The current state of affairs is disheartening. It’s sapping my energy. It’s undeniable that there’s going to be a lot more ugliness in the upcoming weeks and months and years. These are dangerous times.
Our focus has to be on moving forward, because that is all we can control, really. I’d like to hear your thoughts about how we can move forward – not in the comments in this post – but in guest posts from all of you. In those guest posts threads, we can talk in the comments about the ideas proposed in that particular post. If you have alternate ideas from what’s in a post, or you think something else should be a higher priority, please consider submitting a guest post yourself.
You may remember that we did the same thing with guest posts in January of 2021, only then we got to think about, and talk about, what the 4 previous years of Trump had been like, what the incoming Biden Administration meant to you, and what legislative priorities you wanted as the focus of the new administration.
This time around, the future is far less bright, but I would argue that that makes it even more critical for us to look ahead with clear eyes and share our thoughts about where we go from here. We certainly have been sharing our thoughts for the past 2 months, but not always in a thoughtful way. And with more looking behind than looking ahead.
California is literally on fire. All the people who have lost their homes have to fucking figure out where to go from here. At possibly the worst moment in their lives, they have to keep going even when they are exhausted, and they have to make a plan even when they feel like everything is lost. And for some of them, even some of our BJ peeps, everything they owned is is literally lost.
California burning is the tangible embodiment of our country on fire, and many of us fear that it may all burn to the ground. But we have to keep going, too. The world is not going to stop so we can get off, and sadly Obama’s time machine isn’t available to us. I am working to accept the current reality, even as my brain continues to try to reject it as simply not possible.
Even now, when I think about how bad it might get, I’ll have a thought pop into my head that somehow the system will stop him. That something will stop him. We all know that the system we thought would save us doesn’t exist anymore, and where it does exist, Trump will try to hobble it. So what’s left? The people. We are the ones who will have to stop or slow everything we can.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. He didn’t throw up his hands or rock in the corner when he hit a roadblock; he kept doing everything he could to change the status quo. And he knew who his real enemies were. The white laborers in the garbage strikes at the time – they were not his enemies – he found and made common cause with them. And when he was killed, his followers also did not throw up their hands, and they dd not rock in the corner. Or maybe they did, but then they got back to work.
It’s my hope that we can do the same. I hope that a whole bunch of thoughtful BJ peeps will take the time to describe what the past four years have meant to you, what the loss was like for you, what Democrats should focus on going forward. And why. And how. Please send your write-up to me by email as a potential guest post.
If you want to submit something for a guest post, please don’t just list things – pick a priority (or priorities) that are important to you. Tell us why. Explain what the goals are, and how you think we might get started.
There’s not one true faith, and there’s not just one reason for the loss. It was a perfect storm in the most terrible way. Some things clearly had more effect than others, but change any one of those things and the outcome could have been different. But we can’t go back.
Just as there was not just one reason for the loss, there is not just one right thing to focus on going forward. We don’t have to agree on which things had the most impact; we have to look ahead at all the key things that can influence the outcome going forward. Not everything that had a great impact can be fixed in the timeframe we have ahead of us. We can work on several fronts, and we can be allies with folks who choose a different focus than we do. There’s plenty of work to be done.
There’s not one right way to play the hand we’re dealt.
I hope that you will all give this some thought, and if you have something to share with us that you will write it down, and submit it as a guest post.
If there are 10 or 15 different ways to move forward – or even 15 opposing ways to move forward – that’s fine. That’s probably as it should be. Different things will resonate with different people, different things will motivate different people, and each of us can choose where we put our energy and our efforts.
The future is all we’ve got. The future of our country. I think we have to fight for it.
Baud
You make it hard to be cynical, WG.
Professor Bigfoot
AS USUAL, you’re absolutely correct… I for one am going to have to get past my deep-seated rage just in order to function.
I’m sorry that I’ve offended people here who did not deserve it.
The thing is, I know I’m an obnoxious bastard, but I don’t think I’m WRONG.
NotMax
“Yesterday’s future is here today.”
– 1960s parody radio ad
.
Suzanne
Three Israeli hostages were released today. Apparently they appear to be in better health than expected. I don’t believe in any sort of deity who intervenes in human affairs, but I am thankful.
Melancholy Jaques
It’s going to be hard listening to the whole media world & many disappointing people who we thought were our allies going all Revelation 13:4 about Trump over the next three to six months. I cannot throw up enough.
When thinking about where do we go & what should be do next, I hope that we will all take stock of what we have. The calls for sweeping changes to the Democratic Party are, in my view, unwarranted. We lost this election for the same reasons we lost every election since 1980: the majority of white people – about 70% of the country – view us Democrats as the party that stands up for people of color & feminists. That is who we are, though it is not all that we are, and therein lies the rub.
Professor Bigfoot
@Melancholy Jaques: Indeed.
It’s not ALL of who we are as Americans.
That’s the only thing that gives me hope.
Lapassionara
@Melancholy Jaques: Thank you. I think that is accurate.
I tend to focus on the future, so that is why WaterGirl’s post makes sense to me. We play the hand we are dealt. I don’t think I could write a guest post, but I would look forward to reading the posts of others.
thank you, WaterGirl
ArchTeryx
In the end, my goal for the next 2-4 years is simple. Survival.
I have a number of friends in the LGBTQ+ community and they feel sooner or later they WILL be targeted for roundups. I and my fiancee are highly disabled and we guarantee as disabled and liberal people we’re on the enemies list too.
We have established a comm site on Signal to discuss sensitive plans when shit gets real and have started to arrange safehouses. I give no details otherwise. Not on a public forum.
But we will be ready. And if the worst does not happen it will bring my little community closer together, which is not a bad thing regardless.
The rest of the country is on its own. Now I have to concentrate 100% on my own.
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: You express my feelings exactly.
I don’t know how to go forward. This election has really broken me. (Along with how Biden has been treated.)
Professor Bigfoot
@ArchTeryx: I think there are a LOT of us like that.
I still have the arsenal I bought after is first inauguration, so there’s that, at least. ;)
Steve LaBonne
I am already somewhat involved with the social justice work in my church (as a member of our Racial Justice Accountability Ministry), and getting more involved is probably the most useful thing I can do right now. Communities that stand (and work) in opposition to what’s coming are going to be more valuable than ever. United we stand, divided we fall.
