It all ends tomorrow, so I hope you’ve got plans. I’m spending it teaching — we’ve got to have people prepared to restore the lost promise. Tomorrow the TV stays off, radio (who listens to radio anymore?) is disabled, I’m boycotting all of the news, and I’m going to focus on biology prep work for the next week.
Saturday we begin the long hard slog of trying to crawl out of the slime pit we’ve dug for ourselves. And I get to spend the rest of my life ashamed to have been an American.
?It’s the end of the world as we k ow it and I’ll be …?
To misquote Gandhi,”What American civilization”
I am spending the day working on publications for the upcoming season at a national park.
And wondering what will happen to the national parks under Trump (given the GOP’s obsession with getting rid of federal lands, who knows?).
And wondering what will happen to federal workers under Trump (given the GOP’s obsession with demonizing federal workers and privatizing (for more money) government jobs, who knows?).
And wondering what will happen to my health care, my retirement, my investments, under Trump (given Trump’s talk about replacing the ACA with ‘something wonderful’ (scare quotes are very intentional), making federal retirement the same as private industry (non-existent), and what has happened to the stock market during the last few GOP Presidencies, I am not real optimistic).
And wondering weather I will even make it to retirement (I am eligible to retire in 5 years, 4 months and 12 days (and, six months ago, was on track to be able to retire at , give or take, my minimum age, but, if Trump destroys the economy and destroys the federal work force, who knows.)
The Black Dog has taken up residence. Again.
Come off it. He’s president; he’s going to do immense damage. But over half the electorate voted against him despite the cretinous campaign of the opposition, and it will probably pan out that many who did vote for hime will come to regret it quickly. Man up, take the fight to the enemy. Their tactic is to use memes (in the Dawkins/Blackmore sense, not the twittertwat sense) as mind viruses. You don’t argue with diseases, and you don’t curl up in horror and die when an epidemic breaks out. You look in a scientific way for the cure- antimemetics, vaccination, hygiene, education.
I’ll probably be working on purchasing a car to replace the ’97 Probe. Then I will be able to visit my parents in Michigan, which I haven’t done since the Redhead had her stroke five years ago.
Better buy one now before the economy tanks. Trump doesn’t understand economics. I expect a YUGE recession.
You mean you lived through Nixon, Ford, Reagan and two Bushes and you’re only NOW ashamed of what the country’s up to?
Also, it’s people who have access to BBC Radio 4. We’re the ones who still listen to the radio anymore.
I was, actually, listening to the radio last night and the station I was on played R.E.M.’s “It’s The End of the World…” followed by the Pixies’ “Monkey Gone To Heaven” and Fishbone’s “Party at Ground Zero.” I thought, “Damn, they’re clearly preparing for a Trump presidency.”
What kills me is I grew up on a diet of self-congratulatory war movies about how America saved the world in WW2, with many moralizing speeches about what made us greater, and what led the German people astray… and the phrase, “it could happen here, ” seeming like the craziest notion of all.
Whether we turn into another self-genocidal country of killers or not, we’ve recognized ourselves as *wanting to.*
The Germans, at least, didn’t have the example of Hitler to warn them back to sanity. They only had the reality of him, so were tricked. We’ve got the example AND a moronic Twitler we let take us over. We weren’t tricked. We WANT this.
Actually, we get a 3-day reprieve. The orange baboon is taking the weekend off before starting his campaign to destroy the planet.
Drinking.
Trying to figure out how to keep my small business alive. We do a lot of international trade. I have customers in over 80 countries. A good portion of my inventory must be imported. I’m getting old and not sure what I will do if Trump kills my business. I’m nearly physically disabled so I can’t go work at Home Depot.
I plan on literally going to therapy at noon, and then doing what I can to avoid the inauguration unless something newsworthy occurs.
Today, it’s work as usual. Tomorrow, I’ll avoid news and social media in favor of watching a movie about a good president, probably Dave.
jacksprocket wrote @4:
by a razor slim margin.
The depressing thing is, nearly half voted FOR the Turd.
