That Kavanaugh would be confirmed was a given ever since Kennedy and his corrupt son made a deal with Trump to have Kavanaugh nominated and McGahn was in place with all kinds of dirt to enforce party loyalty. I never for a moment thought there would be any outcome other than this, so at least I am spared that disappointment. I do think it was worth fighting and protesting, because this needs to be as painful as possible for the GOP, and they need to pay a heavy political price. As for us, the price is as follows:
Definitely dead:
Roe
Obergefell
Voting Rights Act
Independent Counsel Law
Gerrymandering/Redistricting
Probably Dead in the longterm:
Brady Bill
rest of the 4th Amendment
Clean Water Act and other environmental regulation
ACA in any meaningful form
ADA and other antidiscrimination legislation
Freedom from religion
Innovation at the state level- they’ll go after California for emissions, net neutrality, etc.
Any attempts to tackle the role of dark money.
But, you know, there was no difference between Hillary and Trump. It’s a dark day for America. As for Joe Manchin- I think I have repeatedly said that he would not vote yes if he was the deciding vote, but if he was going to be confirmed anyway, he would vote yes. He did not disappoint.
rp
I think this is awful, but let’s take a step back — he’s replacing Kennedy, not Ginsburg or Breyer. The only significant difference between Kavanaugh and Kennedy (who became a very reliable RW vote over his last 10 years) is probably gay rights. That’s obviously important, but we’re not talking about a sea change in the near future. The bigger issue may been claims against Trump, but how confident are any of you that Kennedy would have voted against Trump anyway?
schrodingers_cat
You were right this time around.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
They can’t go after Obergfell. SSM enjoys majority support among all Americans. They can’t do that and expect to get away with it. Not if they want to continue on living comfortably.
guachi
Any environmental regulation that can be brought to the Supreme Court is toast.
Any regulation or law limiting religion from imposing itself on you is toast.
John Cole
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: So does clean water. And gun control. And taxing the rich. And ending the war in Afghanistan. You’re still under the illusion that what the majority wants matters.
Mnemosyne
Cole, why are you not in your car driving to Manchin’s office to protest? Get over there right fucking now.
Why are West Virginia Democrats sitting on their asses and letting Manchin stab us in the back?
jacy
The only, tiny, itty-bitty sliver of good from what has happened today is that, for Republicans, Kavanaugh is no longer a rallying cry for the midterms. For Democrats, he is even more of one. Everything that has happened the past couple of weeks fade in the force of the firehose of constant shit. We will take the house, and there is hope for taking the senate. If you’re pissed off, use that for the next month to ensure that everyone has checked their registration and can get to the polls.
The Dangerman
I was dead wrong; I had the AWSJ as the sign this was going the other way. Instead, Collins and Flake took turns polishing his pole. Utterly shameful.
I’d love to know what price Collins/Flake extracted. Fucking whores.
John Cole
@The Dangerman: They didn’t extract anything. Flake is retiring. Collins is done after this term. They don’t want anything- it would be easier for many to deal with if it were as simple as a quid pro quo, but it isn’t. They’re just awful people and this is what they want.
Bruce K
Hanging’s too good for those bastards.
That said … hang those bastards.
donnah
Buckle up. Kavanaugh can start his term as early as Tuesday. The Republicans will be gleeful and giddy with new power. Get ready for a wave of gloating and Trumptweets.
Ohio Right to Lifers will be readying their challenges to Roe v Wade. They will be thrilled.
I’m gearing up for November.
Jeffro
I’m actually a little relieved…we get to play by Republican rules now. And by that I mean that instead of doing the thoughtful thing, the reasoned thing, the thing that’s best for America, we get to do whatever we want to Republicans (which, technically, is what’s best for America). How exciting!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@John Cole:
They won’t get away with it forever if we fight them; make their lives horrible and miserable to the point where they eat their precious guns.
Patricia Kayden
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) u??: They don’t have to go after Obergefell as a whole. They can overturn it in increments just like they’ve pretty much gutted the Voting Rights Act And Roe v. Wade.
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: I don’t see anyone on the D side doing that. Sen Warren is still checking to politely see what she can and can not say about the FBI report. We’re going to keep playing norms is as norms does and continue to get bent over.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yes, it sucks, but don’t lose sight of why they’re so desperate. They know they’re running out of time. They can hold off the inevitable, but they can’t stop it altogether. As hard as this is going to be, as shitty as it’s going to be, we–society; most of us; needless to say there will be people who suffer and even die because of this–we’re going to come out on top. Most Americans do not want a sociopathic nazi-Randian hybrid state, and the only reason they’ve been able to hang on are the built in antidemocratic hitches built into the Constitution. We do not want this. And, this desperate last grab at hanging on notwithstanding, we will come out on top. Lindsey Graham got one thing right, they just can’t breed angry white guys fast enough to keep up.
