2018 Midterm Elections - The Aftermath

[Louie_Cypher]

case in point same troll I've been dealing with on face book said about how much winning DJT was doing, i replied we will see come Tuesday. this was his reply. "David Lucero dude yer kind are this close... I am a minister of death praying for war! i know so you can see my last name. i like what Obama said, you won why are you so angry?
-louie

[Louie_Cypher]

having an unfounded fear of another human being because of the color of their skin doesn't make you a racist it makes you a coward.
-louie

[theimage13]

having an unfounded fear of another human being because of the color of their skin doesn't make you a racist it makes you a coward.
-louie

It makes you both.

[zero]

having an unfounded fear of another human being because of the color of their skin doesn't make you a racist it makes you a coward.
-louie

Xenophobia is a mental disorder, and I don't think that labeling an affected person with a derogatory term will have any positive effect. Social shaming only works within groups who already share common beliefs. Love and compassion can change hearts and minds, and help others to overcome their mental health burdens. But compassion is too damn difficult so fuck it. Or is it?

[botley]

Xenophobia is a mental disorder

I smell bullshit. Extreme examples of bigotry are sometimes characterized as pathological, but I've never seen xenophobia itself listed in any manuals of diagnosis for mental disorders. Just because it's irrational and wrong and causing lots of problems for humanity doesn't mean it's a mental disorder; it's not a burden on everyday functioning for most of its "patients" or even that unusual among certain populations. Just like stupidity.

[elevenism]

I smell bullshit. Extreme examples of bigotry are sometimes characterized as pathological, but I've never seen xenophobia itself listed in any manuals of diagnosis for mental disorders. Just because it's irrational and wrong and causing lots of problems for humanity doesn't mean it's a mental disorder; it's not a burden on everyday functioning for most of its "patients" or even that unusual among certain populations. Just like stupidity.

Right dude. Xenophobia is NOT like agoraphobia or claustrophobia. It's not an actual medical condition. Rather, it's a socio-political term.

I mean, good show trying to take the high road @zero , but yeah.

I would go so far as to say that xenophobia is more about hate than fear.

Personally, I think should actually be misoxeny (hatred of strangers) or misotramontism (hatred of what's over the mountains,) but those words are archaic and don't roll off the tongue so well.

But yeah, I was actually thinking about this: the phobia part of xenophobia DOES falsely suggest a medical condition. I tried to find a better word, but those two were the best I could do.

[elevenism]

@zero , xenophobia is ACTUALLY a specific form of Assholery, and is, at LEAST a PSEUDO conscious decision, if not a full on choice.

[richardp]

Xenophobia is a mental disorder

Absolutely fucking not, dude. Xenophobia is a fucking choice. You can make a choice as whether to like or to dislike a person. Having a mental illness is not a fucking choice.

[elevenism]

Absolutely fucking not, dude. Xenophobia is a fucking choice. You can make a choice as whether to like or to dislike a person. Having a mental illness is not a fucking choice.

right.
I think dude was confused because of "phobia" being in the word.
I will also say that I'm not so sure you can choose to like or dislike an individual person. But you can choose how you treat people, and you can choose to not judge people based on things like race.

[WorzelG]

The thing about xenophobia is a lot of it seems to be practised by people who haven’t even had experience of the culture they’re xenophobic towards, case in point in the UK a lot of ‘leave the EU’ voters were people in small towns or rural areas who didn’t experience any influx of ‘foreigners’ due to free movement. The people who experienced other cultures in cities tended to want to remain, which does show if you actually mix with other cultures, the fear of the unknown is reduced

[Haysey_Draws]

The thing about xenophobia is a lot of it seems to be practised by people who haven’t even had experience of the culture they’re xenophobic towards, case in point in the UK a lot of ‘leave the EU’ voters were people in small towns or rural areas who didn’t experience any influx of ‘foreigners’ due to free movement. The people who experienced other cultures in cities tended to want to remain, which does show if you actually mix with other cultures, the fear of the unknown is reduced

I'd love to agree with you, but my family live in and around London, spend most of their holidays in Spain/Greece/Portugal/France and work with people from all over the world (my mother especially) and they are some of the most narrow minded, racist fuckers i know...and wanted nothing more then to be out Sometimes people are just utter cunts, but in a broader sense you might be right.