They are whom I worry about, their reaction to Turd screwing them also. That they blame their straw “lefties” and not the gold-drenched cheetoh Turd. *popcorn*
I am psyching myself to prepare to take action in the upcoming battles to preserve ~~you name it~~ everything is under attack.
—-
<stage whisper> I just got it! “Cheetoh” can also be used to imply “cheater” as well as for it’s color and dustiness. aka double entendre
IE: cheetoh –> {orange cheater}
jacksprocket:
Fuck off.
I have dual US/UK citizenship, so I’ll be debating with myself which one is the least worse to retire to.
slithey tove — “Nearly half” (45%) didn’t vote at all, so only 25% of the eligible voters voted for either one of the candidates. In the 60s/70s we joked about a “None of the Above” option on the ballot. Wouldn’t that be something.
I totally understand wanting to turn off the TV, but please don’t.
Turn it to any station BUT one that’s showing the inauguration. Leave it on throughout.
If your TV is on a different station, the comparative ratings will be lower for Trump’s inauguration. If your TV is just off, that won’t happen. Having his ratings be low will really get under his skinsuit.
Kaintuckee Bob — Wouldn’t their ratings reports note the drop in overall viewership compared to normal? I would think a significant drop in all media numbers concurrent with the inauguration would get under all their suits. Given media’s role in creating TweeterDumb and Rethuglican hegemony, they should probably hear the message too.
Kaintukee Bob — aren’t ratings calculated by samples of TV viewers, rather than monitoring the entire US cable and satellite watching public? (I know I’ve gotten surveys about this.)
As for what I’m doing today, science and preparing to meet a student who wants to do research tomorrow. It’s my first year as a professor, so I got a teaching release this term to develop my research program. (Also refine some of the courses I might teach next year.)
re 18&19:
I too am puzzled by the ratings protest. Some advocate the “leave TV on a different station”, while Snopes says ONLY Nielson boxes go into the ratings, so what people in general do is irrelevant. The former argues that cable providers know which channel each of their boxes is tuned to regardless of Nielson membership, so their statistics go into a larger form than Nielson. Nielson may be the standard so are the other forms might be just trivialized as excess “big data”.
Regardless which form is in effect, maybe telling everyone to tune against the inauguration could influence the Nielsons as well.
So who knows. Tune away from the inauguration if not a Trumpkin. So that’s what I do. Leaving my DVR to record Simpsons and South Park reruns during the DumpInaug.
I will be wearing black tomorrow.
On the web we count *everything* so tuning out makes a difference.
I’ve never tuned in to an inauguration and I’m not about to start. It’s just a holdover of coronation ceremonies.
But, I will mourn for what could have been.
Meanwhile I’ve been thinking of my next career move. My last was working on a kids TV series whose tag line is about celebrating diversity (with oddly-colored talking animals). My next, not sure yet.
Last day of American civilization? Come on, civilizations don’t end overnight. Trump is just the latest stage in a process of disintegration that’s been ongoing since at least Reagan, but whose roots go back much farther than that.
Trump managed to seize power because Obama normalized Bush who took power because Clinton normalized Reagan who took power using the southern strategy plus foreign treason approach that Nixon pioneered and got away with, but which only worked because of southern resentment votes which were a product of the botched reconstruction plus a giant mountain of racism which was the product of English aristocrats inventing a strategy to keep the peasants fighting amongst each other so they wouldn’t take down the aristocracy.
Which predates the United States of America. So I guess that means the United States can’t be “destroying” its civilization because it was never civilized in the first place.
Except that we’ve clearly improved somewhat since the days of chattel slavery. The Trumpkins would have to work pretty hard just to regress the country to 1917. But then, part of progress means raising expectations. A slave demands freedom; once freed, they demand legal equality, once equal under the law they demand equality in practice. Stagnation in the face of progress is a form of regression in its own right.
@14, Slithey Tove:
About half the electorate didn’t vote at all. Of those that did, less than half voted for Trump, putting his vote total at about 25% of the electorate. And exit polls say that a clear majority of people who did vote for him only did so because he was the lesser evil; they actually hated his guts. That drops his genuine support to around 10% of the electorate.
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again.
Meet the new boss: worse than the old boss but more or less the same.
