Can we skip to January 20th?

 Can we just forget December and half of January and declare that next week is the inauguration and be done with it?  DT did  not leaving the White House for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I guess he's afraid we'd pack up his stuff and put it out on the White House lawn for him to pick up in view of the neighbors.  Then we'd change the locks so he can't get back in. 

Can we get a restraining order against all the the lawsuits and crazy press conferences? Can we argue harassment of the American people?

Unfortunately, the media can't ignore him right now because he is the President and whatever the President says or does is important.

There are reports that every time Joe Biden announces something it makes DT wild.  He's not the center of attention.  We are more interested in what Biden is doing and saying than what DT is doing and saying. Hence the unceasing tweet storms.  Speaking of tweet storms, I can't wait for those to be over, too.  No more governing  by tweets.  No more all caps firings.  Is Twitter stock going to crash? 

No more rotating doors of advisors, Cabinet secretaries or "acting" anyone subverting the confirmation process. 

I want to go back to seeing my friends' salads on social media. I want to see their pictures of their kids' first day of school, of grandchildren, of vacations and hikes they have taken.  I don't want to see any more arguing about politics, requests for political donations, or the latest "outrage du jour".  

Here's my life now:  I'm not traveling for Thanksgiving. My children are staying home. I won't see my sister, I won't see my extended family.  I haven't seen any of them since December 2019.

 I haven't been to the gym, which I paid a year in advance in 8 months.  I'm using exercise videos from the '80s. 

I stress when I have to go into CVS. My husband stresses going to the grocery store.  My laundry is now driven by how many masks need to be washed.  

I worry a lot.  The free pantry stocked by my church is empty almost every evening.  My adult children are on unemployment. Poverty is increasing. Way too many kids are hungry, way too many are falling behind in school. My local hospital is at overflowing with COVID-19 patients.

The world's population is on the move, looking for a better life.  And DT plays golf.

Really? What's the Harm?

 

 Well, we're still here. Stuck in limbo. I'm traumatized. Do you know that when I log on to my computer I've disabled my news feeds because I find myself wincing and looking away when I press the button clicking on them.  What horror, what embarrassment am I going to see this morning?  

 The stress I'm under is manifesting in mindless scrolling through news sites.  

How long will DT's enablers humor him? Playing the games which are damaging our republic in the name of "What's the harm?"

When did we find so many people in our government with spines of spaghetti? What are you afraid of?  Losing your jobs? New Flash:  You've already lost them. 

I think you know that but still you humor this man.

"What's the harm in humoring him?"  The unnamed source posed to the Washington Post reporters. 

Really?

 It doesn't harm him. It harms us.  It harms my America. It harms American institutions and history and sets bad precedents. It shows the world we are a bunch of weenies who don't have principles and are afraid of consequences. So what happens if one of the bad guys decides to act because they're convinced we are too weak and divided to stand against them?  What if we lose American lives? I think that's called "Harm".

Be loyal to what is best for our country, not an individual behaving like a toddler having a tantrum because he didn't get what he wanted.  I put my toddlers in time out. 

 Stand up and be clear you are an American. Americans put their country first, family second, and political party around the bottom.   Do what's best for your country, you assholes. And I mean Pence, Barr, McConnell, McEntee.

 History has its' eyes on you.

Can We Talk?

As I write this we still don't know who is going to be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January so I've been indulging in one my favorite pastimes - data analysis.  Being from Silicon Valley, it's a given that most of us are data geeks.  We parse everything a hundred different ways.  

 The 2020 election provides an trove of riches that will keep the talking heads happy for years to come.  

No surprise  that there are deep divisions in how Americans see America.  I really fault the beloved technology of Silicon Valley and the naive 20- and 30- somethings running the social media platforms.  These platforms were supposed to bring us together and connect us.  Instead they divided us into little silos with information algorithms that showed more of the ideas we agreed with and reinforced our opinions and did nothing to foster dialogue but sure sold a lot of eyeballs to the advertisers.  

