Thursday Thoughts-Nobody told me there'd be days like these

1. Strange days indeed. Most peculiar. These are my least favorite days to write this post because it's hard for me to write succinctly when my head is spinning. And I'm not editing. What we have is what we have here today, any spelling or grammar errors and all. I got very little sleep, I only had enough iced coffee for one cup, and I'm not in the fucking mood for anything. I'm really fucking pissed off at what the trump cult has delivered to us. I'm really pissed off that there are any trump supporters left. You reap what you sow. Attacks on this country like the one that happened yesterday don't materialize overnight. This is what has been wrought. This is what putting one man above the country and anyone who has been complicit in that in elected positions or as regular citizens has brought. The truth hurts. Outside, winter skies. Watching. 

2. How are we all doing the day after an attempted coup by the outgoing president and his supporters?  I know we're exhausted and stressed the fuck out but we need to keep our eyes on this and how it is dealt with in the days following. 

3. Just so we're on the same page - do not, under any circumstances, in any spaces - create a false equivalency between people assembling to protest Black people being killed/400+ years of racial injustice on this soil and armed insurrectionists storming the Capitol in an attempted coup. There are two Americas: one for Black people, and one for white people. If yesterday did not show you that, you are so deeply entrenched in White Supremacy we have to get you a fucking exorcist. Remove the property damage factor from both scenarios. Property is not more important than people. White supremacy teaches us it is, for a reason - so we will see things that are wrong, but fall back on protecting property over people. But property is not more important than people. Even if you will not accept that, for the purpose of this exercise, remove property damage from any protests this year AND from the storming of the Capitol yesterday from the scenario. Do you see the difference in the police/societal treatment of and response to Black people in a crowd and white people intent on destruction in a crowd? Shit, what they wore for crowd control is the first fucking tell. Let me know if you need links to videos of Capitol police taking selfies inside with domestic terrorists who breached the Capitol building or of Capitol police moving aside barricades for the crowd to storm the building. MFD has protested inside the Capitol numerous times and been arrested there. Yesterday is not how it goes down. I repeat: there are two Americas. One in which Black people can killed for doing anything and the majority of white people will find a way to excuse it (they should have complied! oh he was a drug dealer etc etc you know the drill) and one in which white people can storm the nation's Capitol in an armed insurrection in which people are left dead, explosive devices left behind, they put their feet up on desks that are not theirs and don't get 1/100th of the heat Obama got for putting his feet on HIS motherfucking desk, the bust windows and fuck off all over doing whatever they want, and THEY ALL WALK OUT, LARGELY UNHARMED. Because they are allowed to, and white people are on the internet immediately excusing this away as if this is not a major fucking incident against the fabric of this country. These motherfuckers with visible faces in photos had better be identified, arrested, and tried. 

4. As for you fucking moron QAnon chans fuckers - just fucking go the fuck away. You don't know jack fucking shit and your idiot fucking conspiracy theories are JUST FUCKING STOP. ALSO. This is the "fa" we are anti. In case you wondered what the fuck antifa actually stands for. Anti-FASCIST which we should all be but you are not. Stop fucking doing weird fucking internet searches and making yourself feel better about the fucking idiot man and party you backed by blaming yesterday's attempted coup your boy started by yelling ANTIFA like the stupid fucks you are. Do you see why your idiocy is dangerous? It's even worse when you claim to have no party. 

The president must be removed because he's an unhinged dangerous fuck with no respect for America or its institutions and he still has the nuclear codes and plenty of days left to blow the fucking world away. It's been proven no one can get a handle on this fucking fool. If he's not allowed on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, he sure as shit should not be allowed to be in the vicinity of the nuclear codes. Leaving him in office is a failure of every cabinet member and member of Congress. Further, every elected official at the state and federal level who postured to the point of inciting and inviting what happened yesterday even if at the end they did not vote to object because they were blown back by the violent insurrection  - AND ACCEPTED THE RESULTS OF THEIR ELECTION WHILE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS - must be expelled from office. We have traitors in this country, a lot of you are them and more of you voted for them. We do not need to identify those traitors in a national security event and then LET THEM FUCKING STAY. Everything comes home to roost. Someone come get this dangerous idiot Josh Hawley who is the star of American Psycho: The Congress Version. Tell him to keep Pennsylvania out of his mouth. Missouri, you don't have to take him back, but someone needs to take him somewhere. Get on the fucking phone and on every form of social media and demand elected officials - yours, mine, ours - remove the dangerously unhinged president and everyone in an elected position who propped up his stolen election charade to the point of sedition. Democracy doesn't just stand by and through because we want it to. Without the will and input of the people there is no fucking democracy. It's bad enough these motherfuckers have chosen corporations over people and pushed us into a functioning oligarchy. They nearly burned the Capitol to the ground yesterday. This is a chance for us to rebuild this country the right way. With liberty and justice for ALL. Power to the people.