Hi ,can i take issue with 8 ,like it or not the Red Army did more to defeat Nazi Germany ,2/3 of the Germans were on the Eastern front .
Anway back to fartface ,you Americans need to get rid of the Electroral college and have one person one vote
You could try paying people to turn up to vote .lol
Sensible policies for a happier America .
PS you only hope is that the far right congress you have won’t let him do any of the crap he has promised to do .
#4, jacksprocket:
“Man up”? “Twittertwat”? Keep that up, and you’ll be gone.
Marching. Anyone in the Houston area is welcome to join us: https://www.facebook.com/events/1755961954728284/?active_tab=discussion
I believe I will be spending it listening to The Dead Kennedys.
Today is identifying bark beetles as part of a statewide survey for early detection of exotic pests. When I need a break, I will be identifying moths as part of habitat monitoring programs on federal lands. We’ll see if there is anything left to save (other than ourselves) after a Trump presidency. I will not have any media on and will be wearing black tomorrow.
While we’re quoting classic rock songs…
Kick over the wall
Cause governments to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour
Anger can be power
Do you know that you can use it?
——-
Tomorrow’s forcasted to be a dreary, rainy day here in the DC area. A bit nicer on Saturday, might even see the sun peek out, but then back to crappiness on Sunday.
Anyway, our son’s RC WWI model plane is supposed to arrive today, and school’s out tomorrow, so I’ll probably help him put that together.
——-
Thinking about it some more, all the lyrics to Clampdown seem appropriate.
What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
‘Cause they’re working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we’re working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers
etc.
Joe Strummer was a visionary.
I will will be working on posting acceptable draft of a model of social conflict in blog comments. It’s rattling in ny mind for about five years. I finally found good ways of representing social context as a external force variable and ways of conveying “approach” and “withdraw” movements along axes that make sense. Interestingly those axes are direct/indirect, explicit/implicit, overt/covert as well as a variables for positively/negatively felt phenomena that would drive a person towards and away from something.
These people want me to take thier language apart and render it harmless.
You think you have it rough with the unspeakable one ,over here in parts of GB there is a courgette shortage .
Sarah A, that sounds great. But we are Marching in Austin and attending the LGBTQ rally the night before. Gonna tune into the live streaming of the National Women’s Town Hall after the march at 6:45pm put on by the #Our100, a group of 100 women leaders of color including the woman who cofounded BLM, Alicia Garza. But I know folks in Houston, my hometown! Hope you will report back about your experience.
Thank you PZ for the policing of sexist wordings! Wow, I have gotten used to that being the norm now, so much so that it was unbearable when a new org I joined (TX21) based on the Indivisible Manual for taking action to resist Trump thought it was just hunky dory to share (they were male leaders) for our serious consideration an article by a man which led with a photo of male Black Panthers holding rifles and a title that called us liberals “wimps” and challenged us (well, literally just the male liberals) to “grow a Pair” and consider that violence may be necessary to resist trump. Even though these men knew this new organization was made up of mostly women, they thought it extremely important we consider this article and did not notice at all how it ignored all of us women in its focus, just expecting us to force-fit ourselves into its language and assumed we accepted its assumption that having no balls is equivalent with being cowards. They didn’t care that they were using the same type of gendered shaming and bullying used by the alt right and Trump himself! And of course, being a new org led by youngish men who did not think it necessary to consult or consider the women that made up almost all of it, they did not know that back in the 60’s it was often cautioned by activists that the first person to claim violence may be needed was the FBI plant! I un-joined once it became clear my concerns about that language and article and the concerns of some other women were not going to be thought important or relevant and this clueless mindset by the men was just the default one we were all expected to share.
god I was horrified by the lack of just basic feminism 101. Long way to go folks! But I do so appreciate this corner of the world that does not function on that default basis. Thank you PZ!
Regular work day and since I haven’t made any beer in six months, it seemed like a good way to spend the evening: hiding my my basement with the sweet smell of wort and the pumps drowning out anything from the outside.
Oh…and beer.
Marching. Hopefully 2 days in a row.
