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Post by chexbres on Nov 22, 2016 21:01:55 GMT
Move to France - where Thanksgiving is just another Thursday, and Christmas is just an excuse to stuff yourself with foie gras and drink champagne until you pass out.
Oh - and it helps a lot that nobody really cares who Trump is, because France has its own problems to deal with.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2016 21:49:05 GMT
Oh, that is indeed a whole other subject. We are now living through a time that America went through about six months ago, and the media are in an absolute frenzy about the possible candidates. The final selection will not be determined for another couple months, but since Trump has trampled the world, the possibilities are mind boggling...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2016 23:45:28 GMT
While others may be prone to drinking and firing guns at one another which in some cases may be spot on, it nowhere comes close to what I was posting in that my friends parents whom I have met and in no way represent that demographic, and despite their political leanings are really quite civilized people. Therefore, the degree of dismay my friend is having to grapple with as are many others.
They have their own political ideologies, and, it is of no help or assistance to the family to remain estranged but, to try and give "it" some time for them to work out. I kind of resent the stereotyping of those that voted "the other way" as being portrayed in the manner implicated. It is something that we Americans are having to grapple with on many levels, this just being one of many.
I , for instance do not know who my brother voted for but, in the one brief discussion we had a week or so before the election, he was on the fringe. I actually do not want to know and will not ask because he is my only blood relative and I do not want to have anything drive a wedge between us. If he was touting it, that would indeed be another thing altogether. We have respect enough for one another and have many different philosophies in terms of where I live and why and other things. I, on the other hand, could not live in the lifestyle he chooses.
And so, while it may be easy for folks living abroad to make these kind of assumptions and cast judgement, there are many of us who are grappling with some very dire, serious, unpredictable, stressful, angst ridden days ahead.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2016 23:53:18 GMT
Let's not be too natio-centric. Things are relatively dire everywhere in the world and it would be very reckless to assume that what is happening in the United States is the most important event.
That is exactly what has made the world go to shit in the past -- paying attention to American politics too much when other terrible things are in gestation elsewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 0:28:39 GMT
If my post came off in that vain then, I do not necessarily apologize for it but, do feel it is something I do indeed feel defensive about.
One of the many reasons I do avoid political discussions on many topics because I am not always as informed (by choice and or/denial) and, I like to come on the forum and use it as a diversion from what I am trying to avoid.
And so, there we have it from me.
I was feeling bereft and at a loss after my friend had just been here and thought that perhaps I might find some solace or comfort in expressing what I am sure many other like minded Americans are feeling right now.
I never thought it would be pegged as natio-centric.
I'll leave it at that.
Actually, no. I'm not leaving it at that. Why start a thread that is only going to invite the comments that is has?
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Post by lagatta on Nov 23, 2016 0:40:48 GMT
Casimira, I wasn't talking about your family (I am not privy to your family issues and don't want to be; moreover I never envisaged them as "rednecks"). In your post, I don't remember you referring to your own family. My own family is fucked up enough; I wouldn't dump on anyone else's except for the case of the high and mighty whose dysfunction can affect the entire world.
I was only speaking of the proliferation of firearms. We have just as many rednecks here as there are on the other side of the border (which would be northereastern New York State, Vermont, NH and Maine). The only difference is the gun laws, though obviously in rural Québec there are a hell of a lot of hunting rifles. I don't think our American neighbours are either more belligerent or more boorish than we are. This is a general problem these days.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 0:57:47 GMT
Lagatta, I never thought you were posting with regard to my family at all.
My post was about having to deal with personal friends who are grappling with their families and how I could offer support or whatever to them in their dismay.
The quasi insinuation that I mentioned was in defense of Americans who are grappling with this very dismay.
Drinking and firearms, Move to France, etc. were not exactly comforting but that's ok.
It's all pertinent in it's own way.
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Post by chexbres on Nov 23, 2016 8:36:38 GMT
casi - I made an attempt at levity. You didn't appreciate it.
I am American. I voted. My vote didn't count. I can do absolutely nothing about Trump from France. Those of you who live in the US can have much more influence than those of us who live elsewhere.
Unlike kerouac, I cannot vote in France. I would like to, though.
Family stuff is what it is. You probably can't change the life-long dynamics. You can choose to avoid the holidays or suffer through them. That's pretty much what we all have to do.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 23, 2016 12:42:01 GMT
The only sense in which I was being serious is that if family relations are fraught, at the boiling point and you know a family member can be violent and unstable, I think it is better to stay away than to risk an irreparable tragedy. And that is not exclusive to the US or anywhere else.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2016 14:04:39 GMT
Today's paper has a full front page illustration of Trump and Putin engaged in the passionate kiss made famous by Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev. Let the new year begin!