Roberto el oso
@zhena gogolia: the treatment of Joe Biden has been shameful, especially the glib, almost-gleeful nature of some of it.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Some of us are taking longer to pick ourselves up off the floor than others. It’s like grieving. Everyone grieves differently. As long as it doesn’t shift into wallowing, the time we each take is the time we each take.
Steve LaBonne
@Roberto el oso: We were not entertained. We are children who must be continuously entertained.
Another Scott
Thanks for this. I’m looking forward to reading the contributions.
Theme song? Chicago – Where do we go from here (from 1970).
Best wishes,
Scott.
ArchTeryx
@Professor Bigfoot: Some of us are absolutely arming up but only those who are trained in the use of firearms. It’s optional, but for some, necessary due to where they live.
Scout211
The thing is, no one with a strong opinion or strong feelings thinks they are wrong. Differing opinions, experiences, beliefs and feelings between two people does not mean that one is right and one is wrong.
What we see, feel, think and believe are products of our own experience and our own history. We may be looking at the same thing, but we see it differently.
You are not wrong, but others who see things differently than you do, are not wrong, either.
Llelldorin
The best suggestion I’ve heard so far is Tom Sullivan’s over at Digby’s—make the bastard actually be President. He won it fair and square this time, so to hell with “resistance.” Every national problem is now his to solve. All of them. We need to record the state of affairs today, so we can refer back to it with _every _ issue that goes downhill.
We should probably also start turning up extremely local websites and newsletters. It won’t come close to conservative media, but it’s something — particularly if we can keep it free of Murc’s Law.
Roberto el oso
For myself, living in a blue city in a red state, and one that has been very deliberately targeted by Gov Abbott, Paxton, Patrick, and those other creeps in Austin, I will be focusing on being prepared for possible confrontations with ICE. Just making sure that I can help the folks they detain or arrest, in the moment, via reassurances not to be afraid, and quick exchanges of information as needed. I’ve photocopied a bunch of pamphlets (in Spanish) with info about what rights they have, especially when dealing with LEOs who might lie to or intimidate them. I’ve got a stack of them sitting on the passenger seat of my car to hand out as needed. It feels like pissing in the wind, but it’s what I can do for now.
Starfish (she/her)
@Scout211:
This is important. We need to resist the temptation to see complex issues as simple binaries.
Llelldorin
To be clear with “to hell with resistance”—I don’t mean “go along” or “surrender early.” I mean that we have to focus on what a shitshow his presidency will be (hell, It already is one before he even gets the office!), not on pointing out how outrageous it is that he has the office.
ArchTeryx
@Llelldorin: Only trouble is that also gives him a free hand to do everything from mass deportations to genocide. Some things he is inevitably going to try should absolutely be resisted. No “good Germans” here. But when it comes to national crises that can bring down his poll numbers? Don’t interrupt him when he’s fucking the country up. Let him. We can’t stop him from doing that anyway. So let him own it.
Llelldorin
@ArchTeryx: Yes, absolutely. When he tries to do illegal things we resist like hell. But we do it because it’s illegal, not because Trump shouldn’t be president.
Professor Bigfoot
@ArchTeryx: Before January 2017 I owned a couple of pistols that literally had not seen the light of day for nearly a decade.
After a two week fugue, I snapped awake in early January, went to the nearest sporting goods store waving my credit card like a madman.
To this day I don’t know how much I paid for that first rifle and pistol (both .22s)!
A LOT more have joined up since then— in fact, I’m seriously considering a new pistol with a red-dot sight; but its so damn cold I hate even going outside, much less being surrounded by MAGAts (which is why those two pistols went so long without seeing the light of day- who wants to be around those assholes?)
I got to be a pretty good shot, too, at least with aimed fire on a range; got my concealed carry permit, the whole nine yards.
Later I decided I wasn’t going to do the kind of practice and training I expect of someone walking around with deadly force on his hip, so I quite carrying.
(but as the Vice President said, “somebody breaking into my house is gonna get shot!”)
Professor Bigfoot
@Scout211: Fair.
I remain convinced that too many are unwilling to face up to some demographic facts, but fair point.
SpaceUnit
Like others here, I’m just hoping to get through this with mind and spirit mostly intact. Otherwise I’ll be in a reactive stance, waiting to see what happens and then looking for avenues of possible resistance. Unless you’re a federal judge or someone with a lot of power to leverage there won’t be a lot you can do.
I am however, going to blackout the mainstream media entirely. No views, no clicks, nothing. Not so much as a peek at a YouTube video. Probably won’t amount to anything, but those assholes need to learn that sanewashing fascists is bad for ratings. Maybe then they’ll get a visit from the cluebird. If enough people tune them out, maybe they’ll learn.
ArchTeryx
@Llelldorin: Everything Hitler did was 100% legal. Same with Trump. Him and the SCROTUS will make anything he wants to do legal… they already have. Resist because it’s the moral thing to do, to save innocent lives that are being targeted because they can.
zhena gogolia
@Steve LaBonne: I’m focusing on my church as well. It’s the only place I feel good.
Steve LaBonne
@ArchTeryx: Too many voters just didn’t understand how dangerous he is, because last time it took him a long time to understand just how much he could get away with, and then there was COVID which he fucked up royally but which also shut a lot of institutions down and thus reduced the possibilities of destruction. So now there is no substitute for those voters Finding Out. The only way out is through. Help the most vulnerable, but fuck, good and hard, stupid normie voters who thought he’d lower the price of eggs.
TurnItOffAndOnAgain
The author of The Jungle reportedly said about its reception: “I aimed for their heart and hit their stomach.” If we can’t hit the heart, let’s aim for the stomach. Or the wallet.
The Right paints itself as the logical party, and us as the impractical bleeding hearts, when they haven’t been good for the economy in decades. We don’t have to play along with that framing, which keeps us perpetually on the defensive. We can point out that multi-decade record wherever and whenever we can, and try to get that to take root in normies brains. We can frame everything through an economic lens: they’re talking about bathrooms and immigrants because they don’t want to talk about the economy. We can ask rhetorical questions about a wall that was never built. About a pandemic and a lock down. We can point out how the Right likes to play footsie with billionaires at the voters’ expense. We can point out just how incompetent they are, and how it’s not fair they have so much when your average worker has so little. If we get the opportunity, we can reframe the debate without throwing our own under the bus.
sixthdoctor
@Llelldorin: Agreed. I’m in the middle of dry January but when whisky and tequila prices shoot up in a week I’ll be sure to yell to my fellow boozers who to blame.
