Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Everybody saw this coming.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

In after Baud. Damn.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / I Am Very Tired

I Am Very Tired

by | 99 Comments

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And so very weary of any number of things. I just want to sleep for two weeks.

A number of you have been very testy and borderline trolly and dickish to each other, and I would like to ask you all to tone it down a notch and be good to each other. It’s almost over. He’s almost gone.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  3. 3.

    dww44

    Well I’ve never come even close to being the first commenter. So just to say that I will heed the words of John even though I, too, am so very angry at Trump, his cult followers, but most especially the gutless elected GOP’ers in the Congress.  May their names forever live in infamy!

  4. 4.

    RepubAnon

    I’m working on lyrics sung to the tune of “Davy Crockett”:

    “Drooling – Drooling Donald.  Gods, what a useless schmuck…”

  5. 5.

    Starfish

    A number of you have number of you have been very testy and borderline trolly and dickish to each other, and I would like to ask you all to tone it down a notch and be good to each other. It’s almost over. He’s almost gone.

    Your tired is showing John Cole. In fairness, mine is showing too.

  9. 9.

    Splitting Image

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    From what I read, they just want FB to divest itself of Instagram and Whatsapp, Zuck can still roll around in his piles of cash.

    Zuck can roll around in his cash as much as he wants. If his hammerlock on internet advertising disappears, he’ll just be one billionaire among many, and one with an aging demographic for his product at that.

  10. 10.

    Raoul Paste

    We knew it was going to be a rough few months until he’s gone

    Also, the Buddha was asked “What is Enlightenment?” ,

    And he replied, “When you’re hungry, eat, when you’re tired, rest, that’s enlightenment”

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Cole, if you need somebody to the Official Arbiter of Good vs Trolly Behavior For the Comments Section, I’m available. I will design my own uniform.

  16. 16.

    Benw

    A FB friend asked if we could just hibernate for the next month. Sounds good to me. I’ve been building up my fat reserves this year :)

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    It’s not tired. It’s slowly increasing amounts of energy being diverted to readjusting the body and psyche to not being on red alert 24/7.

  18. 18.

    geg6

    @Peale:

    I believe she is.  There was a lot of “tiredness” and she decided she needed the rest more than those who showed signs of “exhaustion” but refused to admit it or get some rest.  It’s been a trying time for us all.  I’m with Cole.  We have to try to be nicer to one another.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    Trump is going to keep trying to fuck with us as long as he draws breath, but at least he’s not going to have any actual governmental power. We’ll still have to deal with his zombies in Congress and especially in state and local government though. I wonder how many of them keep with this charade that he’s the real President and how many of them decide to pretend it never happened.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    Those (not you) digitally jerking off to visions of doom and lethal violence deserve to be called out.

    Asses have a cheek on both the right and the left, after all.

  22. 22.

    Starfish

    @geg6: A lot of these conversations are really emotionally charged at this point.

    I know that I am looking at a lot of politics through a race-first analysis. Though it is the right thing to do in a lot of cases, the inclination should not be to bite people’s heads off if they do not see it that way.

    I think someone here was asking why people were critical of Biden on the diversity of his picks when they seem diverse.

    I think it is because we have the Republicans doing diversity window dressing. They have these people who are visibly diverse, but they are not really addressing any of the racial equity issues and try to throw down the ladders that existed that allowed them to get to their high positions (Clarence Thomas.)

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    YouTube has been putting videos from the America Center for Law and Justice’s channel on my rec page. Why?

  26. 26.

    NickM

    I feel so tired too. Tired of always being on call. Tired of doing the same thing every day. So very tired of Trump and his cult and having to worry about what they’re thinking. I want to get under 50 blankets and burrow away for a month. I’m sorry so many others feel this way but also kind of glad I’m not alone.

  27. 27.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s really the only remedy that makes sense.

    Social networks will always gravitate toward a monopolistic social graph, because the service is useless in any other case. But Facebook acquired to additional social graphs outside of the Facebook one, ones that could have quite easily stood on their own.

    So breaking up Facebook any further is mostly the same as just dissolving the company. That said, the next steps would be to add regulation on that social graph, require interoperability between social graphs (remember when it was cheaper to call people on your same cell carrier than to call people on another one – that kind of thing or had to change your number if you switched carriers), and add regulation regarding whether social graphs over a certain size should be prohibited from allowing anonymity. Basically, we require a return address on postal mail to discourage mailing people bombs and shit. There needs to be some kind of accountability to participating in the social graph. That can be done any number of ways, but it will need to be done. At the very  least, it needs to purge the autogeneration of identities by foreign governments (the russian trolls).

    My guess is that a careful effort by the Biden administration can rally advertisers in support of some of these policies because it’ll help them in making sure their name isn’t getting attached to some of this shit. It’s not good for them either.

