Welcome back!

[Skinner]

This discussion thread was locked by Skinner (a host of the Announcements group).

First of all, thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding as we worked this last week to deal with the hack and bring our website back online. The hack could not have come at a worse time for all of us, and the DU Admins feel terrible that we let you down on the most important day of the year. We blew it and we are sorry. As part of our efforts to be responsive and transparent, we have posted a detailed explanation of the hack in another announcement which we encourage everyone to read. A link is provided at the end of this message.

We have made extensive security upgrades to the site over the last week, and as part of those upgrades there are likely to be a few minor glitches that need to be fixed. For example, one issue that we are aware of is that quotation marks are automatically stripped out of post titles. If you encounter any bugs please report them in this thread.

Obviously the election -- from president on down the ticket -- did not go how we all hoped it would. In the wake of our defeat, Democrats across the country are taking part in a much-needed conversation about what went wrong in 2016 and what we need to do in the future. Democratic Underground intends to participate in this discussion, by providing a platform to our members who are capable of participating in a manner that is inclusive, civil, and constructive.

The old “General Discussion: 2016” forum has been re-named “2016 Postmortem” and will serve as the temporary location where this conversation can take place. Discussions about the 2016 elections will not be permitted in the General Discussion forum. Whenever a member tries to start a new thread in either the General Discussion forum or the 2016 Postmortem forum, they will be presented with an interrupt page directing them to post their topic in the appropriate place.

In addition, we are going to temporarily suspend the “Don’t rehash the last presidential primary” rule. While we do not look forward to re-opening that wound, we know that any discussion of the 2016 general election is likely to include discussion of the Democratic primaries. We trust that the vast majority of our members are capable of having this discussion in a civil and constructive manner. If everyone participates with the right attitude there is a good chance that it could be a worthwhile discussion. But if the discussion is just insults and rage then there’s no point in having it.

Those of you who do not wish to see any of the discussions from the 2016 Postmortem forum have the option to trash the forum, which will remove all of its topics from the Latest Page and the Greatest Page. Just visit the forum and click the button near the top of the page that says “Trash this forum.”

The 2016 Postmortem forum and the removal of the “don’t rehash the primaries” rule are temporary changes which we expect to last for a few weeks to a few months. While we believe this is an important discussion to have, we don’t think it is in our best interest to spend the next four years arguing amongst ourselves while Donald Trump is busy destroying the country.

Which brings me to my final point. I said previously that I regret letting Democratic Underground become a haven over the last eight years for people who were contemptuous of President Obama and their fellow DU members. With the election behind us, my opinion has not changed. I spent much of the last eight years deeply disappointed by some of the things that people posted here, and compared to that ugliness I thoroughly enjoyed the period of relative unity and respect that we experienced during this year’s general election season. Going forward, Democratic Underground is going to continue to be a place for friendly, liberal people who support Democrats. If that describes you, welcome home.

For detailed information about the hack, click here.

--The DU Administrators

[panader0]

1. Many thanks for the work restoring DU.

[question everything]

100. Second, third and fourth this sentiment (nt)

[calimary]

190. GUYS: About that Election Day hacking... PLEASE BE ON ALERT.

GUYS: About that Election Day hacking... PLEASE BE ON ALERT.

I'm posting this here, too.

calimary here. I do not know if this IS part of the results of that hacking, BUT:

I got an email this morning that alerted me that my PayPal account has been limited. It started asking for all the usual information of the kind you do NOT want to have hackers and other nogoodniks to have.

I became alarmed and called the PayPal people on our landline, according to the phone # on my monthly statement.

They looked into things and confirmed, yup, that email is from nogoodniks.

The reason I became alarmed and suspected a link to DU was because, immediately before Election Day, we were all advised that only star members could interact all day.

Of course, all day on Election Day, we were hobbled and silenced by hackers.

The day before, I decided to make sure my star membership was maintained, and made a small payment ... via PayPal.

PLEASE BE ON THE ALERT. I don't know if this has anything to do with the hacking, but it sure is suspicious, time-wise.

[fleabiscuit]

2. WOOT! K&R

[Siwsan]

3. So glad to be back!!

[BlueMTexpat]

4. Thank you so much,

Skinner, EarlG and Elad - for all your work to get DU back online. I have really missed my DU "family."

If anything, the aftermath of this heartbreaking election has shown that we need DU now more than ever.

[randome]

5. You may not hear this enough but thanks for all your effort! It is appreciated!

[William769]

6. Not sure how I feel about this

we are going to temporarily suspend the “Don’t rehash the last presidential primary” rule.

Been there and done that already.

[greatauntoftriplets]

11. I plan to hide those.

[William769]

14. ...

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. ...

[ornotna]

77. That was yesterday, Bill

I hope we can all move forward together from here on.

[Hissyspit]

205. Well, it's a good thing we had the "Don't rehash the last Presidential primary" rule.

Or we might have ended up with Donald Trump as President.

Yes, I'm bitter.

[harun]

236. You're not alone friend.

[DonCoquixote]

241. bitter, but not broken

Yes...there is a lot to talk about in the postmortem, however, we do need to remember that even as much as we argued and disagreed, we do need to work in the present. Now, I am not saying to gloss over the errors that were made. In the upcoming months, I know I will say things that may offend because the truth of President Donald Trump is offensive. To quote a far better man than I, Jon Oliver, we cannot allow ourselves to forget this is not normal. However, it is very clear that the GOP knew how to pour gasoline on our home fires, turning us against each other when we should have stood together. It is also clear that many people, in the pursuit of their ideal (be it Clinton as immortal and inevitable goddess or Bring back Bernie) wound up letting the Trumpkins laugh all the way to the bank.)

The best thing to do is support each other, both in the way we help each other deal with the Trump noise machine and the real hard, give money and time help that needs to be done to those that are now very vulnerable. The only thing close to a silver lining is that now that this is over, we can turn our eyes towards the real enemies. Yes, the facebook pages are swarming with the arrogant little men and their shieldmaiden wives, "all going I told you so", and using this moment to take more shots at Obama, and ignore the real damage their good ol boys and gals elected have done and will do. Look at Nikki Haley, after Ann Coulter called her not an American, groveling and getting a job that the GOP considers useless anyway. See the way their cheerleaders like Coulter and Milo try so hard to beat up liberals, while ignoring the fact that most GOP voters would, and eventually will, slap them and say "get in your place!" Hell, look at how Mitt Romney kisses Trump's ring, and the way so many of those "principled" Nevertrump supporters are leaping on the bandwagon, praising Trump as if he was King Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone.

The thing to remember is, like all Bullies, they have NO core. Yes, we should remind the Evangelicals that they would up supporting a banker, philander and political novice from New York. Yes we know they are praying Trump decides or is forced to quit so that Pence gets in, but their hands are bloody, and they need to be reminded of it. That SOB swaggering on Facebook, trying to look like Nashville's version of a working man, he will be the first to wonder where his jobs went, where his mama's medicare went, and why the banks get to have yet another spasm where he loses his shirt.