Jeffro
This is pretty much what I plan to do. I don’t care if (most of) his cult followers will let him off the hook (for now)…I plan to keep pounding and holding him and his party to the same standards that everyone else is held to, and noting just how short they’re falling.
This is true of my outreach to my elected reps, to the op-eds I’ve written and plan to write, to my social media, to my interactions with family/friends/community members.
As always, it’s helpful to start with, “Can you IMAGINE if a Democratic president had done X?” or “What if a Democratic Congress passed Y bill?”
zhena gogolia
@Llelldorin: Yeah, this is a big psychological difference for me this time. He won it fair and square. So my anger is more directed at my fellow citizens. This is what they want. I think that’s why my focus has narrowed back down to my own town, my own community, my own university, my own church. What I can do day by day to help people around me.
We were just in NYC, and I was tipping cabdrivers and hotel workers extravagantly — I asked myself, what’s going on, and it was just, can I do something for a person who’s right next to me. That’s my psychology now.
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: this is why, to quote LeVar Burton, “I am absolutely filled with rage.”
(yeah, tell y’all something you didn’t already know, right? ;) )
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: Yeah, a lot of pearls got clutched over that soundbite!
Another Scott
This strikes me as good advice.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve LaBonne
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: I agree, but this is where we have to deal with the brick wall put up by the mainstream media. People who understand far more about this stuff than I do are hopefully thinking about new ways to get our message to the people who need to hear it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
As I was saying in the earlier thread, our guys get pounced on when they say anything that colors outside the line.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: Is there light at the end of the frog?
(Funny author story I read years ago about beetles and frogs. Was it at Balloon Juice?)
eclare
youtu.be/zgVrlx68v-0?si=P6VBxnoqoPdtt87U
The Mountaintop speech.
ArchTeryx
@sab: Ursula Le Guin and it’s a hilarious and true story about frog and beetle biology.
Kay
I’m seeing green shoots – signs of life in the rank and file opposition. He’ll be at the peak of his power tomorrow. Then he has to govern, and this country is bonkers, thanks to media and the far Right. The way he won – lying about what he would do- can also be the way he loses in two years.
He made 40 or so specific promises. He said it would be easy and that everyone else was an idiot and he could do all of it quickly and with no trade offs and no pain. But here comes reality. We can be the reality enforcers.
Baud
@Kay:
He’s also a lame duck, although I fear that many people want to indulge in the idea that he’s not.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: the thing that worries— scares me, to be honest, is that his voters simply won’t give a shit.
That they won’t CARE if he doesn’t reduce the price of eggs.
They won’t care if the “mass deportation” doesn’t happen, as long as its putative targets remain frightened and as inconspicuous as possible.
I mean, I agree we should let the son of a bitch govern, and pin every screwup directly to his fat ass, but will that matter?
jimmiraybob
A few encouraging words:
“What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain’t over now. Cause when the going gets tough …….. the tough get going!! Who’s with me!?? Let’s go!!!”
Be Bluto
Kay
His big legislative priority is tax cuts for rich people, just like last time. What if congressional opposition focused solely on killing that? It’s why rich people and media are supporting him. Take away their financial incentive and he’s a lot less appealing. That would really wound him and it’s patriotic and responsible. You all know it’s the ACTUAL priority. Try to kill it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Yep. We’re a minority.
Steve LaBonne
Speaking of Dr. King, “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and racism. The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power”.
No One of Consequence
@Llelldorin: That’s the thing though, the masses won’t care. We KNOW, no need to guess, but KNOW — that Cheeto Benito CAN’T be President. Not in any meaningful way, or perhaps rather, not in any lucid way.
The man simply DOES NOT HAVE the capacity for it. Never did. That capability is not now going to manifest in this Ambulatory Shit Stain of a human being (allegedly, but I love the acronym).
And people WON’T CARE.
He won’t own up to the dookie he left in his own diaper, let alone anything else. He’ll lie constantly and inconsistently, and it will be repeated endlessly until it Becomes the New Established Truth.
The legal system has been thoroughly subverted and sold off, with faith in it being near record lows, and corruption obvious as the noses on our faces, and far too few seem to hold any expectation that everyone should be subject to the litigation of charges in a court of law. That’s where the bullshit is not supposed to be allowed, only proof. Facts. That which all parties must agree upon to be True. We, the People, were DENIED that litigation. DENIED the process of DETERMINING THE TRUTH OF THESE MATTERS. Foes and fans, enemies and enamored both. (This singular fact gives me endless fury.)
And yet — his supporters believe that he didn’t commit any crimes, that J6 wasn’t that big of a deal, if it was a real thing at all. That A.S.S. is the most aggrieved billionaire who ever existed, and he is truly deserving of the world and everything in it.
And by extension, to the self-selected Members of the Club, they too are owed everything in the world.
When they actually don’t receive even a pittance of Said Reward, they will blame the Libs for messing things up and attempt to take their pound of promised flesh from the rest of us.
Calling it now, because it is as about as remarkable as room temperature.
Apologies, and thank you for reading. Or even better if you skipped it.
I don’t know where the light is. I only know that the coming darkness will end, but not for a while. Tie a knot, and hold on. Be Ready for The Change when it arrives. Seek comfort where you can find it, and be not ashamed. Keep your internal batteries near charged as often as you can.
The only Way Out, is Through.
-NOoC
sab
@ArchTeryx: I think it was somebody other than Ursula LeGuin ( I would have remembered if it was her) but she might have borrowed the idea from LeGuin. I hope so. LeGuin being in the loop cheers me up enormously.
Gretchen
@TurnItOffAndOnAgain: Yes! Somehow they Republicans have everyone think they’re the good economy party, and every R since Herbert Hoover has presided over a recession. Then the Dems come in and clean up the mess, and they come in and crash it again. Somehow Reagan and Bush recessions, Clinton’s surplus, Bush 2 war debacle and 2008 crash, Obama clean it up, Trump mess, Biden’s soft landing and more jobs added than any other president, in the minds of the public and the media still translate to « Republicans are the party of good economies ».
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: “His” voters are unreachable. The low-info morons who decide close elections potentially are reachable, though it’s not easy.
Baud
I see we’ve entered the assume failure portion of this thread.
