November 8 [Election Day]
November 8
I hadn't been asleep all that long before Meghan started moving against me and at first I couldn't figure out why, and then I realized that her and Aric were having sex and trying to be sneaky about it so that they didn't wake me up, and that was really cute. Especially since Meghan was still hugging me with one arm and petting my mane with the other, so I pretended that I was still asleep and probably if she'd been paying attention, she wouldn't have been fooled, but she was more focused on herself and on Aric.
And she hugged me a little bit tighter and kissed my head, and I listened to her breathing slow back down, and I flicked my tail against her leg just once and then laid still again. I was glad that they'd been able to have fun without me.
I woke up too early again, and I was really hot and pushed the covers off me as best as I could, and I sort of pushed against Meghan some just so I could move my hooves, but I was kind of careful because I knew that if I pushed against the wall too hard, I would probably push Aric out of bed.
I estimated the time as best as I could, and when I thought it was pretty close to when Meghan's alarm would start to go off, I started tickling her with my tail, 'cause I couldn't move my wing very much with her arm on top of it. And once she'd started to wake up, she loosened her grip a little bit and I was able to roll onto my belly, and my wing was stiff and numb, and it kind of hurt to stretch it out especially since I was up against the wall and couldn't open my other wing.
I got my hooves under me and hooked one over her shoulder and tried to pull her a little bit closer to the wall, but that didn't work too well until she finally woke up and then she had to get up and go to the bathroom.
When she came back, she looked at her portable telephone and said that she still had a little bit of time left to sleep, and she got back in bed and went right up against the wall and that didn't look too comfortable, so I got out of bed to give her room and she rolled on her belly, and all that movement woke Aric up enough that he rolled over onto his back, and that didn't really leave anyplace for me to be in bed except for on top of them.
And that wound up not being comfortable for anyone, and pretty soon we were all awake, and I got on top of Aric and then Meghan did, too, and that was a fun way to start the morning.
I didn't want to take a shower because I was gonna go flying and Aric said that Meghan could use his shower if she wanted to, but she saw that I was getting kind of impatient to get in the sky, so she said that she'd do it back at campus, and after she'd gotten dressed we both kissed him goodbye and he said he was going to sleep in for a couple of more hours.
The two of us walked back to campus together and I told Meghan that she'd woken me up last night and she got really embarrassed and said she didn't mean anything by it, which was a kind of funny thing to say. Maybe she thought I'd be mad, so I told her that I wasn't.
When we got to campus, I didn't go inside. Meghan helped me put on my flight gear in front of the dorm, and I took off for the Nature Center. I stayed low so that I didn't have to call the airplane directors, and when I got close, I went out over the river so I wouldn't scared the deer but they were gone. I guess they didn't know about Daylight Saving Time, either.
I landed on the path and went around it once at a trot, then when I got to the top, I cantered down the hill and around the end and then galloped along the riverside. When I got to the junction, I took off and flew around the path through the trees, and when I came out the other end, I took off and flew back to campus.
Once I was in the dorm, I stuck my head in the bathroom and there was someone in the shower, so I went back to my room to get undressed and made sure Peggy was awake, then I went back into the bathroom and waited until Ruth came out of the shower.
I had my turn, and I tried to be quick but still when I got out, Peggy was waiting for her turn.
She came back in the room and got dressed while I finished preening—a couple of primaries towards my wingtip were getting loose, but not loose enough to come out yet, I hoped. The outer ones hadn't grown all the way back in yet, and if I lost too many, it was gonna be hard to turn.
Peggy helped me put on my lab coat and then I put my saddlebags over it with my thermodynamics things and goggles and my scrunchie.
When we got to the dining hall, the wafflemaker was still working, and the omelet chef was there, too, so I had one of each again, and shared half a waffle with Peggy.
Everybody was talking about the election, because it was today. And I guess besides the President, people got to choose lots of other new representatives as well, which was kind of confusing to me. It seemed dumb to change everyone like that all at once.
Reese had some charts on his portable telephone that had been written by a man who worked with statistics, and it showed that Donald Trump didn't have a very good chance of winning—not even a thirty percent chance.
Anna said that she had already voted by mail, and she said that Chicago's motto was 'vote early, vote often.' And Peggy and Christine had, too, but Sean said that he hadn't, because he had forgotten to, and Christine hit him and called him an idiot.
And Meghan said that the college was driving people to the polls like they had for the primary, and she was going to do that. I wanted to go with Meghan to see what it was like, but she said I'd probably be bored, because it was mostly standing in line and I would have to wait outside until she was done, and it was just like the primary, anyway.
I walked across the quad to Dow, and it had started to rain just a little bit, and I wished that I had time to fly up and see if it was going to get worse.