On the other side, one thing we genuinely did fail to do is secure the "Blue Wall." There is plenty of room for family arguments, but if we do not want to help Trump, we have to focus them on what to do now, instead of "well you did this and you did not do that" because that is exactly what Trump and Bannon want. We need to deploy a true 50 state strategy, and we need to unleash the Michael Moores and Jim Hightowers and put them front and center, so they can speak to the heartland. Yes, we do need to kill the myth that democrats are just people in Brooklyn townhouses or LA, but on the other hand, we do not need to "dumb things down" because the simple facts are ON OUR SIDE. We know whose tax-cutting and Military spending made the national debt, and we also know that if we did not try to cut taxes for the rich and wage a war, we would have paid much of that debt off. We know that mixing religion and government does not work, because it invites corruption of both religion and government. We know that our schools need to be rebuilt in many ways (not the least of which are half the actual schoolhouses) and that yes, we do get the government that we pay for, which will be needed as the Russians, Indians and Chinese do know that government can give the edge to businesses, as is shown by the fact they are eating our lunch, and that the GOP are the cafeteria workers.

I am not saying forget the past, nor am I denying that the Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Bernie wings are going to have to have a sit-down, and a lot of long, awkward conversations, as well as outright sparring. We need to define our brand, clearly, cleanly and be able to say "The Democratic party stands for.." We also need to have space so that those who wish to push things right or left get a chance to truly have a say, but, have rules and standards that all observe.

Boxing is a brutal sport, but even Ali and Frazier knew you could not head butt, throw elbow shots or kick. Even though sparring is a part of boxing, and it can be brutal, the point is to help the person learn how to take a punch, and then land some of their own. We need to keep in mind that even those within our family that drive us crazy are still going to have much more in common with us then even the nicest Republican, because while we Democrats actually DO give a damn about principles, most in the GOP will fold like a cheap Trump suit, made in Mexico.

Let us fight, and also improve the methods by which we fight. Do not be fooled by Trump howling about CNN and NBC, we know the media kowtowed and also made Trump a cash cow. For all the nasty talk about DU that was said on the facebook, and all those people saying "we need to stop going into echo chambers" we need to talk, get together and share ideas and actions. This is where the real politics begins, and frankly, we will not go down without a fight, especially since we know that the GOP has a glass jaw just waiting for the right bit of truth to hit it.

sidenote: I am very happy to be back here. I do plan to do things a bit different, to adjust for the fact that the internet IS the news media now, and that forces from Trump Tower to the Kremlin have learned to game it. However, I still plan on being the person who can be the sholder to cry on, and the gadfly ready to sting contended behinds.

[DesertRat]

7. Thank you!

It's great to be back with all of you!

[LeftofObama]

8. You didn't let anybody down. It wasn't your fault.

I'm just glad we can all be together again. I didn't know I could miss DU this much.

[greatauntoftriplets]

9. It's good to be back.

Thanks to you, EarlG and Elad for all the work you've done over the last week.

I hated seeing the nasty responses that you got on the Facebook page. That might well be par for the course for you, though.

[mountain grammy]

88. That was a rude awakening for me..

I rarely visit the FB page but hoped to connect with DUers there. Ugly stuff. stayed away and found Pantsuit Nation and another women's group.. nothing like DU, but it helped.

[greatauntoftriplets]

90. I'd never much read the Facebook page before.

Saw one repeat troll making nasty comments who has been banned from here probably more than a thousand times. I expect that many of the complainers had also been banned and likely more than once.

Someone added me to Pantsuit Nation the Sunday before the election. So many of the stories there are inspiring.

[mountain grammy]

97. A friend added me last Thursday.

Also, my husband's dear Republican cousin in Texas added me to a "Birds of a Feather" group that's been amazing. I think Hillary turned her into a Democrat! I burst into tears when she did it.

It was disappointing to read the crap posted on DU's page. I was hoping to find solace, but quickly gave up. So relieved to be home among people I can respect, even when I disagree.

[greatauntoftriplets]

99. I'm also enjoying the Joe Biden memes.

He's just the kind of guy to do that.

[mountain grammy]

108. Me too!

I keep reading them to my husband, but he just doesn't get it.

[Agschmid]

110. I love those.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

122. It was very ugly

Some right wingers, some of of the BoB crowd and some of the JPR group - all people who had a chip on their shoulders about DU.

Several members who I respect highly were slandered. I defended them but soon got tired of the negativity.

[tavalon]

187. Yeah, I'm on Pantsuit Nation,

but it's just not what I need. I need the people I've worked with and marched with and jumped into dumpsters with and highway blogged with. I need the people I'm going to be protesting with, ministering to (I'm a nurse. I intend to know a lot more about protest field medicine real soon), the people who are as angry but as caring as I am.

Fuck, I missed you guys.

I'm heading to bed now but tomorrow, I will be here every day. Well, when I'm not out fighting.

[mountain grammy]

188. Yes, it was no substitute for DU

nothing was. I missed literally everyone! Don't like me, I don't care. I missed you all.

[LeftishBrit]

200. I belong to a transatlantic mutual-support Facebook group

called Remain Hopeful, as well as a British anti-Brexit group. Important for me, in dealing with our own issues.

But DU has been an important place for me since 2004.

[babylonsister]

10. You were missed, thanks for your efforts

to get back on line, and I don't think anyone will blame you.

I hope you can sue someone; this is your livelihood and that should not be messed with.

[steve2470]

12. Thanks for the very hard work over the last week, I am very grateful we are back and....

may I offer some suggestions as someone keenly interested in online security and this site ?

1- I think it's reasonable to assume that, at least for the next 4 years, we will be a prime target of the Trumpistas. I think effective security will be a daily ongoing concern that will take extra resources. That spells extra money. You get my drift. That means MORE donations.

2- The W3C Validation Service has issues with DU right now. https://validator.w3.org/
I don't know how that ties into security, but worth looking into.

I've been here OVER 11 years and donated regularly, so it's safe to assume my comments are made in a good spirit. Thank you for listening!

Steve

[LuckyLib]

172. You make a great point about increased vigilance and DUers needing to step up in

the contributions department. I don't think many folks realized just how effortlessly they had access to multiple news sites, and intelligent people sharing ideas until the site was down. It's a good time for folks to step up and support the place where we can instantly discover and examine what the clown car occupant pResident is up to next.

[steve2470]

204. Thanks. It's a small miracle this site has not been hacked or DDos'ed before this.....

DDos = Distributed Denial of Service attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

[Ms. Toad]

13. Glad we're back.

Last edited Tue Nov 15, 2016, 05:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Consistent with your last paragraph - as well as the postmortem, would it be possible to formally (via MIRT) and informally (via admin pronouncement) discourage the "concern troll" hunters?

This election felt to me like the Kerry-Bush election. when my marriage was used to drive bigots to the polls. I kept hoping I was wrong - but I was "concerned." It was not just my marriage being used this time, but every otherbit of bigotry ever dreamed up was welcomed to drive Trump voters to the polls. I never said anything here - because of the concern-shaming that was heaped on anyone who dared express concern about the outcome.

I don't have a clue about whether it would have made a difference if we had been able to openly discuss concerns about the outcome among friendly liberal people who support Democrats. Would we have been able to do anything about it had those concerns been taken seriously? Don't know - but obviously those of us who were concerned had reason to be AND should not have been shamed here for expressing them.

I alerted on quite a few concern-troll attacks - none (so far as I can tell) were hidden. But they should have been as a divisive group attack: "Do not imply that they are fake Democrats, fake progressives, conservatives, right-wingers, Republicans, or the like."

The overall alert doesn't quite fit (since the attacks were generally against a person rather than a group), but that sentence was exactly what was going on as to anyone who gave voice to the concerns that I (and I'm sure I'm not alone) felt - concerns that we now know were clearly justified.

As to MIRT when I was on it years ago, this same label was used to PPR anyone with fewer than 100 posts who expressed concerns about a variety of subjects.

[kentuck]

16. But it won't take Trump 4 years to destroy our nation.

We must offer utmost vigilance.