  28. 28.

    Mary G

    I am mentally and physically exhausted and enraged more often than is good for me. Got my labs back and my white cells, neutrophils, and CRP are all up, so the RA is raising its ugly head and it’s time to get another two Rituxin infusions. I’ve been going to an infusion center instead of the hospital, which is safer. I  hope. All my other numbers were fabulous, which is weird because my eating has not been good, but I’ll take it.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    Found out that the Administration turned down the option of more vaccine from a SECOND COMPANY??

     

    Once again…

    THE PLAN WAS TO USE THE VACCINE TO PUNISH THE BLUE STATES.

    THIS is why the so-called COVID task force didn’t want to “share” their work with the Biden Transition. They knew that they had done a series of these bullshyt deals, and didn’t want to sit in a room with people who literally upon learning about the deals would want to throw hands.?

  32. 32.

    Martin

    @debbie: Maybe is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

    It’ll never end. Trump will announce a 2024 bid, he needs to keep his supporters feeling like they were robbed and sending him cash. If the GOP is smart they’ll figure a way to marginalize him in that time, because if they don’t he’s going to fuck up the next few elections for them.

  33. 33.

    Martin

    @rikyrah: I was kind of getting the sense that Trump would just move to have the US military seize the shipments heading to Canada and Mexico. I mean, why have the most powerful military if they can’t get you free stuff?

  34. 34.

    dnfree

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We now live in an “active senior citizen” community and we’re still getting used to the rules.  One of the rules is that you can have one decorative object in your front planting bed per ten feet of frontage on your lot.  So if you have a 60′ lot frontage, you may have 6 decorative objects in your front plant bed.  (They don’t have to be spaced that way–you could have groups of three or whatever.)  We see yards that have WAY more than the allotment, like a flock of ten plastic flamingos, and we have talked about getting uniforms and ticket books and going around enforcing the rule.  Such a temptation.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin:

    So breaking up Facebook any further is mostly the same as just dissolving the company.

    It sounds like you think there’s something wrong with that.  I would happily go for that solution!

  36. 36.

    Ksmiami

    @NotMax: no ones jerking off to visions of doom ok but we have major major problems with our Democracy and you can call me Cassandra but here are the things I predicted:

    The Iraq war being entirely fraudulent

    Enron (long story)

    the 2008 financial crash

    That electing Trump was national suicide

    the effects of the Pandemic on the USA

    that Trump will not go quietly and we will experience violence Somewhere  between stochastic terrorism and serious secession.

     

    yes, I want to sleep, but my concern level is high

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G:  Yay for what’s good!  And boo for needing infusions.

    We are like the dogs who are tired toward the end of a long walk.  I can’t wait until we get close to “home” and we get that energy back and the spring in our step.

  39. 39.

    Dan B

    @Matt McIrvin: Steve Schmidt stated that the Lincoln Project is planning a long term process to subdue Trumpism.  I don’t share their belief in benevolent corporatism but they are experts at getting Trumpists to self immolate.  There dies seem to be interest in addressing the worst of racism and prejudice towards minorities.

  40. 40.

    Bill Arnold

    @Martin:
    Zuckerberg bet his company on a continuation and expansion of Trumpian authoritarianism.
    Bad bet. (Netanyahu and others made similar bad bets.)

  41. 41.

    scav

    @dnfree: The other temptation of course is to go with a full-on statuary garden with a prominent single plant oer 10 ft of frontage.  Or, maybe six seven foot tall garden gnomes riding flamingos.

    Ok, yes, I did play for Team Gnome v. RHS Chelsea.

  43. 43.

    Dan B

    John;  I hope you’re going through a phase.  I’m sure all of us have been through emotional crises.  One thing that keeps me going is the fact that authoritarians and their enablers want us to feel discouraged.  If we are we have less energy to bring to solutions.  We have less enthusiasm for the fight.

    I, for one, feel I find solutions and connection to the people who post and those who comment on this blog.  There are tidbits and gems scattered throughout.

    Thanks for your role as blogmaster.  I await the day you again roar!

  44. 44.

    chrisanthemama

    My work has been kicking my butt all this year (and had to shift to work-from-home, which is good/bad).  I’m grateful to be working through all this plague-shit, especially because my work mostly keeps me from doom-scrolling and hate-watching cable TV for those 8 hours a day I’m working.  And now fcking Christmas.  I know we can do this, we’re not babies, but soooo tired sometimes.  thx for listening.

  45. 45.

    Dan B

    @Martin: Rebecca MacKinnon at The French Speech Project has a good synthesis of how to address the problems with social media while saving and strengthening the First Amendment.  I don’t have a link (mobile) but would love your observations.