This is not the end. This is not over. I’ll just end with this hopeful thought: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no. Nothing is over until we say it is! And this is just the kind of shit show that demands that a really stupid and futile gesture be done on somebody’s part. And we’re just the ones to do it!
trollhattan
Slap in the noggin with a 15-pound octopus for anybody who says John Roberts will reel in li’l Brett.
Sister Golden Bear
@rp: it’s fucking important if you’re LGBT, like me. Just saying…
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: They. Don’t. Care. They’re proud to be counter majority rulers.
Republicans have already been busy implementing a wide variety of anti-LGBT policies, in particular anti-trans policies that are part of a five-point plan of the Family Research Council plan to eradicate trans people from public life — and I don’t mean figuratively. (Not in the TenguPhule sense of genocide, but by driving us back into the closet.)
Doesn’t we stop fighting, but at this point, the rest of my life is looking much harder than I was hoping for two years ago.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Corner Stone:
Then I suppose we’ll need new leaders willing to play hardball
NotMax
Republicans place hands over Statue of Liberty’s mouth, venture to remove her dress.
“I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
– E. Scrooge
Corner Stone
And even though some continue to suggest that the FBI will not get tagged with the shit bag that is their conduct on the background investigation – they will absolutely be left holding the shit bag from this fiasco.
JMG
@Patricia Kayden: I don’t know about that. You can either get married or you can’t. There aren’t fake medical issues you can put into a decision. They have to overturn it or let it go.
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: Good, I didn’t want her running in 2020 anyway.
First Dem to publicly take the gloves off is the party leader, full stop.
Emma
@Corner Stone: Then that’s the first thing to go after. “You want my vote next election? Prove it. Screw the rules. Take off the gloves. Or else I will start fundraising for whoever takes you on.”
MazeDancer
Pretty sure Collins just elected Beto O’Rourke.
The entire Senate just went “Lean Dem”.
Anger seething. Women will not go back.
(Obligatory: Please write PostCards to Flip the House with BJ Candidates. PostCardPatriots.com)
Chetan Murthy
[deleted b/c superfluous]
goblue72
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Have needed that for a long time. Somebody needs to dig up and re-animate the corpse of LBJ to teach Democrats how politics works.
Repatriated
@Corner Stone:
She (or someone else using her information) might have been holding off to see whether it was even necessary to leak, if not the report, at least the substance of the false statement.
It’s no longer not necessary to hold off now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MazeDancer: thank you and the gods bless you for keeping your eyes– and trying to bring everyone else’s– back to the real thing amid all the sniping and tone-policing.
I’m deep breathing and trying not to rage-donate. I think I’m gonna set up a weekly donation to the DCCC.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Brett has been procuring women for Roberts using his law clerks — Kavanaugh hires them and then passes them along to Roberts. They’re in this woman-abusing shit together.
waspuppet
“… ever since Kennedy and his corrupt son made a deal with Trump to have Kavanaugh nominated and McGahn was in place with all kinds of dirt to enforce party loyalty.”
Once again, the entire GOP has copied the Trump playbook: They’ve flooded the zone with such obvious corruption that no one ever really gave this the attention it deserved.
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Boy, are you gonna be surprised. Multiple, MULTIPLE cases are coming forward with the big bad trans rights question that will affect gay rights and yes, all minority civil rights. I explained it to my lawyer roommie and he had to sit down because he’s not as up on this shit. They have no conscience, Goku. They have power and the chance to change American decided law going back as far as they can see is now within their grasp. Fuck everyone who ever made sitting things out a really principled thing to do.
Jeffro
@MazeDancer: Agree with all of this…the GOP just satisfied its voters, while giving ours a full and clear understanding of what’s at stake. Like gas on an already raging fire.
Corner Stone
@MazeDancer: Unfortunately, I’ve been having a sinking feeling about Beto. It was always uphill, and he is running a great race. But I think the closing ad spend and just relentless deceitful oppo ads that are targeting him are going to keep enough evil assholes to the polls to out number the good guys in that one.
