I don’t mean fuck it, fuck it.
Fuck that.
We citizens of the US don’t have the luxury of throwing our hands up in disgust. We also can’t let our guard down when we have some success. Like, for the moment, 24 million people won’t be losing their healthcare.
We have to resist. This isn’t a drill.
Every time I see someone say “this isn’t a drill” regarding our current state of affairs, I feel such anxiety because it’s not a drill. This is happening. Lunatics are running the asylum. I hate this. We’ve had some success, but this is far from over.
Doesn’t matter if I hate it or not, this is our life in the US.
We are strong. We are resilient. We can do this.
I’ve been thinking.
Well, obsessing.
I can be a more effective activist if I am thinking clearly. I know from experience that I get more accomplished and I am more productive when my brain is calm. I can move motherfucking mountains when I bend at the knees and dig my heels in. I need to calm down and focus.
I have a picture that I want to share. I love this so much. This picture gives me perspective. It helps calm the calamity in my brain.
Okay, so I don’t agree with the “fear nothing” part. Having no fear is a ridiculous notion. Of course we should have fear. That keeps us from sticking our heads into jet engines and kissing rattle snakes on the lips.
This is assuming rattle snakes have lips. I have no idea. I don’t know that much about snakes.
Here’s the fuck it part.
I know shit is bad. I know we are in peril.
I’m still glad I’m here.
I had to run the air conditioner in February. In Ohio. That shit isn’t normal. Never, in my entire life, do I remember the temperature reaching eighty fucking degrees in February in Ohio.
The United States is going to dismantle the EPA at the end of next year.
This isn’t going to end well for humanity.
Even so, I’m still glad I am here. I am still glad my kids are here. I am still glad my grandkids are here and I will rejoice when I have great grandchildren.
Because being alive is goddamn amazing.
We all have an obligation to do something, anything, to make our lives, and the lives of the other humans better. We are fucking up so many things now, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep trying. When we fail, we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and keep pushing. Just like we’ve been doing since the shitshow election.
And who knows? Maybe our grandchildren or great grandchildren will tell us to step aside and then clean up our messes. I don’t know about you, but I have incredible children and grandchildren. I have amazing nieces and nephews. I have faith in them.
I’m glad they are here.
I’m glad I’m here.
I’m glad you are here, too.
I’m glad YOU are here, too <3
I can't remember EVER paying this much attention and having so much anxiety living 'normal' after an election 🙁
Mostly, because every word and nuance and body action displayed by DT triggers every defensive and self-survival behaviour I ever learned and needed.
He keeps us in a state of distress so he can take the credit for any little good feeling we have 🙁
Healthcare is such a major victory!
Now the pipeline fiasco… devastation 🙁 I want sooooo badly to go to North Dakota!
And the Library Services and Technology Act is being 'unacted.'
Good grief. We might as well have not done anything the last 200 years 🙁
Thanks for tossing us another lifeline, Michelle.
Perspective. We HAVE to keep perspective and priorities in order to make sure we aren't being 'red-herringed' right back into the 1800's.
I’m glad we’re all here, too! That doesn’t take away the fact that we still basically have an orange (instead of green) Wicked Witch of the East, surrounded by all his Flying Monkeys in the White trash House, but it does give one hope. Pixie Dust for all!! Haha!!
*hugs Terri Lee tight*
Pixie Dust for all… or Koolaid 😉
This is so true…that is our reality.
Randy and I were just talking about that. How we know the political players in a way we have never in the past. I mean, it’s not like we didn’t pay any attention, but we study this shit now.
Same here, Michelle! It dawned on me that I know who all these men in suits are immediately (even minor players) and that the majority of my reading and TV watching lately has centered on politics. I think I’ve never before felt the NEED to keep such a close eye on things as I do now. I feel like to simply sit back, remain uninformed and watch what happens is no longer an option if we want to protect our environment and people and KEEP our democracy.
I’m glad you’re here, too, Michelle. Keep preaching it (well, you don’t really preach, you just speak your mind and it resonates with me, big time). So don’t stop, okay?
I’m not going to! Not any time soon. 🙂 Thank you xoxox
I’m glad I read this blog. Picked me up a bit.
I am so glad!!
I’m glad you’re here too. And I’m glad there are a lot of good, smart people who aren’t letting their guard down. I’m glad that things aren’t bad everywhere. I’m glad that we had an EPA because its creation was prompted by some really bad shit–literal shit dumped all over the place–and people said “We need to clean this shit up.” Rivers caught on fire and people were dying from smog. And I’m annoyed that some people haven’t learned from history–including assholes who lived through that shit–but I guess we have to go through shitty cycles.
