A truly thoughtful gift

A friend of mine, knowing of my emotional state these days, brought me a truly thoughtful Christmas card.

What makes this so extraordinary is that he really does not understand why I am so distraught, so anxious and afraid, but wanted to let me know that he and his family were ready to help and, well, just be there. That was the real gift.

And it's what I must keep in mind and heart - people come first, politics second.

I take strength and comfort from a quote from the classic novel The Plague by Camus:

 "...what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise."

Here's wishing you PEACE FAMILY & FRIENDSHIP for the holidays and HOPE for the New Year.  Take care.

Forget Santa - this year's list goes to the Electors

Esteemed Electors,

There is mounting evidence that the 2016 general election has been compromised by the Russian Government.  Additional evidence suggests that Trump himself was privy to this cyber invasion.

Even without the Russian interference, Trump's selection of cabinet and security appointments show that he has no regard for norms, standards, or qualifications for these positions.  He has no regard for the Ship of State or American citizens and their rights.

A president is held to our highest standards of ethics, morality, decency and compassion.  He must listen, consider, weigh and judge information, pursue justice and provide for America domestically and represent us in world activities.

Donald J. Trump's history of indecency, bankruptcy, racism, and falsehoods will NOT change should he become President of the United States.

You, electors, are now forefront in history.  Alexander Hamilton created the EC (though he quickly regretted that decision) to PROTECT THE PEOPLE from DESPOTs and DEMAGOGUES.  Donald Trump is a DESPOT of the highest order and has shown consistent intent to undermine and/or abolish many hard-fought-for institutions of Americandemocracy. 

As a fellow citizen, I implore you to NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP. America can be pulled back from the brink of disaster.

This is YOUR TIME in history.  The very existence of America as we know it is now in YOUR hands. 

This is NOT a PARTISAN issue.  It is a MORAL and ETHICAL issue.  Again, please -- save our country.

Respectfully,

=====================

Electoral College PETITION

PETITION to Electoral College to affirm POPULAR VOTE of 2016 election

A snowball's chance

As bleak as I feel

I've been busy (occupied?) since my last post.  I'm hanging onto my emotional roller-coaster with both hands and when the dips go down to fast and too deep, I remind myself there is always wine in the 'fridge.

I've getting more and more PRO-active than RE-active.  I am very into Twitter now, especially in the political arena.  I'm on top of issues, follow VALID TRUE reporters and am learning how to spot FAKE NEWS (which is rampant and vicious).

On the pro-active side:

I've made a list of organizations that will need funding.  It's dreadful the way I've used some of them because they are available without reciprocating or supporting them.  Like many many (too many) of us, we have become merely passengers on our Ship of State.  And by doing so, our lack of attention and support created a void.  Nature abhors a void.  We apathetic and disorganized passengers have let in a "captain" who doesn't care about the ship OR the passengers.  He wants only to see how quickly he can dismantle the ship, sell the scrap and move on.

Move on to where, I wonder.  With his selection of appointees (I cannot call it a cabinet, but a playpen better describes it), we are doomed.  Kiss goodbye to EPA, banking laws, clean energy, nuclear power regulations, FDA, civil rights, reproductive rights, women's rights --  get the drift?  

Meanwhile he and his cronies will privatize Social Security cutting annual payouts by ONE THIRD (article here).  Then the GOP will gut Medicare.  

But wait, you say.  Trump said he wouldn't touch those VITAL issues.  (And Trump is such a truthful animal.)

Many believed him. Believed everything he said.  And discounted all his hate, his misogyny, his ignorance, his racism, his attack on the greatest free press in the world.  The list is long and sad.

As we've seen the circus seen over the past 5 weeks that he didn't mean anything he said.  All he did was use a wealth of fear to get him (and his family and his business buddies) into the WhiteHouse where he can use the highest office in the land -- to promote his shady business deals worldwide.  In the process he will destroy all our hard-won institutions, gut the treasury, and build up so much debt that the country will go bankrupt (like so many other of his projects) and will be sold off pennies on the dollar to foreign governments.