SenyorDave
If I could wish for one thing that seems easy it would be for some Democrats to rake Shitgibbon over the coals when he mocks a victim of sexual assault or when he calls the women who confronted Flake “rude elevator screamers”. Let someone from the US Senate call Trump out, saying they would expect more from their eight year old grandchild. Explicitly say that he owes the American people an apology for his remarks. Because I have an eight year old granddaughter, and I would be very disappointed if she were ever as idiotic and cruel as the piece of excrement who has desecrated the WH.
James E Powell
@John Cole:
This is true about every Republican and about 45% of American voters.
goblue72
@MazeDancer: Remains to be seen. Friend was at fundraiser this past weekend for a group working to flip the House. One of the hosts teaches at Cal. Brought up Kavanaugh hearings to her class and her students hadn’t heard of him.
NotMax
@Corner Stone
“Norm!”
/Cheers
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
His Trumpish “No one has sent more women to the Supreme Court than me!” struck me as outright creepy. Given the charges you’re so busy refuting, do you think that’s your best defense right now, Brett?
Evidently that’s exactly what Brett thinks.
Mary G
@MazeDancer: I’m writing the ones to Virginia voters you sent me yesterday on behalf of Vangie Wiliiams. I’ve had to throw a couple away because I was furious and did not write clearly enough, but nevertheless I persist.
TenguPhule
@rp:
What are you smoking? Because that’s so wrong that it crosses the line three times and is not funny.
bemused
@goblue72:
Now that’s really depressing!
trollhattan
@goblue72:
Wait, what?!? Does he/she teach particle physics or something?
James E Powell
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
You know who else is running out of time? Me! I’m 63.
Steve in the ATL
RIP rule of law. This drunken rapey nutball is such an extremist that no one will be able to pretend that his opinions are even remotely legitimate.
Major Major Major Major
Not so sure about Obergefell. Is anybody even challenging it? It seems to just be kinda okay.
TenguPhule
@guachi:
Megachurches are gonna be the new GOP PAC.
goblue72
@trollhattan: Sociology.
*commence drinking*
rp
@Sister Golden Bear: I know and agree. But he’s not going to be able to gut Obergfell overnight.
ChrisS
[32] I don’t doubt any of this, but Kav is just replacing Kennedy. Overall though, the thing is that they have the money to set a million associates to work identifying these cases and getting everything squared away before the leftwing has a chance to even figure out where the fight will be. The firstest with the mostest.
goblue72
@TenguPhule: Aren’t they already?
Kylroy
@Jeffro: And then it’s war. We have millions of gun-humpers just dying to open fire on minorities and libtards and anyone who looks at them funny. Dems are pretending the norms still hold on the offchance we might return to them; once they, too, give up the ghost, it’s just a countdown to armed conflict.
tulip
I think you should also mention Gamble vs US. It will probably be Kavanaugh’s first vote.
TenguPhule
@Bruce K:
Death is not too good for our enemies.
trollhattan
BTW, think it’s past time to give Federalist Society the NRA treatment and continually shine a spotlight on them and attack them as enemies of democracy.
Why do they get to provide the president* with his judicial shopping list? I didn’t vote for them.
geg6
Personally, I’m trying to decide on whether to try to figure out a way to get out of this hellhole of a country or simply kill myself. I’m leaning suicide. I can’t figure out a way to make a living anywhere else. Because no one needs student aid officers in other countries. And pretty soon, we won’t need them here, either. I just can’t live with a rapist on the SCOTUS. I just can’t.
J R in WV
OK, I’m going off topic with some good news. About West Virginia, also, too !!
The Charleston Gazette-Mail, the states biggest newspaper, which had a reporter win a Pulitzer Prize just a couple of years ago, has another reporter who won a big award this week.
Ken Ward, whom I have known for decades, is an environmental reporter. I spent much of my career developing environmental database systems for WV Department of Environmental Protection, and received FOIA requests from Ken at least monthly. He is a great guy, a straight shooter as a reporter, and won a MacCarthy Genius Grant earlier this week for reporting on the environmental and human costs of the WV Coal and Oil and Gas industries.
This is better than a Pulitzer because (a) you don’t apply for one, they look your work up on their own; and (b) it comes with that big grant award, unlike the Pulitzer, which gives you the automatic ability to work anywhere in the news business, but otherwise is a certificate for your wall. As another friend who works at the Gaz said, “Now he could afford to take the copy-editors to Ireland to work!”
