"Reality has a way of catching up with you," delivered like a knife.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 11, 2017
Obama on bubbles and polarization: pic.twitter.com/EHmEVHDP8e
— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) January 11, 2017
Weird optics: Do most Americans share these Obama supporters' enthusiasm?
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 11, 2017
@ZekeJMiller The polling would suggest so.
— Jarrett Hill (@JarrettHill) January 11, 2017
@ZekeJMiller get out of the bubble
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 11, 2017
God, how I need this sort of civic uplift just now. Thank you, Mr. President.
— Gary Rosen (@garyrosenWSJ) January 11, 2017
He is the embodiment of much of what is best about America. And much of what is–& who are—best about America shaped him as the leader he is
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 11, 2017
??? pic.twitter.com/TGxl1xOwfw
— Freddie Campion (@FreddieCampion) January 11, 2017
Corner Stone
It was a great Obama speech. One that could have been given in the first 2 to 4 years of his presidency.
Suzanne
I could not have loved it more. It was extra-painful after today.
But I have hope that 2017 will surprise me, in some great ways.
debbie
He’s never given up. I think that says a lot about him.
Suzanne
Mr. Suzanne and I took the occasion to note that we met on the day of the 2008 Iowa caucuses. Nine years with this dude. I hope he isn’t sick of me,
Archon
Like I’ve said, Obama is either the President America needed but didn’t deserve or Obama is the President America deserved but didn’t need right now.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: You are not boring.
Kay
@Suzanne:
It’s such a jarring decline. From this President to a complete degenerate. Your ears pop we’re falling so rapidly.
Suzanne
@Kay: Like, I do not have words for it. Our President-elect isn’t someone I would want in my house cleaning my toilets. He is as corrupt and disgusting and craven and stupid and immoral and TRASHY as I could possibly imagine—and he was elected by people who say that character matters! It’s just completely insane! I feel like I must be living in Westworld.
chris
I’m gonna miss him a lot but I look forward to Citizen Barack Obama and his Twitter stream. He’s given me a little hope for the future.
Elizabelle
Want to catch Obama’s speech again later on C-Span. I hope their whole programming is not taken up with Jefferson Beauregard The South Will Rise Again Sessions III.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I just want to take a minute to tell you how much your voice means to me these days. You are able to put what I am feeling and thinking into words that I can’t seem to find as my brain switches between disbelief and rage and despair. Momsense, too.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: The evangelical support should have us laughing riotously, if the result were not so tragic.
amk
white ‘christians’ can go fuck themselves.
Mike J
Obama supporters will remember the lesson of today: it’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Spanky
Feeling wistful, I guess. And for some reason the exchange with Pepper downstairs made me think back to this from 8+ years back.
That hopey changey thing is still working out fine, tyvm Gov Palin. Still got some work to do, is all.
Major Major Major Major
Would’ve been just the speech I needed to hear if a normal Republican had won.
Not unrelatedly, here is a showroom for Trump-brand toilets.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Seconded.
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: I have told the few evangelical Christians that still talk to me that their movement has lost any credibility it may have ever had after this. It’s gone forever. I no longer see any of their leaders as having anything to do with Christian values, and I am not alone.
Jeffro
@chris:
Yup. The kid has potential. ;)
(for another 3-4 decades)
Looking forward to the line-by-line parsing and innuendo of the speech by Bill-O the Douche-O for the benefit of Fox-watching geezers…while all their kids are busy going, “Yeah, that’s the kind of president we need next”…”I’m good with those values”…”how can you be against people voting, Grandpa?”
WaterGirl
If you want to feel hopeful, check out these two links. Same title: Obama: the best is yet to come, but they are different articles:
Washington Monthly
Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
crawdad
If you’ve heard one Obama speech, you’ve heard them all. And they all have the same net effect = nothing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Not.Getting.Out.Of.The.Boat.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Mike J: Win !
amk
@crawdad: Innate stupidity. Can’t cure it.
Omnes Omnibus
Reposted from the dying thread: So I watched the Farewell speech and Denial this evening. I am in kind of a weird place at the moment.
Mike J
WaterGirl
@amk: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I hope no one responds to its comments.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: clown-free! I promise.
aimai
I am waiting to watch the speech when I can do it without sobbing.
debbie
This is my favorite Tweet of today:
Kay
@WaterGirl:
Thanks. It’s like a litmus test for me now. Not about regular voters but for politicians. I didn’t know Sessions was an actual Trump supporter before today. When I heard he was I thought “horrible judge of character which means he’ll hire terrible people”. It’s disqualifying to me. I don’t have to know anything more about Sessions.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: And you certainly wouldn’t want him around your daughters. Creepy. If you hired him to cut your lawn he’d strip the siding off your house, take your patio furniture and steal your neighbor’s packages off their porch.