Hey Wisconsin people:
Resist Trump Madison, Friday, 2 pm Library Mall, 728 State St.
https://www.facebook.com/events/219067278526953/
Women’s March on Madison, Saturday, 12-3 Library Mall, 728 State St.
https://www.facebook.com/events/361478110866299/
My congregation prayed for Donald.
We are delighted in this outcome.
#powerofprayer
killyosaur @ #30 — Yes, a day of “A Holiday in Cambodia” would just about do it, wouldn’t it. If I had a turntable I would drag out my copy of Music from the Deaf Club and perhaps Club Foot Orchestra as well. Maybe cue up Fear, “Let’s Have a War.” I’m thinking some late-70s nihilism is just what the doctor ordered.
davidc1 @ 26, Yes, I’m more aware of the history of WW2 than my post suggested. I meant that the propaganda of the time led me to believe that, as it did anyone born in the 50s and 60s. I still feel some pride the U.S. involvement against Germany, and not just the country that attacked our interests.
The thing that bothers me is all the people that grew up feeling that same thing now not recognizing what side of that same fight (fascism/anti-fascism) we’re now joining.
PastorTomEstes #38
Weren’t you banned years ago?
PastorTomEstes, I’m very curious. How would you expect to recognize the Antichrist, should he appear during your lifetime?
Would he have ridiculous luck in gaining power? Would he have wealth and fame? Would he be unfair in his dealings? Would he use Bible teachings clumsily and incorrectly? Would he bring war and pestilence, famine and death? Would his mistakes not detract any of his followers?
Assuming your religion has it right, and there will be, at some point, an Antichrist, then come up with any description that I’m familiar with, use some logic, and the inescapable conclusion is… you’re a patsy. You gave him power over the world.
Better get in some serious knee time to make up for that.
@PastorTomEstes
So what?
Why should we we be impressed that you said things in a room together?
“American civilization?” That ended once the First Nations were destroyed by a bunch of diseased whitebreads whose plagues killed off millions of Natives and then proceeded to slaughter the rest, before installing a variety of lethally dysfunctional theocracies, aristocracies and plutocracies that battle over the continent to this day.
Folks, I know you mean good, but it’s just plain senseless to feed trolls. Lets ignore them and wait for Thor’s banhammer to drop.
@applehead
That makes some sense. I’m not sure feeding religion trolls would be quite as useful. This would be bait for Trumplings.
@38, PastorTomEstes
How does that work?
Did god come down and vote himself, or did he hijack the brains of some of our American citizens and force them to vote for someone they didn’t want?
(Or, you know, did people just vote for who they wanted to vote for, and as usual, no god did anything because there isn’t a god)
Careful, Pastor. If the IRS learns that you endorsed a candidate, you could lose your non-profit status. Might have to actually pay some taxes.
Wouldn’t that be a shame?
No, he’s an apparently-continuous liar. There is no reason to believe he won’t do some “work” before Monday, and no reason to believe he will then(or ever) do some “work”.
If the good pastor decides to speak of orange and pink abuser head guy they should do more than merely tell us that his group really likes Tdump. That is a child’s comment and the whole of the content of the comment.
So wait, it wasn’t Russia…it was a non-terrestrial intelligence that used its power to interfere with our democratic processes?
Give those Americans some tinfoil hats! We need to save our planet from the non-earthling manipulation! XD
Oh, but it also required the help of…millions of humans doing the same thing. Not so powerful after all?
Some christians believe things that are just as bizarre as the people who believe in reptilian shapeshifters running the world and all that. Here’s my YouTube playlist of strange nonsense that this kind of stuff belongs on.
*I say “our” not because I am American, I’m not, but because I am human.
What a Maroon, there’s an interesting idea.
No ordinary politician would take on the church exemption from taxes. Certainly not a Republican!
But this tool is crazy enough to do it, and likely won’t even lose most of his radical, far-right Christian base. Hell, even the church management itself will probably scream with simultaneous exultation and rage as he does it. Wow, they might be so torn, their bodies may physically rip in half from the hypocrisy!
Now… to get him to do it… I think we have to, as liberals, band together and tell him HE CAN’T.