In the lab, we got to mix solutions together and watch what they did when we changed the temperature or the pressure, and some of the solutions smelled really bad. I found out that acetone is the same smell that is in nail polish remover, and I didn't like that smell too much. And chloroform didn't smell too good, either. I wish we'd done our lab with things that smelled better. At first I'd thought that humans couldn't smell it, 'cause there were a lot of things that I smelled but none of my friends did, but then I saw Crystal Dawn wrinkling her nose when she took the stopper off her bottle of chloroform, so I guess that they could smell it, too.
And the smells stuck with me when I left class, 'cause they'd gotten on my lab coat and in my mane and tail.
I went back to my room and got out of my lab coat—it was too hot, and it made my belly itch where the buttons dug at my coat. I was kind of glad that I was only going to have to wear one more time. Then maybe Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn could keep it for the next pony who needed a lab coat.
I took out my notes and put them on the desk and then started to do the calculations for the lab. It was always kind of peaceful doing calculations, although I think if I had to do them all the time I would get bored of it. But when it was just enough that my rump didn't start to get sore or my eyes start to hurt from focusing on the paper, it was perfect.
When I got done and had checked over my work, I put the papers away with my class notes, and got out my World War One book again, and read it until lunchtime.
People had taken a little break for Christmas, but when the new year began they started fighting again, and the Germans sent airships to drop bombs on Britain, and decided that they would use their submarines to sink any allied ships around Britain.
The British tried to bombard Constantinople, but their ships got sank, and so they prepared an invasion, and the Turks decided to kill the Armenians who lived in Turkey because they thought that they were working with the Allies.
In Europe, nobody was going anywhere because they were dug into their trenches and couldn't get very far in either direction.
The Germans sunk a passenger ship, and then started using airplanes to fight, and then Italy joined the Allied forces and attacked Austria-Hungary and lost the battle. And then Germany sunk another passenger ship and America got mad so they stopped.
Both the British and Germans were also using poison gas, and Bulgaria decided to join Austria-Hungary and the two countries together conquered Serbia, and when winter finally came despite how many people had gotten killed they made plans for bigger more glorious battles in the next year.
I was relieved to put the book down and get my astronomy book and poetry book for lunch, 'cause those were happier things.
Cedric and Leon were both sad that they'd lost the game on Friday, and I said that next Friday I'd cheer so loud that they'd be sure to win. And Leon said with a pegasus to inspire them, they probably would. And we decided that we should invite Aquamarine to the game, especially because it was the last one of the year. So I said that I could, and Leon shook his head and said that it would mean more if it came from Cedric, which was true.
He said that he would like to write her a letter but it would probably arrive too late, and I said that he could write a letter and then put it in his computer and send it that way. So it would be in his writing, but get to her lots faster, and he said that I was very clever for thinking of it, and I had to admit it wasn't originally my idea.
Trevor had been looking through the book, and he'd found a couple of poems that he thought were good for today. One of them was for me, and it was called Fly Now and Pay Later, and I liked that one. I thought it was good advice to do things when you were young and could enjoy them, although Cedric said that he thought you could think of it the other way, because football players sometimes had to live with injuries and pain for the rest of their lives. And I told him that some weatherponies did, too, and some of us never got old.
And then in honor of the day, Trevor read Election Day is a Holiday, and said that Christine had gotten mad at Sean 'cause he hadn't voted. Leon said that that disrespected everyone who'd fought and died to give people the right to vote. Then Cedric asked if we had elections, and I said that in our village, when we decided that the mayor wasn't doing a good job any more we picked somepony who we thought would do better. I guess that wouldn't work for a really big city or a whole country, though, but it was okay for a small cloud town.
I was a little bit behind when I got out of the dining hall, and Anna was halfway across the quad, so I trotted along until I caught up to her, and then we walked to class together. And Professor Miller introduced the last part of our class which was cosmology, and she said that humans had no idea what the universe was made of.
She told us about spiral nebulae, which had been discovered almost a hundred years ago, and some people back then thought that maybe they were other galaxies that were very far away and it turned out that they were. But it took a while until people knew and they finally figured it out when they built better telescopes.
A man named Hubble had figured it out, and they named a constant after him and also a space telescope.
Professor Miller told us how you measured distance in space, because you couldn't just fly there and bring a measuring chain back, but since the earth moved around the sun, the stars were in slightly different positions when they were observed at different times, and so it was a fairly simple trigonometry, and called the parallax method. But that didn't work when things were so far away, because the angles were so small, so they used the candle method instead.
And that was pretty simple, 'cause you looked at something that you knew how bright it was and then just figured how much less bright the distant thing was, and they had an equation for brightness that she showed us. And it used logarithms, which was nice 'cause they were easy to use.