[WorzelG]

I'd love to agree with you, but my family live in and around London, spend most of their holidays in Spain/Greece/Portugal/France and work with people from all over the world (my mother especially) and they are some of the most narrow minded, racist fuckers i know...and wanted nothing more then to be out Sometimes people are just utter cunts, but in a broader sense you might be right.

Sorry you have a shitty family, but I’m not quite prepared yet to write off most people as cunts! Ha ha, we’ll see how things pan out

[theimage13]

You have got to be shitting me.

Kemp claims Democrats are hacking the election in Georgia

"Sir, we've tried gerrymandering. We've tried voter suppression. What else have we got?"

FFS. My better half is desperate for a real job and asked how I felt about applying for a job near Atlanta. I said no. This utter bullshit is largely why.

[ltrandazzo]

You have got to be shitting me.

Kemp claims Democrats are hacking the election in Georgia

"Sir, we've tried gerrymandering. We've tried voter suppression. What else have we got?"

FFS. My better half is desperate for a real job and asked how I felt about applying for a job near Atlanta. I said no. This utter bullshit is largely why.

Running away from job opportunities because of which party is in control of that state's government doesn't help anything at all. I'm from Missouri and now live in Tennessee, and I've been doing whatever I can to change TN as a red state to a blue one. Georgia is not far away from becoming a purple/blue state and if Stacey Abrams wins tomorrow, it'll be a change that's coming quickly.

[Louie_Cypher]

)i got jumped coming home from the Fillmore, look i was well lubricated(drunk) was cold late, so in my screwed up state of mind i stupidly, there was no uber at the time and couldn't hail a cab, so i elected to take a short cut through a neighborhood, that wasn't the greatest, anyways, got jumped by a group of blacks got about $80 passport and broke my jaw. and although having your jaw wired shut for two month's sucks, i don't blame them. i was drunk made a stupid decision and have lo live with the results. look American's aren't the sharpest bunch, looking at you trump supporters. OK, after a couple hundred years we elect a half black president. and America's are ta duh. solved that whole racism thing yea! my two years touring as playing bass the only white dude in an all black reagee band and it was only the bay area and that was ten year ago, but really did open my eyes about racism and white privilege and that was before those were things. best i can say. try and put yourself in their shoes. look those were some of my funnest and best day's those guy's are still some of my closest friends. when you realize it's a chemical that makes their skin a different color due to evolution for a race being born on an arbitrary spot on the globe is so silly it's stupid. to say their smarter dumber, more prone to violence. is ignorant. and smells of facsaim. almost every dictator or tyrant has pointed to people who are in some way different the blame for their social ills. that argument lacks though any intelligence or any productive solution to rational problem solving. just so we're clear
-louie

[hellospaceboy]

I just got home from voting!!! I'm 36 years old, and I just voted for the first time in my life (I left Hungary when I was 19 and only became a US citizen last year). It was great, hour in line, but some good citizens dropped off a stack of free pizza for everyone, and my wife was with me, I was so happy... It was a long road to get here!

[zero]

I would go so far as to say that xenophobia is more about hate than fear.

Perhaps it begins with fear, which is not a choice, but is then expressed as hate, which could be viewed as a choice in most cases. I am someone who is truly searching for solutions, instead of just adding to the shitpile of hatred on all sides. It's a very lonely position to be in. To me it seems beyond silly to hate someone just because they hate someone else. Nothing positive can be accomplished like that, and our current society is so chock full of negativity that striving for something positive is worth the effort (and the consequences).

