*Pushes the date out of the way...takes it's place~*

*grins* Difference is you get stomped on because I like you. ;D

Hhaaaah!

2016 blew the BIG one, yeah...

It's been pretty rough!

Well ... at least Russia's happy

Hah. :P Yeah, Putin and/or whoever else was involved in manipulating information flows if not outright hacking some of the results will be very pleased. People here in the UK who are somehow still convinced that Brexit was a good idea seem pleased too.

Since when was the two superpowers of the world liking each other been a bad thing?

I've said this so many times, and I will say it again; Stop believing what the media wants you to believe. There's nothing that I've been able to find, or anyone else for that matter, that Trump has said that is objectively Sexist, Racist, or Bigoted in anyway. The only people that say that, are the media, and the sheep that listen to them without a second thought. If I'm wrong, prove it.

I'm really not looking to kick off a political debate here; there are various perspectives and schools of thought about what the right way forward is for the US and the world, and that's absolutely fine. For the sake of clarification though, what I'm referring to here isn't much to do with Trump's own views or morals, or perspectives on the validity of major news organisations, and more about the social aftermath of the votes in both the US and the UK. In both cases the result was driven by swells of conservative populism and strongly nationalistic feelings, and in both cases there have been documented increases in abuse, harassment, and crimes related to race and religion in the wake of the votes. Regardless of how one views the causality or blame of the situation, it is an unsettling trend.

If we are going to bring up Trump's views and policies, then I'm less concerned about his personal feelings toward various genders, races, religions and lifestyles, and more unsettled by the policies and views he himself has made plain repeatedly throughout his campaign and since, and the implications of his choices in running-mate and cabinet members. Chiefly, Pence's record against LGBT rights, Trump's denial of global climate science and his stated intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. In case you've wandered here entirely randomly to leave incendiary comments on my artwork without knowing anything about me, I'm an environmental scientist with over a decade of doctoral and post-doctoral research in climate change and ecological landscape processes, and I'm a male married to another male, so this should suggest to you the sort of perspective I probably have on such matters.

I'd also reiterate that Trump was only one among several reasons I've given here for why I feel 2016 has been a pretty rough time. we've lost a lot of celebrities and artists that I or people close to me grew up with, and both I and many others I know have faced difficult struggles this year for various personal reasons. So all told, I haven't created and posted this piece to be a political statement or to incite arguments. Goodness knows there have been plenty enough of those already. The intention was to simply express a generalised grumbling around the sorrows and struggles of this past year, relief that it's nearly over, and hope for an easier time next year. Including, among many other things, a reduction in people's desire to get into angry arguments with one another over differing political perspectives. Surely we can find some common ground in that!

Well I HAD a reply for this but I fucked up and after about 5 hours of dealing with children as a volunteer, I don't have enough fucks to give to type it again. So here's the tl;dr version.

Much of the violence surrounding the election was mainly done by the 'tollerant' left wing, to the right, and made into issues of race and religion because of those very same people that think the world can ever be perfect. While I agree that Trump's cabinet choices are shaky, Hillary scared me much more as a corrupt criminal who says whatever the fuck it takes to get her way. Otherwise, I understand why you had other reasons to hate the year, I had mainly took the position I did because it seems like everyone is saying fuck 2016 because things didn't go the way they want. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the next year.

You too dude.

BUCKING YES.

Except stomping it would be too good. Could you please drop a daisycutter bomb on it? With extra fragments? XU

...Gosh dang I like that paw cx *coughcough*

*grins* That's the hope really... even as I get all rarry about the year, I try to make it a little better for everybody with GIANT DOREYPAW. Because giant Doreypaw always makes things better.

Speaking of, gosh fluff I gotta get my stuff ready for your paws! Or whoever's will fit.

Heh... pretty much how I feel. https://www.topatoco.com/merchant.m.....tegory_Code=QC

Awful year.

Heheh! Yeah, normally I don't go for such sweeping judgements about an arbitrary unit of time, but... jeez, it really does feel like the entire year somehow gained sentience and actively decided it was going to be terrible.