It was kind of confusing how it wasn't expanding into anything that humans could understand. But then she said to imagine that we were sitting on the surface of a balloon, and if it got inflated bigger, everything moved away from everything else.
So that was a lot to get my head around, but that was how humans understood the universe working.
At the end of class, Professor Miller told us that we could go to the telescope again on Thursday night, and I raised my hoof and asked if we could come late, 'cause I had cheerleading practice, and she said that we could but we'd have to get there on our own.
When we got done with class Anna said that she wished she'd brought a coat, but it hadn't been as chilly or windy when she went to lunch.
I said that it was a good wind, even though it was bringing some cold air with it. And I decided that I was gonna go flying again, not to really get anywhere but just to play around in the wind. There was a lot that you could let it do for you.
So I went back to my room and got my vest and radio and blinking light, but I left the rest of the gear off, 'cause I wasn't going to need it. And while I was there I also checked on my computer just to make sure that there wasn't a storm coming that I didn't know about.
And then I called the airplane directors and said that I was going to fly above the college mostly and asked how high I could go, and they said that I shouldn't go above a thousand feet, which was disappointing. But I guess since I was just having fun in the sky and airplanes needed to get where they were going, I couldn't complain.
I took off from the quad and I had to be a little bit careful down low, since the wind made eddies and vortexes as it went around the buildings, but once I was above it the wind was more direct and predictable.
So I flew into it and then let it carry me up and back until I'd drifted the whole length of campus, and then I dove down a little bit and got a bit of speed into the wind and then tucked my nose down and let it tumble me over, and I didn't do it right the first time and made a really sloppy recovery, because I was out of practice. But then when I tried a second time I got my timing right, and came out of my tumble with my hooves down, and I was even pointed the way I wanted to be.
On really windy days, if you set your wings just right, the wind would pick you up and you didn't have to fly at all, but it wasn't that windy today.
There were a lot of other fun rolls you could do with the wind, and I did them all, and then when I was up there someone started to fly a kite, and I danced with that for a little bit, but not too close—I didn't want to break the kite or get tangled up in its strings.
I had to rinse off before I went to dinner, and then when I got there they had decorated the dining hall with red, white, and blue decorations and the dinner was a special American meal.
When I looked at the choices, though, it looked like that just meant that they had more meat, and more fried things that I wasn't that interested in. Everyone else was, though. Sean was excited that they had bacon for dinner, and Reese had a plate of tater tots that he had drown in catsup. Christine had something that she said were chicken fingers, and I didn't know what those would have been, because chickens didn't have fingers, any more than buffalos had wings. Then the more I thought about what they had, the more I thought that it was all made-up foods, because none of them had what they said they had in them.
At least they still had the salad bar, and nothing in that had changed too much.
I relaxed in our room for a little bit and then I went to cheerleading practice. Elaine hadn't brought my uniform yet, and Sandra said that she'd gotten a telephone telegram from her, and she was in line waiting to vote, and she'd be over with it as soon as that was done.
So I didn't get to try it on until the very end of practice, because even though she showed up during our last section, none of us wanted to stop to let me put it on, since we were all working together really well. I was being tossed up in the air high enough that I could almost reach the ceiling without even flapping my wings, and I was kind of imitating the moves of the team's other fliers, but also doing a couple of twists and tumbles that only I could do.
And when we were done with practice and the team went off to the locker room, I got to try on my new uniform, and even though the fabric was stretchy it was hard to get my wings in, and I also had to have Elaine help me with the underwear, but when I was dressed it felt pretty good. It was a little bit loose in the chest, 'cause it had been made for a human girl, but it pulled in pretty tight and Elaine said that nobody would notice.
So I moved around in it and flew around the gymnasium once, just to make sure that it didn't interfere with my movement at all, and it didn't, so me and Sandra both thanked Elaine for her work and she said that she was lucky she'd asked after the play and not before.
I had to be helped back out of it, and then Sandra folded it up and put it with the rest of the team uniforms. She said that I should wear it tomorrow and Thursday to get used to the routines while I was wearing it.
I went back up the hill to our room, and Peggy was sitting on her bed, and she was doing homework but she also had her folding computer open and there were people talking about the election. Peggy said that they would get the election results as each county counted the ballots, and then they'd add them together and figure out who had won.
Trump was ahead, but she said that was to be expected, because a lot of states that were going to vote for him had had their votes counted already, and that there were some big states that the votes hadn't all been tallied in yet, like Florida and North Carolina and Michigan and Pennsylvania, and she said that things would change soon.