5. Kudos to Georgia for delivering Warnock and Ossoff to the United States Senate. I said this in a few spaces yesterday but it bears repeating: Stacey Abrams is the name we know. What happened in Georgia does not happen without years of activists and leaders in communities of color laying groundwork, building community, and grassroots organizing -  especially the Black community. People working their asses off. And as we see from this Georgia story, led mostly by Black women. In regards to Black women (and Black voters). Can we be finished stopping at thanking Black women after we have relied on them to save our asses - which they are not responsible or even intent on doing, but is often just a side effect of working for their own communities - despite how they are treated across the board throughout the country? Instead, can we hire them for leadership positions, pay them what they're worth, invest in their organizations, ensure our politicians center issues that affect them and their communities even when that means un-centering ourselves, and recognize and respect their social and political capital and power at every level of government - and in business, education, everywhere - in all communities? They don't need more words or thanks. They need investment, shoppers at their businesses, readers for their books, capital, power, support for their causes, workers and donors for their campaigns, an end to the school to prison pipeline, safe and affordable housing, healthcare, money, opportunities, road blocks removed, and to be in every room where decisions are being made - all of which they have earned a million times over. Sometimes what's needed the most is for us to shut up, listen, and move out of the way. What are we doing in our own lives and communities to make sure this is happening? If we are protecting white supremacy in any way we are the road block. 

6. In closer to home news, we finally have the bullshit leftover election shit that has been littering our house for months corralled to one dining room corner and some signage downstairs. 

7. What else. Oh the washer was fixed yesterday. A fucking hose came loose. So I've been a washerwoman since. I was supposed to go back to the shore last night but I couldn't summon the energy, despite always having a zillion drinks at all times to keep me caffeinated and hydrated. I have been killing it out there with feeling fine and focus and concentration. White supremacy and treason ruin everything. Don't be a white supremacist. Don't support treason because its dress matches your voter registration. 

8. Food of the week: comfort spaghetti and veggie meat sauce (pulled from the freezer) and a pantry clean out meal: chicken thighs thrown in a crock with cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and a few cans of mushrooms. Oh. And protein brownies that tasted like cardboard. Do not recommend. Please don't. For real. I love and use Kodiak waffle mix and muffin mix. This stuff is blech. 

9. Reminder: everything that goes down, must come up. The world has watched America fall. We've become weak because we've dropped everything else to hold onto whiteness. It's time for the reckoning. And the rising. 97% of the problems in this country remain once trump leaves office. What position will you fill on the come up?

10. E-cards: 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Nobody Told Me There by John Lennon (that's a pretty raw version, and I love it). Most peculiar Mama, some of the weirdest shit I ever saw

Thursday Thoughts - How does it feel when there's no destination that's too far and somewhere on the way you might find out who you are?

1. You know how your brain gets jammed up and things take longer to process/tasks take longer to complete and you know you need a break? That's me right now. Vacation is coming! Signs of that are always on the spare room bed.

2. "It's a road trip but we are going in super light," she says, after she places an Amazon order to ensure the proper coffee is there the first day and takes up most of a bag with books.

3. I got to see Melissa and Evil Stephanie #1 and Alex for dinner on Monday. I always enjoy meeting up with them when Stephanie is out on this coast. Fish tacos and service at National Mechanics were both great. Originally built in 1837 as Mechanics National Bank, the building is pretty cool too. Good pic as well except Melissa's GD eyes are closed.

4. Not a mug you'll be seeing in my mug collection.

5. Things that have kept me up at night this week, causing me to write my congress people close to midnight, Item A: people caring more about the word we use to describe the camps or the fact that other presidents had camps or how the children got here. These are fucking children. They need adequate food, water, beds, soap, diapers. If this was your kid, what would you want people to do on your behalf? This is not a political issue. This is a human issue. Children should not suffer because of the actions of adults. I have to think anyone with a heart believes that. Action: call your govt reps, donate to RAICES , and be be vocal about this because staying silent or neutral is choosing the side of the oppressor. I always did like Highlights and that is the gift of the year this year to support them.

6. Things that have kept me up at night this week, Item B: When They See Us. All hard, but episode four was just...fuck. And this happens, more than we'd like to admit. Action: examine yourself and the systems around you. Read White Fragility. Speak up when you see differential treatment under the law and everywhere.

