I’m not sure why, but for the last few days I have been feeling hopeful. I feel like the last couple months have been the pit, and we (the Democrats) are starting to climb out of it. I say feel, as there is nothing hard I can point to, but just a sense. Gas prices are dropping, the pandemic phase of covid is over, we’re entering the summer months, Republicans have some real nutters nominated and are fractured, the economy is doing well, and the media love nothing more than a comeback story.
Is it just me? Or have I just been getting good sleep and feel positive?
frosty
… and the tag line above your post is “We still have time to mess this up!” Honest!!
I’m in California and for someone not used to it, gas prices are a shock. Agree on the political take though. Some good pushback from some Dems and a good chance we can pick up seats against the nutters. Fingers crossed!
Dopey-o
We just passed Barstow, so the drugs are beginning to take effect.
Betsy
Gosh, I sure would love it if your instincts turned out to be good.
John Cole
@Betsy: well we know where this is going then
Gin & Tonic
What do Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have in common with Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Thomas Massie and Chip Roy? Those were the 8 votes on a 417-8 House vote on the Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act.
Mike in NC
Last week I had a decent colonoscopy. They only found one Trump in my large intestine. Good for five years.
Sister Golden Bear
Are you feeling all right? I’m not feeling too good myself.
Another day, another “Don’t Say Gay, And Especially Trans” bill (this time Oklahoma), which would also ban trans healthcare for kids, and force schools to out LGBTQ+ Kids to their parents. Plus OK’s governor just banned non-binary birth certificates.
Sorry, I don’t mean to yuck your yum, but it’s hard to feel like things are looking up when more and more state are legislating us out existence.
I suppose the one bright side is the two GoFundMe I contributed to just enable two families with trans kids to get the hell out of Texas and Alabama respectively. The parents were terrified about how the new anti-trans laws would hurt their kids. But that still feel like bailing out the Titanic with a teaspoon.
Sebastian
Things are indeed great!
Love is in the air!
Brachiator
I will be commuting more for a while, and also spending time sitting in doctors’ waiting rooms, so I finally replaced my old Asus Zenbook tablet with a Samsung S8 11 inch tablet, which I’ve been spending a little time setting up.
I was considering an iPad, but decided that it was easier to stay in the Android ecosystem. Less to think about. My old tablet was far past the time when it would get updates. Samsung currently promises 4 years of upgrades and maybe 5 years of security updates.
So far so good. Just having a new device to play with has me feeling a little positive.
Well, that and having made it through another crazy tax season.
the pollyanna from hell
Of course any pollyanna can tell you this is the “opportunity” part that comes with any “crisis.”
NotMax
Would accept (so far as in the U.S. today) the pandemic phase of COVID has abated; over (as in ended or kaput) is still not in sight.
West of the Rockies
Now hopefully we hear that Russian forces are being obliterated.
BigJimSlade
Hey, welcome back to your site, John! How are the animals? And the plants in the backyard?
owlbrick
@Gin & Tonic: I haven’t seen the bill, or seen anything about the issues, so this is just a shot in the dark: I assume that the left wing folks wanted some sort of social goal or progressive aim attached, and since support was so overwhelming anyway, they were safe in voting against it; and the right wing folks were either contrarians trying to shoot down anything that might assist Biden in foreign policy goals, or just didn’t want to see anything go against Mother Russia.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear: Plus all this groomer blood libel has gotten incredibly worst over the last month. I’m steeling myself the resulting stochastic terrorism against LGBTQ+ people that feels down right inevitable.
the pollyanna from hell
@Sister Golden Bear: My trans-daughter was born in Eureka Springs; I try to keep my heart warm by reflecting that her home town might almost be a welcoming place for her, per recent municipal ordinance.
Sister Golden Bear
@the pollyanna from hell: That’s a wonderful ray of light!
wombat probability cloud
Getting good sleep is like finally having infrastructure week.
Kay
@Sister Golden Bear:
It must be scary for you. I’m sorry. I’m surrounded by Right wing primary political ads and I thought I was accustomed to it after all these years but there’s an edge to them now that feels out of control. People think it’s being “online” that brings heightened awareness of it but they’re really wrong. They either don’t live in areas where these far Right people are running or they don’t watch or listen to commercial media and hear the ads. The “in real life” atmosphere just on ordinary media- tv and radio- is much worse, because that’s what millions and millions of less engaged people are hearing.