But she started to get worried when Florida was called for Donald Trump, and as the night went on, Clinton never caught up. I could hear people yelling and cursing in some other rooms in the dorm when states were called, and I was starting to get a little bit nervous, because I could kind of feel a sort of tension and Peggy finally slammed her computer closed, and just fell back on her bed and said that she didn't understand people sometimes.
And I was worried, too, 'cause the angry man at Walgreens had said that Mister Trump was going to build a wall to keep ponies out and so I thought that might mean that I'd have to leave and I didn't want to leave. So I told Peggy and she hugged me and she said that I was going to be safe at least, because even though it looked like he'd won, he didn't get to actually be president until January, and I'd be back in Equestria by then.
She said that she couldn't believe that people could be so stupid, and now all she had to hope for was that Trump got caught doing something that he shouldn't and got impeached. And then she sighed and said that she wondered if her parents had felt the same way when President Bush won over Al Gore.
I thought that maybe things could change because not all the states had been counted yet, but she said that it didn't matter; even if every state in the West voted for Clinton, it wouldn't be enough for her to get the victory. Then she said that tomorrow I'd be seeing a lot of really unhappy people on campus, and maybe I'd even get a chance to see a protest.
I told her that I wanted to avoid those, 'cause Cayenne had gotten arrested at one and wasn't allowed to go to political events any more, and Peggy thought that was really funny.
She said that tonight would be a good night to get really drunk, but I didn't think so, because of class tomorrow. And then she said that tomorrow we'd have to see who the first person was that said that they were going to move to Canada.
It was still noisy in the dorms, and I was having trouble sleeping, 'cause all of a sudden someone would shout and I'd stick my head up and try and figure out where it had come from, and Peggy was having trouble, too, and she said that she could sit with me until I fell asleep, and I think that she just wanted to not be alone, so I turned back the covers and she sat with her back against the wall and my head on her lap until I convinced her to lie down and be comfortable, and I nuzzled her cheek and then put my wing over her and she put her head against mine and the two of us fell asleep together.
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Well that was anticlimactic. It makes me wonder just what Trump and Clinton would've been like during the election if Equestrians where actually here?
Wasn't it Istanbul at that point?
7858631
I'm not sure. Maybe this song will help. . .
(In the video series I'm watching in lieu of an actual book, they called it Constantinople.)
*EDIT: apparently, the name was officially changed in 1930.
What did she do? Moon the opposition? That's probably Indecent Exposure under US Laws.
7858631 When you're bombarding it, you don't have to care.
7856812
Despite what the dumb angry man at Walgreens and the writers of Gusty's character on Orange is the New Black think, it's pretty clear there's no illegal immigration from Equestria, not with two government employees responsible for tracking every movement of each visiting Equestrian. And the Equestrians making use of their magic are going to be doing jobs citizens can't do.
7858619 If friendship really was magic, the outcome would have been very different...
7858749
But who would have the candidates been then? Clinton was just as polarizing as Trump, with her multiple ethical lapses. She just looked good becuase she was slightly less messed up compared to Trump. I am fully certain that if Bernie had been given a fair chance by the Democrats he would have wiped the floor with Trump.
7858619 It probably wouldn't have been any different, at least in the scenario established in this fic. A, the ponies aren't American citizens and therefore can't vote. And B, even if they could vote, there are barely any currently on Earth, let alone in America. The Equine vote would be so small and spread out it would be completely inconsequential.
7858844
They would have probably voted for this guy.
IIRC "Istanbul Not Constantinople" was a cover of a song from one of the old Hope & Crosby " On the Road to..." movies with Dorothy Lamour . They vary from 2 to 4 stars.
Alaborn, it's been 10 years, I'd make a small bet there has been some illicit entry. I'd just about bet the rent money there has been some smuggling & that a LOT of people are trying to find illicit methods of entry -including some governments. I won't pick a fight by naming suspects.
Trump isn't making it so that people can't come over. He's making it so that people can't come over illegally, which is happening way too often. However, many people seem to think it's completely cutting off the nations. Can't blame people for getting mad for the latter though due to them thinking that that's what he's aiming for. If that was what he was seeking, there'd be good reason to be pissed about it.
Election day is a holiday
done with class
capitalize the i
7858692 When you're bombarding it you only want to call it rubble.
We finally reach the worst day for the USA in 15 years. We are screwed. To the Bernie-Or-Busters, your butthurt causes all to have butthurt as we all get arseraped for the next 4 years.
7858906 If you're looking for governments who might be encouraging clandestine immigration, I'd pick Queen Chrysalis.
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Thank you for the recommendation. I had not seen the movie until yesterday. Quite moving; although I had difficulty watching the end as I kept getting dirt in my eyes.
I could see someone introducing the movie to Silver but I'd imagine her humans would have some explaining to do shortly after the beginning of the movie.