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 31, 2016 15:34:53 GMT
Rectum-face's recent shenanigans have made that image even more prescient. (I assume you mean this image.)
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Post by chexbres on Jan 1, 2017 8:39:26 GMT
There's also this front page, from Charlie Hebdo: (The shitty gifts that everyone would like to get rid of...) charliehebdo.fr/en-kiosque/
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Post by chexbres on Jan 1, 2017 15:24:01 GMT
I was skimming through some YouTube websites, and happened upon an astrologer who claims that Donald Trump - aka Drumpf - will be in big physical danger right when or just after he takes the oath of office. Supposed to be an act of premeditated extreme violence, directed to what little brain he has left.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 2, 2017 16:27:59 GMT
So the fundie fetus fetishist VEEP gets to be prez?
As for France: Marine Le Pen? François Fillon? (also a fundie fetus fetishist)
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Post by chexbres on Jan 2, 2017 20:13:07 GMT
President-elect Drumpf said it best: "... in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby...”
But in most places, this is simply referred to as "birth".
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2017 21:44:25 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 2, 2017 21:56:25 GMT
Grrrrr ~ et tu, Kerouac? I have seen that a zillion times because of all the news outlets and facebook friends who in their outrage felt compelled to share the shithook's infantile gloating.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 2, 2017 23:20:56 GMT
chexbres, there is NO abortion law in Canada. But the ONLY time such a thing would happen here is if the foetus is non-viable, and usually dead, and if the alternative of allowing nature to take its course would risk killing the mother.
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Post by bjd on Jan 3, 2017 20:00:12 GMT
Things just won't be the same
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2017 20:29:06 GMT
Oh good grief, Bjd ~ now I'm crying all over again. It's just impossible to realize that the US is going to be losing all that grace and class. But worse, far far worse, is that a stinking pile of shit is going to be handed the highest office in the country. How the living hell did this happen?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2017 1:51:52 GMT
Gawd, the Clintons are whores. Whores!
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Post by chexbres on Jan 4, 2017 21:28:32 GMT
Trump trusts Julian Assange... We are so screwed.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2017 22:13:43 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 22:27:29 GMT
I think that R.E.M. should sing at the inauguration, but I can't decide whether they should sing "It's the End of the World as We Know It" or "Shiny Happy People."
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Post by fumobici on Jan 5, 2017 4:43:30 GMT
I think that R.E.M. should sing at the inauguration, but I can't decide whether they should sing "It's the End of the World as We Know It" or "Shiny Happy People." Here you go-
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Post by chexbres on Jan 5, 2017 8:25:25 GMT
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Post by Jazz on Jan 5, 2017 8:39:03 GMT
OK. Let's all sing, The End of the World as we Know It. Is this good or bad? I'm not at all sure. Are you?
The past year and the American election have been chaotic. The entire world was aware and listening. The Americans were faced with a choice: Pick one of the two most unpopular candidates in history. They chose Trump. Yes, Trump won according to the American electoral system. ' Both parties fought according to 'The Existing Rules'. Forget the popular vote, as has been stridently and desperately repeated/screamed in the weeks since the election...HRC wins by 2-3 million!!!....um...not to forget, HRC won by 4 million in California (highest Latino vote in US/ illegal vote?...whatever, could account for her popular vote difference...therefore, what about the votes in the other 49 states where Trump's vote was superior?)
Well. Should we ignore The Election and decide that the results of the 2016 election are somehow illegitimate? Somehow, Trump is not the new President. (umm...the voting results are 'Wrong')
Wrong how? The Democrats lost and the Republicans won. This cannot be! What? There is a reason the Democrats lost, actually, many reasons.
The U.S. election was NOT WON BY MOST VOTES. If so, an entirely different battle would have been fought by both parties. ie: In The World Series (Baseball), the winner wins the 4 games of 7. The 'winner' does not score the most home runs in the 7 games, the winner scores 4 games of 7. Thus, according to the existing rules, the Republicans and Donald Trump won the 2016 election. REPEAT: The Republicans and Trump won the 2016 election.
Since November 8, 2016, we (the world) all sit and watch. The Democrats simply CANNOT accept the fact that they have lost the election. We endure:
---Endless post election demeaning /damaging articles on the President-elect and all members of his family. Non stop. In another and somewhat courteous and sensitive age we would have been horrified by this. Today, because it is 'just' aimed at Trump and his family, we appear to think 'this is good and necessary', and by god, let's Fu*k'ing destroy the President-elect and his family in every insulting and conceivable way possible. (personally, I think this is horrifying.)
---We won't accept the results...let's do a recount!: Jill Stein, stealthily backed up by the Democrats. Goes nowhere. Fails.