[justhanginon]

17. You were sorely missed. Sorry this happened but so glad the site is back.

[splat]

18. Sigh of relief

It's been so hard not to have kindred souls to be bummed with.

So glad you're back.

[In_The_Wind]

19. Thank you for everything!

[Ken Burch]

20. Glad to be back

Hope we can have an honest, open discussion of the electoral tragedy and how to move on.

[Kali]

21. glad to have the site back. thanks.

lessons on squelching dissent and on the other side of that coin, dissenters need to be civil.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. I am SO RELIEVED to be back among my DU friends again!

This last week has been truly horrifying, and that horror was compounded by not being able to access DU.

I do understand why you needed all that time to strengthen DU's defenses. That realization helped me endure.

So good to be Home!

[bmpbmp]

23. Thank you thank you thank you!

First, I hate what happened to you guys running the site - as much as I've needed this place over the last week (and I sure as hell needed it!), it's been harder on you folks.

Thanks for not giving up. Thanks for not giving in. Thanks for fighting the good fight, to get all of us back here, together, to fight like hell.

[yuiyoshida]

24. its been hard without you

who ever did this, knew what they were doing, especially since our side took a trouncing and we had no one turn to, while they laughed in our face.

[LostinRed]

25. Missed you all

It been a rough week I'm glad the site back up and strong.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

26. Thanks for the restoration effort, and for suspending that rule ...

... we may need to "discuss" the last primary in order to prepare for the next primary, the next Democratic party leadership.

Obama said it best, in 2009 (I think): "elections have consequences."

Maybe next time, we'll get out the vote.

[MADem]

217. We don't choose the Democratic Leadership.

The politicians do. House reps vote for theirs, Senators vote for theirs. Members of the DNC vote for their leadership.

Their priorities are not always those of differing segments of the party. They like to put people in leadership jobs who are very familiar with parliamentary rules (to include tricks and "fast ones&quot as well as people who are really good administrators, fund-raisers, organizers and persuaders.

People who are podium pounders, preachers to the choir, and "fire up the base" types are not what is needed in those jobs. They need MONEY in a big, BIG way and, for example, calling people "corporatist pigs" isn't the way to get rich people to donate.

We can discuss it all we want, but it's not up to us. It never has been.

[drh]

27. Thanks

Thank you for your hard work. You are appreciated, now more than ever.

[Phentex]

28. On the bright side, DU is most certainly not irrelevant...

Someone had posted recently that DU was irrelevant. NOBODY hacks a site that's irrelevant.

I expect to be posting here for decades to come.

[Blanks]

147. You said what I was going to say...

Obviously, somebody thought what was going on here was important enough to put a stop to it.

[bdamomma]

149. yea for real.

[Judi Lynn]

29. It didn't really harm anyone to go through the cooling off period without a chance to explode

and embarrass ourselves.

Very little said in the heat of anger is worth preserving!

Doesn't hurt a bit to take the time to let it all sink in. No one ever wants to see this happening again. We do need time to learn what can be done to prevent it in the future without surrendering democratic principles and ideals.

Thanks for your work rebuilding the site. That couldn't have been too much fun.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Kudos

to you, EarlG, and most importantly, to Elad (across the pond I believe?) to fix this poor site and get it back up.

I was actually called for jury against the hacker and after completing that, watched the whole site just go into meltdown as thread titles were being re-written, one after another and that idiotic pop-up graphic scrolled.

That DU Facebook page was just horrible though. The crap and threats that were posted there underscored why I'll never do Facebook.

After this election, I figured DU would have melted down on its own anyway but when doing so, it should be on our own terms!

[wryter2000]

31. Best birthday present ever

DU saved my sanity after the 2004 election when you instituted interest groups. I hung out in C&B until I could face the world again.

I'm so effing glad to have DU back.

[DippyDem]

32. OMG! I missed DU so much!

I don't post very often but I had withdrawal symptoms after the elections. I so missed the hard hitting posts and also the soothing posts which I desperately so craved. It's good to be back!

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

33. Thank you.

Like most, I knew I enjoyed DU but had no idea how deep the addiction went. Glad to be back home

[TimeChaser]

34. It's been a long time

I don't remember exactly when I left. It was some time after Obama's election , and I think, like Skinner, I'd gotten sick of the infighting (also, life and stuff happened). But while I was curled up under the blankets last week, wondering how the hell I was going to get through this I knew I had to come back. You guys helped me get through the Bush years. We're gunna kick the Trump years' collective asses.

So yeah. Hi

[Yonnie3]

35. What a week you must have had!

Thanks for persevering, my hats off to you.

[SCantiGOP]

36. I know you guys have been busy

But you ain't gonna believe what happened in the last week.....

[KatyaR]

37. Thank you guys so much for all your hard work.

I know this last week has been horrible on so many fronts, but we appreciate everything you do for us.

We're BACK!!!

[UTUSN]

38. Maybe not connected to the hack, I've been getting Malicious Page Blocked during the hack period

Not a glitch with DU so far, but might the jerk hackers have infected us otherwise?

I don't get how hackers can't be tracked down and prosecuted.

[Greybnk48]

39. Thank you! And thank goodness we're back!

It's been a horrid week, especially without the support DU provides liberals.

[Stuart G]

40. Thank You...missed You...Wish You The Best, Today and Everyday...

[GentryDixon]

41. Thanks for all the hard work getting us back up.

It is amazing how the loss of DU for this last week has impacted so many. This was always my first stop in the am, so I have been adrift. I don't post much, but always read the threads, and have been since 2006. I feel like an old friend has returned.

[Feeling the Bern]

42. I hope you find their IP and nail that Trumper asshole to the wall.

[musicblind]

43. The hack was not you fault.

Thank you for your hard work. <3

[radical noodle]

44. Dance of Joy

to see you back up. Thanks for all the hard work.

[tavernier]

45. We had the wind knocked out of us.

It probably was, for me, a good thing to be silent for a week, at least until I could start to breathe again.

[Kingofalldems]

46. Not familiar with the laws--so I ask this question:

Was the hack illegal and if so was it a felony?

[steve2470]

48. illegal yes, info below

http://www.hackerlaw.org/?page_id=55

[femmocrat]

47. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So happy to be back! I missed you all so much. It was a week from hell.

Thank you DU Administrators for your hard work and perseverance. DU was sorely and deeply missed.

OMG, we're finally back!

[applegrove]

49. I know this was a hard week for you. Vibes on all

you accomplished. There is no other site out there like the DU. Thank you for keeping it great.

[A HERETIC I AM]

50. Interesting anomaly/bug perhaps?

On the list of posts, the last post of Salmonchantedevening's LOL Cats thread from last week is ...well....odd.

It has no user name, shows a date of Dec 1969 and is a response to the last post of the thread, but does not appear as a post when you "View All"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018903296

This thread has two of them at the bottom;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1018&pid=902303

It looks like several of the older posts in the lounge have the same thing, but not all the older threads.

Is this intentional?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

51. Glad to be back.

[Kali]

52. BUG?

on the "welcome to DU" list of new posters on the Latest page, the two most recent give error messages when you click on the names, and opening the list they have no posts listed.

same error message when going to thier profiles and clicking last post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=338872
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=197561

error message is a yellow band with the triangle warning symbol and says "That post cannot be found."

[Elad]

54. Most likely those are posts that were scrubbed

because they were affected by the hack.

[sheshe2]

59. Hey Elad.

I want to thank you. You were the one writing the codes to fix this. I may not understand it yet I appreciate it.