7858980
Could you just shut the fuck up with your random rambling already? This story is not your personal soapbox for you to piss in the wind about whatever that day. Trump won, you loss, so fuck off. It is not the end of the world, we are not going to war with the rest of the planet, and we are not in a new dark age no matter how butthurt the Left is that people just didn't like Clinton. This is just like how the Right was acting when Obama won and now that the shoe is on the other foot it's your turn. Hell from everything I've ever heard it's like this in every election. One side wins and goes off proclaiming "This is the Best. Thing. EVER. We're gonna fix everything that's wrong and it'll be an age of peace and prosperity!" then a few showy changes happen but most get put off till it's "not my problem.". The losers on the other hand proclaim that the end of the world is happening and how could anyone be so stupid to support that side when our side is so obviously right? It's doom I say! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! And once again nothing happens, there isn't a civil war, we are not all broke and on the street, and we haven't regressed 40 some years. Take some advice and get over yourselves.
I think we need art of everypony in their Homecoming dresses and Silver in her Cheerleader uniform.
Donald Trump is an idiot. He is filling his cabinet with totally unqualified idiots and self-interested crooks.
But so far, he stood up to congress about independent ethics probes, which was good. I'd feel better if he did it because it's right and not just because he read about people clamoring about it on twitter. Openly talking with Taiwan, despite Beijing's displeasure is an interesting development. Backing away from the old status quo of unconditionally supporting Israel could mean big trouble. Moving the goalposts by now saying Americans will pay for the wall, but insisting Mexico will pay us back later is comically pathetic.
My biggest worry is that lying queef Marsha Blackburn getting her harpy claws on my Internet. I guess we need to vote with our wallets and let ISPs know they need to stay in-line with net neutrality principles voluntarily. I already looked up a promising local municipal ISP startup that seems deserving of support if Comcast tries to pull anything.
It'll be interesting to see him actually try to stifle media outlets under the guise of "Opening up libel laws." Will Mr. "I know more than Generals" listen to White House In-House Counsel explaining how current laws actually work? Will his AG pick be a yes man? Will SCOTUS (if it gets that far) laugh him out of the chamber, even when 1 member short?
A tax code reform is long overdue and could mean great things, so long as it's fully bipartisan and they have input by actual accountants and mathematicians every step of the way. I recall Bush the Elder getting crucified when he was forced to renege on his campaign promise of no new taxes. There's no way Trump will be able to cut them across the board. Even Republican congressmen are insisting on remaining "revenue neutral." And trying to cut deductions for charitable donations would be a terrible minefield that would piss all parties off.
Ugh. And here we are. The point where this story takes a turn for the worst. Having already lived through two months of political BS, I'm not particularly eager to rehash it. Especially from the perspective of a college campus. Even if it IS through the eyes of an adorable pegasus.
You know, I never really liked Trump. I think he's a pretty sleazy asshole to be honest. But I find he's growing on me, if only for the way he makes Liberal's heads explode. Though even that is beginning to wear thin. Honestly, there was a certain enjoyable feeling of schadenfreude watching the mainstream media meltdown and lefty college students weep in the streets. But after a few weeks it went from "Wow! These clowns are funny! Oh well, they'll get the drama out of their system soon." To "Wow, these people really have no clue how to deal with reality. There may be some serious mental issues here." Which is far less entertaining and far more worrying and depressing.
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While I definitely agree with you in general, I'd just like to point out that when Obama won, TWICE, there were no massive protests from conservatives. No angry 'marches' that looked an awful lot like riots. No safe spaces on college campuses for the students who didn't support him to go cry and pet puppies. By and large conservatives sighed, held their heads in their hands, then turned out the lights and went to bed. Because in the morning they'd have to get up and go to work, as opposed to calling in sick and lying in bed weeping all day. That's kinda a big difference in character of individuals making up each group, wouldn't you say?
This is why ponys are better than humans, they just won't think first "why didn't he bucked me?"
They just feel happy for others.
Someone else made a fortune on YouTube.
That makes me wonder if the fbi guys are watching the comments on every video?
How many Kings did some European countries get through in the time between the election and actually getting into power?
Certainly wouldnt work for Kingion Communications.
Blame Daylight Savings if you want, want to do something critical to the country? Call it when everyone is confused and trying to recover after a shift change.
At least the Waffle maker is still working.
Noone brought a plushie along yet? Ember is definitely out and they could say she isnt a pony despite the ban?
I say Silver, does this smell like Chloroform to you? Oh. Well, that wasnt supposed to happen. Looks like its the couch tonight.
Very relevant to the day and interesting retrospective.