------We still won't accept! Attack the Electoral College System! Yet again, lose miserably. Note: If you have a problem with the Electoral college, attack it before the election results, not after. (ie: if you hate the Electoral college system work on it now, before the next election in 2020)
---Aha! Not to be beaten down...Let's bring in the Russians! Borrowing somewhat on 'the McCarthy Era' (once despised in retrospect--remember the McCarthy hearings, the McCarthy Blacklists?), but now somehow...'good'?). We will now all 'hate' Russia (once again) and will accuse Trump of being a Russian puppet. This should really work!!! We will of course forget the US election of 2012. Romney warned of the Russian enemy. Obama ridiculed and demeaned Romney for his '80's thinking'. Obama then spent the next few years attempting to reset the US-Russian relationship. Went nowhere. Trump now tries and might even be a bit successful? Whatever, let's simply attempt to destroy him ahead of time. (Trump). By the way, leap in and in the dying moments of Obama's 'reign', attempt to gain good relations with Cuba. Convince the world that it is GOOD to praise Castro and BAD to attempt a somewhat decent relationship with Russia. Convince us all that Obama is good and Trump (without even one day in office) is bad. Um...as a Canadian, wondering why it took Obama 7 years and 11 months to say anything half decent about Cuba?
---Let's further influence Trump's term of office before he has served One Single Day. The recent UN resolution about Israel. Let's simply agree to offend and leave totally vulnerable the only democracy in the Middle East. Too much to discuss here. Basically, Democrats think it's good to forget Israel and leave them alone in the Middle East. Mazeltov...?
PLEASE!.... let's all unite in demeaning and hoping to destroy the future President of the United States. Do not allow him any chance whatsoever. Let's fight till the end of time the results of the 2016 election. Be firm in ALL of our preconceived ideas. Previous presidents have been so admirable and without fault! (forget Bill Clinton and Monica's blow jobs AND Bill's impeachment, his definition of 'is'...forget John F. Kennedy and the tunnels beneath the Whitehouse to let in his women for one night stands...SHALL WE JUST AGREE TO FORGET? There is a very long list, both Republican and Democratic.}
PLEASE!... Simply, can we just all agree to HUMILIATE Donald Trump and his family in whatever way possible? Refuse to perform at his inauguration. Show no love and pride whatsover in the office of the President of the United States of America. Let nothing be forgotten. Especially, let's humiliate his rather innocent (politically) wife Melania! I'm sure you all approve of fashion designers who now refuse to design for her ! The artists who go online to demand that his daughter Ivanka take down their works of art from her walls! The man (democratic professor) who boarded a plane with Ivanka Trump and shouted at her in front of her very small children 'that her father was destroying the country and she should not be allowed on board'. Just think what the reaction would have been if someone chose to harass Obama's daughter...Oh. My. God! Nothing yet on his 10 year old son, but I'm sure we all hope there will be something to pounce on soon...why stop now? ...........aren't we all proud?
Really, shouldn't any American be proud of this behavior?
Upon reflection...forget being American...Why wouldn't any one of us be proud of helping to demean and humiliate the future President of the US and each member of his family? Don't you think that we should all be proud of refusing to help or support in any conceivable way? I'm sure that we are all extremely proud of not helping others in our lives. Certainly why bother with the inexperienced leader of the Western Hemisphere? Let's immerse ourselves in total negativity and hatred of the new president, with great pride. I'm sure it will only have a beautiful and creative result.
Clarification: Hopefully, you understand the sarcasm and sadness of the final three paragraphs.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2017 11:56:48 GMT
You make some interesting points, jazz. Personally, I don't think that "Trump haters" will shut up any time soon, but if people are in such a rage it is more because they are furious with themselves. The possibility of Trump winning seemed so ludicrous that most people (myself included) did not think it was possible, and they fell asleep at the switch, which led to the result we have today. Many people already didn't like the electoral college, but changing it did not seem to be on anybody's priority list. And just like with the populist parties in Europe (Netherlands, France, Austria, to name just three), even though certain elements of society seem pretty scared, with desperate people willing to believe totally far-fetched promises and of course ready to lay the blame on what is wrong with the country on anything or anybody but themselves, the majority thought that common sense will prevail in the end.
Well, they were wrong. And are they even still the majority?
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Post by fumobici on Jan 5, 2017 16:37:39 GMT
Thanks for the rant jazz. I despise Trump and his cabinet but I think you make some good points all the same. I would differ on calling Israel a full democracy in the same way that the US wasn't much of one in the slave-holding days either, though. But probably still closer than any of its neighbors are.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2017 18:29:21 GMT
Rant away, Jazz -- it's your right. I TOTALLY disagree with you.
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