And when I wrote Ken a congratulatory note, he replied with thanks for helping him back in the day, how sweet of him was that?!?! A steller guy I am proud to have worked with back in the day, proud to share this state with him.
It wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour, and it surely isn’t over now!!!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
I still think harassing all of these fuckers and their financial backers to suicide is a viable strategy if they won’t even allow us to vote them out peacefully.
trollhattan
@goblue72:
Dear. Lord. And Cal is REALLY HARD to get accepted to. [chug]
I like beer.
Lawrence
If Democrats have Congress in January they can strip SCOTUS of the jurisdiction to hear a challenge to Roe, Ogberfell, etc. Congress’ authority is not without limit in this matter, but it can be done. Put SCOTUS on ice for two years and pack the court when we can.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Their choices are shit on toast or shit on anthrax. Primaries are over and Manchin is in the catbird seat.
geg6
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
So does Roe. Doesn’t mean a damn thing.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kylroy:
Perhaps war is nearly inevitable at this point.
Emma
Guys, something weird is happening. I can’t use my own edit button, but I can see some of the others’. Haven’t tried them yet.
goblue72
@trollhattan: Hence why I found the anecdote so miserably depressing.
TenguPhule
@jacy:
One would think you’d know the Republican Rage Machine better then that by now.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@geg6:
Please don’t hurt yourself. Take a week or so break from politics if you must but don’t harm yourself. Spend time with your family and friends. We need you. I can’t speak for everyone else here but I enjoy reading your comments and I care about you.
patrick II
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I been guessing you were a history major. Guess not.
Steve in the ATL
@goblue72:
Collins speech was on the tv in the airport restaurant so I started the wine right then and there. Thank god I’m sitting up front so I can continue the binge on the flight home.
gene108
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The places that vote overwhelming Republican are still overwhelmingly against gay marriage. I remember the vote, in NC, during their 2012 anti-gay marriage referendum and outside of the big cities/university towns, the rural areas went 80/20 against gay marriage.
So what, if more people in CA are for gay marriage than the populations of Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, etc. combined. CA still only gets two Senators and their voter’s votes counts for fewer Electoral College votes per capita than less populate states.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
There is a curious liberation in being at the point where there’s very little left to lose. So many new options become available.
NotMax
@tulip
There is a case already accepted challenging time of residence requirements in order to be able to sell booze (in TN, if memory serves).
Doesn’t take a trip to Delphi to suss out K’s vote.
Steve in the ATL
@Emma: Kavanaugh is already ruining our lives!
Major Major Major Major
@geg6: PSA: The national suicide prevention hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
TenguPhule
@Sister Golden Bear:
Not yet. Emphasis on the yet. But they’re going there.
eemom
Nobody’s even mentioned yet that this shitsack thinks semiautomatic weapons are as American as apple pie.
Joseph A. Miller
@Corner Stone: Beto has raised $16,000,000 MORE than Cruz. He has the money to stay up on the air EVERYWHERE in Texas for the rest of the campaign. He can and will fight back against Cruz and his Dark Money benefactors.
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Poe’s law? I can’t tell anymore.
Woodrow/Asim
@rp: he’s not going to be able to gut Obergfell overnight.
The challenge is that these folks are more than willing to play “boil the frog” with our rights. It’s why we have to start taking back state and local government.
To explain: As long as the harm they do isn’t direct and obvious to all, it gets ignored by our press (and let’s face it, the press has never been great at this stuff.) The slow erosion of Abortion Rights is the biggest example, along with crap like the Hobby Lobby decision.
That’s the model they’ll likely follow. It won’t be a sudden overturn of Roe, or Obergfell, or Griswold, etc. They’ll depend on a steady supply of cases coming in from Right-wing Attorneys General via state legislators, all fueled by dark money we will have little chance of stopping in the next 10-20 years.
But: the more local/state governments we can pull back from these extremists, the fewer cases they will have access to, to cut our rights from. We must focus on breaking the fuel line for these SCOTUS fires, as it also benefits us with better state governments + a deeper bench for keeping control of Congress.
I admit, I’m terrified beyond reason right now. But I’m trying, desperately, to keep my mind and heart centered on how we move forward, and not on cussing out the current cowards in our inept and corrupt Congress.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@patrick II:
That means what exactly?
ruemara
@goblue72: Awful. just awful.
@eemom: It’s been overshadowed by his rampaging, drunken peen
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
Call your therapist. Right now. If she’s not there, call 911. Please.
