MORNING, BLOGTOWN. Thought it would be over by now, but it won't stop. Thought that I would self destruct, but I'm still here. Even in my years to come, I'm still gonna be here. LET'S GO TO PRESS.

Let's start with the basics: In a victory that stunned the world (and a sentence I never thought I would type), Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America. He is a man who has admitted to sexual assault, cheating on his taxes, has a cozy relationship with the Russian government, and has lied so many times (and has been caught lying so many times) that everyone has lost count.

SO WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD VOTE FOR SUCH A PERSON?

Here's one answer: a person who is more scared of something else. A person who is scared of what a Hillary Clinton presidency would represent. Hillary Clinton represented a host of issues that still frighten the shit out of a very large portion of America: LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter, gender equality. Their vote was less for Trump and more of a rebuke against progressive values. And it has always been thus. Otherwise these topics would already be non-issues. While we would like to hope we'd all be better than this by now—we aren't. It's an automatic human response to hit the brakes when we see something that scares us, or more aptly, we don't understand. That's why any progressive forward step that's taken is almost always met with two more steps back. So it is, so it ever shall be. And that's why I was determined to get a (somewhat) good night sleep, and this morning, put my feet on the floor, and meet today and tomorrow and the day after that with one goal in mind: Keep moving forward. And no one—not Trump, not a voter frightened of an unknown future—is going to stop me.

So let's look at some fucking news.


The global market tumbled like a baby deer on ice skates after hearing of Trump's victory, yet show signs of stabling following his victory speech. What was so great about it? Of course, absolutely nothing. But it wasn't his usual "throw Hillary in jail" and "Mexicans are rapists" bullshit, and he attempted to strike a more measured tone. But don't be fooled for a second—dog whistle terms such "fixing the inner cities" (or "black people who need to be fixed") were well in place. Here's the Guardian's annotated version of his speech.

In news, that's just about as terrible, Republicans will keep control over the senate. (But how will they get along with their new, and reviled by the party, leader?)

As I'm writing this, Hillary Clinton is preparing to make her concession speech. If you're around, you can watch it live here.

While the world reels in response to America's choice of president, there's one world leader who's rejoicing at the news—Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Huh. I wonder why?)

Today would be a good day to be especially sensitive to the women in your life—particularly if you're a white male. This loss is of particular significance to them, and our daughters, whose resulting empowerment from the election of the first female president would've been a real game changer. Obviously a LOT of women voters turned out to support Hillary, but here's a surprising and sad fact from FiveThirtyEight's Clare Malone:

College-educated white women voted for Clinton 51 percent to 45 percent, but non-college-educated white women voted for Trump 62 percent to 34 percent.

Just so we're clear, "non-college-educated" doesn't equal stupid—it just means they haven't been exposed to knowledge that we're lucky enough to have. If there's a real failure here, it's our lack of support and funding of the public education system. ("Progressive" Oregon is especially guilty of this, most recently refusing to pass Measure 97.) Unfortunately, that's not going to improve under Trump's watch.


Let's look at a couple of positive headlines:

"Latino activists in Arizona celebrate Sheriff Arpaio’s defeat"

"Californians Legalize Marijuana in Vote That Could Echo Nationally"

There were some big shakeups in LOCAL ELECTIONS as well, with the Mercury endorsed Chloe Eudaly, who—also feeding on the dissatisfaction of Portland voters who aren't seeing enough done to repair the housing crisis—defeated incumbent City Commissioner Steve Novick. Here's where many of the races landed as of midnight last night:

Governor:
Kate Brown (D): 769,011 (51.3 percent)
Bud Pierce (R): 650,680 (43.4 percent)

Secretary of State:
Dennis Richardson (R): 686,319, (47.5 percent)
Brad Avakian (D): 632,025 (43.8 percent)

US Senate:
Ron Wyden (D): 859,434 (57.8 percent)
Mark Callahan (R): 494,454 (33.3 percent)

Attorney General:
Ellen Rosenblum (D): 783,658 (55.6 percent)
Daniel Zene Crowe (R): 584,475 (41.4 percent)

Measure 97 (Corporate Tax):
Yes: 623,638 (41.6 percent)
No: 876,288 (58.4 percent)

Measure 3-510 (3 Percent County Tax on Retail Sales of Marijuana)
Yes: 107,836 (76.7 percent)
No: 32,705 (23.3 percent)

Measure 3-513 (Prohibits Certain Marijuana Registrants, Licensees, and Businesses in West Linn)
Yes: 6,430 (61.3 percent)
No: 4,053 (38.7 percent)

Please read our election live blog from last night, which thanks to our Mercury Election Death Squad, was waaaaaay more entertaining and informative than it had any right to be.

And while you're reading things, don't miss the Mercury's Bobby Roberts' insanely smart on-the-spot take on Trump's unlikely election. It says exactly what you feel.

Today will be a tough day. Be good to yourself. Take breaks from social media. Stay strong, keep putting your feet on the floor every morning, and never stop moving forward.