Busy Week Ahead

Just saying, I've got a number of real-life projects I need to focus on for this first week of May. I hope the trump indictments for anything and everything can hold off until (checks calendar) May 11th. Thank you.

I may post a quick thing on May the Fourth.

See you then.

Just Putting It Out There That Lasting Psychological Damage Has Been Done. Still, You Have To Laugh

Julie Nolke pretty much clarifies how 2020 will leaving lasting scars on all of us:

When WAS the last time you touched your own face?!

 

As 2020 Draws to A Close, We Contemplate Our Year of Madness

Just needed to wrap up this year as drunkenly as possible:

By the way, Julie from 2020, there's still 10 days left before the year officially ends. ANYTHING could happen in those days, this year should have taught us that for God's sake. (I should blog about that monolith thingee as a year's end wrap-up)

As for getting drunk, you might recall I tried doing that with hard cider a few years ago. I did not enjoy the taste of it, and had stayed sober since. This year brought back that urge to get drunk because DAMMIT WE ALL NEEDED TO AFTER THIS 2020 so I considered the possibility the cider I had gotten was too spicy with cinnamon. So I went and got a standard cider, no extra flavoring, just straight from the bottle...

And I still hated the taste of it. Ugh. I couldn't finish it, poured it down the kitchen sink. I got five bottles of it now sitting in my fridge looking for a new home. I'm sure someone can quarantine the bottles for 5-14 days before finishing them off, if anyone's interested... 

This Place Has Gotten The Better of Me: November 20, 2017

So I've been dealing with THIS particular bullshit since morning:

Appearing on a CNN panel of Trump voters Monday morning, (pest control company owner) Mark Lee claimed that the president is standing up for the "little guy" and that no amount of negative press will change his mind.

"If Jesus Christ gets down off the cross and told me Trump is with Russia, I would tell him, 'Hold on a second. I need to check with the president if it's true,'" Lee said as his fellow panelists reacted with shock.

I've been in a goddamn rage since seeing this.

I know how bad it is. How the trump voter sees the world in a Fox-Not-News induced haze of ignorance that flips reality on its head. That the ill-informed GOP base - buying into the lies of the culture war, selling out for tax cuts to the rich that will kill their own jobs just because they've bought into the trickle-down hype - accept every statement from a confirmed liar as Gospel while the fact-checkers and reporters are demeaned as "fake".

But I've never seen it THIS bad before.

We're at the point the Far Right voters are so into the goddamn Kool Aid that they'll accept the word of a con artist over the WORD OF JESUS (straight off the Cross, for God's sake).

It has come to this.

For 47 years of my life. Me: Sober. Never wanting a drop of alcohol. Barely trying stuff like rum to see what it was like and shaking my head at it. Never understanding the urge or need to get a buzz going with booze in my system.

Well, you broke me, trump voters. You've driven me over the edge. You've FINALLY REALLY DID IT. You got me to say this in all seriousness.

OH GOD I NEED A DRINK.

Now I'm not crazy enough (always sober never sane was my motto. WAS) to go jumping straight into the super-heavy stuff. But I think apple cider has an alcoholic content of five percent, right?

I checked the local Publix. There were several brands but one stood out. ANGRY ORCHARD. Perfect. I WAS IN THAT KIND OF MOOD.

So a toast, to you damn muthafuckas who voted a lying bankrupt con artist into the White House.

Bottoms up.

This is all your fault, trump voters. You blew it up. Damn You. Damn you ALL TO HELL.

Hoping for One Brief Respite In This Year of Madness (and the Madness Yet to Come)

Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? - Susanna Kaysen, Girl Interrupted

I may have mentioned before, I've always been sober. I think I've also clarified that I never said I was sane. Well, not fully sane or insane otherwise. I know I'm off-kilter, but still high-functioning and trying what I can to be helpful to the world.

There's a lot on my mind right now. Some of it is NaNoWriMo, it IS that time of the year after all, and while I'm doing what I can to finish enough chapters / sections of my superhero 'verse stories I'm still tempted with the idea of writing about this entire past year (and further back) of this year of madness we've all endured.

I've been helping out with the local Hillary campaign to Get Out The Vote to ensure enough voters are at the polls to make things matter. I've seen what happens here in Florida - 2000, 2010, 2012, 2014, now - when there's terrible turnout and only the crazy ones show up (to vote in crooks like Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott). I feel I haven't done much, just canvass a handful of local neighborhoods, and I can only hope I'm part of a larger group of Pro-Hillary supporters who are doing what they can to ensure Florida does not flip to Trump.

That's been the maddening thing this whole time. Ever since he dominated the Republican polls back in 2015, it's been frustrating as hell to watch around 40 percent of everyone around me - on the media, the Intertubes, the real world - just get suckered into Trump's con game with him this massively corrupt black hole crushing everything into one big disaster.

In three days, maybe two now, this particular madness will end. The general election happens on Tuesday. There will be some finality to that when the ballots are truly finally in.

But I know the madness won't die. It will just turn into a different, nastier monster. Trump's ongoing - and unproven - cries of "rigged" elections that feed into the ongoing Republican efforts to suppress minority voters will see to that: even if a majority of voters on all sides accept the results of a Hillary win, there will be just enough of Trump's followers who never will. Worse, there will be enough Republicans in Congress and in the state governments who have already pledged to obstruct her in every matter - essentially expanding their current obstructionist habits - as though they will never see her as legitimate.

Of course, if Trump wins he and the Republicans will drop all pretense of "rigged" elections and declare it a great moral victory that will continue on the Grand Reagan Revolution of 1000 Years. The elections only count when Republicans win.

I so want this crazy to end this Tuesday, with a large enough victory - a resounding thrashing of the Republican party at all levels of government - to make the GOP Obstruction moot. It'd be nice to think that will happen. Instead I'm biting my nails over whether or not Hillary can even win (GODS HELP US IF TRUMP DOES) and whether or not the Democrats claim the Senate (to at least free up court and executive nominations). I'm stressing out over whether my own home state of Florida stays Blue after two election victories by Obama - the polling is saying one thing, the early growing turnout of Latinos is saying another - because if Hillary wins Florida it's a good sign Hillary's winning the whole Electoral College.

And I'm recognizing that the post-election will remain crazy either way: A Trump victory that will pretty much signal the end of the nation (He will raid everything for his own pocket, subvert every law, destroy every norm, and leave our economy a smoldering wreck before he's even sworn in); a Hillary victory that will signal escalation of hostilities with a Far Right that will never accept her in the Oval Office.

Madness. Takes it toll.

There is only one sane response to all this.

Go see Obama at a Florida rally. One last chance to see him standing there as President of the United States, to thrill in his rhetoric, to cheer with the crowds. As always a student of history and politics, this is a Must-Do before his tenure ends.

I hope to bring back pictures and videos.

A brief respite in the middle of the last days of insanity.

P.S. GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT FOR THE DEMOCRATS IN EVERY COUNTY AND EVERY STATE.