7. The big todo in our house this week is a bladder infection. Poor Mae. One zillion dollars later, she is on a shit ton of antibiotics and still uncomfortable but back to growling at the other dogs and eating food and treats. Not an expense or a worry you want before vacation. I hope she's back to normal by the time we leave.

8. Co-signed. It's crazy unrealistic to expect happiness all the time yet there are happiness and positivity pushers out there and just stop with that. That’s not real life, it’s smothering people so they can’t express the reality of where they are, putting on a false happy while inside they stew and stagnate instead of having the space to grow through pain and adversity. I have a sign with "Sunshine all the time makes a desert" in my house so you know where I stand. 

9. Reminder: I love seeing street art from one of my favorites in the wild.

10. Ecards:

Thank you and good day. I SAID GOOD DAY.

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Living in America by James Brown

Thursday Thoughts - I've run out of comments, I'm tired of the violence

1. I don't bread things often (like, ever), but this week I did with bone-in pork chops and it sent me back to the first meal I knew how to make for my family using the oven at age 11: shake & bake pork chops in the oven with stovetop rice and kidney beans. I'd been making soups at my Mom Mom's side since I could stand on a chair at the stove, but this is what I think of when I think of the first actual meal I was tasked with cooking. What's the first meal you learned how to make and how old were you?

2. I had to go to the fucking dentist yesterday for a cleaning. If you're new here, the dentist is my kryptonite. My appointment was for 1:15 and I managed to not call and lie myself out of going the five times I had the urge to. Give me compliments.

3. It is still so weird to me that I live less than 10 minutes from a casino with neon lights. It must be weird to the deer too. 

4. I love this new sign but I hate the new Love Park in general. I miss the fountain a lot. Fountains are my jam. If they ever try to move or alter the fountain in Logan Square I will chain myself to it. You heard it here first. 

5. I love glimpsing grand buildings through trees. I took this on my way to the library the other day. It was so humid I nearly died. Summer in Philly. 

6. This week has been sort of lazy. I've run a few errands at night and during the day, but I've slacked and sat on my ass and read a lot too. Last night I had to turn it up at home. The dogs did not hear me raise the volume. 

7. I'll work from the shore tomorrow as usual and I am freaking pumped to attend the library book sale after work. I'm looking to score some less than $1 paperbacks to take on vacation. 

8. trump has done irreparable harm to the Central Park Five, way back when he whipped everyone into a frenzy and now when he refuses to acknowledge their exoneration. Trash person but in line with the racist dog whistles blowing everywhere. Actually they're no longer dog whistles, they're bullhorns, and threatening to round up and deport mass amounts of people is a loud and clear call to rally his base rabid for people to blame for the problems in this country other than those who actually deserve it - the ones they continually vote into office against their own interests who have no godly intention of making things better for Joe and Mary Citizen and every intention of making sure the rich get richer and that they themselves are among the rich. The cost of food, gas, medication, everything is up up up and if I'm feeling it, it has to be absolutely crushing people on the poverty line. If we stopped concentrating on keeping black and brown people down, what women were doing with their vaginas, who is having sex with who, etc., and joined together to PRESS EVERY OFFICIAL to ensure there are fair wages, income equality, equity for ALL of us, equal justice under the law, single payer healthcare with no middlemen making profit off of pain standing between people and emotional/mental/physical well being, and our basic living needs were met, we'd be unstoppable. Instead people who make $25 an hour want to make sure people making $8 don't ever make more while the guy at the top makes an obscene amount and kids can't pay for their school lunches. And the people who make $8 an hour want to blame brown people for taking jobs they don't even want instead of the guy making an obscene amount who doesn't give a shit about them or their ability to eat or live without fear. It makes no sense to me. Not much does anymore. 

9. Reminder: art and reminder via The Sweet Feminist

10. Ecards:

Have a good weekend!

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Special by Garbage

Thursday Thoughts - let's start at the very beginning / a very good place to start

1. I dropped my bags at the door yesterday on the pressing topic of the week that I typically address in my Thursday posts. You know it needs its own post when it's too long for Thursday Thoughts.

2. But just for kicks, with all this Donald Trump inspired pussy talk, did you know that in 2012 two women representatives in Michigan were banned by Republican House Leaders from speaking on the House floor because they used the word vagina when talking about an anti-choice bill? Rep. Mike Callton told the press that what they said (the word vagina, which is actually what a female body part is called) was so vile that he could not bear to mention it in front of women or mixed company. Yet pussy is all over the presidential race this week. This is, indeed, real life. It's just words, it's not a big deal...unless you mention a female body part in a legislative body that is legislating about the female body. THEN SHUT UP, YOU VILE STRUMPET. If you don't see the horror and irony in this, you might need an electric shock.

