Gloria Steinem responds to the election of Donald Trump.

I’m being realistic, not negative. Almost every issue of equality now has majority support in public opinion polls, ideas of race and gender are changing, activism and iPhones are exposing the racial violence that has always been there, sexual assault from the campus to the military is no longer hidden, and Trump’s very public misogyny has unified women, educated men and inspired activism. It’s the Anita Hill effect, but deepened and multiplied. Trump has helped to expose desperation among those jobless and working poor who support him only because they oppose Washington.

When Hughes writes, in the first two lines of his poem, “Let America be America again/ Let it be the dream it used to be,” he acknowledges that America is primarily a dream, a hope, an aspiration, that may never be fully attainable, but that spurs us to be better, to be larger. He follows this with the repeated counterpoint, “America never was America to me,” and through the rest of this remarkable poem he alternates between the oppressed and the wronged of America, and the great dreams that they have for their country, that can never be extinguished.

-- Harry Belafonte

Donald Trump has 75 ongoing legal battles, including:

• 3 lawsuits against Trump University for misrepresentation
• a NY investigation of misuse of Trump Foundation funds
• a claim by a former employee that she was fired after reporting sexual harassment
• suits and countersuits with two restaurant owners who pulled out of his D.C. hotel after his comments about Mexican immigrants

The Complaint for Rape of a minor against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein filed 30 Sep 2016. (This suit is apparently being dropped. The Daily Mail stated the charges were baseless, and other journalists had been hesitant to cover it due to lack of credibility.)

Google "election results" after the polls close. Google will be displaying detailed results, updated every 30 seconds.

The forces that propelled Mr. Trump’s rise need to be confronted and defeated. It won’t be easy, given that tens of millions of Americans will vote for him and believe deeply in him. But if these forces are not defeated, what happened this year will be replicated in one form or another, and the Republican Party will continue to inflict great harm on our republic.

• Anti-intellectualism [Actually, outright insanity. Complete disregard for reality. Trump and his followers "believe" whatever they want to "believe". The Republican party has become a party of frauds and liars.]
• Political recklessness [Playing bullshit games instead of doing the duties they were elected to do. The refusal to vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee is one example.]
• Appealing to nativism and xenophobia [No shit. This article is otherwise forthright. He should have said fascism and white supremacy.]

Aside from the sins of the Republican Party:

• Major media failed us by giving this asshole all kinds of free publicity.
• Responsible journalists did their jobs. We need to support them, and we need more of them.
• Entertainers pretending to be serious political commentators and fake news sites have become a danger to democracy.
• Trump supporters: shameless racists, or just astonishingly stupid? [No, moron, Hillary Clinton is not just as bad as Trump.] Can we please improve education at least enough to counterbalance the ineducable?

the greater sin of the Republican Party wasn’t that Mr. Trump won the nomination by carrying a plurality of votes in a large field. It was that people who surely knew better rallied to Mr. Trump once he became the nominee. Some advised him, others defended him and excused him, and still others tried to ignore him.

And we should never forget who those people were, Paul Ryan.

Donald Trump's scandals and business failures.

GOP States Keep Ignoring Court Orders to Restore Voting Rights -- Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, and North Caroline won't stop suppressing the vote.

But the thing is, this doesn’t make me different than Trump supporters; it makes me exactly the same as Trump supporters.

While our very real fears may manifest themselves in different ways, and while those fears may look and sound dissimilar, they are really the same fears: The fears of being left behind, left out, and being turned against.

But on issues of racism, race-baiting, religious intolerance, misogyny, sexual assault, white supremacy and demagoguery — there can be no gray area, Peter. These are disqualifying issues and you are completely wrong to support Donald Trump.

My favorite summary of this election year, so far.

Senate Republicans have refused to give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee a hearing, under the pretense that it is too close to an election, and "the American people should have their say on this issue".

Now, they're talking about refusing to consider anyone that Hillary Clinton nominates.

The people already spoke twice when they elected Barack Obama. The people are about to speak again.

The motivations of Trump supporters.