WaterGirl
@aimai: I say watch it, sobbing’s not so bad. Lots of wisdom and grace in his comments, and fight, too.
I plan on watching it again on January 20, when I won’t be able to watch anything. It makes me sad that the piece of shit will keep me from saying goodbye to barack and michelle on that day, but I can’t do it. I can’t watch the piece of shit take office.
So I will watch this speech again and then I am going going to watch Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen and others sing This Land is Your Land at the Inauguration of the President of all the people in 2008, a joyous occasion. It was a joyous occasion.
rikyrah
When he called FLOTUS out her ENTIRE name…..I just rewind, and begin crying again.?????
SiubhanDuinne
The Inauguration: The “Soft Sensuality” of Low Expectations.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Omnes Omnibus
@crawdad: Wow. Nader/Stein voter?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: So much love – her full name and then… the girl from the southside. The idiots in our country clearly do not know family values when they see them.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I loved that.
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: God, how embarrassing. Maybe you should consider not commenting here while you are stinking fucking drunk.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Why try to engage? What good can come of that?
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes! Do not poke the troll. And do not invoke that name.
Cheers otherwise.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ll bet we find out!
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl:
That stands as an accurate statement. It is not snark.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@WaterGirl: I thank you as well Kay. I’m struggling with despair over all this – Bill in Glendale and I share a birthday on the first full day of the Cheeto Benito regime – and it helps to read your words.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Still.
Mike in NC
@crawdad: Thanks for playing, asshole.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I’m glad that’s how you read it. I don’t really do snark, and I meant it as a plain statement of fact. I don’t know what they think family values are, but clearly we do not share the same definition.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Kay absolutely rocks. And I look forward everytime to reading her comments.?????
hitchhiker
@rikyrah:
Same. Even reading you write that makes me cry.
SiubhanDuinne
@aimai:
Yeah, that’s probably nah gah happen. Lay in a good supply of Kleenex and go ahead and cry.
Trentrunner
Here’s where we are, as of today:
Obama: I still believe in America.
Trump: I did not pee on those underage prostitutes.
Mike J
WaterGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m just so grateful for Balloon Juice, without everyone here I would feel isolated and half-crazy since the rest of the world seems to be moving on as if we aren’t living in some bizarro-world.
Calouste
@Kay: IIRC Sessions was the first sitting Senator to endorse Trump, and one of the few to do so before the end of the primaries.
WaterGirl
@Trentrunner: Yes, this is the perfect example of the ear-popping fall from grace and normalcy that Kay or MomSense mentioned upthread.
But I do appreciate your making me laugh out loud for a second!
beth
CNN has a countdown clock for Trump’s press conference tomorrow on the screen. Suckers!!
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): From a number of years ago – a period that we survived. Link. I don’t believe so.
Cacti
So ABC acknowledged that they’ve had this Trump dossier for months but never said shite about it until it came up during Sessions confirmation hearing.
Way to go, librul media.
WaterGirl
@Mike J: I want that on a bumper sticker:
Please, someone. make it happen.
WaterGirl
@Cacti: Then fuck ABC. And fuck their different rules for Trump and Republicans vs. Hillary and democrats. That should be disqualifying for any reporter.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s a lot of emotion for one night. I’m not quite ready to watch Denial though it’s been on my list for awhile.
As despondent as I sometimes feel, the more I think about the message our President delivered tonight the more determined I am to organize and resist the orange menace. I don’t know what it felt like when MLK was assassinated and then two months later RFK was assassinated but I can imagine that it felt something like what it feels like now. If ordinary people could regroup then and keep fighting and organizing, we can too. If activists then hadn’t continued to work for social justice we wouldn’t have marriage equality in all 50 states now.
At the end of Meryl Streep’s speech just two nights ago she shared advice Carrie Fischer had given to her. “Take your broken heart and make it into art.” This is where I am now. I’m still struggling to find hope and I do feel heartbroken but I’m going to try to make it into art.
JordanRules
@Corner Stone: Ummm, you did start cussing him out first for disagreeing with your argument.
I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t expect to be thumped back.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman:That too.
Suzanne
@Yarrow:
Speaking of my daughters.
I came home tonight, not really looking forward to discussing today’s events. After the speech, I made a comment about how the news is going to have to find a way to talk about this without violating “community standards” or what have you. Spawn the Elder asked what I was talking about, so I went ahead and told her, because she’s a smart girl with internet access. My mom then comes over and says, “That’s called a ‘golden shower'”, to which my Soawn says, “I know what a golden shower is.”
I may be a horrible parent. I am not surprised in the slightest that she knows what a golden shower is.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I have been having similar thoughts about MLK and RFK and JFK. That’s a lovely quote from Carrie Fischer, thanks for sharing it.