3. Links I liked this week: 38 Hilarious Tweets That Perfectly Sum Up the Second Debate, Donald and Billy on the Bus, 27 Ken Bone tweets, Pro Athletes Say No One Talks Like Trump in Locker Rooms, Muslims Report Stuff. 

3. This week has not gone according to plan. Monday night Jana and I attempted to record The Armchair Librarians and had technical difficulties. Tuesday night the mobile vet thought I was an in-office appointment and never showed up, then I wasted over two hours trying to deal with iPhone Fuckery Take II and got absolutely nothing else on my to do list done, then I was up searching for plain navy Lularoe leggings in vain. Why can't I find these? I think my friend Siobhan helped me find them, we'll see when they arrive! Wednesday more time was wasted wiping my iPhone and restoring it - when I spoke to Apple they said the most recent update was making things "wonky," which is apparently the new technical term for broken down shitshow. That was my actual reply to her. "Is wonky the technical term for the broken down shitshow update you released to the masses?" So the first few days of the week were like a giant error message.

4. I let my hair go past its expiration date this week, which did not help my foray into Sephora on Tuesday. I swear to God every time I go in there it's easily the day of the week I look the worst  - I'm never wearing any makeup and my hair is always on its last leg. Anyone else always roll up into Sephora looking like they desperately need every product in the place and then some?

5. MFD was in town on Tuesday and we went to lunch at Melt Kraft, a grilled cheese place. He loved it; I thought mine was too greasy. We ran into our friend Ellen from school. It's always nice to have an unexpected encounter.

6. Tuesday was National Coming Out Day. I am a supporter of equal rights for the LGBTQ community. My favorite thing is when people are happy - I don't care about their sexual orientation, religion, skin color - I like when people are good, and when they're happy. Life is too short to be otherwise.

7. Vietnam Vets is picking up on Saturday. I was supposed to show you a photo of what I purged on Monday and Tuesday nights but we already covered above how shit has not gone as planned, so trust that I will be ripping through the house on Friday night like nobody's business. Our lady of Victory, pray for us.

8. Currently reading. Did you check out the 49 posts linked up for the second anniversary of Show Us Your Books on Tuesday? Did you enter to win booky prizes?

9. Reminder. Even though I've been in a relationship for 14 years, I have never stopped cultivating alone time. It is important to me to not lose me.

10.  E-card of the week: 

Alright, alright, alright. 

Linking up with Kristin

To be crystal clear

what two consenting adults engage in sexually in private
appreciation for the physical aspects of the opposite sex
reading a book with sexual content
having sexual thoughts about other adults
having conversations about sex
explicit sex talk between consenting adults
actual locker room banter
cheating on your spouse

are not in any way at all related to

Donald Trump saying, "Grab them in the pussy. You can do anything."

Not in any way. 
None of those things are the same as what he said or in any way related.

Attempting to relate them is blindly existing in rape culture.

Attempting to pass it off as just words that liberals are pearl clutching over is absurd. No one gives a good fuck that he used the word pussy. People care about how he said he would grab women by the pussy in a manner that implies lack of consent. Lack of consent is not something to joke or be flippant about. Lack of consent is rape and rape is absolutely something to be concerned about. Acting like it isn't is doing everyone on this planet a disservice.

Attempting to invoke the marital issues of the Clintons and Bill's sexual conduct or misconduct will not lessen the blow of a presidential candidate with a cavalier attitude about how he can take anything from women, whether they consent or not. Let's be honest, this is just the latest misogynist bomb out of Trump's mouth. Are we surprised? No. Are we finally finished putting up with it? I hope so. There are some people who hate the very air the Clintons breathe, and I'm not taking that away from you. Among other things, you are pissed about a blow job Bill got in the Oval Office 20 years ago and how horny and immoral he is. You've been banging that drum for 20 years, so I'm sure you'll excuse us while we take some time to deal with sexual assault language by a candidate who says he respects women but clearly does not. Women make up over half of the population. It's a problem. 

Attempting to blow this off as a distraction from the "real issues" of the election says to me you are happy to live in a world in which women's bodies are assumed to be property of others to do with what they wish and that you won't ever do or say anything to change that.  You're concerned about national security. I get that. What about bodily security for everyone, not just the males?