Trump is Bad for Business. Letter opposing Donald Trump, drafted by 12 business leaders and signed by hundreds.

Some writers have faced constant harassment and threats from supporters of Donald Trump.

An open letter from students at Liberty University.

Because our president has led the world to believe that Liberty University supports Donald Trump, we students must take it upon ourselves to make clear that Donald Trump is absolutely opposed to what we believe, and does not have our support.

The Conservative Case Against Donald Trump

Why conservatives shouldn't vote for Donald Trump.

The Republican Party nominated an ignorant, bigoted, authoritarian candidate to be president of the United States. The best message that the country can send with the popular vote is that if you try to win the presidency by stoking race hatred and promising to degrade the Constitution, you will lose and lose badly—that a fascist does not have an even-odds chance of becoming the most powerful person in the world.

This piece could have been stronger if it didn't end with a question.

"This is not the example we want for them."

U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials

...

The activities of Trump adviser Carter Page, who has extensive business interests in Russia, have been discussed with senior members of Congress during recent briefings about suspected efforts by Moscow to influence the presidential election

Palmer Luckey is funding "Nimble America," an organization that supports Donald Trump by mocking and badmouthing Hillary Clinton. Luckey sold virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014

First — and this cannot be said enough — Clinton and Trump are not equally bad candidates. One is a conventional politician who has a long record of public service full of pros and cons. The other is a demagogic bigot with a puddle-deep understanding of national and international issues, who openly courts white nationalism

...

Second, a vote isn’t just about the past — although comparing these two candidates on their pasts still leaves one as the clear choice — but about the present and the future.

There is a simple truth here: Either Clinton or Trump will be the next president of the United States. Not Jill Stein. Not Gary Johnson. Clinton or Trump

Donald Trump's illegal uses of Trump Foundation funds.

It's 2016. Dad says that he and Ma will leave the country if Hillary is elected. They are big Republicans. What conservative country should they move to?

Pakistan. This may seem surprising at first, but Pakistan is the clear choice for the disgruntled American conservative when you look at it logically.

Hillary Clinton's technology policy.

• Generally progressive, favoring innovation.
• Internet access is a high priority.
• Favors international regulation of Internet, in order to help prevent national governments from restricting the rights of individuals.

an official statement of the 15% threshold for being included in the US presidential debate

Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

Clay Shirky explains that voting for a third-party presidential candidate is wasting your vote.

I didn't know that Allegheny County is that much of a battleground.

The Harvard Republican club explains why they won't endorse Donald Trump.

Republican Caroline McCain explains why she'll be voting for Hillary Clinton.

https://twitter.com/ccmccain

"Election polls won’t predict election results, but coverage of them, and the use of them by politicians, may be shifting voter perceptions of what is normal and tolerable—and popular. There is strength in numbers, especially if you would like to voice bigoted (or, as Trump likes to say, un-politically correct) opinions. America is a diverse nation, and Trump has a large base of genuine support. But part of the way he gains that support is by indicating it is okay for people to publicly join him, no matter how ugly or intolerant his ideas might be."

I have been told this count is wrong.

How many delegates were sworn to her before the primaries?

"The Art of the Deal" author Tony Schwartz expresses remorse for helping create Donald Trump's celebrity status.

Donald Trump and members of his staff have disturbingly close ties to Russia.

"Donald and Hobbes", several Calvin and Hobbes strips remixed into a lampoon of Donald Trump.

Fascinating to think about the simultaneously democratic and demagogic potential of social media from #ArabSpring to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.

It’s in the realm of policy, however, where I find Bernie intellectually quite dishonest, and Hillary pretty damned honest. When you scrutinize his policy ideas, as wonky liberals have begun doing (finally) in the last couple of months, those ideas don’t stand up, on a bunch of different levels.<br> One of those levels is political—as in there’s no way, in the foreseeable future, there will be sixty votes in the Senate, much less support in a likely GOP-controlled House, to pass single-payer health care, or break up the big banks, or reform the political campaign system, or provide free college tuition for every student. You can excuse that by saying, Well, that’s his vision, his end goal, maybe not achievable in his first term but possible over time, especially if we get the “political revolution” he calls for.