I do not know about the end of the US civilization but it surely is another transition period. there is a great conflict between the irrational reactionary forces trying to maintain their privilege and power and the growing realization by the people that the status quo is not working for them and they will not have it.
it is also is a time for realizations, life is short and reality is not always gentle or just. It is after all “work for a better tomorrow” the easy way is downhill. That “once and for all” solution is only in fairy tales reality is one thing after another.
I am not going to be doing anything that different try to get some work done, eat something good, rest when I can and remember DJT is just a nasty little old rich man his time is also short.
uncle frogy
Hi davidnangle ,i wasn’t saying that American wasn’t vital to the war effort ,it is just that over here in jolly old England we feel that all the allied nations have been air brushed out of history .
Like you i grew up watching war films ,now i prefer books .
Dear pastor tom ,just cut my leg off trying to cut my toe nails ,should i pray for it to grow back or should i hop to the hospital?.
PS, always wanted to be taller ,should i cut the other one off and ask your god to make the replacements longer ?.
I’ll be working. Next week though, I’ll be in Breda to do my part to ensure that the fascist Buck stops here. I’ll have to pick up a proof of nationality so I can request my absentee ballot and do whatever I can to keep Mr. Bleach from becoming der Fuehrer of the largest party in the Netherlands.
(I can’t believe that the Dutch embassy in Brussels stopped providing consulary services and I have to go to a border commune to request a new passport. I work in Brussels, litterally a frigging stone’s throw away from the Dutch embassy.)
Broadly similar situation here, with the additional kicker I’m in France, which is at serious risk of also going facist in a few months.
Somewhat befittingly, I will be spending the whole day inserting tubes into dead people. We’ll all be cadavers soon anyway.
I think this sums up how I feel.
“Reginald Selkirk \22:
I wear black every day, except for the days I go to funerals.
This leaves me somewhat torn for tomorrow.
@me #59:
Damn this stupid keyboard driver!
(In both the software and the user sense. it seems.)
I keep telling myself I survived 5 1/2 years of Richard Nixon, 8 years of Ronald Reagan and 12 years of various George Bushes, I will survive this.
But I’m not convinced, so I spent a few days rewriting the history of the last 25 years.
I think President Trump is the dumbest thing that ever happened.
After I go to the pool at the gym in the morning, my TV will be tuned to the Food Network all day.
I’ll make a nice soup and salad for dinner, and we’ll enjoy the new MacGyver in the evening.
We’ll probably catch Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher just to find out how outrageous the day has been.
PastorTomEstes @ 38;
Your self-congratulatory attitude is as curious as the priorities and sense of ethics of your imaginary god. ‘Power of prayer’ supposedly works to install a self confessed serial sexual predator and unrepentant racist and misogynist in the White House, and yet does nothing to address congenital birth conditions, cancer, starvation and disease across the world, or things like the horrific atrocities ongoing in Syria? It is just as well your god is fictional – as depicted by your religion his psychopathic disregard for human life would make him by far the most evil entity in existence if he wasn’t. Plus, you know, seeming to be totally OK with a man using his fame to grope women with impunity – something I would think your church might not want to associate itself with, especially given recent history in your faith grouping.
We really aren’t impressed that you and your oh so appropriately named ‘flock’ of human sheep mumbled incantations together in a room somewhere. It is has no more effect, and involves considerably less skill and stagecraft, then any other stage magic show. At least stage magicians use misdirection to create a temporary sense of wonder, whether by creating the illusion of pulling a rabbit out of a hat or seeming to predict what card a person will pick; all you lot do is talk to the air and pretend it talks back. You really need to up you game and hone your showmanship. You clerical con-artists are embarrassing yourselves.
The inauguration hasn’t even begun yet, and already we are getting a steady stream of people on news outlets claiming that we can’t possibly know what kind of President Trump will be, and that it is unfair to prejudge him – we should apparently just ‘give him a chance’. It is as though they have managed to blank everything he has said throughout the election campaign, before that for literally decades, and non-stop since it ended and he became President-Elect.