[allegro]

Perhaps it begins with fear, which is not a choice, but is then expressed as hate, which could be viewed as a choice in most cases. I am someone who is truly searching for solutions, instead of just adding to the shitpile of hatred on all sides. It's a very lonely position to be in. To me it seems beyond silly to hate someone just because they hate someone else. Nothing positive can be accomplished like that, and our current society is so chock full of negativity that striving for something positive is worth the effort (and the consequences).

Okay, I edited my post, boiling down to this:

Here it is: Attrition.

That's it. Attrition.

Eventually, if we GREATLY INCREASE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM (akin to that of Asia, etc.), younger people will be far more educated than their ancestors and hate (based on stupidity) will have no place in a civilized society and hate will die off.

[Mantra]

God, the next 24 hours are going to be pure anxiety and dread and nausea. Ugh, fucking hell.

[allegro]

God, the next 24 hours are going to be pure anxiety and dread and nausea. Ugh, fucking hell.

I took my Mom (80) to vote, today. For the 2nd time, I had to "assist" her, which means (in Cook County) I had to provide my driver's license and explain WHY I was assisting her (she has glaucoma and she is 80 and they have electronic voting machines that even sometimes *I* can't figure out, LOL). They were VERY nice.

Out front of the building, it was fast. But the guy warned us, once inside it would take A HALF HOUR. (It took us at least this long, and this is in GLENVIEW.) Sure enough, they handed us a number ... 88, and they called out #12. Seeing the news on TV about people waiting THREE HOURS, we felt lucky.

We sat down and waited, chatted ... more than 30 minutes later, Mom seated in the voting booth, I saw WHY it took so long. There were SIX PAGES of choices, holy crap. Mom, heeding Greg's negative opinion about judges, voted NO on retaining every.single.Cook.County.Judge. LOL LOL.

Anyway, next time, Mom is voting by MAIL, LOL. She almost didn't vote, but she felt terrible about it, and changed her mind. She's not "never" voted in her 80 years.

THIS IS SO EXCITING, I WISH I LIVED IN TEXAS FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE SO I COULD HAVE CAMPAIGN FOR BETO!!!!!


Oh, and on the way in today, we ran into a very smartly dressed lady (RED BUFFALO PLAID, OMG, I TOTALLY LOVE, MY FAVORITE) who said "HI, I'M JAN SCHAKOWSKY!" and we said "HI!" :-)

It was actually a really fun adventure, we had a great time.

[Mantra]

I took my Mom (80) to vote, today. For the 2nd time, I had to "assist" her, which means (in Cook County) I had to provide my driver's license and explain WHY I was assisting her (she has glaucoma and she is 80 and they have electronic voting machines that even sometimes *I* can't figure out, LOL). They were VERY nice.

Out front of the building, it was fast. But the guy warned us, once inside it would take A HALF HOUR. (It took us at least this long, and this is in GLENVIEW.) Sure enough, they handed us a number ... 88, and they called out #12. Seeing the news on TV about people waiting THREE HOURS, we felt lucky.

We sat down and waited, chatted ... more than 30 minutes later, Mom seated in the voting booth, I saw WHY it took so long. There were SIX PAGES of choices, holy crap.

Anyway, next time, Mom is voting by MAIL, LOL. She almost didn't vote, but she felt terrible about it, and changed her mind. She's not "never" voted in her 80 years.

THIS IS SO EXCITING, I WISH I LIVED IN TEXAS FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE SO I COULD HAVE CAMPAIGN FOR BETO!!!!!


Oh, and on the way in today, we ran into a very smartly dressed lady (RED BUFFALO PLAID, OMG, I TOTALLY LOVE, MY FAVORITE) who said "HI, I'M JAN SCHAKOWSKY!" and we said "HI!" :-)

Haha, that's awesome. Good for your mom.