If Barack can think the best is yet to come, then I am in the fight with him.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: I am a lawyer not an artist. Denial is fantastic. As a moral tale and as a courtroom drama.
dmsilev
@Suzanne:
Look on the bright side; at least Spawn didn’t follow up with “Grandma told me all about it”.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@WaterGirl: That’s still one of my favorite videos ever. The sheer joy and solidarity on everyone’s faces. And George Lucas!
Villago Delenda Est
@amk: White fundigelicals = Nazis.
All there is to it.
tobie
@WaterGirl: Maybe if Wikileaks had released the dossier, they would have combed over every detail in it, as they did the leaked DNC emails, because Wikileaks is such a credible source…Really, this is about as clear a demonstration as you can come up with for the partisan nature of corporate media.
SgrAstar
@WaterGirl:
Yes! I was there…it was just terrific. Don’t forget Beyonce singing America the Beautiful- that was pretty great too. It was so, so cold, and we were all so happy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Fascists, not Nazis. Nazis have designer uniforms.
*Full disclosure: I do own a Hugo Boss suit and a pair of Hugo Boss loafers.
Villago Delenda Est
@debbie: It’s easy. They are not Christians. They are Mammon-worshipers.
WaterGirl
@SgrAstar: I wasn’t there, but I was over the moon happy. I’m sorry we have lost Pete Seeger, but I’m glad he didn’t have to witness the election of the piece of shit. But if he was here, he would be fighting.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: Point taken.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus:
Pat doesn’t have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat.
The Lodger
@efgoldman: I’d need four words:
You
Stand
For
Nothing
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
We will definitely need good lawyering especially to deal with the awful voter ID laws.
@WaterGirl:
Yes we can.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Nixon was a lot of bad things and a paranoid asshole, but he wasn’t a fascist.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Yes we can. We should never forget that Yes we can was part of a speech after a loss.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: I promise to do what I can.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: somebody (Adam?) posted links to Nixon’s White House security uniforms earlier today. Total banana republic bullshit, and I don’t mean the store.
WaterGirl
Just one thought before I head to bed. I cannot wait to see Obama unleashed. He’ll still be Barack, but maybe he won’t need Luther anymore. I, for one, look forward to
seeingworking with citizen Barack.Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: everything I’ve read suggests that what you see is what you’ll get, the guy who gave the speech tonight is who he is.
A lot of people say Michelle has been holding back, though…. Those are two presidential memoirs I will buy and read.
Dog Dawg Damn
Anything that pisses them off, is fine by me. Watching him have a meltdown about fake news conspiracy theories will be golden. “Yellow Journalism”, some will say, but the CIA / FBI is backing the more seminal allegations. It’s not just some peons online, and more leaks will be forthcoming. How will this all shake out? It depends!
RinaX
@Cacti:
What. The. Fuck?
Even though I doubt his followers would have cared, they still yammered on about Hillary’s emails when this shit was out there?!?
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: I am talking about function. Gov’t and Law degrees. He did not function as a fascist. Trump, however, by first indications, is bad news.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: After Obama signs his book contract, how many milliseconds will it take for a Republican to call him uppity for writing a memoir?
Feebog
I watched “Saving Private Ryan” last night. I feel a little bit like Tom Hanks in one of the closing scenes, where he pulls out his .45 and plinks away (to no effect) on a Panzer tank.
Davis X. Machina
Didn’t mention the public option once.
Won’t catch me voting for him again….
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: He will still need Luther. Because of who he is.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought we were talking about uniforms.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: That too.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes!! That makes me happy.
JordanRules
So Russia owns the bastard and now I imagine, in addition to ours, many intelligence agencies of our allies are working against this unholy alliance with Russia. Hopefully the leaks continue and become more damning.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: I thought we were talking about fascists. My bad.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: i saw the pictures and, like, did he not have anybody in his life who he could show stuff to and they just roll their eyes and shake their head? Sad!
pattonbt
Obama has by far been the best President of my lifetime. History will be very kind to him in such regards. He will also be book-ended by the two worst Presidents (I suspect) of my lifetime.
If Obama had an R next to his name instead of a D and achieved the exact same accomplishments in office as he has, he would currently be being fluffed more than St Ronnie himself. Sad but true.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I was responding to your response to a post about uniforms, which was also about uniforms, though the one further upstream was about fascists. Confusion for everyone!
Elizabelle
Bill O’Reilly is glad it was a big news day.
Thanks Obama. And Jefferson Beauregard Sessions yee haw III. And “Golden Showers” Trump.
Whooo.
TriassicSands
I couldn’t see or listen to Obama’s speech live, so I’m watching, but mostly listening to it now.
He’s such a decent person. Never has the difference in decency between in-coming and out-going presidents been so wide. It was a gulf in 2009, but this year it’s an abyss. Each day my amazement at how despicable Trump is grows. I honestly think if Trump touched me, I’d throw up.