And as much as I like Carl Sagan’s “we are all star dust” I like that picture’s version too. I like the idea that I’m a meat-covered skeleton because those assholes who want to undo environmental protections and take away healthcare CAN EAT ME.
HAHAHHA..we were on the road when I read this comment and read it out loud to Randy and it made him laugh, too
I’m glad you’re here too. I’m glad all the people involved in this resistance, on whatever level, are here. We need this resistance, for the sake of our futures, our children’s futures, this planet’s future. And so, we may be ghosts driving through space but we can still make a difference. A very wise person (my brother) once reminded me, “Think globally, act locally.” And you know what, it works! Getting involved in your local politics really does help you feel as if you’re doing something, while at the same time giving you some hope that that bigger stuff can be managed too. Like chipping away at a mountain one rock at a time. Because if you let it, that bigger stuff will just send you into a panic.
It has sent me into a panic over and over and over. Yes, acting locally does help.
With all due respect and gratitude for your awareness and desire to fight the good fight, I’m glad I’m Canadian. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be living in the United States at this terrible time. That said, it’s spreading. We are also experiencing an increase in hate crimes, racism and fascist-like fervour. Other countries are in the same boat. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. We must not let evil prevail. #FightTheGoodFight
It makes me so sad. It makes me so sad that we are seeing all these hate crimes.
Yea, fuck all their fuckery. I am glad to be here, too. And I am glad you are here to remind me of that.
XOXOXOXOOXOX
omg, you are thinking EXACTLY what I am thinking!
I hope a lot of us are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qEI2yUseL8
This is directly applicable. Please share it with your friends. It is three minutes of your life you will not want back.
I watched this after I posted my own poem. One thing about the craziness in this country and this world today is that it’s bringing out the need in people to express themselves creatively in ways they haven’t done in years! I’ll never understand how so many people could actually listen to the batshit crazy ramblings during that guy’s campaign and think “he speaks for US”. People I know who voted for that guy told me, “Nothing else has worked, so we need to try DT.” Wait….WHAT??? That’s like saying, “The wart on my hand isn’t going away, no matter what I do. I know! Let me take some cyanide! After all, nothing else has worked!”
How perfect, Terri. I love your poem.
Thank you so much, Lisa! I have to say, I felt better after writing it!
*pets Tink’s wings*
I’m better 🙂
Thanks, Barb R for that video. You are right. Powerful.
I love this so much! Beautiful and scary and comforting.
Glad you all saw it as worthwhile. She is an incredible poet, and struggling. She is crowdsourced, so if you like it, send her a few bucks. The world needs artists like her. I bought her poetry pamphlet, it was like reading dark chocolate.
Oh awesome. I will do that. We need all the art we can get.
Yesterday morning, after a horrible, shit week (what would have been my Silver wedding anniversary, two of my cats disappeared and fortunately reappeared, but still put me through crying hell, all the crap in the news, etc.), I had two words that would not leave my head. Suddenly—and I have no idea where this came from, it was sort of unfiltered, uncensored stream-of-consciousness—all these words came spilling out of me onto paper. In one minute, I had written my first poem since I was in high school! And I sound like I’m channeling a black rapper, but hey, I’m cool with that! HAHAHA!!!!! I’m debuting it for the first time publicly on YOUR comments page! 😀
WE TOLD YOU SO
by Terri Lee
Validation, vindication, all across this fucking nation,
backwoods bumpkins think they’re rich, think they’re a friend of the son of a bitch,
Orange ain’t my goddamned color, pitting one against the other, liars, cheats and traitors all, they’ll stand and watch this country fall,
Full of shit and full of ego, tweeting crazy all while we go out to march and save this place,
Return us to the human race.
“Return us to the Human Race….”
Remember when Michelle posted that ‘One Tin Soldier’ piece?
I’ll be damned if I can’t get that out of my mind these days 🙁
Happy Anniversary, Snookums. But did your cats give you something else to think about?’ Little buttheads with their hearts in the right place <3
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this! This is perfect! XOXOXOXOXOX
I unloaded my anger/grief and it was cathartic! HAHA! Thank you for the kind words, Michelle and Lisa! XOXOXOXO
Right back atcha!
I have to believe, if recent developments (and the tantrums of the outraged cheeto set on blaming everyone but himself) contain any lesson it is this: we can still turn this shit around. Yes, it will be hard. And some things will go horribly wrong along the way. But we’ve proven that they’re not going to have the smooth road they’d planned on, and I hope that scares them. So yeah, today? I’m glad we’re here too. For the first time in a while, actually… I won’t lie, Away has been looking pretty good.