The trouble is that Trump has been given a chance; indeed, he has been given many, many more chances than he deserved. He has been given an entire two year long Presidential election campaign to state his case and show the US public and the world who he is and how he means to govern, and what he has shown us all is a fascistic, bigoted dystopic nightmare. At that point, people always wheel out the old saying ‘you campaign in poetry and govern in prose’, to imply that he will moderate his language and attitudes after the election and he won’t be the same willfully divisive and toxic figure he was during the election once he enters office, and yet throughout his period as President-Elect he has been given constant chances to demonstrate such a moderation in his stance, and for the most part he used those opportunities to double down on his rhetoric and often go even further.
How many more times will he have to show the world what a dangerous, incompetent buffoon he really is before it sinks in? It is like someone having their limbs broken by repeated blows from a two by four, and with each blow they and everyone around them wonder anew if it was somehow an accident, or if different pieces of wood are just happening to fall on them by some series of strange and unrelated mischances. For the first of even second impact it might be understandable, but fifty whacks in it starts to really strain credibility.
LOL
Please, Dr. Myers, “civilization” will continue just fine. Roman Civilization continued well after the end of the republic.
It’ll just be a crappier, eviler civilization.
@28 Myers: Apologies for inappropriate language. What I should have said was:
Quit whinging. Start planning. Or as someone once said, “Don’t mourn. Organise.”
@65,
okay, here you’ve got proof our “pastor” is just a common troll and not at all what they pretend to be. They’re here solely to “trigger the SJWs” and say whatever they figure will get a rise out of commenters. It’s standard 4chan mentality. I’ve seen plenty of that before after the gay marriage ruling. Suddenly online discussions are flooded with teens playing concerned godbotherers to raise a stink.
If you play their game and argue with them as if they’re genuine Ken Ham fanboys, they will perceive that as a victory as they’ve tricked the stupid-ass bleeding-heart libruls into wasting their time and energy on them. Don’t get them the satisfaction.
PZ, this sort of thing will only increase as time goes on. You should appoint additional mods to delete this kind of faker troll on sight, to cover times where you’re away from the computer.
Well, let’s see now. Tomorrow is my “Sunday”, Saturday is my “Monday”.
It’s also payday, so I’ll get up, then order those 5000 rounds and spend the rest of the morning irritated that I had to order such an excess to get the 500 that I needed for the competition season, but thankful that after much work, I’ve already unloaded the excess to a local competition club and a few fellow competitors. I have no clue how I’d store that much hazmat and wouldn’t have ordered otherwise.
I’m sure some bean counter somewhere will worry.
Then, off to my endocrinologist. I received the lab work this afternoon, found one anomaly in my liver function, which read “needs onions”, I worry about that lab tech.
Then, pick up some oil and a filter for the car. Add a bit of oil, as the engine is low, a change will have to be in the afternoon, as I’ll have an MRI soon.
Dash off to Shreveport for an MRI.
Come home, eat something. Change the oil and filter.
Clean up.
Go shopping, the fridge is getting lonely. Picking up various forms of pasta, as I still have 10 quarts of home made pasta sauce and 4 pounds of meatballs that I made last week happily ensconced in the freezer. Along the way, pick up RX refills for myself and my wife.
Fix dinner.
Clean up.
Drink about Trump.
Go to bed.
Actually, my liver function testing was its usual excellent levels, despite my legendary ethanol intake. One enzyme that was previously elevated corresponded to other values that indicated rebuilding bone that was lost to hyperthyroidism.
I guess since the pastor does not want to tell us what he and his congregation are happy about we can try to work it out. Does it have to do with spouses or offspring? How about what one does when one is sexual attracted to someone in a professional environment? What about how we deal with violent people of faith beyond muslims? What about keeping ones word? Or what the relationship between the wealthy and poor should be?
Maybe the pastor wants to control female people? They are definitely afraid of something we care about or we would not be the subject of group-based gloating.
When hubby and I are not kicked back watching Netflix movies tomorrow, no regular tv, no way, Bleh! we well be putting the finishing touches on the signs we plan to carry for our local “Women’s March” on Saturday. Hope you can all join us at the nearest march in your area if you can’t make it to DC.
