Was Horatio sucking on a pacifier and clutching his blankie when he stood at the bridge? I sure as hell don't remember it going down that way and I was there. Vir propius fuit! Remember your Roman ancestors and always be brave. Mos maiorum: the way of our fathers!
"four relatively powerless women fought back without wondering ooooh maybe this is bad optics."
Ah, yes! Bad optics. According to Chuck Todd, the Mueller proceedings were "bad optics." Having Democrats even bring up impeachment is "bad optics." Talking about universal healthcare? Bad optics. Tweaking the top tax rate? Bad optics.
You know what isn't bad optics? Complete, unstinting 100% support for a screeching racist as president of the United States and leader of your political party. Weird how that works.
"I refer to using the words 'scary' and 'scared' in place of 'frightening' and 'frightened.' (See the tweet at the head of this email.) I notice it a lot these days. (Hmm, maybe 'a lot' and 'lots' in place of 'often' and 'many' is another — oh, let’s stick to the subject.)"
A theorem: the four-year-old with the nuclear codes currently occupying the Oval Office talks like this, and it's so noticeable other people unconsciously copy it because, after all, he is the leader of the free world, and who would dare to impose proper grammar and spelling on the leader of the free world?
This is a great post and illuminates one of the most frustrating things about how the Dem establishment regards Trump. They are constantly holding two contradictory thoughts in tension:
1. Trump is an incompetent criminal buffoon whose election was a fluke, so we don’t need to impeach, we’ll just whoop his ass in 2020, and
2. Trump is an unstoppable Teflon force of nature whose supporters are the most important voters, and they will emerge from their farmhouses, raised ranches and trailer parks like zombies in a horror movie to re-elect him unless we’re super careful not to offend them; so of course we can’t rile them up with impeachment hearings.
They are frozen like ‘fraidy-scared deer in the headlights because they can’t summon the gumption to Just. Fucking. Fight. Fight him with Congressional investigations and impeachment hearings, fight him by voting against harmful legislation, fight him by getting your asses constantly on the Sunday shows and cable news screaming about how awful he is. FIGHT. Trump is massively unpopular, there’s nothing to fear but fear itself.
Love the insights in this one. Courage, intelligence, and hard work are likely our only way out of this one. Would that more Dems could demonstrate they have all 3...
The TV MSM and a large part of the online media regards it as important to build Trump up inot the this Invincible Giant when the reality is that he is a useless gasbag who has actually accomplished very little or really nothing that he promised in his campaign. Those that voted for him outside of the 27% of the electorate that are hate-filled lunatics knows Trump is garbage and will either sit out or actually vote for the Democrat (especially if it is Biden). This is not an argument for complacency; it is support for your idea of being clear-eyed and determined to be rid of him and his gaggle of human garbage.
I had the same reaction to "no wonder everyone is afraid of him." I had to physically restrain myself from tweeting back, "He's a coward. I wish just once a reporter would yell back at him."
Also, re "scary," yes, it's juvenile, although I'll defend to the death Catherine O'Hara's right to cry to Andrea Martin, "Mother Theresa, you're so good IT'S SCARY!" Then again, juvenilization (as opp. to infantilization) is all over the place. "Enjoy it with your favorite cocktail!" "Order it with your favorite toppings." "It pairs well with your favorite fruit." Our outer adult may be insulted and degraded and violated on a routine basis, but our inner child gets pandered to daily.
I really don't think I'm "scared" of Big Stupid; more anxious and concerned. He and his cronies are pushing policies which will affelct me and people I care about adversely. His mere presence in the White House means we may have another stupid, evil man inflicted on us by the GOP in the future. And the calls to "just move on and put all this behind us" will be all too real once he leaves office. Sad, concerned, and anxious, but not scared.
The first time Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Shumer has a press conference where s/he calls Trump a rapist, a whiny fucking baby man and a crook who has never accomplished a damn thing in his life, or words to that effect, I will donate 10% of my annual income to the Democratic party.
The irony is that Trump himself is the most insecure coward who ever occupied the White House. Check out his "speech" to Trump Youth, USA. (Even on paper you can tell the point in almost every paragraph where he goes off prompter and Stephen Miller's cliched tripe morphs into Trump's lunatic surrealism.) The bitching and whining of the sack of shit is pathetic. This is not someone to fear, but fight. Trump, the Turning Point twerps, and their parents may try to convince themselves otherwise, but they are a minority. Fuck 'em.
