20 November 2016

Things you can do

20 November 2016 03:37 pm
elisi: Clara asking the Doctor to take her back to 2012 (Grandma Clinton)
Demand An Audit Of The 2016 Presidential Election
The FBI determined some months ago that hacking, originating from Russia, was having an influence on our electoral process. [...] Did hackers manipulate the results by compromising voting equipment? Did other problems, glitches, or errors affect the outcome? There's a simple, relatively inexpensive way to find out: audit the electronic results against the paper ballots used by about 75% of U.S. voters.












(NB: It was Hillary who in 2010 made it possible for transgender Americans to get passports with gender markers matching how they live their lives)




A 12-Step Program for Responding to President-Elect Trump
Traumatized by the election results, many Americans are asking: What now? Here are steps that any of us can take that can make a difference at the margins. Onward!
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From Brexit to Trump

20 November 2016 04:11 pm
elisi: (Clara (FACE))
You may remember this. Feel free to adapt.



That said, Brexit *is* different to the US election.

It was led my misinformation and lies and propaganda (which they walked back LITERALLY THE DAY AFTER) and general dissatisfaction. We've had 8 years of 'austerity' and people are not happy. And the Leave camp used this to make people angry at immigrants rather than point out that the government has cut into social services to the point where thousands upon thousands of people are reliant on foodbanks (THIS IS NOT NORMAL). It was a similar sort of anger, but our racial issues are different. (I mean, racism & xenophobia come in many guises. Still comes back to the same things, but different strokes...)

Also, as we had no Hillary figure, we did not have the corresponding visceral misogyny. Indeed, the outcome was an orgy of backstabbing, so all those who had engineered the outcome found themselves out in the cold, and Theresa May swept to power (unelected!!). I mean, yay for a female prime minister, but I would have preferred one less... Tory. :( Especially as Labour is about as much use a chocolate fire guard and we NEED someone or something to push back against the creeping right wing policies that keep being rolled out.

Re. Brexit we are still in limbo. In the US you can watch a horror show unfold, daily, whereas we are just sitting here, waiting for the other shoe to drop and mourning Toblerone.

Plus, our vote WAS of course a popular vote - not that it's that simple. It was SO close.

Anyway, some links for you re. the election.

Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.
We remember that out of suffering, healing is possible. Out of darkness, light shines brighter, and, not to sound all yoga about it, we cannot have one without the other. Had Hillary Clinton won, many of us would have moved on as if all was right with the world, but the world is very wrong, and the impact of that wrongness is on display for all to see.

Yes, the white male anger that fueled Trump’s victory was real — but it isn’t valid
Make no mistake, Trumpers are angry. What they're angry about is the loss of unearned race and gender privilege

The misogyny apocalypse: Turns out being white and male counts for more than intelligence, grace or decency
It was unimaginable that America would self-destruct rather than elect a female president. But that's what happened

How Van Jones Became a Star of the 2016 Campaign
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