Living in "hell".

 Thankfully, the New York Times continue to give Charles Blow a platform.

His latest essay sums up how many Americans feel about the president and living through the dark days of trump.

"You could stay in hell for a little while if you knew that you were going to get out.

My mother always told me that when I was going through something tough and dispiriting. It was her way of saying that trouble doesn’t last forever, that even in your darkest place, hold fast to the hope and the light, that though today you are in the valley, tomorrow you shall scale the peak.

Well, Mama, this is hell. Indeed, Donald Trump’s America is the Ninth Circle.

And while I know that a president is limited to two terms, and I highly doubt that Trump

could be re-elected to a second term and think that Robert Mueller’s investigation may curtail the first, I am still struggling to maintain optimism and perseverance.

I don’t think that this is even a matter of fatigue, but rather of the capacity of rage and the length of mourning. Hopelessness is a very human response when the feeling of persecution intersects with the feeling of powerlessness.

Sure, the vast majority of America that doesn’t agree with Trump isn’t completely powerless. People across the country are registering to not only vote but also to run for office. They are pressuring their legislators. They are linking arms in solidarity and raising their voices in protest. They are saying that this administration and this man are abominations and they will not sit silently by, thereby giving passive approval or grudging acceptance.

I see these people. I applaud these people. I try my best to encourage these people. But I also know that the power of the resistance is limited, and the best way to achieve real change and a real reversal of the damage that’s been done won’t come until the polls open in the next round of elections. The real change will come when those who felt compelled to stand on principle and not participate in an election in which they felt they were being forced to choose between “the lesser of two evils” realize the staggering magnitude of the gap between those “two evils.”

By the way, the lesser-of-two-evils argument is poppycock. The choice people faced in November was the difference between dim light and absolute darkness. There really was no comparison. The false parity was a media concoction and a Russian propaganda weapon.

Also, people have to stop thinking that because they see some corruption in the system, they can live outside that system by not participating in it in any way, including electorally. No, every minute of every day you are in the system; the safety or menace you feel is the system. The streets you drive on are part of the system. The deductions from your paycheck are part of the system. By not voting you don’t buck the system, but succumb to it; you don’t show your strength, but expose your weakness.

Furthermore, we have to deal with racialized voter disenfranchisement. Many people didn’t vote because they couldn’t. The systematic conservative attack, state by state, on voting access is a national scandal that receives far less attention than it deserves.

But I have faith that more Americans will overcome the barriers to participation that have been erected to nullify their votes.

I have faith that America is learning a lesson about the folly of throwing a monkey wrench into the machine in an attempt to break it.

I have faith that America has learned that elections have consequences and that the power of the presidency in the hands of a pariah is an awesomely dangerous thing.

I have faith that America has learned that there are not easy remedies to decisions made behind a curtain and in a fit of pique.

But I will not know if that faith is well placed until I know the results of the next election.

Until then, it is hard to witness successive hurricanes wreak havoc on Americans and realize that the science behind recognizing the global warming that contributes to more extreme weather events is not believed by America’s ruling party.

It is hard to witness a president so obsessed with the obliteration of the legacy of his predecessor that he is attempting to undo that legacy with every stroke of his pen.

It is hard to witness a bully attack traditionally marginalized communities, one after the other.

It is hard to witness a family of corruption besmirching the presidency, the country and America’s standing in the world.

It is hard to witness the dismantling of basic norms, the dismissal of propriety and the devaluation of truth and honesty.

It is like being injured and having the offender repeatedly pound the wound before it can properly heal." [More]

All this resistance talk is catchy and cute, and it makes for nice tweeting and blog posts among like minded liberals and "trump-haters". At the end of the day, though, it will not get one single person elected if there is not actual civic engagement by these folks. 

trump won because his people went out and supported him (that and a little help from his vodka drinking friends), so if the people who hang on Blow's every word believe that it's not possible to spend 8 years in trump "hell",  they have another thing coming.  

*Image from youtube.com    

Muslims just want to have fun.

Oh Lawd! What is going on here in A-merry-ca? Why is it harder for Muslims to pursue happiness than the rest of you A-merry-cans? BTW, Speaking of pursuing happiness; I guess we won't be up in arms about this latest social media flash mob phenomenon. I mean they are just college students, and I didn't see any of you Negroes in the crowd scaring folks. But I digress.

 "Rye Playland was shut down Tuesday after cops scuffled with Muslims upset that women wearing head scarves were barred from the rides, witnesses said.
Fifteen people, including three women, were charged with disorderly conduct and assault in the chaos, authorities said.

The Westchester County park was packed with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr - the holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
One woman, Entisai Ali, began arguing with cops over the amusement park's head scarf, or hijab, rule, said Dena Meawad, 18, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
The ban, which is not Muslim specific, was imposed about 3 years ago mostly to prevent hats from falling onto the tracks of roller coasters and other rides, park officials said.