I've been witnessing this kind of meltdown from angry Leftists for over 2 years now since the beginning of GamerGate. It's usually the SJW's, the BLM race baiters, to the Feminist man haters, and the like. Over and over again, from the Left here in the US and abroad, most people ideologically entrenched in Left-wing politics further than Classical Liberalism seem to be so out of touch with reality, reading into their statements is like reading manifesto's of insane conspiracy theories by an emotionally crippled teen. The answer is always "It's the White Supremacist, Capitalist, Patriarchy". This reaction from the political Left wing establishment, all mainstream media outlets, and college students\Universities, doesn't even surprise me anymore. It's par for the course now within these spheres of influence. GG was my own red pill moment to this new Left, the Trump election was for everyone else.
P.S. Dear Communists, Socialists, Feminists, Activist-LGBT, BLM supporters, Social Justice activists, and Progressives. You can all eat my asshole. Also, it's not hate speech if I'm talking about political groups, Knighty
I've been dreading this chapter for over two months. I'm not going to take sides, only say that some people don't realize when they have it good. But really, every election comes down to a single question, "Who do you want to be screwed over by?"
I'm just going to say I enjoyed the chapter. Beyond that... Yeah, this is one minefield I really don't want to navigate.
It's easy to understand. One candidate was the embodiment of everything Americans hate about politicians, and the other wasn't.
Now the question is will Kalamazoo have a protest that gets shut down by the police because it almost turned violent? Because that's what happened at my school.
As to Trump, to me it's more the way he won than the fact that he won. This is the nastiest election I can remember -and I'm old enough to remember the riots on the street in 68 (& what happened to Kennedy & McCarthy) & Watergate in 72. Nobody got shot -yet. That's better & that's the good news.
Trump, sweetie. Hillary got 48% of the vote. You got 46% of the vote. That's not a mandate, that's a squeaker. Reagan in 80, the Networks called it before all the voting had closed anywhere except the Eastern time zone. That's a mandate.
Hillary, sweetie. Yeah, hacking your Emails was a dirty trick. Let's not forget: they just released them, THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT UP. You lost because (outside of California), the plurality of Americans decided they'd rather choose a misogynistic, racist blowhard than a crooked politician.
Stuff I find disturbing about Trump
Russians want HIM for president. Putin does NOT have our best interests at heart.
Tax policy. In the USA, the richest 1/10 of 1% of the population (300,000 people) owns 1/2 of everything. This is 4th worst in the world. This means they should be paying 1/2 of everything. He's a tax evader. Will he increase his own taxes? Is a man who has been bankrupt twice the best choice to fix our economy? I sincerely doubt it.
Attitude. He knows what he knows & doesn't want to be contradicted by mere facts & evidence. This is the attitude that led W to get us into Iraq. He KNEW Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, the intelligence community told the boss what he wanted to hear, & 15 years later we've fought the most expensive war in our history & we're closing in on the longest. Trump's refusal to admit the Russians helped him get elected shows he has the same attitude as W
I do NOT want to live with Trump's Supreme Court picks
He shows a disturbing ignorance of, and contempt for, the Constitution & the law.
He seems to take Nixon's attitude "It's not a crime if the president does it" & add "as long as I'm the president"
Finally caught up on this story, having started reading it a couple of weeks ago. I have to say: it is awesome.
As for this chapter, I enjoyed cute pegasus thoroughly. I always enjoy cute pegasus thoroughly.
As for the politics in the comments, I'm not touching that clusterfuck with a ten foot barge pole.
I'd like to have been cuddled by a pony on that day, too.
I'm not going to turn this comment section into a soapbox, but:
7859310
It really takes a special kind of both arrogance and historical revisionism to argue this. Firstly, a lot of conservatives lost their shit in 2008 and 2012. There were protests, some outbreaks of violence, and calls for conservative states to secede. These were no less representative of the party as a whole than the people who are protesting now.
Secondly, whether or not you dislike Obama's policies, he was objectively not as scary as Trump. To think that Obama's presidency would threaten democracy as we know it requires you to believe that everything he ever said was a lie. To think that Trump's presidency will do so only requires you to believe that he meant the things he said.
It's interesting to see that most of the commenters here (or at least the ones voting on comments) are happy that Trump won. Then again, since the MLP fandom started on 4chan, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.
7869854
I am not happy that Trump won. After a few month, when unemployment explodes and Trump accidentally starts a war against Chad —— ¡Oopsi! —— the other commentators will not be happy that Trump won either.
It amuses me to see some of these comments now in light of nonsense like the 'Immigration Extreme Vetting'. Dude's been in office less than a month and he's already trying to go toe to toe with the courts over rule of law.
It's funny how this chapter closed almost the same way as the one with the angry man at Walgreen.