I do think there’s a chance they’re overdoing it. Obviously I’m not a good judge for what “normies” fid acceptable but this stuff is just poison and they’re pumping out a ton of it, not on Twitter or Facebook but on the radio and tv. It has to seem radical to people.
The Oracle of Solace
I’m feeling pretty sanguine, too, but then I’m blithely optimistic about most things. I shouldn’t be—broad public support for (or at least indifference to) the coup attempt means the House will probably go fash, which in turn means a Biden impeachment by July 2023. On the other hand, I think the good guys can hold the Senate. On the other other hand, this will give us a real nail-biter in 2024, just like the political press wants. Can I get through the next two and a half years without emptying my liquor cabinet again and again? This remains to be seen.
piratedan
watching the ads that are being started for Kelly’s seat here in AZ, both candidates trying to out-maga each other, one single lady gladfly points out our crisis on the border and her 6 point plan to solve this crisis that centers on building the Wall that we so desperately need and number two, a 2 star general who flew multiple missions and commanded over 80 local national guard troops and cites that the last two start general that AZ had serve was Barry Goldwater and that didn’t turn out so bad either…
these candidates are earnest, funded and showing up in ads on various networks (but hitting the wheel of fortune sweet spot) and they are straight up bug-fuck crazy.
dww44
Well, John, I’m hopeful that your hopefulness turns out to be grounded in reality, in spite of the fact that CBS in their 6:30 News had a whole feature, interviewing people who’d retired but have gone back to work, because you know, inflation is killing them. The inference points to the left. Democrats never get any respect from the MSM, including the paper of record up there way north of me.
Sadly, our best hope for not being wiped out in November is that a sizeable chunk of Americans can see these GOP’ers for the crazies they actually are. That party is a genuine threat to the survival of our democracy. I will be seeing a bunch of Republican relatives next weekend at a family event and will see what I can glean from casual conversation. They are likely still inside that Fox bubble.
Danielx
John Cole feeling optimistic?
Snowing in hell, dogs and cats living together, honest Republicans…
Okay, the last is a bit much.
Noskilz
I think there is room for optimism.
dp
I have no idea, but I hope you’re right.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, now I am worried.
Ruckus ??
@Kay:
Online is a close as I get to ads. Do not watch commercial TV, only Netflix. YTube now has ads as of a very few months ago, I was getting ads starting a viewing, but there was a way to shut that off. So other than that I don’t see ads, and I haven’t been swayed by them to purchase something in a very, very long time and don’t intend to start. And even if most of us did this it still wouldn’t effect the shear volume of ads, that would likely make it far worse. It has gotten so bad in the normal world that I don’t see how anyone watches any TV. I’ve given up seeing TV shows when they first come out because of ads. And I’m retired and have basically nothing but time. But it’s still my time, not anyone else’s and ads for some crap I don’t need, don’t want and know is mostly crap are not worth anyone’s time.
AJ
@Sister Golden Bear: sending you care and good thoughts and have upped my giving and started volunteering. I’ve been mostly scared and freaked out but I am feeling a teensy bit better of late. It’s a roller coaster I guess.
Ty for your from-the-heart comments.
frosty
@Ruckus ??: The only ads I recall seeing recently was on football games. Beer and pickup trucks. And State Farm. And the cute girl with AT&T.
sab
@Sister Golden Bear: I am in Ohio and I agree with Kay about how horrible the political ads are this season.
One bright note. Our two competing NPR stations merged, while keeping their local reporting staffs on board and also merged. So Cleveland finally has its classical/jazz music station back from Lorain OH. And the NPR station is now based only in Kent.
The national NPR call in show 1A did a full hour with doctors treating transgender patients answering questions. They were from around the country. Parents of trans kids called and texted in about how important this was. Discussion of the ethical and medical issues. Finally some facts! A really good informative program broadcast all over America
ETA: So finally we got to hear from real families and real doctors instead of misinformed state legislators.
AJ
I swear to god, good sleep is the single biggest make or break factor in how I’m doing.
Ty CPAP and allergy medicine scientists and manufacturers and logistics ppl!
Anne Laurie
Welcome to more daylight, Cole!