California is expensive but nice, and we have equal rights for women written into our state constitution. We have many colleges that could use your financial aid skills.
FlipYrWhig
@goblue72: I teach at a college in Virginia. My students appeared to be following it very closely, to the point where when one missed class she said she regretted that she was missing her chance to relate the reading material to the hearings.
trollhattan
@goblue72:
Maybe cold comfort but my HS junior and her cohorts in the honors program know bloody well who he is, what he is and what his ascension to the Supreme Court means for them, especially the girls (a good number of the boys remain busy kicking one another in the nuts). She considers Cal kindofa “safety school.” Teens are so cute.
FlipYrWhig
@TenguPhule: It’s from a movie that’s probably one of Brett Kavanaugh’s heart-warming favorites. Google it.
Woodrow/Asim
Quote didn’t work/Edit not working — in my comment above “he’s not going to be able to gut Obergfell overnight.” is from @rp, not me
Emma
@Steve in the ATL: Oh yes. I heard the POC Hunger Games are being planned already.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@gene108:
At some point the system’s going to break down because too many people are unhappy and refuse to go along with the machine any longer. Then these Masters of the Universe will reap the whirlwind and get exactly what they deserve.
Emma
@geg6: Yes you can. YOU CAN . If only to spite the bastards. Hold on. Get help.
TenguPhule
@FlipYrWhig: I remember animal house. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. Like I said, its just gotten to the point where Its hard to tell.
Fair Economist
@jacy:
That’s not itty-bitty. It’s quite large. As a lot of people have pointed out, the voting difference between Kavanaugh and anybody else on the Federalist list is pretty small. The political cost of the Republicans having to defend putting a rapist, perjurer, and money launderer on the Court will be large and long.
IMO this is the real reason Murkowski voted against. She only defects when the vote would carry a monstrous political cost to the Republican party.
Mary G
Another donation website crashes under heavy use:
Kay
@trollhattan:
I do think it’s time to stop thinking institutions won’t fail. They’re all failing, one by one. If they crumbled this easy they weren’t as strong as we thought they were anyway.
BUT- there’s still one that survives and it might become stronger out of pure necessity, like a muscle we’ll need to use. We can still vote.
banditqueen
@geg6: You need to be heard, this is a terrible, awful outcome. Please keep talking here, talk with your loved husband and sisters and friends. You do not need to justify your feelings, and I agree with you, this has been one, long, slow turning up of the middle finger to all victims of sexual assault. I’m where you are, finding it hard to see the bright side, so sometimes people need to respect the voice of the victims and not ask for a smile. I don’t know if you’ve ever read N. Shange:
You have mentioned your therapist–please call your therapist–your voice matters.
Corner Stone
@Joseph A. Miller: I like Beto, and I like his campaign. I just think you’re misunderestimating the downward drag the closing weeks of assault are having on him. The “free” media has also been brutal, keeping faux scandal after faux scandal in top headlines for a solid month now.
Major Major Major Major
@Woodrow/Asim:
Yup. Which is why Obergfell is, among these issues, more uniquely safe. They will probably attack it from the public accommodation/cake-baking side of things, which won’t change things like (non-Catholic) hospital visitation, inheritance rights, and other federal legal guarantees.
Fair Economist
@geg6: Hang in there, geg, we’re on your side. Call a helpline like Mnemosyne suggested.
TenguPhule
@goblue72:
But now they won’t have to pretend otherwise.
Kay
So lick your wounds, rant and rave, despair, whatever you need to do is fine with me. But then organize and vote, because you still got that. Organize. 5 people, 10 people, a congressional district, some group, because we need a multiplier. Each individual working alone won’t do it.
Cacti
Often wrong Cole is painfully correct about this one.
The time to keep a Justice Kavanaugh from happening was November 2016.
But a certain kind of myopic “progressive” just can’t resist using national elections as exercises in personal pique.
You can draw a straight line from progressive petulance to John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. And they all thank you for their lifetime appointments.
chopper
@geg6:
you should find some help and please do so quickly. we don’t want to lose you.
Patricia Kayden
@geg6: Please get help. You’d do fine in Canada. But do what’s best for your mental health. Please!!
Origuy
The edit button is still messed up. I’m getting it for goblue72’s posts. I clicked it once and a blank text box appeared.
MazeDancer
@Mary G:
Thank you, Mary G. Laughing so hard.
“Vangie is determined to protect Social Security…and stick those friggin assholes with a red hot poker up where the….”