Ah, so she's got the classic Western Front history. Though I'll admit I didn't know much about tue Eastern Front until I went and looked it up for myself. Larger distances (and by extension, lower unit compression) meant things didn't get bogged down the same way.
One of the more interesting tidbits I learned was that Romania was uniquely situated to win the war early for the Entente. Romania had initially been neutral, joining to war later when German and Austro-hungarian armies were engaged elsewhere, giving them nearly a clear shot up into Austro-hungary. It's just that their military sucked initially, and the Germans and Austro-hungarians managed to turn around and drive them back out.
7858619
That's a good question, actually, and I don't have any good answer for it. It would change a lot of things, that's for sure, because not only do you have one alien planet that you can trade with, gain capital by making treaties with, etc., but the presence of one implies that there are probably more. This would then lead to the thought that there are very likely other alien species who might want to wipe earth clean and re-use it for their own purposes, and of course we currently have no defense for that . . .
I think it would very much change the character of an election and the priorities of government, but then again maybe not. Maybe we'd just keep on doing the dumb things that we do until the first enemy spaceship showed up in our atmosphere.
7858683
It could be, depending on the situation. Or she could have just been arrested en masse with everyone else, depending on what the protesters at large were doing. She never really says why she got arrested.
7858692
Sad but true. For what it's worth, my co-worker is a good example of this. We occasionally have political discussions and they usually don't go very well, because he's quite fact-resistant.
7858744
Yeah, if there's any at all (unlikely), it's going to be very small numbers, since the only way through is a number of portals which are guarded at each end. And then when you get where you're going (either Earth or Equestria), you're not exactly going to be able to blend in with the population at large, either. Maybe if we fast-forward a couple of decades when there's a lot more trade and emigration, it might be possible to get away with it, but there's not much chance of it in the current story setting.
Yeah, it's not like the tornado team was taking jobs from the humans who fly up and try to redirect tornadoes.
7858749
Yeah . . . maybe one day. Incidentally, now that there are some news reports on the Russians influencing the election, I wonder if it would be theoretically possible for Luna to use her dream magic to influence an election? That might make an interesting premise for a story, especially since something like that would not really be provable.
img03.deviantart.net/1e6b/i/2013/134/3/5/princess_luna_by_mactavish1996_by_mactavish1996-d64oqob.png
7858808
That's a good question. I think it would revolve largely over how influential the ponies were in society, and I don't know if the elections immediately after first contact would be hugely influenced by it (obviously, it would depend on the nature of that contact). If the ponies are mostly neutral, mostly tourists, and there are lots of places where they aren't seen except on TV, there might not be a major societal change . . . but again, it's really hard to say.
I'm less sure about that, personally.
7858844
Yeah, that was kind of my thought. Barring the ponies doing something really bad or really good for American society, there isn't enough contact between them and Earth yet to make major societal changes.
7858861
7858906
Undoubtedly, there's been some. It helps that the ponies (as we know them, anyways) tend to generally be rules-following, especially at the higher level of their government (seriously, what could you bribe Princess Celestia with? Another sun to control?). So depending on how tight a hold they have on the portals on their end, that's really going to clamp down on what can be smuggled through. Obviously, if some government can secretly replicate the portals, that would change things quite a bit and you can bet that every Earth government with the resources to throw at it are trying their hardest to do it.
I don't specify in the story what level of inspection there is before people or ponies go through, but you can imagine that there's a fair level of scrutiny.
7858949
My father's church is sponsoring a refugee family from Sudan, and was prepared to welcome then to their new home after thirteen years in a refugee camp. Due to Trump's executive order, they're still in a refugee camp in Sudan, and not in their new home in Holland.
7858953
Thank you!
7858969
Yeah, ain't that the truth.
7858986
If changelings can take the form of humans, they would do quite well over here. Except for the feeding on love part; that might cause some issues for them.
I could see a spy agency trying to get one, though, and perhaps even having a professional hugger or two to make sure it stays fed and happy between missions.
7859043
I think that the big difference (regarding protests and such) is in the character of Trump versus the character of Obama; that having been said, I personally don't think that the election was 'rigged.' And it's always the role of the minority party to 'moderate' the party in power, IMHO. To give an example, if Obama had decided to write an executive order banning all guns, I would expect the right to protest, and the courts to strike down the order as unconstitutional, and I would be very disappointed in our democracy if that didn't happen.
Luckily, for the sake of this story, Trump is president-elect and does not officially become President until after Silver Glow is back in Equestria.
7859071
Yes, we do.
7859088
I have always been in favor of voting with your wallet. I personally don't like Wal-Mart, so I never shop there. As I recall, Netflix walked back one of their fee structures real fast when the cancellation orders started rolling in, so it's doable.