LAC
@Professor Bigfoot: you are not wrong. Thank you for trying to rip the bandaid off. Maybe when folks stop focusing on the discomfort of bandaid, we can look at the wound and really try to heal it.
Steve LaBonne
@Gretchen: Don’t forget national security, despite the damage W did to it and despite Asshole being a Russian asset.
Llelldorin
@No One of Consequence: I think it depends how badly he screws the pooch. I’m more optimistic for the strategy than I am for the country.
HeleninEire
I haven’t yet moved past “How am I going to protect me and mine?” The rest of the world? I just can’t cope right now.
But I may put a post together that addresses that. Maybe.
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
I get that but then “politics” is over. I mean, maybe it is, but I don’t think we can fold up the tent and quit just yet.
They genuinely believe what he says. They think they’re not going to have payroll taxes anymore (just one thing they say). We do two weeks on how he lied about cutting payroll taxes. You could even analyze social media and see which Trump promise got the most play among people who voted for him. You could rank the broken promises.
The college educated managers or professionals that my husband plays tennis with talk about what the US is going to do with Greenland when Trump grabs it. They believe him.
Baud
@Gretchen:
@Steve LaBonne:
I don’t disagree, but we can’t persuade others on these issues of Dems don’t believe it themselves, and many Dems don’t believe Dems are good on these issues. We have the evidence, we don’t have the sales team.
sab
@Kay: The deficit already ballooned in his first term. It’s their justification for attacking social security, medicare and medicaid now. We need to trumpet that. Social Security and Medicare are a big part of my retirement plan and it’s decades too late for me to readjust that.
Steve LaBonne
@LAC: Speaking again of MLK, he of course had some famously choice words about prioritizing comfort over justice.
JoyceH
I just saw Speaker Johnson on the news saying that this was the dawn of a new Golden Age. Can’t help wondering if the Trumpistas will really believe that what they’re living through is a golden age.
Scout211
So many smart jackals here have been reminding us that power is seized by dictators by creating chaos and discord. We may have wildly different thoughts, feelings, opinions on what went wrong and what should be done about it, but fighting each other is exactly what the Trump team is trying to trigger.
Far too many groups are being threatened by the Trump team and when so many group’s rights, health, financial security and lives are threatened, the Trump team expects all the groups to start fighting each other.
I wish I had the answer in how not to fight each other when we all are being threatened. But I hope we can.
Craig
WaterGirl, I just wanted to thank you for your tireless work here and your relentless positivity. I come here for the realistic, informative options of what is possible. In an internet full of loud screaming, complaining, and filling the skies with noise, you provide a quiet harbor of facts and honest questions. Thanks.
eclare
I have power and my pets are safe inside. So I’m good.
Satby, William is right here. Being a king.
Professor Bigfoot
@No One of Consequence: if I may: of course, he can BE President— but can he DO President?
One of my favorite SF series has one of the major characters referring to the Emperor: “Sure, everybody wants Gregor’s throne— but nobody wants his desk!”
Trump will always want the throne, but he’ll NEVER, EVER do any of the WORK.
Gretchen
@Kay: Yes. Tax cuts is all he got done last time, and his majority is even smaller this time. Getting that one guy tossed as head of his committee made that guy an enemy – he said he’d no longer vote for anything Trump wanted. They have a margin of 1.
Steve LaBonne
@sab: Hakeem Jeffries has not been mincing words about this, but we’re all aware of the gap between what Democrats say and what gets reported. Reporters have much more fun plastering the Asshole’s latest bit of mishegoss all over the place.
brantl
What the last 4 years meant to me was a government that actually GAVE A SHIT, and DID THINGS TO MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR THE RUN OF THE MILL CITIZEN, AND HELD OUT THE PROMISE THAT IF YOU HAD A PROBLEM THAT WAS TOO BIG FOR YOU TO SOLVE AS AN INDIVIDUAL, YOUR GOVERNMENT WOULD LISTEN TO YOU, AND HELP YOU SOLVE IT.
And Joe personified that, all the way to encouraging kids with stutters by talking to them personally while out meeting people. He met with people who lost loved ones, and shared their sorrow, to lift them up. We can’t forget what our party stands for, and IT’S THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE, TO THEM, AND FROM THEM. We don’t run on spite, and we don’t run on malice. This doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy tripping the ones who do.
But we should hold Stumpy accountable, and we should point out his failures to keep every one of his promises (and trust me, he won’t keep ANY of them), and point out where he said he was going to do exactly the opposite of what he’s finally done. PUT THIS ON BILLBOARDS OVER THE HIGHWAYS OF THIS COUNTRY, EVEN IF WE HAVE TO BUY THE BILLBOARDS.
eclare
@JoyceH:
WT actual Fuck? Wow.
Professor Bigfoot
@HeleninEire: I SO LOOK FORWARD TO THAT.
I’m slowly returning to some semblance of sanity, but I ain’t got NO idea how to attack this.
Steve LaBonne
@JoyceH: Golden shower, more like.
eclare
@Scout211:
Yep. Fighting amongst ourselves keeps them in power. Divide and conquer.
George Carlin talked about it decades ago. No one learned.
Gretchen
@Steve LaBonne: Yes, it’s amazing, isn’t it? They make a mess of both the economy and national security, over and over, yet continue to be perceived as the Daddy party who will make everything safe.
zhena gogolia
@Craig: Seconded.
Baud
@Craig:
👍
NotMax
@JoyceH
Iron Pyrite Age.
//
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: Are those managers and professionals engineers?
Speaking as an engineer myself, we are some of the smartest STUPID mfs on the planet; WELL trained but poorly educated.
Plus, the engineering curriculum is genuinely difficult, so having survived it engineers often think they’re always the smartest one in the room.
But as I said, well trained but poorly educated. The Techbroligarchs are a PRIME example of the breed.
zhena gogolia
This thread is full of good comments.
brantl
@Baud: We were a minority of the people that VOTED, nothing has been proven about whether we are a minority of the people who COULD have voted.
Gretchen
@JoyceH: I’m betting that Pastor Mike thinks he’s entering a Golden Age is that his real goal is to force the rest of us to abide by his religion. We’ve got to keep an eye on these religious fanatics – their perceptions are based more on believing in the unseen than in any facts in front of their faces.
Baud
@brantl:
Don’t vote, don’t count, IMHO.
Maybe next time things will be different.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Maybe not hard enough!
Baud
@JoyceH:
You know, I really can’t believe fault him for projecting an optimistic message.
