphed?

Unbelievable... But maybe that was the problem... that we thought it would be unbelievable.

I found the results on the national, state, and local levels to be depressing -- if not downright horrible! I'm afraid my life as a person whose sole source of income is a disability check is going to get significantly harder.

and and lots of and chocolate obviously this year is not done with it's "Fun and Games" xox

Originally posted by ElectricWhite I found the results on the national, state, and local levels to be depressing -- if not downright horrible! I'm afraid my life as a person whose sole source of income is a disability check is going to get significantly harder.

EW, I really hope that the welfare/health system in the US will be resilient enough to withstand anything Trump and his mates can throw at it. It beggars belief how his supporters don't see how his policies affect real people and their real life. You'd think they live on a different planet.

Sigh.

It's very simple: hate and fear won! Hatred of non-whites Hatred of non-Christians Hatred of the poor Hatred of women Hatred of LGBTQ Hatred of the environment Hate won!

We need to do away with the Electoral College -- once again the candidate who won the popular vote lost the election because the opposing candidate won the four or five states with the most votes in the Electoral College. Come to think of it, we could stand a change in the eligibility requirements. How does "To be able to vote, one must A) Have a multi-digit IQ, and B) Have a family tree with branches" sound?

Actually, we've allocated who casts their votes in the Electoral College in December. Some states require them to go with how things were allocated, and some don't. I'm not saying I'm advocating that or not, but the EC isn't done and dusted on election day. I'm wondering if Trump will be on his best behavior until then to not tempt them, and if it's even possible for him to behave himself for that long.

For anybody who wants an explanation of the Electoral College without grade school platitudes: https://youtu.be/90RajY2nrgk

Trump won because the Democratic Party grossly underestimated how much people dislike Hillary Clinton and how deep that hate is. I see people who have such visceral reactions to her that remind me of the classical conditioning that Pavlov did with those dogs. Someone has to say "Hillary" and some people just lose it. Trump should have lost, but he won because the Democrats ran the worst possible candidate against him. I don't belong to either party. I disliked both candidates. I knew there was no way I would ever cast a vote for Trump. But I couldn't vote for Clinton, either. She is too divisive. The obstruction that has gone on for the past 8 years would only have gotten worse. This doesn't mean that I support one party-rule as a means to end the divisiveness. The fact that one party rules now makes me nervous. But we have to get involved and hold people accountable to us. We also have to find common ground. That's only going to come when people put on their big kid pants and act like adults. No leader or member of Congress can magically make us all get along, especially when it's in the best interest of politicians to keep us divided.

Originally posted by msannomalley Trump won because the Democratic Party grossly underestimated how much people dislike Hillary Clinton and how deep that hate is.

I completely agree. To say that everyone who voted for Trump is racist or sexist (or whatever) is in itself being offensive and unfair. Hillary is hated by many people, and there are many out there who voted for Trump because they wanted to see her lose. I actually know someone who voted for Trump because he was a Bernie Sanders supporter and he couldn't stand Hillary. He'd rather see Trump win than let Hillary win. I'm certain he's not the only person out there with similar thoughts.

Here's the thing. When you want to see Hillary lose more than you want to stop a monster from getting into the White House, then honestly I don't think Hillary is the problem. I don't think she's a saint, but the Republican party has spent decades slandering her, with constant investigations to make it sound like she MUST be corrupt because if she isn't, why are there so many investigations? The fact that so many people bought into that is depressing. It's put a lot of vulnerable populations at risk, and for what? Pettiness in some cases? (In other words, they can say that they're not racist or sexist, but they participated in putting a man who brags about sexual assault and courts racist hate groups into the White House. Their hands are not clean.) That said, I wasn't enthused about her running for that reason. Too many bought into the bullshit and it was going to hurt. Also, note that she DID win the popular vote, though just barely. I agree that the Electoral College really needs to go.

To top all that off, we'd better pray that Mr. Trump doesn't give into his "If we got 'em, why not use 'em?" attitude toward the nuclear arsenal. (And, please, don't say "He was just kidding" -- when you have the ability to destroy the planet 20 times over, it's no joke!)

My fear of Trump was stronger than any feeling I had against Hillary. My husband refused to vote because he did not want to vote for either, and neither third party candidate was worth voting for either. In California, he had that luxury.

Ultimately, my choice came down to this question: Whose ego was more likely to start a war? (And I don't consider not voting an option -- you don't have to select someone for president, but there are plenty of other offices and issues that need every voice.)

I live in a deep red state. Trump's margin of victory over Clinton in South Dakota was so great, that I did have the "luxury", if you will, to vote third party. I don't know if the Democratic National Committee truly understands the rest of the country. They need independents (I'm a registered independent) more than independents need them and it's not in the DNC's best interest to brush them off. They need the so-called "blue dog Democrats", too.