You can give me any excuse or justification or bullshit about how what he said is not important or a big deal and I will simply tell you I don't care. Because it's a big deal to me. And to many women and men. 

I don't know if you can hear it where you are. It's loud around me. An army of women is marching as we speak. Some of us are out screaming and stomping in the streets. Some of us are looking out the window through the blinds, standing in solidarity in living rooms hoping no one sees us but standing just the same. Some of us can only light a match to illuminate an ideal of equality in our minds, but we're there. It takes all kinds in this army.

I cannot and will not be silent about this. This is not politics. This is humanity and equality and respect and safety and I will press on it and demand it and remind you of it. Loudly and with absolute conviction. That's my role in this army.

If that's not a role you're comfortable in,  that's okay. There's a place for everyone in this army. Men, that means you too. Even if you've stood by in the past while others made comments like Trump's or even if you made them yourself. Perfection is not expected. A willingness to admit when you've been wrong instead of trying to pass it off as not a big deal or turning it around and pointing at someone else for doing something similar in an attempt to excuse yourself is required. So is trying to do right in the future.

By the way guys, we don't need you to stand up for us or protect us because we're the weaker sex, or because we're your daughters or wives or mothers. I know...I've fallen into the invoking relationship trap myself. But I'm finished doing that. I'm not asking someone to treat us equally because of who we are in relation to them anymore. I'm asking them to treat us equally because we are someone.We need you to stand with us - to stand beside us in solidarity - because we are people who deserve the same respect and bodily autonomy you have. Across the board.

Trump is not yet a part of this country's government. Whether he is in the end is up to you on November 8. But plenty of us are currently represented by people who support him. You might want to check and see where your representatives stand before Election Day - hopefully they're not like Jeff Sessions from Alabama who, in his desire to defend Trump, stated that he is unsure if grabbing women by the genitals is sexual assault. I'm not sure about you, but I don't need people like this writing bills or laws in this land.

Thursday Thoughts - Halved-ish

1. Summer laziness is in full effect. On those nights where I really don't want to do a gaht damn thing, I set my timer and do what I can in those minutes. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 15. On exceptionally lazy nights it's 10. Setting the timer gets me up and doing because I don't have to do all the things and I don't even have to work off of a list of things, I just have to do something for the set amount of minutes and then I can say fuck it. Which is what summer wants of me, to constantly say fuck it. p.s. I sacrificed two seconds of my precious 30 minutes on Tuesday night to snap this photo. You're welcome.

2. I am sick to death of Trump being lauded because he is not politically correct and says what he wants. Given what he's been spewing it is apparent he has zero respect for those he considers beneath him, including (like it or not) an opposing presidential candidate and former First Lady. People actually like that he is hateful and vitriolic and draws lines in the sand and insinuates that an elected Clinton or Supreme Court Justices could be taken care of by second amendment supporters. Of course, his team is excusing that like they excuse every vile statement this man utters or tweets. Unfortunately his supporters want to put him in the office of the President of the United States - one that demands the person in it act with respect and decorum even when they feel like throwing a hissy fit lest they incite riots and violence domestically and invite attacks from foreign entities. You know who gets to say whatever they want and throw hissy fits and not give a damn about the consequences? Toddlers. Not adults and certainly not the President. Grow up. There are situations in which you can speak and act freely without societal constraint or temperance and acting as the President of the United States of America is not one of them. Since when did being calm and respectful yet strong in the face of adversity make you a bad leader on any level? Since never. Diplomacy...it's a skill Ghengis Khan, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Idi Amin, Vlad the Impaler, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, and other leaders throughout history lacked as well. Is this the company we want our President to be in? Trump would like you to believe America is under attack from a great many forces...I'm saying the phone calls are coming from inside the house. Put the phone down and run.

3. It's been a sleepy week in our house. No one has wanted to get up. Me included. I'm hoping to sleep a lot this weekend. 

4. MFD went fishing Tuesday and caught a lot of flounder. Not my preference, but when fresh fish is caught you eat that fish. As you may know, MFD is a realtor. His hours are 100% irregular - which can mean cancelling plans at the last minute, missing family events, having to be on the phone at dinner, working on vacation if he has cell service, taking phone calls after 10 p.m., etc. We're used to it, that's his chosen profession and we know those things come with it. What also comes with it? The ability to work from a beach or a boat if you don't have showings. Sweet trade off. 

5. Today is Carol's birthday. Happy birthday Carol!! Love you, enjoy!

6. Reminder. Most things worth having aren't easy. 

7.  E-card of the week:

I have no 8-10 because the humidity has finally gotten to my brain. Stay cool out there my friends.