(Seasonal affective disorder truly sucks, even when we *know* why we’re so particularly depressed… )
JoyceH
@Kay:
Oh, they’re definitely overdoing it. This anti-LGBTQ culture war panic is from the wrong decade, heck, from the wrong century. Thing is, all throughout history, everyone knew someone who was something other than straight – but it’s only been in the past few decades that they KNEW that the person they knew wasn’t straight. People who would once be out only to their closest friends and most sympathetic family members now feel comfortable being out everywhere. So when the right wing demonizes this group of people, everyone knows someone who fits into the category being slandered, and they know it’s BS, and dangerous BS at that. It’s dishonest and it’s cruel, and even a sizable majority of the ‘normies’ can see that.
Ruckus ??
@frosty:
That’s at least 4 ads. Which is 4 too many.
Ruckus ??
@JoyceH:
I was in the navy over 50 yrs ago and we had at least one gay fella on board. The reason I know he was gay was I was walking along the harbor wall in town and he was sitting there with a guy making out. I would have congratulated him when I saw him on the ship but the navy was rather strongly against being gay so i didn’t want to risk getting him in trouble. My point is that outlawing normal human behavior is insane. The concept that people can only be one way or one color has been bullshit for ever but those repressed assholes who thought they could/can legislate non harmful, normal human behavior are far worse than any human with a non male/female relationship. Hopefully one day, and very soon, people will not be harassed for being themselves. BTW I’ve known and been related to gay people for well over 5 decades and have only been propositioned once. By a stranger. I let him down easy. Everyone else seemed to know. Oh well such is life.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
I don’t know. I think there are a lot of people out there who have been just itching to go back to screaming “kill the f**s” for the past 20 years and now they’re feeling permission. This could turn on a dime. We could see “sodomy” re-outlawed, laws against cross-dressing brought back, mass raids and witch hunts, all kinds of crazy shit. Companies and institutions suddenly taking down the rainbow flags is the first step.
Like, nearly all the straight guys I went to college with would be into it. Maybe not the younger generations.
tinare
Can I have some of what you’re taking? I’m just so tired of listening to lie after lie and crazy shit and alternative realities just becoming mainstream that I’m so depressed by it. Republicans are a mess, they are spouting lies constantly, yet every media outlet is so stuck on “Dems in disarray” and WHEN, not if, Democrats lose the house and senate stories. I’m in PA and the Republicans senate and governor candidates are double and tripling down on MAGA, Trumpist crazy in their ads and the fact that this appeals to ANYONE is just so depressing. I wish I could be optimistic, but reality is so depressing.
zhena gogolia
@owlbrick: This isn’t the time for their posturing.
Another Scott
Some things are looking up, some things haven’t changed much yet.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: When the Senate, during the 2010 lame duck session, repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and allowed military service by openly gay people, I was struck by the lack of pushback by conservatives. There was some grousing about the poor miltary chaplains, but overall the measure was regarded as long overdue (which it was). The Obergefel decision similarly was complained about by political evangelicals but was not made a campaign issue like abortion has been.
I think this is because gay people, their kin, and their allies are too numerous and powerful to cross. The bigots are afraid to pick on someone their own size. So instead the smaller population of trans people became targets for the bigots and culture-war opportunists.
These bigots would certainly repeal every law protecting gay people and reproductive freedoms if they could, but I think that these are losing issues for them politically. I don’t think the country has moved to the right on these issues since the Obergefel and the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” The radicalized Republican party has, and unless they can steal elections I think they will pay for this.
Bupalos
@Sister Golden Bear: It’s hard to hear about our best people abandoning these states, especially Texas which is basically our best hope to flip American politics and save a democratic United States. I’m afraid thats a big part of the fascist strategy, and I wish we had a way to respond. Its all the easier to demonize in absentia.
Bupalos
@tinare: there’s a kind of shock and awe to Trumpism that we need to resist. I think its more brittle than it appears.
tinare
@Bupalos: I do hope so.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: <
You and I both, good sir. You and I both.
Dupe1970
Not based on my retirement accounts….
Kosh III
You are clearly not in Tennessee. We have a Fascist Talebangelist governor and Legislature. Repressive laws get passed against Libraries, Public education, LOTS of LGBT+ bashing–worse than Florida, making homelessness a felony, a Senator holding up HItler as a role model and so much more which almost NEVER gets noticed by the media nationwide.
They want to turn the clock back to 1950 or better yet 1850!
eachother
Same for me the last few days John. Good experiences in 3 and 2 dimensions. And four directions.
It’s cold and looks like it may rain. Cold and wet. Two of my least favorite weather conditions. I’m outside gardening and digging the sky energy.
edit: 20 seconds later. Thunder.