Everyone wants us to copy their ruthlessness, but we ignore how they sell themselves to their supporters. (See also Make America Great Again).
Steve LaBonne
@Gretchen: What they are really good at is propaganda, with loads of help from corporate media and, these days, social media algorithms.
brantl
@JoyceH: If that liquids golden, why are Stumpy’s pants unzipped?
Salty Sam
Not very long after the election, I (a non-theist radical agnostic) started attending Quaker meetings- it has been a sanity-saver, and has become a regular part of my practice. I have noticed as Inauguration Day has gotten closer, fellow attendees have been remarking on the anxiety and despair accompanying our political situation, and the importance of maintaining hope through it all.
Last week a woman addressed this with a poem written by a Sikh woman who is a Labor & Delivery nurse; the poem asks “what if the darkness we are seeing is NOT the darkness of the tomb, but rather, the darkness of the womb?… What if our America is not dead, but a country still waiting to be born? … What if this is the great Contraction before we birth a new future?… Remember the wisdom of the midwife- “Breathe” she says, then “Push!”
It has helped me. I’ll fwd the whole poem to WaterGirl to post as she sees fit.
Harrison Wesley
@JoyceH: Norman Bates the flower child? Age of Aquarius and all that shit.
Steve LaBonne
@Salty Sam: My minister (who herself is expecting) has used that quote more than once recently. (I am a very much atheist UU so I am glad to hear of your Quaker experience.)
Gretchen
@WaterGirl: Thank you, Water Girl, for all you do, especially for your continuing efforts to keep our hopes and spirits up. Much appreciated.
BlueGuitarist
@zhena gogolia:
Don’t agree he won “fair and square”
Michael Podhorzer argues the election was
“legal but not legitimate”
and those justices and judges rigged the game.
in any case, always glad to see you post.
Podhotzer: weekendreading.net/p/is-this-what-democracy-looks-like
brantl
@Baud: Sure we’ve got to make sure that knowledge of what’s happening and who’s on what side is as abundantly clear as we can make it.
This has to be our new goal of making him responsible for being an actual president, instead of a giant orange gasbag in a red tie and a suit.
Professor Bigfoot
@brantl: In Oz voting is mandatory.
Man, how different this country would look if that were the case here. [sigh]
Gretchen
@Salty Sam: I like that! I remember that when I was in labor, I kept thinking, I can handle this, and I can handle it if it gets worse. Then, at one point, I thought, I can’t handle it if it gets any worse. Just then, the doctor came in and said you’re at 10 cm, it’s time to push! Baby was here within a half an hour. I’d love to see the poem.
LAC
@Steve LaBonne: Yes, indeed…
Professor Bigfoot
@Salty Sam:
I owe you for that one.
valariekaur.com/2016/11/a-sikh-prayer-for-america-on-november-9th-2016/
brantl
@Professor Bigfoot: Not necessarily, unless you require they pay attention, and also vote.
I think it would make a bigger difference if we’d never allowed Ruper Murdoch citizenship.
zhena gogolia
@Salty Sam: Wow, that is beautiful.
Kathleen
I think it’s a good sign that some Democrats are willing to “name that which should remain hushed” when it comes to “messaging” (I copied and pasted from Twitter):
Kay
@Professor Bigfoot:
One of them is an engineer. One’s a dentist, so wingnut goes without saying. I asked my husband to repeat it when he told me they were brainstorming about what they were going to do with their new giant island.
Salty Sam
I was in such anger and despair after the election, I started attending as a last resort. I discovered a need in myself to connect with others at this level. It is a vital part of my week now.
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: I’ve thought that. But considering how gullible much of our population is to ridiculous propaganda, I’m not sure that making all of them vote would help. We need to figure out how to get them a better media diet.
I also think that Australia doesn’t have the homeschooled evangelical problem that we have, who vote however their corrupt pastor tells them.
Baud
My view is more easily expressed in Spanish. It’s
Not
I.e., our status isn’t necessarily permanent.
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: OMG, crying now.
eclare
@Kathleen:
Sorry. I cannot get over her treatment of Al Franken.
BlueGuitarist
@Salty Sam:
thanks!
Baud
@Kathleen:
Nice.
Why aren’t more Dems saying that?
(Just kidding, I hate when people make that complaint.)
Gretchen
@Kay: Did he tell you what their plans for the giant island were? Do they know that it’s not really green, and they can’t put golf courses on the ice?
zhena gogolia
@Kay: I actually found a non-wingnut dentist! After my previous one yelled at me for wearing a mask in spring 2021.
zhena gogolia
@Salty Sam: Quakers, UU, and UCC are not going to ask you to declare your faith in God at the door before you are welcomed and accepted.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
No way. What country did you have to travel to?
zhena gogolia
@Baud: 😂 Right here in my little town. He hates RFK Jr!
Steve LaBonne
@Salty Sam: And mine. In a society where so much of what passes for religion is crude propaganda on behalf of powerful oppressors, it’s always meaningful to keep in mind that the root Latin meaning of religion is “that which binds us together”.
BlueGuitarist
Thanks WG!
Appreciate your sisu – that untranslatable Finnish for ~ tenacity, bravery, resilience
stronger together, forward.
eclare
@Salty Sam:
I need to do that. There is a church less than a mile from me that seems to be very welcoming.
eclare
@Steve LaBonne:
Interesting. Thank you.
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
I think I did too. He’s like 17. He wears stubble, whatever men call that deliberately unshaven thing. He talks like a youngun too. He says “of course!” instead of “ok”. Earnest.
Professor Bigfoot
@Kay: I KNEW IT!! roflmao
I’m telling you, engineers are usually the very worst; but some of them (like my old boss, the PhD mechanical engineer) are the very best.
Kay
@Gretchen:
They think we’re going to storm the beaches.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: OMG. You are a quantoid! ( My college slang for people good at numbers. The guys with tiny vocabularies who always won at Scrabble because they did the calculations instead of showing off their vocabularies.)
I went into tax accounting although I can barely do basic arithmetic (ten key calculators do that) but I do have a law degree and can read tax rules, regs and laws. That and office work got me a CPA. My liberal arts education allowed me to thrive because I could read and write, letters, IRS private ruling things, skills other accountants lack.
Having read you here, you are not a typical quantoid with a tiny vocabulary who can’t communicate. But my black guys are good at math prejudice is still intact.