An example: one of my friends published a link to an article about women who voted for Donald Trump with the comment that he could not understand why any woman would vote for him.  The reader  responses can be summed up as "What is wrong with those people?" 

My own reaction: "Did anyone ask them why?"

Then I realized I could ask.  I have a few female buddies I am pretty sure voted for DT. But I'm not sure how to start the conversation.  

This is the great stumbling block to bridging the divide that's bigger than the Grand Canyon. How, after all the screaming & name calling,  are we going to start talking to each other so we can work together? Because if we don't start talking to each other we will never understand the other point of view.

Is there anything we agree on?

I have a friend who is a member of the NRA and reliably votes  Republican. 

One night at a church camp out after much discussion of how much we hate the Los Angeles Dodgers and prospects for the Giants we discovered we agreed about the problems facing the country.  Where we differed was in the solutions.  And that's when the conversation began.

 

2020 words and phrases

 I started making a list of all the words and phrases I never used before 2020 crashed down upon along with definitions and suggestions for use:

COVID-19. Be afraid, very afraid. Now controls our very existence. Resistance is futile. Seems to be the viral version of the Borg.

Quarantining - I know what it is I just didn't think I'd be doing it.

High risk population - I'm in it. Not sure how that happened.

Unprecedented- Definition: never known before or experienced. See: definition of 2020.

Due to the pandemic -everything I want to do, travel to,  see or buy I can't  due to the pandemic

Doom scrolling - Driving myself crazy by checking every damn article the algorithm shows me.  STOP IT!

Mask up! It's either a fashion accessory for Lady Gaga or an attack on  first amendment rights

Zoom -Traditional meaning: move quickly with a low hum or buzz. New meaning: a meeting software  program. Uses:  a verb "let's zoom";  a noun, zoom dinner.

Following CDC guidelines. Whatever they are and whatever the CDC is.

PPE - I neither knew nor cared until 2020 but there's a chronic shortage of it everywhere.

Disinformation - I thought these used to be called lies

Social distancing. This one drives a friend crazy. She says it should be "physical distancing". Whatever it is,  it's a giant pain in the ass.

Pods -  learning, eating and general hanging out with no more than 5 people you know really well. "Who's in your safe pod?"

 Contactless delivery.  Synonyms for UPS and FedEx

Leftover from 2019:

Social media, fake news. Supply your own definition.

Feel free to add to the list.

 

 

 

Keep Moving

 

 What can I say? This is a weird time we are living in and through.  And just when I can't think it will get any weirder something else happens to trump (pun intended) the strangeness. It's so strange I'm compelled to put my feelings down and then send them out into the virtual world.  I need to find others who are experiencing the same feelings as me so I am firing up my personal blog after 8 years.

As I write this I still don't know who will take the oath of office of President of the United States on January 20, 2021.  The current occupant of the Oval Office wants to continue to inhabit it and declared himself the winner at 1 AM and his campaign wants a recount of Wisconsin votes, even though Wisconsin hasn't finished counting. We are going down the rabbit hole.

 I hate being out of control.  And I can control nothing that's going on in the wider world.  But I need to take some action beyond compulsively checking my news feed. I exercised my responsibility as a citizen to vote for the future of my country.  What else can I do to combat the chaos? 

When I come up against chaos I frequently go to that oracle of common sense, the television series M*A*S*H*, for guidance. As usual I found the perfect quote from the character of  Father Mulcahy. Reflecting on the devastation he was witnessing on Christmas Eve he said, "When one is moving from one disaster to another, the trick, I guess, is to just keep moving." 

So I'm keeping moving.

Unemployment insurance has run out. I donated to the local food bank.

 The ice caps are melting. I donated to the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

 There's trash on the road leading to the park.  I pick it up. 

It's small work, to be sure, but at least I can make a difference.