I see a great deal of value in keeping the good things about being not-an-adult, or maybe just expanding the definition of adult to include, yes, coloring books and stress toys. It's probably confusing to kids, but since the only ones I have are literally my inner children I don't worry about that. That said, even they know they have an adult body that can't stand right up close to the meerkat habitat if there's other people trying to see. Be an adult where it matters, a kid where it doesn't, if you want to.
I'm also going to push back a little against the "nothing to fear" thing. There are a lot of people out there who may have successfully ditched an ex or left a family abuser, whose PTSD gets twinged every fucking time the jackass opens his mouth. I don't mean triggered in the way that assholes use it, I mean genuinely fucking distressed into flashbacks and potentially into literally infantilized behavior. I'm working on transforming that into rage at the man and resentment that this can still fucking happen to me when I thought I'd gotten rid of these assholes from my life. But I'm not there yet, and too often it's just despair that, basically, half the fucking country would have elected my fucking dad president, apparently, even after listening to his victims. That's gross, and I know that seems juvenile too, as a reaction.
But spare a thought for the people for whom this asshole and his policies are literally traumatizing or retraumatizing, and try not to tell them to get their shit together and stop being afraid of him. I know you wouldn't on purpose, any of you, but those uniquely susceptible people will probably always be part of the people listening. It works better to make a space where those people can feel safe being mad at him instead of frightened. The Women's March was the first place I got that, and stuff like Know Your Rights classes and protests are also great for that.
Why yes, I did just spend my morning with my shrink. I note, though, that she's seen a huge improvement in my coping skills.
Amen. Fear and trepidation cloud judgement. Need to keep one's eyes on the ball. Also, things fall apart. They will for trump and the GOP, as they did for W and Cheney, who look like Machiavelli compared to this bunch. People make decisions, then have to live with the often unexpected consequences. In this universe, the actions we need to take may be the ones that will look right in say 10 years.
Was Horatio sucking on a pacifier and clutching his blankie when he stood at the bridge? I sure as hell don't remember it going down that way and I was there. Vir propius fuit! Remember your Roman ancestors and always be brave. Mos maiorum: the way of our fathers!
"four relatively powerless women fought back without wondering ooooh maybe this is bad optics."
Ah, yes! Bad optics. According to Chuck Todd, the Mueller proceedings were "bad optics." Having Democrats even bring up impeachment is "bad optics." Talking about universal healthcare? Bad optics. Tweaking the top tax rate? Bad optics.
You know what isn't bad optics? Complete, unstinting 100% support for a screeching racist as president of the United States and leader of your political party. Weird how that works.
"I refer to using the words 'scary' and 'scared' in place of 'frightening' and 'frightened.' (See the tweet at the head of this email.) I notice it a lot these days. (Hmm, maybe 'a lot' and 'lots' in place of 'often' and 'many' is another — oh, let’s stick to the subject.)"
A theorem: the four-year-old with the nuclear codes currently occupying the Oval Office talks like this, and it's so noticeable other people unconsciously copy it because, after all, he is the leader of the free world, and who would dare to impose proper grammar and spelling on the leader of the free world?
This is a great post and illuminates one of the most frustrating things about how the Dem establishment regards Trump. They are constantly holding two contradictory thoughts in tension:
1. Trump is an incompetent criminal buffoon whose election was a fluke, so we don’t need to impeach, we’ll just whoop his ass in 2020, and
2. Trump is an unstoppable Teflon force of nature whose supporters are the most important voters, and they will emerge from their farmhouses, raised ranches and trailer parks like zombies in a horror movie to re-elect him unless we’re super careful not to offend them; so of course we can’t rile them up with impeachment hearings.
They are frozen like ‘fraidy-scared deer in the headlights because they can’t summon the gumption to Just. Fucking. Fight. Fight him with Congressional investigations and impeachment hearings, fight him by voting against harmful legislation, fight him by getting your asses constantly on the Sunday shows and cable news screaming about how awful he is. FIGHT. Trump is massively unpopular, there’s nothing to fear but fear itself.
The people scared of bogeyman Trump don’t frighten me half as much as the lot of them that don’t seem to care one bit about him or what he’s doing.
Love the insights in this one. Courage, intelligence, and hard work are likely our only way out of this one. Would that more Dems could demonstrate they have all 3...