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Please get in touch with your therapist pronto. If you can’t reach her, call 1-800-273-TALK (National Suicide Prevention Hotline). Hug the dogs and let them take you for a walk this evening.
This is horrible, but you’ve proven throughout your adult life that you have reserves of amazing strength and resilience. And apart from everyone else in your life, you have a devoted community of Jackals, all of whom are here for you and love and admire you. We can and will get through this. We will prevail.
Aleta
@geg6: It’s good to leave the country even for a break. If you can, Quebec province has good food as standard; and right now leaf color including all the way up along your drive. Maybe set a period of time, 2-3 months to look into Canada and other options. Two years ago I didn’t think I could survive if I stayed here; I’m proud of myself that that was not true; however I’m back there today myself.
celticdragonchick
So what if California tells the SCOTUS to fuck off and ignore their rulings?
Aleta
@banditqueen: The only Broadway show I ever went to (regret there haven’t been more) was Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. I got to choose which one as a teen after winning an award-trip to NYC. Forever glad of it.
scottinnj
@John Cole: They will be getting well paying gigs sitting on panels with David Brooks at the Aspen Ideas festivals, consultancy agreements with Koch founded think tanks. All they have to do is once or twice a year show up on CNN with furrowed brow expressing concerns and they will still get tounge baths from Chuck Todd, David Brooks etc. They vote no sudenly alot of that money dries up (ie the Koch brothers pay much better than George Soros)
misterpuff
@trollhattan: I’ve already read such in the Village Drivel, but anybody that thinks Roberts cares what his court ‘s legacy will be is whack. The GOPers think this will usher in a New Golden Age of AMURKA under the lead of the divinely guided Justices.
Ohio Mom
@geg6: Oh no, no, no. Don’t go there. Go back to therapy instead.
Please let us know how we can best support you in finding hope.
Also, don’t those dogs need you?
jacy
One thing I have learned the past four years is to allow yourself feelings of anger and despair, but don’t catastrophize. Nothing is the end of the world. Things are hopeless until they are not, and your job is to keep yourself alive until things are not. My husband drained the bank accounts and left me with five kids, all the bills, and not a dime left to my name on the eve of major surgery for ovarian cancer. I literally had nothing, not even a car to get to chemotherapy sessions, only my freelance income — which didn’t mean shit when I was too sick to work — and insurance that wouldn’t cover anything until I’d paid thousands of dollars that I didn’t have. I had a minor stroke from stress, and couldn’t remember how to type. I was so depressed that every moment of every day I thought it would be too much. It wasn’t. It’s never too much until you give up and allow it to be.
Anybody who is feeling out of control, seek help. Therapy, call lines, friends, pets, binge watching TV, cake — whatever. Just remember you need only to get through the next time frame — a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year. Things are only hopeless until suddenly they are not.
Kathleen
@geg6: I am holding you in the light. Please take good care of yourself. You are very brave for allowing yourself to express your feelings. Cling to your courage through all of these years. You are very special.
Kathleen
@banditqueen: Thank you for that powerful quotation!
gretchen
Geg6: please take care of yourself. We here love you. Trip to Quebec sounds like a great idea.
Sister Golden Bear
@geg6: Hang in there. To echo what others have said, call your therapist, call a suicide hotline if needed, or even 911. We will get through this, together.
Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot
@geg6: I’ll add my tiny but heartfelt voice to the chorus here and say please don’t act so irretrievably on an all-too-understandable despair. Get professional help, please don’t try to work through it on your own. Things are absolutely fucked up and bullshit politically, you’re obviously not wrong about that. But there are millions and millions of us who are with you on the righteous side of the political equation, and all is not lost. Find some space in your personal life, even just a small one, and don’t let the evil of fascism intrude there. My heart goes out to you, and I sincerely hope you reach out for that professional help.
Johannes
@geg6: Please know that we value you here, and get the support you need to go on. We need you. And to paraphrase Hawkeye Pierce, “Don’t let the bastards win.”
mg_65
@geg6: geg6, take a break for yourself. I love reading what you have to say. You’re important and valuable.
Bobbyk
Look thomas is 70 with any luck he’ll die in 2021 when dems have the WH and senate.
Sherparick
@rp: He is more radical on Roe then Kennedy & definitely Obergfell & even Lawrence are at risk (it will be interesting which Red State passes & enforces sodomy laws & then watch Andrew Sullivan’s head explodes as Kavanaugh sheds his mentor’s legacy.)