But there’s a deeper level at which these policy ideas are intellectually dishonest. Even if you could somehow get them passed, practically they either wouldn’t work or would be recklessly disruptive or both.

This captures a lot of what's going on with the GOP IMO.

Mike Caulfield explains why he supports Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, in response to a pro Sanders article.

here he is referring to.

Six Responses to Bernie Skeptics<br> Robert Reich

While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened.<br> . . .<br> my poll asked a set of four simple survey questions that political scientists have employed since 1992 to measure inclination toward authoritarianism. These questions pertain to child-rearing: whether it is more important for the voter to have a child who is respectful or independent; obedient or self-reliant; well-behaved or considerate; and well-mannered or curious. Respondents who pick the first option in each of these questions are strongly authoritarian.

The article goes on to say that support for Trump is likely to continue to grow. People tend to become more authoritarian when they feel threatened. And people are worried about terrorism -- and maybe about losing jobs to immigrants.

The main reason for Trump's lead among right wingers might be simply that it seems like he could win. This is the most pathetic group of Republican presidential hopefuls I've ever seen.

This is in response to Hillary Clinton's comment during the Democratic debate on Saturday, 19 December:

“I don’t believe in free tuition for everybody. I believe we should focus on middle-class families, working families and poor kids who have the ambition and the talent to go to college and get ahead.”

I haven't heard anyone mention that we can provide more education without paying an extra dime of tuition to any college. Neither schools nor teachers are necessary for learning and demonstration of knowledge.

https://twitter.com/DavidOAtkins/

The DNC rents access to its master voter list to campaigns, which augment the data with their own information. The firewalls are supposed to block campaigns from spying on their rivals.

An audit released by the Clinton campaign showed the breach was more extensive than the Sanders campaign described, with at least 24 occasions when the Sanders campaign "saved" lists of Clinton data, from four different users.

Josh Uretsky, the Sanders campaign staffer fired for accessing the voter file, told MSNBC that his intent was to document and understand the scope of the problem so it could be reported. "To my knowledge, we did not export any records or voter file data that were based on those scores,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7m-nnl7LSQ

https://twitter.com/DWStweets/status/678083696390512640<br> https://twitter.com/DWStweets/status/678083869661360128

This smells. I want to see a 3rd-party investigation.<br> And I think DWS should resign as DNC chair.<br> (On the other hand...)<br> https://twitter.com/JudyReardon/status/678045914435596288<br> "Jeff Weaver keeps on saying Sanders staff who accessed Clinton data<br> were young staffers. Josh Uretsky is 39 and has a Ph.D."

Bernie Sanders says the Democratic National Committee is denying his campaign access to their own data, after failing to keep the data that belonged to different campaigns separate.

https://twitter.com/TheDemocrats<br> https://twitter.com/DWStweets<br> Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz<br> Chair of the Democratic National Committee

Petition to MSNBC and CNN: Stop promoting Donald Trump

Populism has both positive and negative definitions.

The positive sense is synonymous with democracy -- the belief that government should be for and by the people.

The negative sense is the tool of demagogues -- appealing to fears and prejudices. An ideology that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous 'others' who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice" (Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell)

This accelerated hard with Ronald Reagan. The theory that lower taxes and deregulation will be good for everyone sounds sensible. But the wealthy don't care about the common welfare. They only care about amassing more wealth and power.

He is commenting on "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945" by Milton Mayer

Don't forget "narcissistic blowhard dunce".

Good article on the definition of fascism.

Quotes from scholars:

• The Nature of Fascism, Roger Griffin
• The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton
• Fascism: Comparison and Definition, Stanley Payne
• A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, Stanley Payne

And historical fascists:

• Reflections on Violence, Georges Sorel
• The Doctrine of Fascism, Benito Mussolini

Donald Trump is not the problem. He's a symptom

The problem is an economic and social desperation that makes his base incredibly dangerous