The TV MSM and a large part of the online media regards it as important to build Trump up inot the this Invincible Giant when the reality is that he is a useless gasbag who has actually accomplished very little or really nothing that he promised in his campaign. Those that voted for him outside of the 27% of the electorate that are hate-filled lunatics knows Trump is garbage and will either sit out or actually vote for the Democrat (especially if it is Biden). This is not an argument for complacency; it is support for your idea of being clear-eyed and determined to be rid of him and his gaggle of human garbage.
Thank you! Trump himself acts like a toddler, we shouldn't react like a toddler! We are adults, he is not.
I want to believe that were there any actual children at that presser, one of them would
have shouted "FUCK YOU , ASSHOLE" .
Raise your hand if you think it was not a mistake that someone put that fake Presidential seal behind Trump at TPUSA.
I had the same reaction to "no wonder everyone is afraid of him." I had to physically restrain myself from tweeting back, "He's a coward. I wish just once a reporter would yell back at him."
Also, re "scary," yes, it's juvenile, although I'll defend to the death Catherine O'Hara's right to cry to Andrea Martin, "Mother Theresa, you're so good IT'S SCARY!" Then again, juvenilization (as opp. to infantilization) is all over the place. "Enjoy it with your favorite cocktail!" "Order it with your favorite toppings." "It pairs well with your favorite fruit." Our outer adult may be insulted and degraded and violated on a routine basis, but our inner child gets pandered to daily.
I really don't think I'm "scared" of Big Stupid; more anxious and concerned. He and his cronies are pushing policies which will affelct me and people I care about adversely. His mere presence in the White House means we may have another stupid, evil man inflicted on us by the GOP in the future. And the calls to "just move on and put all this behind us" will be all too real once he leaves office. Sad, concerned, and anxious, but not scared.
The first time Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Shumer has a press conference where s/he calls Trump a rapist, a whiny fucking baby man and a crook who has never accomplished a damn thing in his life, or words to that effect, I will donate 10% of my annual income to the Democratic party.
The irony is that Trump himself is the most insecure coward who ever occupied the White House. Check out his "speech" to Trump Youth, USA. (Even on paper you can tell the point in almost every paragraph where he goes off prompter and Stephen Miller's cliched tripe morphs into Trump's lunatic surrealism.) The bitching and whining of the sack of shit is pathetic. This is not someone to fear, but fight. Trump, the Turning Point twerps, and their parents may try to convince themselves otherwise, but they are a minority. Fuck 'em.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usas-teen-student-action-summit-2019/
I see a great deal of value in keeping the good things about being not-an-adult, or maybe just expanding the definition of adult to include, yes, coloring books and stress toys. It's probably confusing to kids, but since the only ones I have are literally my inner children I don't worry about that. That said, even they know they have an adult body that can't stand right up close to the meerkat habitat if there's other people trying to see. Be an adult where it matters, a kid where it doesn't, if you want to.
I'm also going to push back a little against the "nothing to fear" thing. There are a lot of people out there who may have successfully ditched an ex or left a family abuser, whose PTSD gets twinged every fucking time the jackass opens his mouth. I don't mean triggered in the way that assholes use it, I mean genuinely fucking distressed into flashbacks and potentially into literally infantilized behavior. I'm working on transforming that into rage at the man and resentment that this can still fucking happen to me when I thought I'd gotten rid of these assholes from my life. But I'm not there yet, and too often it's just despair that, basically, half the fucking country would have elected my fucking dad president, apparently, even after listening to his victims. That's gross, and I know that seems juvenile too, as a reaction.
But spare a thought for the people for whom this asshole and his policies are literally traumatizing or retraumatizing, and try not to tell them to get their shit together and stop being afraid of him. I know you wouldn't on purpose, any of you, but those uniquely susceptible people will probably always be part of the people listening. It works better to make a space where those people can feel safe being mad at him instead of frightened. The Women's March was the first place I got that, and stuff like Know Your Rights classes and protests are also great for that.
Why yes, I did just spend my morning with my shrink. I note, though, that she's seen a huge improvement in my coping skills.
Amen. Fear and trepidation cloud judgement. Need to keep one's eyes on the ball. Also, things fall apart. They will for trump and the GOP, as they did for W and Cheney, who look like Machiavelli compared to this bunch. People make decisions, then have to live with the often unexpected consequences. In this universe, the actions we need to take may be the ones that will look right in say 10 years.