Barbara
WG, taking the weekend off but know that I’m with you in spirit and willing to pitch in. I missed the RSVP to the worker power event, is it too late to join? Thanks.
Eolirin
I wish I had the energy to contribute.
I have enough non political difficulties that things are touch and go on just that. Hopefully I still have functional health insurance (Medicaid) in a few months.
Melancholy Jaques
@Professor Bigfoot:
His voters won’t give a shit whatever he does. He can completely ruin their lives & they will still adore him. They did not vote for him because of any policies or results.
But he didn’t win because his supporters voted for him, he won because other people did not vote for Harris. My conclusion is that it was mostly because she is a woman. Others have their ideas. We are never going to really know and probably shouldn’t waste too much time agonizing over it.
Our focus must be on people who are already inclined to vote for Democrats.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gretchen: I don’t disagree… but my faith in my species says that most humans aren’t going to vote for a seditious, lying, theiving, grifting, incompetent son of a bitch, and therefore even as our population is currently situated, we would make better electoral decisions.
There’s a reason why conservatives work and fight as hard as they can to allow as few as possible people to have the franchise, vote and litigate against any attempt to expand the franchise… and there are enough of them in enough of the right places that here we are.
I genuinely don’t think making participation mandatory and universal would lead us to making still worse choices than we have.
Llelldorin
@Professor Bigfoot: Speaking as a mathematician who’s pretending to be an engineer, I think it’s endemic in a lot of quantitative fields.
If anything, it’s worse in guys like me who have been professors — one of the core skills of teaching is “sounding like you know what you’re talking about,” which is really dangerous when applied outside your specialization.
No One of Consequence
@Professor Bigfoot: you may, and well played. This is it, or nearly all of it. He is without doubt the laziest occupant ever, and he won’t put in the work, but even were he a percentage or two of a real manager, he could delegate and decide.
He cannot even do that, because he lacks the capacity for discernment and discretion. No character, other than the archetype reptilian brain paired with the archetype narcissism. Purely transactional sollipsist (sp?) with no sense of shame or decency.
The the Royal, Collective We the People of America said:
“yeah, how bad could it be THIS time?”
Experiment ending, I suspect. If THAT happens, all bets are off as we’ll all have even more pressing problems.
The one thing I believe we can count on, literally guaranteed: Overreach.
I believe determining how best to leverage against that would be a prudent move for us all.
My $0.02, anyway.
Peace,
-NOoC
WaterGirl
@eclare: Do you happen to have a link for that saved somewhere?
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Verdad, y me gusta, pero- ¿quienes son ‘nosotros?’
Another Scott
I think this kinda fits here, maybe?
Phys.org:
Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power. – N. Pelosi
Getting more people on the train, traveling with us to a better future, is important. But if some people want to ride in the caboose and some want to ride in the sleeper and some want to ride in the skyline car, that’s Ok!
Seriously, people are complicated. Trying to get only people who think the way we do on particular issues into our coalition is probably doomed to failure. Not least of all because our thinking might be muddled or might not be the best way to get to where we want to go… Diversity and Solidarity!
Best wishes,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Llelldorin:
You have basically just described the lead Three Stooges at LGM.
oldgold
The Ballad of Johnnie Armstrong
“I’m a little wounded, but not slain ;
I’ll lie down here and bleed a while,
And then, I’ll rise and fight again.”
Like Johnnie Armstrong, for the next day or so I am going to lie low, ignore the inauguration and tend to my political wounds. And then, come Tuesday, I will be ready to engage in the political fight again.
“Fight on, fight on, my Merry Men.”
Professor Bigfoot
@Kathleen: Wow.
The good Senator is actually saying the unspeakable out loud.
Anyone want to take bets on how soon she is ostracized?
jowriter
@Salty Sam: Please do send it on. That is a very hopeful and positive perspective.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
El grupo más grande de nosotros todavía está una minoría. Cada otro subgrupo es aún más pequeño.
different-church-lady
Dude pretty much knew he was going to get assassinated, but kept at it.
sab
@Gretchen: They want the rare earth elements under the ice. They pretend to be stupid but they are not.
ETA The local dentists are idiots, but the guys at the top who launch these ideas are not. They are scheming assholes and good at their scheming jobs.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
We’re going to make snowmen. IT’S A GIANT PILE OF SNOW, YOU FUCKING DOPES!
Scout211
I was interested, too. A search came up with this one that could be the one.
George Carlin: divide and conquer.
Professor Bigfoot
@sab: Oh, good God no! I got through engineering school by the very skin of my teeth!
But between Barney in ‘Mission Impossible’ and Sergeant Kinchloe at Stalag 13 and a whole mess of Heinlein, I got the idea that being an engineer was an honorable, creative profession; and I have always been a bit of a tinkerer; so it worked out.
Once upon a time I could solve a fourth-order differential equation, but trust me, I even then I was nobody’s math wizard!
sab
@different-church-lady: Rare earth elements. They are not fools. They just pretend to be on tv.This Greenland grab could happen if it weren’t for NATO. NATO makes us behave. For now.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: It seems like there are two competing theories of the 2024 loss… one that Democratic-leaning turnout was down, and another, that lower-propensity voters actually shifted to Trump. If it’s the second, then higher turnout might not actually help our side, however good for the health of a democracy it would be.
However, it does seem like Trump’s personality cult is about him personally, not about Republicans. Given that Democrats have tended to overperform relative to expectations in midterms, in special elections, and their issues on referenda. That’s consistent with lower-propensity voters supporting him.
It used to be that Democrats underperformed in low-turnout elections because Republicans’ higher-socioeconomic-class, more-educated voters were more consistent at turning out; today that may have reversed.
different-church-lady
@sab: Denmark’s just gonna sell them at a discount?
A Ghost to Most
I, for one, do not welcome our new christian supremacist overlords.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: Definitely not too late to RSVP for the Worker Power zoom this coming Saturday, 1/25. We’re going to hear from Brendan about their thoughts about where we all (collectively) go from here.
Everyone is welcome, I hope some more people RSVP, too!
Send me email to RSVP.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t understand why the theories compete. Both happened. What’s the point in trying to assign the failure to just one of them?
Professor Bigfoot
@Melancholy Jaques: Yeah, I’m convinced at this point that a straight white Christian man espousing the same policies would be successful; so that’s what I’m looking for at this point. [sigh]
America is ready for us to be the sidekick, but not the hero (and don’t bring up Obama, because white people voted against him, too)
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: I’m sorry to hear that! All of it.