Thank you.....were you drinking a lot of this to stay awake?



Thanks!

[Kali]

65. that seemed to be about the timing of it, just wanted to let you know

[cry baby]

53. Wow, what a time y'all must have had!

Thank you for your work in getting us all back together so we can plan our next strategies!

Love y'all!

[ProfessorGAC]

55. Thanks To All Three Of You

Lots of work but glad you had success to this point. Good to here about the upgraded security too. But, i guess if someone really wants to hack a site, they'll find a way. How that person thought they were helping their cause is beyond me, though. It couldn't help, and those of us here talking about the election wouldn't have hurt them or changed who voted for whom.

Technically clever, logically stupid.

[shenmue]

56. Thank you

[livetohike]

57. Thank you all for all the hard work to get back on

line. DU has been my refuge since March 2004.

[GoCubsGo]

58. Thank you!

A rough week was made even more difficult without having this place to come and commiserate--and to figure out what to do next. I appreciate your hard work in bringing this site back up for us.

[bench scientist]

60. ....

Nothing novel to add but to echo all the gratitude for your Herculean efforts getting the site online.

We got some hard times ahead but some great folks to face those times with.

Here's to the fight!
Wishing you all well
bench

[ailsagirl]

61. So glad to be back in the fold

[MineralMan]

62. Thanks for all the work required to bring DU back!

I'll be ramping up my participation over a week or so. We're moving my MiL to a new facility tomorrow and Thursday, so I won't have much time to be online.

[sheshe2]

63. Thanks to you all.

I had trouble getting on tonight. My email was not recognized. When I went to change my password. The email listed was not mine.

EarlG answered me immediately on my second post. He got me back here.

[Maeve]

64. Some thread numbering seems to have gone off

Check my Nov 7th MIR (Group) thread for an example. (May be a result of the off-on-off nature of election day and already cleared, but..)

And thanks again for all your work--missed you all this week!

[workinclasszero]

66. Glad DU is back

[callous taoboy]

67. Thank you so much.

Thanks for all of your hard work these many years now. I have been sort of lost without DU. SO GLAD DU IS BACK!!!

[The Wielding Truth]

68. It's so good to be home. The world has changed since last we talked but our hearts have not.

Thanks for returning better than ever, Skinner and crew.

[herding cats]

69. I missed you all deeply!

"2016 Postmortem" about sums up my heart right now.

Elad, my deepest appreciation to all your hard work! Skinner and EarlG, my appreciation for keeping us in the loop and posting so many of our thoughts on the 503 page! It helped, a lot, to hear familiar voices.

all!

[Arkansas Granny]

70. It's so good to be back! I have really missed everyone.

It's been a long, long week. Losing to Trump was like a kick in the gut, but then to lose Gwen Ifill, Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell all in the same week is just almost too much.

[octoberlib]

71. Thanks for all your work!

Still the best site around!

[Tanuki]

72. Please don't apologize--you certainly did NOT let us down! You were the victim of a malicious attack

and you, Elad, and EarlG have done everything possible to get things up and running as quickly and safely as possible. You are very much appreciated! I heartily concur with the policy, going forward, of not tolerating trolls who are only here to demoralize and disrupt. It is so good to have DU back again.

[Granny M]

73. Thank you, Admins.

I so appreciate this site. I was in Amsterdam with some other American expats on election night, and it was terribly sad. Not being able to come here to read and process the enormity of it all made it so much worse. I really missed all of you.

We're going to need each other going forward.

[localroger]

74. Thanks, and got starstruck for your effort

I am usually allergic to paying for things I don't have to online but I ponied up even though I know you'll open the site up for general access in a few days. You've been doing hard and important work and I've been taking you guys for granted for far too long. Thanks for making a place that really isn't quite like any other online. I am not a big participant here but I do lurk a lot and I really missed you when you were gone.

[Fresh_Start]

75. Thank you all for bringing DU back from the evil control

I missed this site and my fellow DUers during this horrendous election.

[emmadoggy]

76. So glad to have DU back!

DU is set as my homepage, so every time I logged on, it was a sad :sigh: to see it still gone.

I'm glad that security has been improved and hope they never manage to do this again!

[gademocrat7]

78. Thank you, Skinner, Elad and EarlG

Your efforts are greatly appreciated. I am now back home!

[SaveOurDemocracy]

79. Thanks ... Good to be back.

[Chemisse]

80. Thank-you for working so hard to get DU back up and at it!

It's been a tough time for us all and it is just so great to be back.

[Dakotacrat]

81. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I truly did not realize how important this resource was to my life until it was gone. Thank you Skinner, Earl and Elad. So glad we get to begin this long, difficult road as a community once again.

[CottonBear]

82. At long last, DU is back online! Thank you!

I have been adrift and alone without DU. There is no place on the web like DU and no greater group of liberals than my fellow DUers. I have missed y'all so much. I didn't realize how much a part of my life DU is (and has been for so many years) until it was gone.

I have been a member since 2004 and was an avid reader for several years before joining.
I hope that DU will be here for many more years.

Thanks again Skinner, Elad & Earl G for all oif your tireless efforts to get DU up and running once again.

[Sedona]

83. Thank you gentlemen

Glad to.have DU back.

Where's my LOL Cats?

[R B Garr]

84. Yeah! Great to see this. Thanks for

all your efforts!

[mountain grammy]

85. Glad to be the 101st rec. glad to be here.

Been feeling like there's no one to talk to, which isn't true, but most of you know what I mean. I'm sorry I was sometimes impatient waiting for the site to be restored and do appreciate all the work it must have taken to get it back. I doubt I will ever leave DU because of how it's been this last week when DU left me.

Thank you for coming back. We do need to examine what went wrong, but, no matter how egregious our mistakes, we are good and they are bad and that's the bottom line, folks.

[FarPoint]

86. Ohhhh it feels so good to be home again....

I missed everyone....

[AC_Mem]

87. I've missed my virtual haven

Thank you for your hard work in securing our sanctuary. I was on the site when the hack actually happened and could not figure out what the heck was going on, but I had a feeling that it was an early warning that things may not go as well as we had all hoped and prayed. Little did we know just how bad it would get as the night wore on, and not having DU to turn to made things so very much worse.

I realize now how much I depend on this site. We have a population of some of the smartest, most witty and compassionate adults on the world wide web and I am truly thankful to the administrators for their hard work in keeping this site on point and relevant for us - it surely is not an easy job and I encourage everyone to spend that little bit of money that you would spend on a cup of coffee every month to help them keep this running for us by becoming a member as I have been for years.

I felt like I needed therapy after the shock of this election and am still going through the five stages of grief, sometimes all 5 in the span of a day! Working at the VA I am seeing the best and the worst up close and personal, and both are heartbreaking for different reasons that I cannot go into because of the nature of my position.

I know we should try to make the best of this but all I can think of is my 16 year old gay grandson who is scared to death when a month ago he was empowered, my granddaughter who is being bullied by little trumpettes at her school, family members who may be harmed beyond measure by upcoming slashes and cuts - heck, I could be out of a job if he privatizes the VA. There is much damage that can be done in 4 years.

My biggest heartache is knowing that the majority did not want this, so how did it happen? And I mean, it really happened, hate won. Fear won. Discrimination won. I don't mean on a personal level, but in this election - it did and it cannot be denied. Everything that we KNOW is wrong with society now has the power to tip the scales into darkness.

We will get past this and see the light - we can't exist in this type of energy for long, the soul will seek light, but this truly is the dark night of the soul for many of us and we need someone to help us get to a better place. I wish our President could guide us there (Obama, MY President for life), because I just can't get there myself right now.