(And probably the very government - RUSSIA - that hacked both the DNC & RNC who released DNC emails and kept the RNC emails to leverage  GOP congress.)  This is NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY.  Evidence exists. DEMs & REPs are banding together in committees as I type this to investigate. 

In the end the only way a despot can achieve this destruction is by keeping us, we citizens, we carefree passengers, we inattentive lot, at each other's throats.  He will use the fearful, the hateful, the uninformed and fan those coals of disharmony into a raging fire that will burn through the American dream, leaving only cinders and divided people.

Are we going to let Trump USE us?  Are you willing to help?  There is still a chance, a 'hail Mary' if you will,  a snowball's chance....

The ELECTORAL COLLEGE will (or maybe not - there may be an injunction) vote for president on Monday, Dec 19th at each state's capitol.  There is still time to sign the petition to encourge the Electors to vote FREELY, for any QUALIFIED GOP, against Putin's puppet, and perform the function for which Alexander Hamilton created them:  TO PROTECT US FROM DESPOTS and TYRANTS. Please, help save the United States of America.

Electoral College PETITION

PETITION to Electoral College to affirm POPULAR VOTE of 2016 election

Resist temptation

Blogging issues.  And all of them are mine, not Google, not the computer.

Me.

I have no center since the election and cannot find any motivation to put up entries about cooking, gardening, household doings.  Holidays, health issues, none of it seem to matter anymore.  Without a future to look forward to, all my todays are in limbo.

I don't make plans.  I go through the motions of everyday life, but inside I'm hollow.  I've lost my country.  Millions of Americans feel the same way.  Tens of millions.  Our candidate lost.   Democracy lost.  I'm lost.

Watch Trump fill his cabinet with corruption and hatred.  Where are the checks'n'balances?  Why aren't the Justice Department and Congress countering these appointments?  

Where is the Electoral College that was created to PROTECT US FROM TYRANTS and DEMAGOGUES?   

I'm looking at the greatest Democracy on the planet...in the rearview mirror.  Is the experiment is over? Maybe.  Many people wanted democracy, but not enough people wanted to have to work at it.  If you don't keep weeding a garden, water the plants, support the vines - you get nothing.  Not only will you not get any thing for yourself, but something else will take over the neglected space.

Same with democracy.  If you're not part of it, participating in the process, supporting causes, lend a helping hand somewhere, standing up for someone OTHER THAN YOURSELF...  If you expect someone else to take care of your country, well then.... 

You get Trump.  Four years?  Someone asked me what harm can one president do to a country (let alone the planet) in four years?  

Hitler did it.

This despondancy must pass. I have to resist the temptation to give up.  Resist the urge to not take care of my health anymore.  Resist the urge to hole myself away from others.  I must resist.

We, all of us, no matter party, station, or circumstance, must RESIST. We, each of us, are now charged with holding firm to democratic principles, keep them safe.  But not by hiding them away.  Democracy is a living thing.  Tend it.  Share it.  Nurture it in spite of tyrants and corruption.  Start by getting to know your own neighbors, community.  

A helping hand is a healing hand.

Remember, it's no longer about party politics.  We're in this together. This is how we will unite.  It's we.the.people.out.here vs them.  Actions are already speaking louder than their words. THEY will not make our lives better, safer, more enriched.  THEY will boost the rich, ignore the poor and burn through what's left of the middle-class. 

But, if we are strong enough, dedicated enough, even scared enough; if we've held onto the hot coals of our precious democracy over the next four years, there may be enough heat left to fire up the process and that there will be a free and open vote. 

Resist the temptation to hide. Resist the temptation to go with the flow.  Resist unfair/unjust laws. Resist.  Resist.