I don't know, I'm trying to be upbeat, especially since all the polls here in Minnesota are looking pretty good. I guess I'm getting PTSD flashbacks to 2016. Also, if I go into this thing with low expectations, then I won't be let down. I'm getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to vote right when the polls open. Gonna be hard to stay focused at work tomorrow.

It's gonna be REAL interesting to see what happens with with our attorney general election. Last I heard Keith Ellison had pulled ahead.

Now that I think of it, I don't have any alcohol!!! Fuck, I'm gonna need to pick up some hard stuff on my way home from work tomorrow, either for celebrating or for grieving.

[Mantra]

Did you see this thing from SNL the other day? It's basically how I feel right now.



Hahaha

[allegro]

Haha, that's awesome. Good for your mom.

I don't know, I'm trying to be upbeat, especially since all the polls here in Minnesota are looking pretty good. I guess I'm getting PTSD flashbacks to 2016. Also, if I go into this thing with low expectations, then I won't be let down. I'm getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to vote right when the polls open. Gonna be hard to stay focused at work tomorrow.

It's gonna be REAL interesting to see what happens with with our attorney general election. Last I heard Keith Ellison had pulled ahead.

Now that I think of it, I don't have any alcohol!!! Fuck, I'm gonna need to pick up some hard stuff on my way home from work tomorrow, either for celebrating or for grieving.

Ugh, God, I fucking hate Keith Ellison. Why the fuck do people still like him? Different thread, I guess.

My hubby went to the Binny's (liquor stores in Chicago area) and bought a BUNCH of champagne and some red wine, and he bought a pretty expensive bottle of champagne in case of a Blue Wave. (crosses fingers) We are getting a bunch of shrimp and pizza and snacks.

I'm pretty hopeful! Cook County has over 1.8 MILLION NEW VOTER REGISTRATIONS THIS TIME, more since 1982! Like, wtf? Not that it could MATTER for US, we're totally blue, and it's probably going to PRITZKER (I voted for him 100% only to legalize pot, otherwise he's a total crook), the EXCITEMENT even around here is NUTS.

But the voter suppression elsewhere is what worries me. In Georgia, Kansas, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, etc. Those Governor's races REALLY matter. The GOVERNOR races can affect the VOTING and gerrymandering.

I'm more excited about the GOVERNOR'S races than ANYTHING, honestly.

Stacey Abrams in Georgia would be the FIRST FEMALE AFRICAN AMERICAN GOVERNOR IN HISTORY.

[allegate]

That's too accurate to truly be funny.

[allegro]

Barack Obama was on stage in Chicago’s Grant Park right now declaring victory 10 years ago tonight.

We will always have that. He won by 8.5 million votes.

I was in paralegal grad school at Loyola’s Watertower Law School Campus that night. I drove south down Michigan Avenue toward Grant Park, got as close as I could, in tears, toward the celebration. It was all electric. I still can’t believe it. It’s still miraculous to me.

And now, Stacey Abrams in Georgia. We SHALL overcome.

[Mantra]

Ugh, God, I fucking hate Keith Ellison. Why the fuck do people still like him? Different thread, I guess.

I mean, not necessarily off topic for this thread. It's the midterms thread after all.

Out of curiosity, if you lived in MN, would you vote for Ellison? Just wondering. I always appreciate hearing your take on things.

Cause this is something I've really had to grapple with for a while now. I voted for his Democratic competitor in the primary after the allegations against him came out, but Ellison still won. So now it's kind of a shitty situation. Doug Wardlow, the Republican running against Ellison, is a fucking nightmare. He said that on his first day in office he'll be firing all Democrats across the board. He's a huge Trump guy. He has a history of being viciously homophobic, even going so far as to laugh at a gay classmate in highschool who had attempted to commit suicide, telling him he "couldn't even do that right." I don't even want to imagine what kind of damage he'll do.