"The cops started getting loud with her and she started getting loud, too. They pushed her on the ground and arrested her," Meawad said.
Her cousin, Kareem Meawad, 17, went to try to protect the woman and was beaten by cops and also arrested, she added. Her brother, Issam Meawad, 20, was pushed to the ground and taken into custody when he tried to help his cousin, she said.

"She just wanted to get on a ride. That was it," Dena Meawad said of the initial confrontation. "It's clear, this all happened because we're Muslim."
John Hodges, chief inspector of Westchester County Public Safety, insisted that police did not use excessive force.

He said up to 100 cops from surrounding departments converged on the park.
Two park rangers were injured in the melee, prompting felony assault charges against two people arrested, officials said.
The ugly incident happened just after 1 p.m. The event was organized by the Muslim American Society of New York, and attracted 3,000 Muslims from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County.

Ali's sister, Ayman Alrabah, 24, of Brooklyn said her husband, brother and father were all tackled by cops and put into handcuffs when they tried to help her sister.
Alrabah said she was unaware of the head-scarf rule until she and her sister tried to get on the park's Dragon Coasters.

"We requested a refund and all of a sudden an argument became a riot," Alrabah said. "Cops came. They were hitting my brother, my dad. My husband was on the floor and they were handcuffing him.

She said her 4-year-old son was "traumatized" by seeing his father arrested.
"They treated us like animals, like we were nothing," Alrabah said. "They came with their dogs and sticks. We came to have fun." [Source] 

Oh stop it! Where have you ever heard of cops attacking people with "dogs and sticks"? Oh wait....never mind.

Finally, I am not an expert on climate change and global warming [or the lack of it], but I do know that we have been having some unusually freakish weather occurrences all over the world of late, and that reasonable people can disagree on just how much man made behavior is causing the earth's weather patterns to change.

Reasonable people. The wingnuts in this country, and folks like their presidential candidate, Governor Big Hair, are not convinced.  They believe that global warming is all a hoax. And thanks to their 24 hour propaganda machine and the ignorance of quite a few most of our fellow citizens, they are actually gaining the upper hand in the debate. Which is really kind of sad, because if they had their way there would be no debate in the first place.

   

Sometimes "mother nature" isn't so motherly.

My heart goes out to the folks in Japan. I know that they are used to natural disasters but that earthquake that hit and the tsunami that followed looks like some seriously scary stuff. The images on television looks more like a Roland Emmerich movie than an actual event. Shout out to my sister and her fam in Seattle. I am glad you all are alright. But keep an eye on those tsunami warnings, sis.

I am having Katrina flashbacks watching those poor souls on top of buildings. No power. Water all around them. And all they have is each other. Natural disasters can be b*&^%. Then, to make matters worse, some of their nuclear reactors have been shut down in wake of the disaster, and one of the the reactors still isn't cooling down like it should. OH LAWD! Could one of you smart people reassure me that there is nothing to worry about, please?

Anyway, I am not going to get political with this post, because this is all about the poor people of Japan. So....wait a minute, did the wingnuts just get political with this tragedy? Yes, I think they did. OK, since you started it; please read this link from 2009 about the possibility of more quakes and tsunamis thanks to....wait for it....wait for it... global warming.

Finally, I have to do a "WTF?" for city officials in Spokane, Washington:

"SPOKANE, Wash. – Three cleanup workers who were hailed as heroes after finding a live bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade said they later lost their temporary jobs after supervisors questioned their handling of the situation.

The men were employed by Labor Ready and doing temporary work for the Spokane Public Facilities District when they found a backpack containing the bomb about an hour before the scheduled start of the Jan. 17 parade.

They alerted police, who were able to defuse the device.

"For the first two days, basically all we did was get chewed out," worker Mark Steiner told Spokane television station KHQ. "We did this wrong. We did that wrong. I don't know what you consider calling 911 wrong after two minutes after we found it."

Steiner, Brandon Klaus and Sherman Welpton had been hired to perform cleanup work during the parade and noticed the backpack on an outdoor bench.

Stacey Burke, a spokeswoman for Labor Ready, said the men were performing contract work for the facilities district and remain eligible to get more work through the temporary employment service when they ask.

"They can still find employment through us," Burke said, adding they had done some work since the bomb was found.

This was the first time that Labor Ready workers had to deal with a live bomb in Spokane, Burke said.

Kevin Twohig, head of the public facilities district, told The Spokesman-Review that the three men "we're messing around with the bomb."

"I think they put themselves at more risk than they needed," Twohig said.

Burke said the men should not have picked up the backpack.

"I would not wish for them to pick up a backpack that has a bomb in it," she said. "I'm sure they didn't know what it was." [Source]

Hmmm, it kind of makes you wonder if those clowns in Spokane got mad because the workers did find the bomb. I am just sayin.