And remember -- 2018 is a mid-term election.  Think ahead. Keep your House and Senate representative ACCOUNTABLE to what YOUR community sent them to do. 

LEARN from this election.  It's our only hope.

==================

Please visit this site to view progress of the petition and consider signing.  Tens of thousands are protesting in cities across the country.  Most of us don't have the opportunity to do that.  But a petition IS something we can make time for, must make time for.  Thank you.

Link to: Electoral College PETITION

PETITION to Electoral College to affirm POPULAR VOTE of 2016 election

More loss - perhaps too much for me

The tree people that took down the front green ash trees left and never came back to finish the job.

I finally had to ask my friend to take down the dead blue ash in the backyard.

He came yesterday and began the process.

It was so painful to watch.

So much has gone wrong this past month and I am having a great deal of trouble trying to process everything.

The trees, the tradesmen, my health.  

Our presidential election (which turned out WAS rigged - in Trump's favor: Putin interference/ Wikileaks; the Electoral College) has me in a pit of despair.  Last time I felt like this was 54 years ago when I was 15 and President Kennedy was on TV telling us that we may have to have a nuclear war.

International news is equally vile - Turkey government has gone mad, rounding up Tens of Thousands of innocent citizens that he accuses of being involving a coup.  So many 'coup suspects', that he is emptying his prisons of real convicts to make room for his new prisoners.

He's also building 170 more prisons to make room for even more citizens.

The world has gone mad.

Meanwhile, tree cleanup will take several days.

Y'know, I'd rather have heard that an asteroid was coming to wipe out the earth than this planetary political gore.

At least we'd have faced THAT threat as a whole instead of the vicious division that now pits us against each other.  There is little comfort to be had amongst ourselves.

Today is my birthday.  A hollow victory to live this long.  So much loss. I am past depression and now mostly despondent.  I feel overwhelmed, vulnerable, and helpless to effect anything.  Paralized by fear, no doubt.

My doctor told me in 2013 that I should not have alcohol, it could further destroy my thyroid with the Hashimoto's Disease, so I haven't had a drop for 3 years. Last night I opened a nice Pinot Grigio that's been in the basement since then.  After a glass I was able to take a deep breath for the first time in almost a week without feeling a need to cry.

Time to bring the rest of these soldiers upstairs. I have very little hope for the future at this point.

God help us all. 

==  I've decided this is my last post at this time; I'm sure few of you care to read this downward spiral.  Don't know if I'll be back. Good luck. == 

==================

Please visit this site to view progress of the petition and consider signing.  Tens of thousands are quietly protesting in cities across the country.  Most of us don't have the opportunity to do that.  But a petition IS something we can make time for, must make time for.  Thank you.

Link to: Electoral College PETITION

PETITION to Electoral College to affirm POPULAR VOTE of 2016 election

Electoral College - VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE

=== Please feel free to copy this post and repost, tweet, etc. ===
(because, honestly, I'm not 'connected' and don't know 
how to get this message out, thanks)

 An open appeal to the Electoral College who will vote for president December 19.  

(That's right, in America OUR VOTES DON'T COUNT!  The college decides.  Few of the college are elected, most are appointed.   Each state has as many electors as it has members in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives combined. The electoral college thus includes 535 electors from the states, one for each of the 435 members of the House plus one for each of the 100 senators.)

Electors chosen on Election Day meet in their respective state capitals (or in the case of the District of Columbia, within the District) on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, at which time they cast their electoral votes on separate ballots for President and Vice President.

 =====================================================================


Dear electors:

Our country's future is in your hands as never before.   

Some think that you are bound to vote one way or another based on your state's vote totals.

But you are NOT BOUND to do that.  You have FREE VOTE.  

You have the right to vote your CONSCIENCE.

The country sees that while WE THE PEOPLE gave more votes to the Democratic candidate, the electoral college is poised to go against the wishes of the majority of citizens.  The college is ready to affirm the election of the Republican candidate who not only got fewer votes, but has promised to do his best to dismantle all that makes America as GREAT as it already IS.