To Madam Secretary and the People's Choice - Hillary Clinton, my light bows to your light.

Namaste to all.

Annette, ashamed to be in Florida which should have been Hillary's.

[RayOfHope]

89. I could cry with relief that I'm back in and DU is up and running n/t

[mountain grammy]

91. And, just in case you missed it..

we did win.

[tinymontgomery]

92. Thanks

I was bored to death while DU was down.

[chimpymustgo]

93. OMG - this was like getting locked out of your house!

Very traumatic. So glad to be home.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

94. DU being down left a hole in my heart

I am so happy that you all worked hard to come back. Reminds me, you don't know what you've got till its gone.

[democrank]

95. Skinner, EarlG and Elad, thank you, thank you, thank you.

These last few days must have been so frustrating for all of you. Please know your efforts were greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

[Greywing]

96. Kudos to the DU Administrators who worked so hard!

I am so happy DU is back up

[a kennedy]

98. Thank you, thank you, thank you.......

Soooooooooooooooooo happy we're back.

[NRaleighLiberal]

101. Thank you. Great to be back. Huge catharsis needed!

[rbrnmw]

102. I am glad you guys are all back

still in shock and quite nauseated by the thought of that ???? whatever species it is, being the ??President?? after the wonderful, intelligent, Gentleman who will always be MY President Barack Obama. God what a nightmare.

[Generic Other]

103. Tears in my eyes

So sorry for what someone did to this place, Skinner. And really grateful to you, EarlG and Elad.

We have been here before when we thought it couldn't get worse, right? Sadly, it may get worse. Glad to have you guys on my side.

[OregonBlue]

104. Glad we're back. I suggest you ask the FBI to investigate it but it appears that they are in on

any sabotage of the Democrats.

[bermudat]

197. FBI? Comey's FBI?

[OregonBlue]

199. Yeah, I guess we can't expect the FBI to do their job. They are too busy playing politics.

[cstanleytech]

105. WB, I am wondering though if the FBI has been contacted about this and are they investigating?

Ya, I know if they are that the odds are slim that they will pursue it much if if at all but I can hope.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

106. Glad to be back.

What a week ..

[montana_hazeleyes]

107. So glad DU is back! Thank you so much!

This has been such an horrific and emotional time. I truly felt like a rolling stone. Kept looking around, finding no place for solace with DU down.

It helped so much when you posted the e-mails on the 503 page. I read and read them and was so glad for that.

[Lisa0825]

109. OMG I MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!

[Hekate]

111. It was not your fault. I'm so glad to be back.

[thecrow]

112. Thank you for your hard work to restore this place

of respite, and perhaps peace. Let's try to stick together for the next 4 years!

[blue sky at night]

113. Frankly I was glad I couldn't see DU

I worked as an Outside Observer at a Precinct in Akron and when I found out that DU had been hacked I got that sinking feeling that we weren't going to win then when I got home I noticed that Florida was not going as expected so I kinda saw the hand writing on the wall and went to bed not knowing....glad I did because I actually got some sleep where my Wife and Daughter stayed up and watched the Train Wreck and could NOT Sleep. The Shock on Wednesday Morning was brutal even though I knew in my gut that we had lost it all.

If I wake up during the night I can't stop thinking about how fucked we are and loose sleep still.



I think it is important to LISTEN TO Thom Hartmann right now as he is teaching what it is going to take to save the party.

He is on from NOON to 3PM Eastern Time.

http://www.wcpt820.com/

You can listen over your smart phone with this app:

http://tunein.com then look for WCPT

BTW, our Summit County was one of the FEW that were Blue in this most S t u p i d S t a t e of O H I O!

BTW_2; I am done with Facebook and I am done with my Church, left both of them in July.

[Uponthegears]

114. Thank you

Just thank you

I know it's been tough in a lot of ways

[prairierose]

115. OMG,OMG,OMG, Thank you, thank you,thank you....

I had no idea how dependent I was on DU and especially with the results I desperately needed this place and a barbarian wrecked it.

Thank you all 3 admins for all of the hard work and efforts to get us back up and running. Take care and get some rest.

I may not post a lot but I read a lot here and think about what I read. I need the input and the potential opportunity to vent.

[uppityperson]

116. Not a bug, but many posts on First Posts page are missing.

I guess they went away

[Renew Deal]

117. It's good to be back

[lpbk2713]

118. It could be a problem on my end but ...

I tried to change my "newly" changed password and my email address right after my
first login at the same time and I got the warning with the red asterisk and a message
telling me I screwed up and none of the fill-in boxes had an indication of where the
problem was. I think I will just leave well enough alone for a day or two with the
initial password change before trying to change anything else. Many thanks to
EarlG for guiding me through the authentication procedure.

[winstars]

119. At least we now can face this nightmare together!!!

[Little Star]

120. Thank you!!!!!

[burrowowl]

121. Glad DU is up again!!!!!

[BlueProgressive]

123. I didn't realize how dependent I'd grown on DU as a kind of newsfeed

to alert me to all the latest political news stories, until I couldn't get it....

Glad you're back!

[NBachers]

124. I feel like I'm back home again. I really appreciate being back with my fellow DU'ers.

[Mike Niendorff]

125. Thank you for your continued service to the progressive community.

Doubling my last donation, in solidarity.

MDN

[Silver Gaia]

126. THANK YOU!!!

[still_one]

127. You're reopening "don't rehash the last presidential primary rule"? Gee, I am

sure no one is going to say, such and such candidate would have been a better choice?



There are a lot of reasons for what happened, and at the top of the list is Comey and the FBI, but the false narratives propagated by the media, and supporters of certain candidates during the primaries, ranks right up there, and the fact that a good number of those candidate's supporters who refused to vote for the Democratic nominee, or voted third party, made what happened a reality.

Taking just the state of Michigan as an example, trump won by .3% of the vote. Jill Stein received 1.1% of the vote. Similar examples can also be shown in other states.

The 47% eligible voters that refused to vote were willing accomplices with the third party voters.

Frankly, I am disappointed that you want to reopen the primaries for discussion.

That is the narrative that the media is now going with also, if only so and so was the nominee.....

You see, that takes all the blame away from the media. You know, the media who told us there were WMDs in Iraq.

I don't care to relive the primaries again at DU. Once was enough for me.

There are plenty of ways to discuss the future of the Democratic party, and a rehash of the primaries provides very little except the blame game from Monday morning quarterbacks, who may very well have not even voted for the Democratic nominee.

Have fun........

[DFW]

129. For what it's worth

I agree with all of your above points.

[Hissyspit]

206. Frankly, I'm disappointed that this once-great-website got massively censored in a way it never was

before.

If you or Skinner thinks the eight years of critically discussing the Obama administration or being skeptical of neoliberal policies or allowing discussion by people who think "so-and-so candidate would have been better" was the problem and the reason for Donald Trump, then you haven't learned anything.

[still_one]

207. yeah it was awful that they frowned upon people calling Hillary the "c" word and President Obama a "

POS"

Will Pitt was really swell

and wasn't it special that so many Sanders supporters refused to vote for Hillary in the general

Sounds like a JPR is right up your alley

[sheshe2]

211. Bwahahahahahahaha!!

Thread win!

[Hissyspit]

215. Thanks for proving my point.

Good thing you have a place to act like that, or Donald Trump might have become President or something.