    She had a post up at Slate a week ago.

  48. 48.

    Suzanne

    It feels like it will never be over. And I have a zit. FUCK.

    I want to get a pedicure. My feet look terrible.

  50. 50.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @dnfree: One of my favorite X-files episodes was the one with an evil HOA who would summon a demon to kill violators. Mulder trolls them with a yard full of flamingos and shooting baskets in his driveway at midnight.

  52. 52.

    Gvg

    well I agreed to night to take a in a small Colony of feral cats after they come back from being fixed. I am being a bit of a sucker but whatever. My neighbor and I have been feeding a feral mom. We tried to catch her when her last litter was old enough we thought to survive if we didn’t get them all and only caught one kitten. Very cautious mom wouldn’t come near the trap again and soon after we heard fighting sounds at night and 2 kittens disappeared presumably killed by something. It included the friendliest one my neighbor wanted the most so she was pretty upset. She tried keeping the other, but it couldn’t be entirely housetrained, so she tried having it outdoors and it disappeared right away….

    mom got pregnant again right away and we settled into trying to make friends. Last kitten stayed with mom and is still there as a juvenile. Kitten set 2 are now maybe 4 months. Neighbor decided they can be caught now and is trying. She has 2 caught  babies in a shed so far, trying to get the rest. It’s been getting cold here lately. So she found out the charity org considers them too old to adopt and says she will get them back spayed and to let them go….she asked for help. She is caring for a friend who is dying of liver cancer and leaving town again. So I guess they may be moving into my garage for for socializing unless she only catches the 2 so far.

    i May be ripping out the spare room carpet, I don’t know yet. What I hope is the rest of them can be litter trained. It worries me that the 1 this summer couldn’t be. I don’t know yet how things will go, but can’t turn away from cats.

    i hope this may be a future good thing, but I don’t know yet.

  53. 53.

    Peale

    @Martin: Canada has made commitments to the various companies that if fulfilled would provide 9 two dose inoculations per Canadian.  Its almost like they are tempting Minnesotans to declare war on Canada to get the stockpile. Something they haven’t done since 1873.

  55. 55.

    J R in WV

    I’ve used the pie filter to avoid going off on people with profanity and rusty farm implements. So as far as John’s concern I think I’ve been a good boy. Maybe not the best boy, but a good boy.

    These people raising hell outside people’s homes? They need to encounter a rusty farm implement late at night… in the worst way.

  57. 57.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Spike Lee sneaks that line into “Da 5 Bloods”.

    Come to think of it, maybe the whole movie is an homage to “Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, involving a treasure hunt as it does.

  60. 60.

    MoCA Ace

    With the Biden win I have actually allowed myself to be a tiny bit hopeful.  The torrent of lies and bullshit are truly soul crushing but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  We’re not going back to the heady years of the Obama admin but things will start moving in the right direction.  Hang in there everyone.

  63. 63.

    BruceFromOhio

    A number of you have been very testy and borderline trolly and dickish to each other, and I would like to ask you all to tone it down a notch and be good to each other.

    OK. I love all of you! You’re awesome! Rainbows and puppies and soft, fluffy kittens! Daiquiri’s for everyone, please.

    It’s almost over. He’s almost gone.

    Cats in a handbag, he so the fuck is not.

  68. 68.

    Frosty Fred

    I know we’re talking about existential malaise as much as physical fatigue, but just for the record, I went in for a scalp survey and spot-freezing in November and complained to my doctor that I was sleepy all the time, worse than I remembered from previous fall-winters. He suggested light therapy and once I got organized to set it up (I was so sluggish it took me two weeks to open the package)–be darned if it hasn’t helped. I’m getting a lot more done and feeling more energetic.

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Griftwald is ON TOP of the Hunter Biden story.

    Can’t seem to utter hardly any criticism of Trump at all.

    I reiterate my 2007-2014+ desire to do pay per click to see drone cam footage of Glenn shrieking, dropping a caiparinha and attempting to run as a hellfire missile hones in on his miserable ass in some gated Brazilian community.

  76. 76.

    CaseyL

    I think I might be one of the doom-scrollers, though other than noting that the country can’t keep on with nearly half its voting population taking up full time residency in Cloud Cuckoo Land, I’ve tried to be even tempered. I definitely don’t pick fights, or join fights-in-progress.

    I used to. I used to argue a lot here, and in other places.  Over on Obsidian Wings, during W’s Maladministration, there would be 400+ comment threads where we’d fight like blazes about torture and the Iraq War.  I don’t remember there every being similar fights here, but we did get into some fine slanging matches.