I spent all my spoons dealing with disability benefits applications so I’m completely tapped out with no guarantee I’ll be capable of anything tomorrow.
In any case, I’m not putting any effort into confronting Trump directly; he’s already pretty thoroughly despised and he doesn’t care so I doubt he’ll stop ruining the country if we make it just a little clearer that he’s supported by single-digit percentages of the population. Instead, I’m focusing on the Democrats.
The resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz over her involvement in Clinton’s scandals has created a vacancy at the top of the Democratic Party and we have a shot at getting an actual liberal to fill it. Taking back the Democratic Party is the first step to taking back the country— we can’t kick the Republicans out of power if we don’t have anyone to replace them with.
If I have any spare spoons for activism (which is rare), I’ll call my Senators— both are DINOs, but the one who’s up for reelection in 2018 has been at least marginally responsive to the anti-Trump sentiment pervading the state.
I’ll try to get some translation work done in the morning, then I have a dentist appointment. (A filling, covered by Medicaid. Thanks, Obama! :'( )
Then I’ll be spending the day watching my nephews, who will probably be happily watching cartoons instead of the inauguration.
Then I’ll drink about Trump.
@Jessie Harban, do not try and bend the spoon; that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
There is no spoon.
Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
Realize, bending is superior to breaking.
And realize, it’s only not a spoon, it’s only an increasingly high mound of godfucking paperwork.
Dealt with that with my wife’s disability, only to be defeated by two things:
We owned a vacant property, as we were providing my dying father 24/7 care during his CHF, ESRD and vascular dementia final days.
Then, I got a job and made far too damned much to qualify. Hence, the household income was far above the threshold to pay out to someone who paid into the fund for her entire frigging life.
Don’t get me into my feelings about the jackoffs in D.C. that want to steal the Social inSecurity that I’ve spent my entire life paying into. I’m going to bend the living dogshit out of their spoons.
Into veritable modern art of the most abstract sort, beyond imagination.
Now, excuse me while I serve up some burned bird meat and steamed weeds.
Aka, baked yogurt spiced marinaded chicken, with steamed “stir fry” vegetables, also specially spiced.
We’ll likely fall into a food coma after.
Yeah, food comas are setting in. :)
The chicken is a part, old Arabian recipe that I learned from my travels, my derived vegetable recipe, derived from myself, both were huge hits.
The baked potatoes, less of a hit, as expected, but carbs were needed to balance the meal.
I mean, it would make sense that the Christian God of the Old Testament would pick Trump… But I doubt it would listen to a nobody like TEstes.
Much rain tomorrow, otherwise I’d ride my bike on the Capital Trail and do a 50 miler and hopefully be too endorphed to think of anything but a hot bath followed by a bowl Irish oatmeal with blueberries and maple syrup. Since that’s out it’ll be Cohen’s Hallelujah, Hendrix, Ten Year’s After, Quicksilver Messenger Service, et al. on an an endless loop while I fantasize about a world without the Electoral College. Then there will be drinking.
Retired blue collar worker here; college music major. Retreating to the classics: all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. Clears my mind and prevents thoughts of orange assholes. Depth and revolutionary aspect of these wonders–always good for the soul.
Highly recommended.
I’m going to do an All Art Day on Affinity. Art, photography, cool stuff, neat science, whimsical things, animals, geekdom, all that kinda stuff.
I spent it with yet another boring, unfulfilling day at work, followed by a few hours of role-playing (i.e. The GM was running “A Red And Pleasant Land” campaign using the “Lamentations of the Flame Princess” rules). Tomorrow, my anxiety level is officially being ramped up beyond 11.
Work was canceled due to power outages so I slept through most of it. I needed that. o.o
I doubt I’ll do much different today than usual. Work, then go home and relax. Got to remember to put the trash out tonight, too. I’m somewhat insulated from the most immediate effects of this election thanks to the big pond. I can’t even imagine what it must be like over there, though. Stay strong and resist. Anyway, I’ll probably watch the inauguration on YouTube tomorrow with comedic and progressive commentary, there may be some enjoyment in that.
get ready for the woman’s march on Saturday. Don’t crawl under a stone – get together!