[Hissyspit]

214. Thanks for proving my point.

[Hortensis]

208. There are other, less specialized forums than DU where

people can express a free range of emotions about Democrats, presumably including ones that can be still "great" places to do just that.

[treestar]

212. They are part of the reason and they should own it

Negativity affects voters.

[kgnu_fan]

235. I miss that open and courageous time of ours --- are we getting old and tired?

[Hissyspit]

240. I'm definitely tired.

[chknltl]

250. Plus 1

I've heard of intellectual cheerleaders, i am quite sure they must be out there somewhere but i've yet to meet one. (Jon Stewart recently said that it is a bad idea to treat any group as a monolith because each member is unique with unique reasons for being there).

So much of the wisdom that was DU has moved away...it is good that you are still here Hissyspit! I have enjoyed your informed posts often over this past decade.

Should you too be chased off please know that you will be missed. I suspect there remain more than a few here that feel this way.

I wonder at the motivations of those who seek to alienate Progressive Democrats from each other....are they planning on stopping Trump and the corporatists all by themselves?

We are all in this foxhole together, our position overrun by our shared enemies! The wisdom of aiming potshots at each other escapes me!

Well that's my 2 cents worth.

chris 'chknltl' chick, Progressive-Democrat, happy member of DU and JPR

[awoke_in_2003]

231. Yes, there are a lot of reasons

The primary one being saying that it was her time, when polls suggested the other primary candidate could actually win. Her baggage meant nothing- it was her turn (even though the majority of Americans don't trust her).

[McCamy Taylor]

128. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat their mistakes...

...so I think a recent history lesson is a good idea. Can we start with last week and how easy electronic voting is to hack?

[secondwind]

130. Thanks for all you do! I REALLY MISSED this Page! I felt homeless.... n/t

[DFW]

131. It's good to see DU back up

What I was expecting to be one good week followed by a bad week has turned into two horrible weeks.

In the meantime, I took one look at the Facebook page and saw a freak show that looked like a hybrid of Jackpine Radicals and Breitbart, so I left that one alone.

Also, as I write, I am taking a leave of absence from work (you can do stuff like that when you're station chief for a whole continent) for one of the scariest reasons of all. I'll post in the lounge. This isn't the place.

I think that if you try to rehash the primaries, you're inviting some ugliness. Please be vigilant this time, and pull the site back from the abyss instead of plunging back into it. We've been there. Let's not do that.

As for everyone else---nice to see y'all again!

[Violet_Crumble]

132. Great to see DU up and running again. And thanks to you guys and Lithos for all yr work...

I've been lurking more than posting over the past year, and thought I wouldn't miss DU if it wasn't around, but I was wrong on that. I'm glad DU's back, glad that never-ending election campaign's over, but it sucks that Twitter-Troll-Trump won the election....

[annabanana]

133. took me awhile to log back in but BOY am I glad to be back!

Thanks Earl, Elad & Skinner for up-hardening the site. This board is our own think tank and we have work to do!

[mia]

134. Thank you!

Glad to be here again.

[handmade34]

135. BIG Thanks...

Skinner, EarlG and Elad and so glad to be here writing this... I am sad, exhausted and angry and need to heal quickly so I (we) can begin the necessary Fight to not slip into the abyss

[DinahMoeHum]

136. Welcome back, boys and girls!!

And welcome back and thanks for everything, Elad, EarlG, and Skinner!!

Like many of you, I went through a period of withdrawal - posted on DailyKos in the interim.

But now, we're back, and I'm ready more than ever to fight the good fight.

As for the hacking and for Trump's stormtroopers, if I can do my part -
There. Will. Be. Hell. To. Pay. Back.

[terip64]

137. Thank you DU.

I have been coming to DU since 2000 and was absolutely lost without you all during this terrible Election Day. I am so grateful to be back and am honored to be in such good company.

Now, let's work together to fix this mess!!

[gypsy11]

138. Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the hard work you do. I've been a member of DU since 2000. I rarely post, however I've been here just about every day for the last 16 years lurking (although I always participate in the monthly photo contests). I love this site and I didn't realize how much I would miss it. There is nothing on the web quite like it. So very glad you are back on-line. It feels wonderful to be back in a community of progressive like minded folks. We need to stick together now more than ever.

[redstatebluegirl]

139. Thank you so much Skinner!

I missed my home away from home!

[etherealtruth]

140. So glad to be back

DU may not be perfect ... but, its good and its home.

Thank you Admin

[hertopos]

141. Thank you thank you thank you

I also am a strong believer in civility.

I feel very uncomfortable calling different types of Democrats with bad names. Those are only for this non-president and his supporters.

Thank you for working so hard.

I figured out how to update my paypal account and I also thank you to let me become star member at this point.

Quite frankly, may be this is time to require everyone to be a paid member. I think you can pay at minimum $5-10 per year!!
( I try to do it per monthly not annually. Because I can. When I can pay more, I will.)

Thank you for everything

hertopos

[Roland99]

142. missed this place...feels good to be back!

[LiberalLoner]

143. Thank you so much for getting us back online!

Three cheers!

[randr]

144. I will double my contribution this year

I am now fully aware of how important this site is to me. I have been in a drought until this moment. Thanks to all of your who, I am sure, have spent countless hours fixing our home.
I hope whoever did this hack is found out and some means of justice laid on their sorry asses.

[lonestarnot]

145. Skinner

[FailureToCommunicate]

146. If the DU blackout was hard on us, it must have been insanely harder on you three. Thanks for

plugging doggedly forward and getting the crud sorted out and the site back up!

[bdamomma]

148. Hey Skinner

thank you. we were down but not out!!!!!!! the fight begins with us.

[turntxblue]

150. Yes, thank you!

Thank you so much for this forum. Sadly, I don't think I fully appreciated it until it was gone. While I rarely post, I have come to depend on DU for news, opinion, and for getting me through election nights. I can only guess how difficult your week has been, trying to get this site back up and running. Thanks again!

[blueseas]

151. Thank you!

We need DU more than ever.

[Ellipsis]

152. This election has been more mysterious then Scott Walker's receding hairline

Thanks David.

I truly have missed DU. Not as a place to seek solice and kvetch... But as the best coagulation of content news, opinion, inside info and breaking news. I hope you catch the rat bastards that brought you done.

I'll be contributing a lot more dough in the he future.

[gollygee]

153. I'm so glad you're back!

It'll be just like old times around here, when GWB was president. Only worse! Who knew that could happen?

[highplainsdem]

154. Thanks, Skinner! I missed DU so much. Very glad you're back!

[budkin]

155. Finally!

[Guilded Lilly]

156. Home again...

Home again, jiggedy jog.

[angel823]

157. Back with my tribe

It feels good - thanks for the hard work.

Angel in Texasperated

[Fla Dem]

158. Thank you to Earl G, Elad and Skinner. Did not realize how much this community meant to me

until you all weren't there. Missed everyone and glad we're back!

[desi]

159. Thank you and FTR, YOU guys did not let the DU Community down.

You are to be commended for working as hard as you did and for the many hours it took you to put it all together again for the benefit of all who use your forum. KUDOS !! and a special thanks to EarlG for getting me back on. You guys are Awesome.

[seaglass]

160. I am thankful DU is back and I hope that it continues to be a thriving positive community.

With that being said is this still the operating assumption?:

"The price of admission to DU after this election is your vote for Hillary Clinton (or your support for her if you are not eligible to vote in the United States). If you are able to vote, but you can't bring yourself to vote for Hillary, then I'm not particularly interested in listening to your bullshit for the next four-to-eight years. I don't care if you live in the bluest of blue states or the reddest of red states, if you are looking for excuses to vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or god forbid Donald Fucking Trump, then this isn't the place for you. Fortunately for you, there are plenty of other places on the Internet where you can get your Hillary-hate on, and some of them are even filled with former DU members. "

[Skinner]

162. From my OP:

"Democratic Underground is going to continue to be a place for friendly, liberal people who support Democrats."