Listening now to President Obama, it’s hard to just concentrate on his words without thinking about how this speech would sound if it were given by Trump. Where Obama is hopeful (naively so), Trump boasts about himself. Where Obama speaks to our best natures, Trump appeals to anger, hatred, and suspicion. Where Obama calls for all of us to devote ourselves in the cause of a better society, Trump insults, threatens, and denigrates. Where Obama speaks of the importance of science, facts, and reality, Trump spins conspiracy theories, lies, and even bigger lies about those lies.
How could America do this?
scott alloway
@crawdad: Nothing? You sad puppy. I am saddened by your inability to understand.
pattonbt
And regarding Trump / Russia – Trump tweet “squirrel!” – and poof, “what Trump / Russia thing was that?” move along. Nothing will stop Trump becoming President and he will serve his term. He and the R’s have zero shame so no matter how factual these allegations are (or if there are worse ones out there) he won’t budge and won’t be pushed and he’ll give the R’s in the House / Senate their wettest of legislative dreams come true. Best case scenario is Trump becomes a laughingstock quickly (subject of open mockery and contempt) and the Senate / Congressional R’s way overreach and the D’s take the House and / or Senate in 2018. Then at least gird-lock may prevail for a couple of years.
pattonbt
I’d like to see one question asked of Trump “If the hacks are true and Russia wanted you to be President of the US, why do you think Russia would want you as President? To Make American Great Again or weaken America?” Of course we would never see a question like that from US reporters.
aimai
@Dog Dawg Damn: Kudos to you.
danielx
@MomSense:
I am old enough, if just barely, to remember the sense of despair and the feeling that the world was unraveling before my eyes.
Much akin to the way I feel now, although I’m trying to throw it off.
Yarrow
@TriassicSands:
I think forward to the inevitable tragedy that the sitting president usually responds to by visiting with the families and offering comfort. Can you imagine being in that situation as a grieving family member and Trump shows up to “offer comfort”? Horror show.
danielx
@RinaX:
But…but…the optics! Emails! Benghazi something! Clinton Foundation! We’re having so much fun with those, and everybody knows about Trump already! Oh yeah, and the optics*!
Not to mention the Clinton Rules:
1. The Clintons are guilty of something, it’s merely a question of us finding out what it is.
2. Whatever they are guilty of, it’s the most egregious, vile, corrupt violation of something since….since ever. It’s just out there waiting to be found!
All else follows.
Some of Donald Trump’s “optics” are considered felonies. Felonious Donald?
James Powell
@MomSense:
I remember those times very well and I imagine many of us olds who were around then do too. This is bad, really bad, but different and I’d say 1968 was worse or maybe just felt worse. It seemed like the whole country was falling apart. Now, this travesty is just a holy shit did these assholes fuck everything up moment. What I mean is that ’68 left a lot of people wondering what the fuck, what can we do? Whereas now it’s more like, we need to do everything in our power to stop this asshole. Of course, as always, in the finest internet tradition, YMMV.
TriassicSands
@Yarrow:
Well, all he’d do is talk about how great he is and he probably wouldn’t attempt to touch anyone (unless he tried to grab some p….y). It’s something I hadn’t thought about yet — Trump as the national consoler. It’s hard to even imagine. How does someone without any empathy at all comfort someone who has suffered a profound loss?
I shudder.
DonkeyKong
FDR up until the last few months of his life kept up a regimen of exercises that he was told by doctors to abandon. He still thought with enough will and positivity he could walk again. That unrewarded belief is what kept him going through his time as president through a Depression and War.
I thought about that as I watched the Presidents fair well tonight. An unrewarded (for now) belief in this country’s people and it future.
And now we hand the country over to a fucking former steak salesman…
Villago Delenda Est
@danielx: And this is the reason for my nym.
Wipe them out.
All of them.
Viva BrisVegas
@JordanRules:
How about a spinoff from The Americans. Where it’s 30 years later and Philip Jennings is now running for President.
Or is that too improbable?
Applejinx
@Suzanne:
Really? He might be great at it. Nothing like a personal interest :)
Neldob
@Omnes Omnibus: no. But he thought like one.
feckless
Obama should be so proud, after not prosecuting Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez or the rest.
Now he is overseeing a “peaceful transition” to someone who refused to recognize a peaceful transition. And who’s party will misuse their power at every chance to ensure that they never make a single transition to the opposition ever again.
You can get your 15 minutes of hate on against Trump, I hate his guts and always have (see Hillary/Bill photo at Trump’s wedding), hell it generates the same kind of clicks that got Trump elected, but Obama, Pelosi and Reid gave us Trump by failing to uphold the constitution and letting the republican criminals see they could lie without consequence.
If we want to save our country from the GOP/KKK/KGB we have to have clear eyes and clear out the useless idiots at the top of the democratic party. (see Donna Brazille and Wasserman Schultz)