    Now?…It’s interesting how those towering arguments over Big Issues just don’t seem to happen anymore.  I don’t know if it’s because blogs, like life in general in these here United States, have gotten more homogenous. The viewpoints have narrowed: most of the Right has migrated to their Safe Places side of the ‘Net.  Or – and this possibility makes me sad – back then maybe we believed we could still change minds or at least open them a little.  No longer.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: Or – and this possibility makes me sad – back then maybe we believed we could still change minds or at least open them a little.  No longer.

    I think we hate each other more now. I know I do.
    And I think we have some trauma response.
    I’m exhausted. Simply fucking exhausted.

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    @Peale: No, I want to pay someone while I sit there and read a book, and watch HGTV and drink $6 coffee while my children and mother are elsewhere. THAT is the point of a pedicure.

  79. 79.

    Luciamia

    Wishing Chief Justice Roberts could  just come out and say, “Knock it the fuck off! It’s over!! Now go and try to do something constructive.”

  81. 81.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Suzanne: Be as kind to yourself as you can be. You just changed jobs, moved across the country, and are parenting two children at home. So you’ve hit about three out of the top five stressors on top of the Trump/COVID mishegas. You’ve surely earned a prize! :)

  83. 83.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I get being tired.

    Honestly, just knowing he’ll be gone, soonish, isn’t enough for me. I really want to know that people who clearly, objectively, likely to be convicted at trial, committed crimes  will face indictments. No looking forward; no deciding “there’s no point in sweeping up the small fry” because it’s the small fries who let the big guys skate.

    As long as there are no consequences for wrongdoing, we know it will continue, and continue to grow. And dear lord, do I want to believe that we’ll at least try to flatten the *criminality* curve before next time.

  88. 88.

    Zelma

    I don’t know how to handle my rage at what the Republicans are doing.  And yes, my hate.  I’m really a very easy going person.  I’ve always sort of hated Trump.  But I despise his enablers more than I hate him.  It does make me tired so I understand where John is coming from.  This is exhausting.

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Zelma: I don’t know how to handle my rage at what the Republicans are doing. And yes, my hate. I’m really a very easy going person. I’ve always sort of hated Trump. But I despise his enablers more than I hate him. It does make me tired so I understand where John is coming from. This is exhausting.

    Vote them out if any of the trash is still on your 2022 ballot, and hope their sentence (if any) is being fired into the Sun.

  90. 90.

    CaseyL

    @Suzanne: I’ve had trauma response for the last four years.

    We do hate each other more, for sure. They hate us for what we are; we hate them for what they’ve done.  That’s the wound that won’t heal.

  91. 91.

    HumboldtBlue

    @CaseyL:

    We do hate each other more, for sure. They hate us for what we are; we hate them for what they’ve done. That’s the wound that won’t heal.

    Damn.

  92. 92.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Zelma: Instead of hate, consider the idea of rage. You’ve got anger, and maybe you don’t keep letting it loose, but you’ve got it corralled, and waiting… waiting for the moment you have the power to strike.

    Hate can blind you; properly maintained, a good level of rage can focus your vision.

  93. 93.

    Msb

    It’s not just trump, it’s the plague his incompetence is forcing you to fight ineffectively. Everybody’s really tired and low on spoons. One day at a time, and we’ll get there. Good idea to cut people as much slack as you can,

  94. 94.

    Sayne

    Cyberpunk 2077 is out and so far it’s completely awesome on my year-old but still pretty beefy PC!  I hear people on X-Box are doing OK with it too.  Apparently there’s some issues on PS4… but that’s older hardware at this point so I get it.

    Play yourself some video games, Cole!  :-)

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Speaking of tired, I am here thinking “Oh here we go back to eternity of outrage from The Right over the kind of condiment some Democrat had with his dinner”  Hopely Biden will be so boringly normal to keep that down.

  96. 96.

    Kattails

    @Benw: “building up fat reserves”– me too. Can’t build them up too much though b/c can’t shop for new clothes, and I tend to wear leggings. The margin of stretch is getting iffy.

    Also for us northerners especially, we’re almost at the solstice. That always helps!

  98. 98.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    One of my favorite X-files episodes was the one with an evil HOA who would summon a demon to kill violators. Mulder trolls them with a yard full of flamingos and shooting baskets in his driveway at midnight.

    OK, dammit, *now* you’ve done it. I have successfully resisted watching “The X Files” for YEARS now, but this…this I gotta see.

  99. 99.

    BaffleGab

    I dunno. I get the relief that some of you feel that this Presidential farce is almost over. I consider myself a pragmatic optimist, so while I feel some relief I also have flashes of those movie scenes where the hero has won, the monster vanquished, beers and cheers for everyone. Then a hand pops out of a grave, the terminator reassembles itself, and there is a final battle. I’m afraid there’s going to be a final battle before we’re done, and I’m not sure who the winner is going to be…

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