I’m going to spend the day as I always do. Business as usual.
Not because I don’t care, but because I do care.
You know how they say the best way to respond to terrorism is to not let fear guide you and live on as youŕe used to?
Something like that.
Looks like I’ll be dealing clearing the Redhead’s name from a car title, and dealing with insurance issues related to her.
And I’m wearing my ‘Texans for Obama’ tee-shirt. Seems suitable.
Somewhat amusingly, and similarly, I’ve been working my way through all the classic Doctor Who episodes, more-or-less in order, since roughly the election disaster day. As you say, “Clears my mind”, but with the added satisfaction of seeing proxies for the incoming orange dalekcarcy blown up or otherwise thwarted once-ish an hour…
I won’t watch the address but will tune in for commentary. I recommend this analysis of it :
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/20/us/politics/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region®ion=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region
I’ve been thinking it won’t be as bad as we all think because the republican congress will resist some of Trumps proposals and the democrats will obstruct as much as they can, and trump’s approval ratings have been dropping, now at 32% so many of those who voted for him now disapprove and the congress may respond to that, but then I read things like this
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/donald-trump-arts-and-humanities-budget-cuts
And my heart sinks. But how much can they really cut from basic services-Medicare , Medicaid, social security? No one will stand for it. Right? Right?
Maybe the Russian stuff will pan out and he’ll be impeached.
About sexist language, I’ve wondered for a while if doucebag and douchey ,at least the latter used on this site to insult someone, are misogynistic. Two different opinions:
NO
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/12/douchebag-is-a-feminist-insult/
YES
http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2011/11/sidetrack_is_douche_mysogynistic.php
Speaking as a straight male, I think the words are sexist. I agree with the rational argument at the first link but many don’t respond rationally to words and this word has unpleasant associations which relate only to women. So as much fun as the words can be should they be banned here?
57 ,thats a strange hobby you have got.
Well, my evening plans went to shit in no time flat.
Had one small drink before dinner, ate dinner late, about 20 minutes after, I was doubled over, feverish, feeling as if a great blunt spear was shoved into my solar plexus and into my spine.
While wondering WTF, noting nausea and some gassy bloating, emesis relieved most of the pain.
I’ll have to move my physician’s appointment up, check for a recurrence of stones. My gallbladder was removed after being filled with large stones a bit over a decade ago.
Everything save the duration is consistent with pancreatitis, the rapid clearance of symptoms post emesis suggests acute obstruction.
Argh, getting older sucks. But, it sucks a lot less than not getting to be able to get older.
I’m staying current with the news, scrolling past pictures of that ugly bastard, looking for uplifting content, of which there is much, and rehearsing my lines that I will use to fend off pretenders who will predictably pretend to defend the pretend president.
I’ve got a one dollar wager with the clerk at my local convenience store. I say Teh Donah will not last a year, he says two years. Maybe he’s right. He’s from the mid east. His name is Saeed. He’s a hoot and a half. We normally share a laugh when I buy his gas, his beer, his needful things.
I’m not going to lose much sleep though I will be up late, like now, looking for clues that reasonable people are finding ways to not only resist the orange asshole but to find inventive ways to point and laugh and expose its (yes, ‘its’) naivete and dangerous personality.
Are hard times afoot? When are they not? My hope as well as my words and deeds will be to show that our new White House squatters are not only incapable of the job they have undertaken but are a clear and present danger to the rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens of the United States.
I know that I do not stand alone. That is the source of my courage and that is why I am not afraid. Well, not terrified. A bit apprehensive? Yeah. Like we all are.
Just remember this: we must hang together or we will most certainly all hang separately.
Thanks to places like this I know and trust that I am not alone. Together we stand a very good chance of riding out the storm and making a better nation. But dammit! it’s so much work! My goal is to help my grandsons to look back and say, “Thanks, Grampa, you old guys rock!”. To which I will answer, “History!”.
My response would be what it’s always been, “I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let you all down”.
Crudely Wrott
Have a ♥^bazillion for you and yours.
Thanks, Chigau and, ah, nice orbit you have there. ;)