Yeeeaaahhh... very much so - like so bad that if you went back in time just a bit, say 2013, and told someone all the things that would happen in 2016, they'd go "Haha... yeah okay, is this some kind of bad B-movie plot about the world plunging into chaos or something?" ... yes. Yes it is. >_>

Seriously. I've heard it said elsewhere too, if any given narrative from this year were a movie or TV show, you'd watch it because it would be fascinating to see what the heck was going to happen. But for it to be real life, with real issues and real consequences and real people's lives at stake... I am less cool with this.

Mmmhmm. I certainly hope that after a few years this, if anything, highlights the stupidity of far-right thinking in a younger generation that has not yet been exposed to the aftereffects of it.

I'm really, really hoping so. The US has the next four years to watch and learn... I'd be equally happy to be proven wrong and have things turn out less badly than I fear, but even my optimism has its limits.

I.... hear Canada's nice. <_< >_>

Yes, I hear this too! If I can sort out this job thing, and if people manage to figure out that this whole Brexit mess was a bit of an oops, I'm pretty good in the UK too... the US is already doing a good enough job of crashing your immigration service's website as I understand. ;)

Ugh... yes... heh, I don't think most American's realized there is a process to coming here. But yeah, Britain will be okay IF it gets its act together and sorts our Brexit. The problem thus far has been they are doing nothing but debating it and dragging their heels.

Yeah, moving to any country always has a pretty involved and usually expensive process. I've had a couple people over the years tell me 'hey yeah the UK's cool, maybe I'll move there too.' And then I have to walk a fine line between not crushing dreams and clarifying that it's a process that took me years, several thousand pounds in government fees, a lot of hassle and stress, and enough savings to show that I could support myself for a year or two while I wasn't allowed to work. And that's all with marrying a UK citizen. :P It's even worse if you're wanting to immigrate based on skill and merit or whatnot. Even with the PhD I'm not sure I could have, being too old and not disgustingly rich or experienced. I'm sure some places are easier than the UK, but... yeah it's not something you do on a whim. o..o

Everything around Brexit is still pretty weird and uncertain, and now it's at a point where the government is trying to sort through its options and requirements. And yeah, it just feels like a lot of talking in circles with nothing happening or being decided. I guess in a way that's good, because it just delays the actual exit that much more, but still. It just continues to highlight to me that no one, least of all the people campaigning for Brexit, had ANY idea what the hell they were doing. No plans, no intentions, no tiniest spark of an inkling of what was going to happen and when and how and what it would mean. It's ridiculous to the point of absolute absurdity. Trump's election you might at least keep watching if it were fiction, from a Game of Thrones-ish standpoint just to see how off the rails things were going to get. Brexit... wouldn't even make decent fiction, it's just too stupid to the point of being terrible writing. :P

*nodsnods* Yeah, same for if you want to move to Canada; takes time and money for sure.

Heh, yep - that sums up Brexit in a nutshell. I remember it started as an economic idea years ago - the EU was a botched union to begin with, so the idea of economically leaving it made sense, but what got messy was that it got wrapped up in nationalism and xenophobia, tarnishing the original economic point of it, and worse so, clearly NO ONE made any actual plans on how to go about doing it. Britain can easily craft it's own trade deals - that's what Canada does, after all - but the process takes years of careful planning, meetings, agreements and so on. It is a process that Britain should have started 10 years ago, and gently eased into, not just have a big national vote and go "Woo! We won! ........ now what?"

Yeah, absolutely. >..< That's everything wrong with it in a nutshell. And as you say, just as with Trump's election, it's all wrapped up in a lot of populism and nationalism and us vs. them thinking, where a bunch of the common people are sold the lie that 'all these things that frustrate you are the fault of THOSE PEOPLE. And if you vote this way it'll fix all of that!' So now we have a UK realising that all those damned immigrants they wanted out make up a huge portion of the UK economy, it's the people who drive most of their taxis and sell them most of their chips and clean most of their bathrooms and offices, and a lot of their next door neighbours. And people are looking kind of embarrassed and saying 'oh, I didn't mean THOSE immigrants, just the uh... bad ones. Or something.' And never mind all the current business arrangements, trade deals, and research ventures that depend on openness with the EU, especially among the sciences where I'm working. So now the talk is 'okay, we might leave the EU but we'll keep all that important stuff.' Which further undermines the entire idea anyway. It's mad. o..o

So, to quickly sum this year up: https://houseofgeekery.files.wordpr.....-chan-whut.jpg

Eloquently and accurately put. XD