I had hoped you would be one of the people who would submit something.But i understand if you don’t have the energy.
TBone
@A Ghost to Most: my ancestors knew what to do with Nazis, and it didn’t involve kneeling.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: I had a math genius friend in college who went into engineering but was terrified that he wasn’t up to the tinkering side of the profession. I didn’t follow up to see how he did.
RevRick
@Melancholy Jaques: Oh crap. You made me grab my Bible and read your exact reference: “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
I doubt many on this blog would love the theological answer to that plaint, but I would respond, let’s not inflate Trump’s power. For one thing he’s not immortal and he’s closer to his sell-by date than he may fear. But the other thing to keep in mind is that the federalism of our system, especially in states with Democratic control, will hinder his ability to rule unchecked.
Scout211
In reading the blog since the election, I would venture to say you are short by at least 150 competing reasons. Maybe more.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: I sold my own mother on Obama by emphasizing that he was raised by his white grandparents.
ETA I didn’t need to sell my dad. Obama had already sold himself.
Salty Sam
@jowriter: Professor Bigfoot posted this online version :
valariekaur.com/2016/11/a-sikh-prayer-for-america-on-november-9th-2016/
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Thank you, that has to be it!
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
I am familiar with this and have always been baffled by it. I cannot count the number of times I have had to show the facts with charts & graphs to Democratic leaning people. My particular problem is with tote-baggers who have college degrees & should know these things.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Verdad. [sigh]
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick:
That’s what I’m hoping, but one thing I’ve learned the hard way is that the right’s commitment to “states’ rights” is completely hypocritical and conditional on states doing their bidding. They’ll override state power in a second if they think they can gain by it.
One of the nightmares that I thought about a lot during the first Trump administration is some sort of state-level coup to overthrow blue-state governments and rule them directly under some kind of police power. But they won’t need to if the states cave and cooperate with their agenda anyway.
These massive ICE raids in Chicago were intended to completely overwhelm local and state power. But it sounds like they were hoping for the element of surprise and that’s been blown. Who knows where they’ll strike instead.
Matt McIrvin
@Gretchen: Republicans preside over great economies until the last bit right at the end! Then Democrats preside over terrible economies until the last bit right at the end!
WaterGirl
@Scout211:
Truth. And you made me laugh!
BlueGuitarist
@sab:
@ArchTeryx:
@sab:
made me look: Ursula Vernon
patreon.com/posts/light-at-end-of-91410900
Gretchen
@Kay: So they have a Saving Private Ryan fantasy – about Greenland? I’m guessing they’re not planning to be the soldiers wading into the icy water? And what are we going to do with it once we have it?
RevRick
@zhena gogolia: I agree with you that we need to be focused. You want to go local. I plan to go global. But only about one issue: climate change. I’m mindful of my granddaughter and future generations. I don’t know how much we will be able to limit the political damage that he will do, but limiting the physical damage to our planet is a battle worth fighting.
Matt McIrvin
@Gretchen: Let’s you and him fight!
sab
@BlueGuitarist: Thank you. I loved that light at the end of the frog thing.
sab
Martin Luther King was younger than my stepkids when he died. Thirty-nine. He was a full grown man. A lot of the young men that age I know are barely functional adults.
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: So true.
different-church-lady
@sab: Adulting is over.
Professor Bigfoot
@Scout211: I’m not touching this one. ;)
zhena gogolia
@Salty Sam: I just realized that’s from 2016. Long labor.
sab
@BlueGuitarist: That was the quote. Thank you. I think I will finally buy her award winning book.
Kelly
Yes they do and it drives me nuts.
Another Scott
Dean Baker reminds us of another of Biden’s important accomplishments, and something we’re unlikely to see under the next guy – Full Employment:
(Emphasis added.)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
sab
@different-church-lady: Nato says Denmark isn’t selling anything it doesn’t want to (for now).
Captain C
@Matt McIrvin: If Republicans (and their Confederate predecessors) actually believed in states’ rights they would be (and have been) fine with free states having laws like ‘any enslaved person who sets foot in this state is hereby free, and anyone attempting to return them to bondage is guilty of kidnapping and subject to not less than 10 years of hard labor’ or, ‘anyone found guilty of being a part of a party attempting to kidnap former slaves can be sentenced to death.’
Since they’re not/weren’t, we can safely assume any claptrap of ‘states’ rights’ on their part is self-serving bullshit.
FelonyGovt
I remain in complete despair over the last election, and I’m trying to figure out when, how and IF I want to wade back into the fight. I plan to give myself at least until my hip is replaced in a couple of months. But I really appreciate your efforts, WG, and your positive approach. Maybe I can contribute some more research at some point.
For now, I’m trying to help out my fire-devastated city to the extent I can.
As to the Orange Shitgibbon, I refrain from clicking on any article or post breathlessly reporting his latest inanity. And I’m hoping really hard for a William Henry Harrison incident- if not from the cold, then from being close to vaccine denying morons. If he goes, I think his cult will fall away.
brantl
@Matt McIrvin: No, Joe actually made it better pretty fucking fast.
brantl
@FelonyGovt: Unfortunately, although stupid people do die, STUPID never dies.
Gvg
@Kelly: to be fair I am old enough to remember when the democrats were coming up with some pretty unconvincing ideas…..about 50 years ago. Some legends need to die, but are too useful to opponents, and people are lazy thinkers mostly.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Thank you, Joe.
zhena gogolia
I really enjoyed this thread. Too bad the next one is about TikTok, which I don’t give a flying fuck about.
Ruckus
@Professor Bigfoot:
Raging about something you can’t fix alone is useless.
Very human, often needed in an over abundance – but it is useless. My point is that anger is an emotion and sometimes it is helpful, like if you are being physically attacked.
This isn’t that.