Let me preface this with a clip: http://teamcoco.com/video/trump-voters-dont-know-how-to-be-happy?playlist=featured-videos This is a humorous take on something that's been wearing me out the past couple of days: the poor winner. I haven't been able to go out without encountering Trump supporters still trying to start an argument! (I can handle sore losers -- over our lifespans, we've all encountered thousands of 'em.) Here's an example of what I'm talking about: I was on my way home on Wednesday from an appointment at the wound clinic. As soon as I was in the transport company van, a woman proclaimed, "I'm so glad Trump won!" I didn't give any reaction. I was tired, as most of the people in the van seemed to be. "I don't see why she isn't in jail for all those emails!" Still, no reaction. She wasn't saying anything new. "Did anybody hear about the human trafficking emails they found in the latest batch?" That woke everybody up. "Yeah," she continued, "they were making arrangements to take kidnapped kids to child molesters." To me, that failed the stink test. But I was not about to start arguing -- I usually avoid playing that game. "It's a good thing Donald Trump's president! When he's sworn in, he'll do his Christian duty and put that liberal, baby-killing, Muslim-loving atheist in jail!" Okay, I was getting annoyed, so I used a tactic that usually shuts up people like that, if not reveal how full of sh** they are. "So, could you tell me where you got that?" "It's in her emails with Polenta...or Panera...or whatever his name is." "Okay, but where did you read about it? Did it come from Wikileaks or some other site? Where do I go to read it myself?" "Uh...well, I just know they're in the emails, so it's got to be true." At that point, the conversation ended for me because we'd reached my apartment. Anyway, since Wednesday, my energy levels have been seriously low. If I could, I'd spend most of the day in bed, trying to recover from each time I'm exposed to poor winners sniping at any possible sore losers in the area. But that's not possible. Does anybody have any ideas how I can get through the next few days without so much of an energy drain?

Ugh, I know a lot of people who are seriously depressed over this and grieving. We definitely have to pick our battles. FWIW I think you handled it right. Aside from avoiding other people (which isn't always possible or healthy) I dunno what to tell you. Who provides this service? If it's a medical service then I question whether it's appropriate for them to be bombarding their passengers with politics. Alas, pointing that out might just start more arguments. You could call their office and make a complaint.

If it was the driver, there wouldn't be a problem -- I could complain as you'd suggested. But this is a fellow passenger....and since she wasn't personally attacking anyone else in the van, and since she wasn't spewing obscenities, I'm not sure there's much the transport service can legally do.

EW, I think that not responding to these taunts is the best way forward -- until, as you say, they go over the top! -- these people love chance to rant, but if they just rant without anyone responding it loses its appeal, no? That said, I can never stop myself from responding... Maybe I need something like this to show them silently:

Oh okay, yeah, it's different if they're a passenger. I suppose another option is to try and change the topic by talking to someone else. I'm terrible about getting baited like that, too!

You could take a book or some ear buds and pull those out when needed or work on your condor stare. I've either avoided awkward situations or shut people down that way before. These days I just remind myself there is no way to rationalize with a crazy person. I find it much easier to get along with my relatives and certain coworkers when I keep that in the back of my mind. I hear you though, I'm in a deep red state so I'm keepIng a low profile and staying off social media for awhile.

Now that Donald Trump has started working on choosing who will be in his cabinet, I was wondering: what do the folks in England think of Mitt "the Twit" Romney becoming Secretary of State?

Originally posted by ElectricWhite Now that Donald Trump has started working on choosing who will be in his cabinet, I was wondering: what do the folks in England think of Mitt "the Twit" Romney becoming Secretary of State?

Birds of a feather?

Originally posted by KT1972

Originally posted by ElectricWhite Now that Donald Trump has started working on choosing who will be in his cabinet, I was wondering: what do the folks in England think of Mitt "the Twit" Romney becoming Secretary of State?

Birds of a feather?

Ooooh --- I hadn't thought of that!

Originally posted by ElectricWhite

Originally posted by KT1972

Originally posted by ElectricWhite Now that Donald Trump has started working on choosing who will be in his cabinet, I was wondering: what do the folks in England think of Mitt "the Twit" Romney becoming Secretary of State?

Birds of a feather?

Ooooh --- I hadn't thought of that!

But not OUR birds!

We had as much coverage of the US election as our own elections. You'd think we had a vote or something- Seriously. But our politicians get a lot shorter time to do debates than yours do.

Originally posted by Ebonyswanne But our politicians get a lot shorter time to do debates than yours do.

I'll admit I'm very thankful that there won't be any more campaigning...until this February....