Of course I can't find the post now but someone asked what state I live in etc. As far as FB, I block people like crazy and don't take on new friends. The board I was on - I'm ashamed to say it - was for a television show (I used to run a website for it). I don't think these people are trolls. I'm not saying there weren't ANY but I'd be surprised. However, I've seen these people posting about the show. There was never a political discussion until yesterday. Anyway, I've left.
I live in New York State. I lived in NYC for 30 years. We have a lot of Republicans here. My sister is a Republican though she loathes Trump and didn't vote for him. She had a photo of Hillary on our refrigerator with a Hitler mustache, and she absolutely positively hates Gov. Cuomo with every ounce of her being. She was in the legal profession and says that Hillary should be in prison for Whitewater. This is what I live with. However, she campaigned for a Democrat running for family court judge. The woman running is from Puerto Rico. And when my sister's friend talked her up at a gathering, no one wanted to vote for her when they found out she wasn't Italian. She lost but has an important new job now.
Areas like this are Republicans - Nixon carried our county when he ran against Kennedy - but it's because we have a large portion of immigrants, and there was a time when Republicans actually helped small businesses. It was a different party then. This year our county flipped Democrat but it's said the "blue wave" in the state lessened.
@laura-f, that was an excellent article by Andrew Sullivan. Thanks for linking it. He sounds very much like Steve Schmidt, the Republican political strategist who worked for the Bush and McCain campaigns. He's been saying similar things and sounding the alarm ever since T. got into the WH.
I also think there needs to be a law requiring all presidential candidates to be vetted by congress for security clearance prior to entering the race, or at least prior to inauguration. It is a huge national security breach to have a president who is a compromised asset to some foreign power. Everyone else in government has to have a security clearance -- why should the president be an exception?
Agree with this 100%. My husband is a Federal Service employee and requires a fairly high level national security clearance for his job. His clearance requires him to regularly provide updated information (stocks we own for instance, our debts, foreign travel and contacts, any arrests, etc.). He also has to take regular, random drug tests.
It has always been absurd to me that my husband, who is all things considered a rather low level government employee, has to do this when the president, vice president, and members of Congress do not get any national security screening at all. Yet, they get to access all sorts of high level security information and make national security decisions.
Requiring that all potential candidates for president and vice president - if not Congressional candidates too - pass at least a basic national security screening BEFORE they can even run for office would nip a lot of problems in the bud. And it would weed out people who aren't truly committed to serving the best interests of our country.
Yes, there are some potential downsides such the process becoming politicized, but I think that can be worked out. It is just nuts that we require national security screening for low level civil servants, military members, and Federal contractors but NOT for the people at the top.
@suspira44, although I am a subscriber to the Washington Post, I will also sometimes read their online articles. Seems fairly safe, right? But I had to stop going into the Comments section following the articles, once I'd read some of the abhorrent stuff people would say. At some point during the back-and-forth comments, fights will break out, some with name-calling. It's all extremely upsetting, to the point where I've had to do a spiritual cleanse of sorts, just to get the yucky stuff off of me. Sometimes just getting out in the fresh air will do the trick. So I avoid those Comments sections.
I'm from NY too (though I live in CT now). The town I live in voted for all republicans in the latest local election. (somewhat affluent suburb town). I know how folks can be. The trouble is many affluent people in the N.E. vote republican around here although this GOP is not their grandfather's republican party at all. Many don't like Trump but voted for him in the last election. I've heard some say things like "I held my nose and voted for Trump". (UH WHAT???) It's insane. It's all about their bottom line wall street wallets, even though they don't realize it's never been the republicans who have balanced a budget or enabled low unemployment.
I had my hair done the one day and a woman heard me say something negative about the Orange nightmare and she said to my hairdresser - "OH MY SHE IS ONE OF THEM!!!!" (what?!) Thankfully my hairdresser let her know that is not right to act like that and got her to back off.
I have Facebook and I some news channel except fox. When T was just a candidate. The comments were more Pro-T. As the years have passed I have noticed about 90% is against T. Once in a while there are comments of Pro-T but most are either bots cause they post comments and hardly respond back and just there profile you can tell are fake. A lot are not even in this country and some I believe are just people posting crap for him to piss people off.
Thanks for writing what you did about finding our choir. I know you have mentioned this before here and in your heart warrior classes, but it is such a good reminder.
Also, the strength we gather from our choir can help carry us forward when we discover a new person in need of encouragement and hope. It is easier to be a light in their presence.
She won the popular vote by 3 million votes, even with all the voter suppression and redistricting.
you are right, but a lot of people voted against her. And the electoral college doesn't care how many votes you get. I flew to NYC to vote against George Bush and I didn't have to, because the electoral votes had already been decided. I could have voted for Hoot Gibson. The problem is the electoral votes in these huge red states.