So it's like, wow, great choice we've got here. I love how so much of our politics in this country turns into the crudest exercise in utilitarian ethics, where we find ourselves in these ridiculous situations trying to measure and calculate which person will be "less damaging" than the other. It sucks.

Honestly...I'm probably gonna vote for Ellison tomorrow, and I'm probably gonna feel pretty shitty about it.

[Louie_Cypher]

Okay, I edited my post, boiling down to this:

Here it is: Attrition.

That's it. Attrition.

Eventually, if we GREATLY INCREASE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM (akin to that of Asia, etc.), younger people will be far more educated than their ancestors and hate (based on stupidity) will have no place in a civilized society and hate will die off.

if we put .001 percent of our current military spending into education we could pay our teachers a living wage. they want you smart enough to get back to work on maggies farm.
-louie

[allegro]

Out of curiosity, if you lived in MN, would you vote for Ellison? Just wondering. I always appreciate hearing your take on things.

Okay: Personally, myself, I would NOT vote for Ellison. I would not vote for his Republican opponent, either, but I would NOT vote for Ellison. NO fucking way. Nope. Misogynistic, abusive, anti Semitic, NO fucking way. He should not even BE on the ballot, and he’s one big reason why I’m no longer a Democrat and I’m an Independent (who mostly votes Democrat but does NOT support the DNC). Ellison is only there because the Democrats were afraid to tell him to fuck off. N.O.W. came out against him, then backed off. It’s all STUPIDLY PC because he’s black, turning a blind eye toward the female victim. He’s FRIENDS WITH FARRAKHAN, for fuck’s sake. How much more “Gahhhhhh!” do they need?

[Mantra]

Okay: Personally, myself, I would NOT vote for Ellison. I would not vote for his Republican opponent, either, but I would NOT vote for Ellison. NO fucking way. Nope.

Yeah...I definitely lean this way sometimes. I don't know.

The thing is, I feel sick at the thought of that Republican freak getting in, and I feel like abstaining from voting is the same as voting for him because it ultimately will lead to the same result. If it was you, wouldn't you feel upset knowing that guy got in because Dems abstained? What about all the harm that guy is going to inflict on us?

Misogynistic, abusive, anti Semitic, NO fucking way. He should not even BE on the ballot, and he’s one big reason why I’m no longer a Democrat and I’m an Independent (who mostly votes Democrat but does NOT support the DNC). Ellison is only there because the Democrats were afraid to tell him to fuck off. N.O.W. came out against him, then backed off. It’s all STUPIDLY PC because he’s black, turning a blind eye toward the female victim. He’s FRIENDS WITH FARRAKHAN, for fuck’s sake. How much more “Gahhhhhh!” do they need?

Well, the NOI/Farrakhan shit is old, and Ellison disavowed Farrakhan and NOI years ago for their beliefs. Some people claim that Ellison is actually still on good terms with Farrakhan because there have been a couple documented incidents over the years where they've been in the same meetings, but I feel like those accusations are pretty flimsy. And I mean, Farrakhan has publicly trashed Ellison and seems to view him as a "traitor". Left wing Jewish groups in MN have generally described the accusations of antisemitism as "smear tactics." So I don't know, I myself don't feel comfortable labelling him as an antisemite, not based on the things I've read. The evidence just doesn't seem strong enough and seems wildly inconsistent with the rest of his politics and values.

The homophobia thing is brand new to me. What specifically are you referring to? Do you have a link?

But the abuse allegations... that's the shit that really gets me. I don't know. I keep trying to think "what's the choice that does the most good/least harm?" and can't seem to find a satisfying answer for myself.

[Andallthatcouldhavebeen]

Getting off of nightshift to head straight to the polls and vote. Its discouraging how many people around me at work tell me there's no point, my voice doesn't matter, blah, blah, blah. Most of these people know I am not as conservative as they are. It's my first mid term election I'm going to vote in (for shame) but I am happy to go. Just had a tornado warning in my area, but if the roads are open, nothing will stop us.