What's at stake?

Freedom of press.
Freedom of religion.
Freedom to assemble.
Rights: civil, women's, LBGT, reproductive, justice, etc.
Justice: criminal and civil.
Foreign affairs. 
International agreements and cooperation.
And much more.

Please, electors.  We beseech you as fellow Americans.  

We did our part.  We voted for our preferred candidate. The popular vote went for the Democratic candidate.

While protestors across the nation are taking to the streets to express their anger and discontent at the imminent automatic electoral college confirmation of the Republican president-elect, you each, you few (538) , you unknown to us , might be set to disregard the 10s of millions of voters that thought THEY were electing their president

But, THIS time it's different.  THIS is your time.  You can, literally, CHANGE THE WORLD with YOUR 538 votes.  You can, for once, truly represent the voice of the American people and save us from the minority candidate that we voted AGAINST.

Remember, you are your last hope.  Also remember, as the now president-elect has tweeted many times ===>

Prove him wrong, electors.  Show him that we ARE a democracy and that the majority DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM.

And then show him that you, you 538, can vote your conscience.

The country you save will be ever grateful.

Thank you.  

Respectfully, 
an American voter 

========================================

Electoral College PETITION

PETITION to Electoral College to affirm POPULAR VOTE of 2016 election

Post-election Pre-apocalypse

Well, that went south really fast.

I went to bed in the land of inclusiveness, unity, freedom and hope.

This morning (no sleep) I found myself shaken to my core.  And terrified.

We have film and recordings of every vile threat he's made in the past 2 years. (Until he deletes it all.)

And yet, election results that show at almost half of the populace are spouting the same line.  Who knew?

It's no wonder the market futures plunged last night and that the Canadian Immigration site crashed under heavy load as the results rolled in.

I have no hope for the future of the United States of America under his administration.  

Like the Union, my beautiful 100+ yr-old ash trees fell in 1 day
eaten from the inside out by stinking parasitic beatles

The Republic lasted for 240 years and through so much.

But to be brought to down by a vile con man and his cronies?

This morning I'm without hope for my future and fear for my safety in a country marching into fascism and the 'good old days' of Jim Crow, "Whites Only", sabre-rattling isolationism.  He made it clear what kind of people were NOT in his supremist vision of America.  I'm sure an older, educated, free-thinking woman like myself didn't make the cut. 

I have an upcoming birthday.  Forget celebrating with gardening or tree planting.  Forget planning for the next decade or two.  At this time I see no future for trying to improve my lot or investing in a comfortable later years.

I need to feel protected, but assume the new government will not protect me, especially since Trump now has nuclear codes to "bomb them to hell".  

Nukes aside, this president promises to curtail the free press, right to assembly, freedom of speech, interfere with the courts and judges, disparage freedom of religion and many other democratic functions that we have taken for granted. 

We have traditionally handed over power to this president peacefully.  But he has, for the past 2 years, promised  that his use of this power will NOT be traditional, not for the benefit or our citizens, but for his own twisted vision of a dark and divisive land - a land of his own design.

I feel vulnerable and threatened, not only from the government, but his supporters that may feel that certain behaviors, exhibited by Trump, would be sanctioned, while tearing down decades of progress in Civil Right, Women's Rights, Reproductive Rights, Marriage Rights, LGBT gains, and just basic human decency between each other. 

I have only an aged mother for family.  I must protect us.  I feel abandoned - an outsider in a new, unknown country. I feel deeply for people I know of or know personally that they, too, did not make Trump's cut.

There is no one to reassure me or calm me or tell me it's going to be okay.  I cry. For the first time in my life, I fear FOR my life.  And for others.

Bottom line, I might have to buy a gun.  First guy tries to grope me, I will shoot off his f^cking nuts. 
 
What a difference a day makes.

==========


How's YOUR first day in the new world?