What's Our Next Step?

ithelpstodream:

Bill Clinton cheats on his wife. Impeach him. Trump proudly brags about sexual assault (and has cheated on his wives). Elect him.

Hillary oversaw the department of state while 4 people died in an embassy attack. Put her in jail. 2 Republicans were in office while over 200 people died in embassy attacks. No problem.

Immigrants don’t pay taxes. Round them up and kick them out. Trump doesn’t pay taxes. He’s a business genius.

Hillary’s foundation only spent 87% of their donations helping people. She’s a crook. Trumps foundation paid off his debts, bought sculptures of him, and made political donations to avoid investigations while using less than 5% of funds for charity (and he got shut down by NY State). So savvy… Put him in the white house.

Trump made 4 billion dollars in 40 years, when an index fund started at the same time with the same “small loans” he received would be worth $12 billion today… without a trail of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits and burned small business owners. He’s a real business whiz. Hillary took a loss of $700k. She’s a criminal.

Trump is the first candidate in the modern era not to release his tax returns, and took a billion dollar loss in 1 year. Genius.

Hillary takes responsibility for private email servers and apologizes. Not credible. Trump denies saying things (on the record) he actually said (on the record), he’s just telling it like it is.

Your arguments are thin. Your ignorance of reality is shocking. Your double-standards are offensive, and your willingness to blindly support him and recycle the rhetoric is absurd. Your opinion is not fact. Your memes are not news articles. And your hypocrisy is not a platform.

- Alex Schiller

A letter to America from Leslie Knope, regarding Donald Trump

"People are unpredictable, and democracy is insane."

::::ugly cries:::::

It happened.

The time for mourning is over. Time to pick up the pieces. 

It might feel like we’ve woken up in a new world, but the truth is, America is the same as it was before. We elected him. We did this, because this is what is at our core. Trump is merely a byproduct of the cancer that has infected us. He is the effect, but not the cause.

So we have to keep on, moving forward and chipping away at the hatred that has shaped this election. We have to be vigilant. We have to be proactive. They are in control now, and they will be working around the clock to retract our steps in social progress. They will not be kind to those of us in the minority: the women, the people of color, immigrants, and those who do not share their faith. Their policies do not favor us. They never have.

So we have to stay on our toes.

The next congressional election is in two years, when all 435 House seats and 33/100 Senate seats will be up for grabs. We have much work to do before then.

Now I will return to your regularly scheduled Star Wars. Here if any of you need to talk. It’s a dark day for everybody, whether they realize it or not.

Reminder that popular vote does not decide the president. Electoral vote does. Donald Trump is not president yet.

The Electors meet on December 19th. Their votes are counted January 6th. They have voted against the will of the people before and it’s highly possible they could do again. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Hilary still has a snowball chance.

We will not truly know until January 6th. The only thing we can do now is hope for a miracle, but there is that hope. (Especially given that there’s also a chance that Trump will be in prison by that time and would be disqualified regardless.)

You are going to run this country, and this world, very soon. So you will not listen to this man, or the 75-year-old, doughy-faced, gray-haired nightmare men like him, when they try to tell you where to stand or how to behave or what you can and cannot do with your own bodies, or what you should or should not think with your own minds. You will not be cowed or discouraged by his stream of retrogressive babble. You won’t have time to be cowed, because you will be too busy working and learning and communing with other girls and women like you, and when the time comes you will effortlessly flick away his miserable, petty misogynistic worldview like a fly on your picnic potato salad. He is the present, sadly, but he is not the future. You are the future. Your strength is a million times his. Your power is a billion times his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it. Now find your team, and get to work.

‘Parks and Recreation’: Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America Following Donald Trump’s Victory (via Yahoo)

Explore the 5 eras that help make up our incredible 100 year history>>

“So What Do We Do Now?”

*pulls your face real close to mine* Listen. To. Me. 

You fucking fight

I’m not american, I can’t imagine how terrified those who are LGBT+, POC, Disabled, Female, Islamic, and any other minority of the US must feel right now, despite how scared I am myself. 

But you wake up tomorrow and you fight. You show that fucking orange dickbag that you will not go quietly. You will survive. You are smart, brave and important to your country no matter what anyone tries to tell you. 

You fight to keep yourself safe, you fight to make your voice heard, you fight for your future, you fight for those around you. 

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a long road ahead but I believe in you. 

Stay safe, look out for yourself, stay informed, and survive just to spite them. 

I love you all. Let me know what more I can do. 

listen.

even if trump wins, it doesn’t mean it’s over. congress will not let him do most of what he wants to do (i mean, a lot of it’s unconstitutional, lmao). even if they do, it will a take a long time, perhaps even bleeding over into the next president’s term (and i hope to god that next president is a democrat). so do not assume that everything he proposes will happen! and voting is not our only way to participate in the government. protest. lobby. fight. don’t just accept a trump victory. if he wins, we need to fight harder than ever. we can’t give up. we can mitigate the effects of a trump presidency, but we need to fight.

millennials are a powerful group. we can make our voices heard. i know it’s scary. but it’s more important than ever to fight. don’t give trump an easy victory. fight as hard as you can for the entire 4 years he might be president. and help each other, protect each other. lift up your head and fight together. it’s easy to be discouraged, but the fight is not over.

i’m scared, too. i’m scared for my life. and take the time you need to take a deep breath and get away from everything for a little while. but in the end, if trump wins, we cannot make that easy for him. people are making a trump presidency seem like doomsday right now, but congress, checks and balances, and the actions of people – like us – can stop most of it from happening. the only bad thing that is really guaranteed to happen under a trump presidency is the appointment of some conservative supreme court justices (but even then congress has to approve them).

so tl;dr: if trump wins, the fight is not over. take a deep breath and hold your head high. he cannot, and will not, do everything that he’s proposed. so keep fighting and don’t let him destroy everything we’ve worked for.

Watch: President Obama delivers pointedly feminist speech at United State of Women summit