Anyone who didn't vote for Hillary Clinton in the General Election failed to "support Democrats."

[world wide wally]

161. Between the election and not having all your shoulders to cry on, I am just glad I survived to

fight another day!

FTF (Fuck Trump Forever)

[nolabear]

163. I'm back at last! I've missed you all and hope we can stand together.

[hlthe2b]

164. grateful to have DU back...Like many, I have had few to talk with

since the debacle. I simply can not stand watching pro-Trump news so I have basically "shut down". At least now I have an outlet.

[Justice]

165. Is there any criminal investigation into the hack?

[MFM008]

166. thanks for being back

im sure it was even more stressful for you guys.

[Delphinus]

167. I missed this place so much!

Thank you for all your work - I'm grateful we are back.

[oasis]

168. It's great to be back. Thanks

[bobGandolf]

169. Good to be back.....

Your final point is the most important imo

[AgadorSparticus]

170. You guys are awesome! On the bright side, it shows how much liberals flock to DU.

It shows the importance of DU. So glad to be back. I spent 2 days in shock and am teetering between denial and fear with a lot of tears sprinkled in....2016 postmortem is such an appropriate name.

[LuvLoogie]

171. Thank you!

[2naSalit]

173. Oh dear!

I was offline for a couple weeks and look what happened! Guess I didn't miss as much as I had anticipated.

Glad the site is repaired and I do hope we can have fruitful, civil discourse as we go forth into a world many of us enter with trepidation.

[Political_Junkie]

174. So glad we're back!

Thank you all for your hard work.
I don't post often, but I've been here through every election since 2002. It was so hard to face this election night alone. I missed my fellow DUers.

[Lifelong Protester]

175. Thank you so much!!

We certainly missed this place.

[Historic NY]

176. WOW thanks must have been one hell of a hack...

damn private servers....

[Dogbert22]

177. thank you

Thank you for bringing back DU, my daily read and main opinion maker. Without DU my day sucks.

[PossiblePasts]

178. Thank you for all of your hard work!

I was a member years ago and then drifted away as life got in the way. Started lurking again a few months ago, and became a star member a day or two before the election. Election day I had DU up...and then that video popped up.
So glad the site is back. No more lurking, I will participate on here and do what I can in real life.

[proud patriot]

179. good to be back

lots of work to do

[senegal1]

180. Thank you for all the work

You folks did to get this site back up.

[footinmouth]

181. Great to have the site back

Thank you so much for all the hard work. I have missed all of you. (don't let my low post count fool you, I read here all the time, just don't say much)

[DuckBurp]

182. Thanks for your hard work

It's good to be able to check in and see what like-minded people are saying. It's cheaper than therapy.

[zz-la]

183. Honestly kind of a good time for me to take a break

But I do appreciate the candor of the DU staff, and certainly understand what an ordeal this was and that for many this was an added amount of stress on top of what election night brought. However, in some ways I am glad I could not access the site on election night, because I don't know if I would have had many good things to say, and would have probably hated myself for some of the things I would have said about my own red state and the people who live here, or least a good amount of them. So in the interim I have taken the time to calm down and compose myself and try and move on.

[grantcart]

184. Thanks

Great to have a slice of sanity back

[argyl]

185. So glad you're back.

[tavalon]

186. You carry none of the blame. The hackers did this.

I left during the primaries. I don't care for that blood sport. I won't be participating in the circular firing squad either. We are facing something unprecedented but for which Democratic Underground is actually very well suited for. My Facebook friends will be so glad I'm gone.

We don't have much time to organize and we must organize. I have to work in less than 11 hours so I'm not going into my thoughts deeply right now.

Just let me say from the bottom of my heart, you three have brought us home and I thank you so much. I'm ready to fight and I want my people with me. Democratic Underground are my people.

I hope the activism area is bustling because it needs to. Bush was our trial run. This is real. Horrifically so.

Thank you!!!!

[Amaril]

189. Yay!!

So happy you're back! Here's how happy I am........see that nifty yellow star next to my name? I didn't have one of those before the hack. I've been a member since 2002 (I think?) and have had a star before, but I'm kind of on again / off again -- I'll wander in here & hang for a few months & then wander off again -- so I didn't re-up my star when it expired. I really shouldn't have done it right now -- I'm closing next month on a condo I'm buying, and was supposed to be financing FHA, but the Association allowed their certificate to lapse, so I'm having go Conventional.........which means coming up with an extra $3,500 in closing costs (a fortune for me). I am literally saving pennies at this point, but I needed my fellow DUers to counter the absolute Mad Hatter craziness (up is down, black is white, in is out) around me at the moment........so here I am!

Thanks Skinner, EarlG & Elad for all your hard work in getting DU back on its feet!!!

[Renew Deal]

191. Dollar signs don't work in subject lines. There are three here:

$$$$

They work in posts.

[randome]

194. The tilde character doesn't either. Probably other non-standard characters.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Ilsa]

192. THANK YOU for working so hard to bring us back together. (FBI?)

Personally, I believe DU was brought down to prevent us from comparing notes about what was going on when we went to the polls. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. Sure, the hacker took great delight in it.

Just curious: was the hack reported to the FBI?

[ReRe]

193. It was a horrible day...

... after losing DU. Our family's 4 Hillary votes cheered us earlier in the day. Went out to eat as we always do after we vote on election day. Losing DU should have seemed like an omen, but I didn't see it that way. But by 8-9PM, we realized it was going to be a long night, but still had hope waiting on the left coast to come in. Neck and shoulders tightened and twisted until I had to go get that last Xanax that I had been saving for over a year. Losing DU and all the rest of it was really rough on all of us DUers/

But you can't keep Democrats down for long, buddies. We are rising.

Thanks to all the staff that worked on resurrecting DU. I hope you get the person or group that did this.

[tavalon]

195. Thank you

I am so glad to be back.

[bermudat]

196. Whew! I am so glad to be able to get on DU

This election is a complete fraud and I have been depressed since election
day. Not being able to go to DU has been like salt in the wound.
Thank you for getting things up and running.

[chowder66]

198. Thank you! nt

[Dem2theMax]

201. Tapping Ruby Red Slippers three times......

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

IT WORKED!

Only took me 12 days to get here. Whew! Special shout out to Skinner for working on the problem
my email address was causing on DU. You took the time to send me a working password and now I'm home
where I belong. THANK YOU!

It was awful to turn on the computer and have no where to go. THIS is my place, my comfort, my news,
my Democratic family. Even though I don't post much, I'm here every day.

So good to see so many familiar names posting in this thread.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Thank goodness we will all be here for each other in the coming
four years of hell.

(I sure hope I'm making sense. I had a tooth pulled yesterday and the pain meds, well, I sure could have used them
on November 8th.)

HOME. How do you spell HOME? DemocraticUnderground.com

Well done Skinner, Elad and EarlG.

[JonLP24]

202. I have had problems with some of Obama's policies

Mostly due to expansion of executive branch powers, war on whistleblowers, etc now of which Trump has the keys too. I also defended him a lot on immigration policy here.

I still voted for him in 2008 and 2012.

I'm not seeing a lot of unity rather more ugliness directed at people who are Democrats and have been for a long time. I'm just not sure who is welcome here anymore.

