It's very nice weather today. Ran out of perfume. Used some berries and vanilla oil I had stashed away. Smell like a cupcake.
************************************ The Atlantic reviews season 7, episode 3 of Game of Thones, The Queen's Justice. Last night, fire finally met ice. Spoiler alert: It was not love at first sight.
So, there goes that theory…
Did anyone else think Sansa was a little too eager for Bran to claim his birthright as the last legitimate Stark heir and displace Jon? Maybe that was just her formal training regarding houses and successions kicking in and, considering that she's ruling in her own right now with Jon gone, a little self-defeating. She's done all this work, learned all this political stuff, saved the North with a clever deus ex machina during The Battle of the Bastards, and now she's going to turn it all over to her spaced out little brother? How likely is that, oh Dave and Dave, who have taken over the story now that GRR Martin is a book behind the series. That's right, not bloody likely. She's been hanging around Cersei, Ramsay and Littlefinger for the past 6 years. The girl's got a little bad ass in her now.
And how conveeeeenient that only minutes after Littlefinger tells her to see every player and battle in her head at all times, Bran shows up literally on the doorstep with the ability to … see every player and battle in his head at all times. You think the girl is going to ignore a gift like that? Not on your life.
David Stowe, professor of religious studies at Michigan State University writes about the power of remembering. Too often we are encouraged to forgive and put the past behind us. But certain religious traditions and shared national experiences stick with us. Captivity in Babylon appears to have a lasting impact on Jews with respect to social justice. The memory of famine has stuck with the Irish and have made sensitive to food insecurity around the world. They were lessons in compassion. Read it here at The Conversation.
I think that someday the people who visited Trumpism on this country are going to want forgiveness. Yes, forgive quickly and let's put this whole sorry experience behind us. But the destruction that will be visited on individual lives could be severe. It will be because we allowed a segment of our fellow citizens to gain control and de-humanize the rest of us for no other reason than because of who we are: poor, women, children, foreigners, not Christian, LGBTQ, elderly, liberals, the list goes on.
And I think we should resist that push for forgiveness until the people who wrecked havoc on our country have been held accountable and we commit to remembering what it was like so it never happens again.
"Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some" -Commander Waterford The Handmaid's Tale
I've had conversations with Lady V recently about what makes Trump voters tick. Part of this was because a friend of mine wondered about why someone otherwise "progressive" would vote for Trump. Partly it was I suspect that like the rich, Trump voters "are different from you and me."
She pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Along with the normal tendency towards authoritarianism, there is another component having to do with personality.
How else do you explain how they can support the deportation of mothers from their children? The apathy about how many women, children, poor people and elderly would lose their healthcare? The tolerance for the open lawlessness and chaos of the Trump administration? The cheerful acceptance that fucking over trans people in the military or gay people in the workplace is triggering the libtards? Or that millions of legitimate, enfranchised voters, particularly African-American people may have their rights taken from them the next time they go to the polls?
The Trump voters seem to not see these people as human beings. They lack empathy. Granted, some people on the left are only too willing to throw the working class under the bus but as I've pointed out before, to the ultra wealthy, we're all stupid slackers who haven't figured out how to exploit others for treasure.
I don't think these voters deserve our respect. The result of their votes is raining cruelty and heartlessness on innocent people and stripping them of their humanity. I see journalists trying to make sense of the Trump voter to see if there is any line of human decency they won't cross. They keep hitting a brick wall.
V says that Trump will betray them and then they'll turn on him. But what level of destruction and woe will the tolerate first? And why will it take having to feel the pain personally before they get it? How can they be so blind to the misery of others until they themselves have something to lose?
It's not a liberal problem. It's a civilization problem. It's going to affect how we do business, how we socialize, how we retire, how we care for others. No one living in Trump's America is immune. It makes for an uglier society and a considerably less great America to have the country in the hands of malevolent incompetents because a segment of voters lack character and a strong personality.
It is difficult to see how a character defect in the political sphere doesn't carry over to their personal lives, wrecking the lives of others close to them and depriving others of joy. It's very ugly.
Here are some podcasts that are must listens and highlight the dire turning point we are at as a country:
**************************************** Thank you, John McCain, for having the character to do the right thing. The Skinny Repeal bill to dismantle large sections of the ACA so it could be maliciously made worse by the House, was defeated in the wee hours of the morning. McCain was the deciding vote. We disagree about many things but there is some integrity in McCain.
You cannot be a progressive and vote for Trump and Republicans. You have to pick the ideal of egalitarianism and stick with it or you have to admit that there's something else that is much more important to you.
Clarifying text: The Senate appears to have enough votes for the "Skinny Repeal" bill that would eliminate the individual and employer mandate from the ACA. the next step would be to take the bill to the reconciliation committee to hammer out a compromise bill between the House and the Senate. And they want to do this quickly "over the next few days".
So, repeal of the ACA is going to happen. If they ONLY stick to the skinny repeal, policies are expected to rise by 20%.
But since the Granny Starvers in the House are getting involved again, the actual hit to your wallet could be much higher. People won't have to buy insurance so what they can't afford to pay for is going to be passed along to the rest of us in the form of defaults on bills for emergency room visits that are caused by patients waiting until they are much sicker in order to get treated.
Anyone who voted for Trump and the Granny Starvers should have seen this coming. It's not just people you don't think work hard enough who will get slammed with this. It's going to hit a lot of innocent people too like children, pregnant women and their fetuses, and anyone who just can't afford to get that yearly physical anymore. Plus, there's now going to be the danger that any employer over 50 people can drop coverage.
Elections have consequences. If you voted for Republicans and Trump, you will have blood on your hands. And I say that as someone who wasn't particularly fond of the ACA and derived no benefit from it. It was stupid in so many ways, ridiculously expensive and didn't implement many of the best practices of the world's best healthcare systems. But it was better than a sharp stick in the eye.
Now you'll probably end up just losing the eye.
*************************************** Stroll: Fly into the light of a dark black night
Had weekend plans. Going to probably postpone them so I can participate in marches that are being organized. Gonna wear my "Nasty Woman" T-shirt I got for contributing to Sam B's Planned Parenthood fundraiser.
Debating whether to wear any other clothes…
Filed under: General | Comments Off on Well, that’s not good.
Remember when we were assured that Ivanka would be the voice of progressive values in the White House for gay people, immigrants, women and African Americans?
Yeah, how is that working out?
She's so busy with kids and Asian sweatshops making her shoes. So much to do, so little time.
Filed under: General | Comments Off on Progressivism, Ivanka Style.
The Confluence 