This is basic theft of a country, what it stands for, what it is supposed to be. This country is a democracy, a system for and by all of us, not for one pompous, arrogant, asshole who thinks (OK who doesn’t actually have an actual thought in his entire body….) that he is the leader of not a country but of the entirety of humanity. A model of the basis of humanity. He is a pompous, arrogant, asshole and that is the best he will ever do or be. His siblings didn’t believe his crap, they were/are reasonably normal human beings. This is all him and his supporters whose concept of humanity is that you take all you can get and live at least 10 ft above every one else on the planet. They do not want a democracy, they want a monarchy in which they get to choose the leader. And fuck over everyone else in the country or in their way. Joe Biden or Kamala Harris may like power but they like it in that they get to insure that this government, this country is about all of the people and insuring that they have an equal opportunity to live to procreate if they wish and to have enough food and shelter to survive, and to have a system that helps them when they retire so that they can be healthy as long as possible and to help them insure their health when they need care. IOW what humanity should be. We are here to be human to each other, to survive without harming others, to assist those who for one rational reason or another can’t help themselves enough.
WTFGhost
Well… isn’t that really the first thing to fix, then? If you can’t share thoughts in a thoughtful way, if you can’t resist provocation, if you keep re-fighting the old sore spots (even if the battleground is different, it’s the same pain…), then… you need to fix that.
All uses of “you” are the generic “you”, and certainly includes “me”.
Now, how do you get happy, when things are terrible? Beats me. I’ve never figured that out. Okay, but, I have gotten from “wanting to (dark fantasy elided)” to trying to share thoughts thoughtfully, and to call out provocations more gently, or not at all, if I didn’t have anything more to say than “STOP YELLING SUCH NEGATIVITY ASSHOLE!” because who can tell which person shouting that is the original asshole, and who cares after the third-fourth repetition?
Robert Heinlein opined it’s amazing how much “mature wisdom” resembles “being too tired,” and I agree, being frequently too tired myself. Then again, being too tired to get all hot blooded and saying “I don’t care if it’s going to make a mess, it’s time to do a cannonball into the punchbowl!” will save a lot on damage to one’s body, and certainly improve the quality of both the punch, and the bowls.
Where was I? Right: first thing I had to learn was that feelings were things you could control, that you could try to hurt less over emotional things. One of the first things I needed to understand (and it’s a hard lesson) is feelings are real, but not reality.
If I feel horrible, that’s real, and meaningful, and deserving of comfort – but if I feel horrible because everyone hates my Ford Mustang, then I can try to remind myself that I never owned a Mustang and never really wanted to. Okay, that makes it sound silly, right? But we often feel emotional reactions to bad stuff that isn’t real, or is unimportant, and there’s all kinds of ways to handle those reactions. Heck, if you get good at it, you catch the reaction with the stimulus, and avoid the unpleasant emotional reaction altogether.
(This is why your parents didn’t strangle you *many, many, many* times during your childhood: they learned to disregard certain annoyances as part of the background noise. Apologies to those whose parents sucked, and/or for whom the preceding was not true.)
But that’s the advanced case. First, you catch yourself *getting* angry, and it’s like, “oh, right, I remember, there’s a trick I can use.” Maybe taking 5 slow, deep, non-hyperoxygenating breaths, and then re-assessing the situation. Or maybe you meditate, and can just blank your brain, just for a moment. Or maybe you walk away from the keyboard when you realize you have a headache, because that’s when you’ll start getting into arguments.
(I’ve learned that pain affects moods, and, I’ve also learned that a lot of people hate to admit that, so, remember: you don’t have to admit it to anyone but yourself.)
But you see, all these things – they all depend on a person saying they have a mood, even for a good reason, and they’re not necessarily being the most productive, friendly, uh, FRIENDS at the moment.
So that’s the one thing I could add, not as a post: you can work on yourself. Your mood. Your relationships. Your hobbies. Become a bit more “real you” and a little less “despairing/raging/whatever-ing” you. Just realize it’s a thing you can *do*. Because sometimes just recognizing that helps provide answers to “where next?”
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
His cult may fade away but people who want what they think he offers likely never will.
Basic humanity is like every other living creature on the planet, it’s about survival. And what basic survival used to be about way back when is different than basic survival today. Hell it’s different in the lifetime of people alive today, for many reasons. Today most of us work in many ways far different than it has been in my lifetime, and I’m not even the oldest person in my apartment complex. By almost 25 yrs – and I’m 75 yrs old. When my parents were born, very few people had a car, only the very wealthy or someone who built their own. My father was born in Kansas and brought to California in a horse drawn wagon at one year old. Highways didn’t exist, it was trails. Most or close to it of the people who are or would be 75-125 yrs old today came from families that came here (or were brought here quite possibly against their will) from somewhere else. IOW may be first generation born here. I am second generation born here in the US. My grandparents, at least 50% of them immigrated here.
Glidwrith
@Roberto el oso: That sounds like an extremely useful tool, would you post it for us?
Kay
@Gretchen:
You guessed right! And only one of them is a veteran – the dentist. Then he went on to make a zillion dollars.
My husband told me they watch war movies and they want the United States to invade somewhere and take something.
Greenlanders fought the Vikings to a draw. These warriors regularly conquer a tennis ball.
Another Scott
@Glidwrith: I found this comment on an AngryBlackLady thread.
It points to:
maketheroadny.org/
which includes things like a 39 page Deportation Defense Manual (PDF).
HTH a little.
Best wishes,
Scott.
hitchhiker
@Kay:
I don’t like thinking this, but I’m pretty sure I’m right: This entire mess would be resolved without too much trouble if there were a person with a D after their name who embodied the ethos of General Sherman and wanted to be loud, proud and president.
I’m going to mow these bastards down and then run a rototiller over them until there’s nothing left but little chunks. They’re wrong, and they’re assholes, and they’re in the way of everything that’s right and fair. They deserve to be killed and then killed again and then laughed at.
I don’t want us to need that, but I think we do. Your husband’s tennis buddies and my redneck brother would be willing to give such a person a shot, but only if they never, ever stepped out of character. All bluster, all the time, with lots of money, and privately very smart. Given our media environment, only a person like that could get a signal through the noise.
Gloria DryGarden
Recasting it
Aún en el grupo más grande de nosotros, el grupo contiene menos que 50%, y menos del otro grupo. Así que estamos en una minoría.
O, mejor dicho, hemos estado en una minoría.
While I could be wrong about the preposition menos ‘del,’ or it could be menos ‘que’ (once I lost my immersion the preposition troubles seeped in) I’m not ok with poetic license on the verb choice. I love and understand what you’re trying to do with it.
Going forward we’re going to fucking turn it around so we’re no longer in a minority. No idea how, but it’s my intent.
Chris T.
@ArchTeryx:
This sent me off on a Google search, and apparently it’s Ursula Vernon aka T. Kingfisher (not Ursula K Le Guin).