But I’ve never been one to back down from a fight, especially once my back’s to the corner.
I am with you and I have never been one to turn from a fight. I will avoid the shit out of it, but if that is the only option, then I use all I have. I’m just tired. I didn’t want to fight this fight right now…but we don’t get to choose that shit, do we? So, tired or not, I am going to do what I can.
The spectacular failure of the AHCA serves to illustrate the fact that while these men are indeed evil, they are also incompetent. Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi bailing on a bill twice with a 44 seat majority? No, you can’t, because whatever you may think of her, she was as good at the job of speaker of the house as anyone who ever held that position, and after all of the nasty shit thrown her way for so long, it really did my heart good to watch her stand there and call this fiasco a “rookie’s error” on Trump’s part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js63Nw86Whs
Now the question is what will they do next? They may have failed at legislation for now, but there’s still Tom Price in there just ripping away at the underpinnings of the ACA, which could indeed cause it to start failing, but don’t let them fool you with their bullshit; it’s not failing as it sits.
Even that might end up being an opportunity, if we can live through it in the short term: The ACA is the Republican “free market” alternative to the plan the Clintons came up with in the ’90s, thought up by Heritage, implemented by Romney, and the only thing politically feasible in 2010 in the face of Republican scorched earth obstruction and a ten percent unemployment rate that would have thrown us into a depression had the health insurance industry been wiped out by the passage of single payer. But single payer is the only sane way to deliver healthcare in a modern society, and we already have it here. I have it, and I like the hell out of it. We call it Medicare, and it’s the least expensive, most efficient kind of healthcare around, because it’s directly regulated and doesn’t need to turn a profit or pay a CEO or ten.
But it will always have to overcome the hue and cry of “Socialized medicine! It will destroy the republic, pervert your Granny, and give your dog a rash!” even though Granny (and her dog) live much better lives with the financial security brought on by the coverage of her more frequent with age medical bills.
Anyway, should the Trump/Bannon/Price fuckery actually undermine the working of the ACA, the resulting crash of the health insurance market might be the only thing that could set up an incoming Democratic administration with the circumstances that would allow the passage of single payer. I realize there are a lot of “ifs” in that scenario, but if we start preparing for it now, it just might happen. We’ve now demonstrated that we can pull off victories that fall outside of the realm of reasonable conventional politics, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to aim for the whole enchilada in our strategies now…
That is such a lovely thought. I truly hope that is how it turns out for us.
I’m glad you’re here too. You’re absolutely right – alive is amazing – and always the best choice. I am getting a little withdrawal without Dude these last 2 weeks though……and you must be the only cat owner on the planet who doesn’t share adorable kitty pictures!
Fear not, Barbara. I’m replenishing the Dude supply this week.
Haha..we’ve had a little extra busy in our lives…but Randy says Dude is making a comeback. 🙂
Fuck yeah!!! You put it so succinctly.
Thank you!!!
I’m glad you’re here too. Keep resisting. I’m with you.
I know you are, sister!
I’m glad you’re here too! Did you see the NBC news article about how sales of bunkers are up with the way that Trump is running the country? I almost typed ruining instead of running….but I guess either would fit.
Yeah, either word would work.
I’m glad you’re here too! 🙂
I’ve always felt the most patriotic thing a person could do was want to improve their country. Part of that means asking questions–primarily boiled down to, are we as a country doing the right thing. Sometimes the majority of people are while the leadership is not–this is one of those times. Times a fucking billion.
Things are happening, moving backwards in a way and at a pace that I never thought would happen in my lifetime. Things are happening that will likely take more than my lifetime to fix. Times a fucking billion.
There are times when I think, I should move again, I’m tired of the crap and I want to live in a country where their crap is not my crap and I can just kind of sit it out as a break. But we’re all so interconnected. What happens here effects the shit that happens elsewhere.
I am here. It is my duty to make sure that I help in the fight to fix things. Not just for here, but for everywhere. Not just for mine, but for yours and theirs.
I still might take a break–but it’ll be more of a recharge.
I am right there with you. I feel like we all have more of a purpose, now. We must help each other and resist fascism and bigotry
I’m glad we’re both here too. I just watched 10 Cloverfield Lane, and that bunker started looking pretty sweet! But if we all hole up, as much as we want to, we’ll never be able to rejoice when change happens. That’s the optimist in me speaking, lol.
We all need to find our inner optimist.
I love you, Randy and Duke. This post made me cry, in a good way. Especially the ‘Glad I’m here, and glad you are too’ Thank you so much. Look forward to each post of yours. Give Duke a belly scratch for me, please
Thank you so much!!!!