The stifling media outlets project seems to be not working out quite like he imagined it would. Does he think that CNN and the New York Times will just decide if they can't sit in on the press briefings they're going to decide to cover something else instead?
That would be nice, but I've got to imagine that any tax code reform would ultimately be hobbled by all the special interests getting their paid-for senators to put exemptions in for them.
7859310
Yeah, luckily Silver isn't allowed to go to political protests. Plus, she's not as in-tune with the American political system.
I feel the same way, and have for twenty years or so. Nothing he's done recently has changed my opinion of him, for better or worse.
7859320
Exactly!
Yeah--putting videos of ponies on YouTube is much like printing your own money.
I would think that the FBI guys would be watching them and if they saw a disturbing pattern by a commenter, they'd probably add that person to their watch list.
7859362
That would be a really subtle (and clever) way to influence the elections. I don't think that it would actually have any effect, but who knows?
It's the little things in life that are the most important.
"The sign says no ponies, not no dragons."
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/4/16/1133375__safe_solo_dragon_profile_spoiler-colon-s06e05_gauntlet+of+fire_princess+ember_artist-colon-theduck-dash-mcquak.jpeg
Also now that I think about it, there are probably some ambassadors who are busily negotiating with dragons.
7859453
Yeah, there are definitely some people on the far, far left that have issues; on the other hand, I think it would be fair to say the same of the far right. I think it's always important to remember that not all liberals are Michael Moore, and not all conservatives are David Duke (those were the first two that came to mind; I'm sure there are better examples). Also, the media often likes to focus on the most extreme people, because they're more interesting. You can always find someone, regardless of political viewpoints, who is acting badly.
7859457
Yeah, in a nutshell that's the truth. I'm more an more in favor of the pony system of government. Where's Princess Celestia when you need her?
7859568
It was a thing that happened.
7859678
They did not, at least not in the timeline of the story. I wouldn't be surprised that if some students and professors wound up getting involved in that type of protest, though.
7859683
That's honestly what I find the most worrying. Although I suppose that we know how it ended in Nixon's case.
7860501
Cute pegasus is best pegasus. That's a fact.
It's going to be interesting to look back on this ten or twenty years in the future.
7862780
Really, any day is a good day to be cuddled by a pony.
Well said, good sir.
What really worries me about some Trump supporters that I know (and it's a minority of them) is that they are so on board with everything that he says--it's like they're part of a cult. Like, their thought process is 'if Liberals object it it must actually be a good thing,' no matter what it is. Like, it's a total knee-jerk reaction. "You're just against guns in schools because you want schoolkids to be mauled by Grizzly bears."
7869854
I think a large part of it is because it's so polarizing.
And perhaps Trump followers are more likely to vote.
(somebody probably already beat me to that joke; this is what I get for replying to comments six weeks late)
7931833
Yeah, that's no surprise. I expect that the federal courts are going to be really busy over the next couple of years.
7933653
Such is the nature of politics.
7958725
"Alright, Mootilda, make sure that all the cows know that we're starting Daylight Saving Time, so you've got to be at the barn to be milked an hour early on Sunday, okay?"
Yeah, that's one of the limitations of a land war in Europe, I think. You either make a quick breakthrough or you're bogged down and not going anywhere, because they can quickly throw a lot of resources to the front lines in defense, and then it just becomes a war of attrition. On the Eastern front you've got room to move, and it's a whole different strategic ballgame.
IIRC, there were a couple of smaller European nations that had an outsized role simply due to where they were geographically. Gah, it's been a while since I've read a really good, in-depth account of WWI.
Don't be too despondent. While this is obviously a catastrophe for those without an escape clause like that (and becoming more obvious with every passing day), just remember that you're experiencing history in the making. One day, you'll be able to say you were alive and present during the very last democratic election in the United States of America — and in fact the very last days when it was still called the U.S.A, before being renamed "the Trumped Trumps of TrumpettytrumpTRUMP!!!#MAGA"
8165356
Considering that the current political platform of Democrats consists in entirety of "Vote us, because we are not Republicans" I'm definitely seeing Trump staying another 4 years. Democrats try not to offend their corporate benefactors, so they withdrew from all pro-social promises, and they try not to offend the low-earners so they are hush-hush about economy, and since minorities are nowadays easily offended by pretty much everything, they don't pursue these too actively either. They simply offer only criticism (uncritically; they will protest and oppose every republican move, even the scarce rational ones!) and they don't propose anything in exchange.
So, no, Trump doesn't need to break the democracy. All he needs to do is to offer some (even empty) catchy promises and he'll be ahead, by strides of the Party With No Program. Democrats buried themselves on their own well enough.