[silverweb]

203. It's so goood to be baack!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"](In my best Genie voice).

I missed this place!

[sammcgee68]

209. I Love you guys

Oh, you can burn down my house
Stone me for life
Take what you want
Do what you like, but you'll never succeed
No, you'll never succeed
At breaking my heart
Breaking my soul
I've reached a point where I just don't care no more

Viva la resistance

[silverweb]

210. Viva la Rsistance!

[Blue_Roses]

213. Thank-you Skinner...

It's good to be home.😀

[Cadfael]

216. Thank you for being here!

In spite of my ridiculously low post count, I've been here since almost the very beginning. I was so depressed after this election that I'm just wandering back today. Only to find you've been bravely battling evil up close and personal. I'm so happy that the place that made me feel safe among like-minded liberals (back in the bad old days of the smirking chimp's reign) is still here fighting the good fight. Thank you all for all you do.

[Laf.La.Dem.]

218. Thank you!!!

My life is back - thank you

[Bill USA]

220. "the DU Admins feel terrible that we let you down on the most important day of the year"

To Skinner et al;

you don't have to "feel terrible" as far as I am concerned. Consider the hack as a clear message that Democratic Underground is THE premier site for Democrats to discuss issues of public policy - which of course makes criticism of the Guardians of Plutocracy. For this reason, you - and we can feel proud to be the target of such nazi tactics by the Arian Nation party.

I was not at all bothered by the time it took to build necessary security measures for the future. It is a hard job and anyway, it is obvious that you wanted to do the job right. I thank you for that ... oh yeah, and for all the work it took to design and create the best debate site on the internet.

[Dopers_Greed]

221. Thank you DU

The only thing that made election night worse (and believe me, it was already one of the worst nights of my life) was not having DU through it all.

Time to stop President-unelect Drumpf from destroying civilization.

[ThingsGottaChange]

222. There's no place like home...

I may not post much but, boy did I miss DU! All hail the three Musketeers!

[Union Label]

223. thanks

I was going crazy not being able to vent how fucking frustrated I was.

[Achilleaze]

224. Thanks for pulling it all back together

[ffr]

225. First thought as the numbers rolled all in Trump's favor for key states: Russia.

Nevada beat the odds, maybe because our voting system has a paper audit trail. The numbers added up and the result was not unexpected: HRC won as predicted. Democrats up and down the ballot won. Even pink to red Washoe county went blue, as predicted.

Her ground game in other states was no less robust. How did Nevada succeed as expected, yet most other swing states she got demolished? And now USA Today is even showing her polling numbers still hold up to this day. WTF is going on with our elections and why haven't there been any sample audits performed to substantiate how voters voted???

[chopper050]

226. I've been missing the DU.

I'm so glad you're back.I love to read and watch the videos. Iv been kinda lost without the Democratic underground. Thanks for your hard work...

[LyndaG]

227. Yay!

Hope whoever did this is caught and prosecuted.

[Boldine]

228. Thank you for all your hard work.

Obtinebimus (We shall overcome).

[Lyric]

229. I am back.

Hooray. Sigh.

[sueh]

230. Doing the happy dance. So GLAD to have DU back. Thank you, Skinner, for getting us back on.

[Lotusflower70]

232. Mystified

I am so glad you are back online. Sorry to hear about what happened to the site. And still trying to come to terms with the aftermath and where we go from here.

[BlueStater]

233. Good to be back at long last. n/t

[LittleGirl]

234. I am so glad you're back online.

It was not your fault.

I copied this from a facebook post yesterday and it says everything I feel. DU was hacked and...

I do NOT ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION!
There was fraud and cheating, aside from Russia, Wikileaks, hacking, FBI interference, ignoring THE HATCH ACT, and all of the voter suppression.
The four key swing states were all within a very small margin, and very close. Each one of them? Coincidence?
In Michigan, in one county alone, some 80,000 people voted for everything BUT President? Doesn't that sound suspicious? Not even write-in's? But, the big clue, is that the exit polls had more people voting, than actually voted, according to the official counts. THAT IS BOTH FISHY AND NOT POSSIBLE! It would explain why all of the other polls were off. Either people or machines, did not count all of the votes, because that is the only way the exit poll could be bigger than the actual count. They are both taken in the same time and place, from the exact same people!
WHY IS NO ONE ASKING ABOUT THIS?

[DeminPennswoods]

238. Another thank you

Thanks for all your hard work in bringing back the forum.

[Gothmog]

239. Thank you for the hard work

[lovuian]

242. Woohoo!

so glad it's back
Thank You Skinner and administrators

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

243. THis hack happened about the same time we in WI lost our progressive talk programming day after

election - in combination with the election results, this sudden disappearance of my 2 most reliable sources for info was quite unsettling. All I could think was - we may be in for some serious political repression... which typically in other countries has involved some degree of shutting down of communications.

Definitely glad to see the site back up .... but I still think the above may be a possible scenario...

[rladdi]

244. Thanks for restoring the site. It is important that we

state our views and get feedback. We must kept freedom of press, media and speech in America. It may leave us in small ways as the GOP gains control of the nation. This site allows for that. Thanks again.

[kskiska]

245. Ie been here since Day 1 (Bush's inauguration)

I really missed the site. Thank you so much!

[PatrickforO]

246. This is good.

I missed DU

[HockeyMom]

247. Very happy to be back on DU

Missed it after 12 years being a Member.

[Wibly]

248. A point on the final point

I don't think DU became a haven for people who were contemptuous of President Obama. I think that was the interpretation of some DU admins who had, and apparently have, some issues with dissent within their own ranks.
Just because people questioned some of Obama's decisions, and the direction the Clinton campaign took, does not mean they were holding either the President of the former Secretary of State in contempt. It simply means they had questions, concerns and differences of opinion, which in democratic society is perfectly acceptable and, in fact, supposed to be encouraged.
DU, if it really wants to do justice to the Democratic Party, is going to have to learn to deal with dissent in a manner that does not include muzzling, shutting down, alienating, and ostracizing the dissenters.
A lot of people who would have voted Dem were turned off by the Clinton Campaign and DU's decision to block dissent and to demand that every one participate in group think.
If DU, and the Democratic Party, do not soon acknowledge their own role in the defeat, and begin to work to find more productive ways to deal with dissent from within their own ranks, then I fear the Democratic Party may be headed for a long slow slide down a very slippery slope.
I hope you understand that what I have written here is not mean to be in any way an insult, nor is it an act of trolling, or a put down. I'm simply trying to communicate honestly with you about what needs to happen for the Democratic Party to be successful in the future.

[Kolesar]

249. I quit reading here years ago because of the Obama haters and arbitrary "forum hosts"

I logged in here a few months and learned that most of my foils here had been TOSsed out like garbage. Good move. I am glad that you addressed the Obama haters issue.

So this is my third post in two or more years.

[lapucelle]

251. Thank you for your hard work

and for providing a venue and safe haven for the full spectrum of Democrats, liberals, and progressives.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

252. Thank gawd this haven is back! So cruel that a sadist had to further add to our pain.

It was hell not having this site after the "election" disaster. Just added more angst to the situation.

[appacom]

253. I was lost without you

Thank you for all you do. Your absence during those first dark hours ached like a toothache. DU makes me feel better

[qwlauren35]

254. Yet another thank you from a DU junkie

You deserve financial support for your efforts. Please let us know where we can donate.

Q

[Freethinker65]

255. So happy you are back online

And thanks for helping me get back into my account.