At 7:22 this morning, Lexi elbow-crawled her way up from the foot of the bed (that’s where she sleeps), negotiated the passageway between Rachel and me, put her snoot against my ear and woofed.
Dogs will not have to live with the consequences of yesterday's election because their "parents" will not change their ability to care for their furry four-legged children. They will never see the total darkness - only that darkness that will be in the eyes of the people they love and who love them back.
This was my immediate thought - it lovely we can protect dogs [and cats, if they allow it] but so many people are likely to not have that protection now. I am sorry to be so dark, but this is just overwhelming.
My car accident 28 years ago (29 in Feb) that left me paralyzed from the chest down taught me not to worry about things I can't control. I have been a much happier person for that lesson.
My wife would agree. She is legally blind. She has long since had the attitude of being grateful for what she still has, rather than obsessing and being bitter about what she has lost.
I have survived a lot, and this is just one more reminder to me: if I have something to do, I should get at it. I could give a list, but we all have a list. I suspect they are much the same. What to do now? Just make a new list and work on it a day at a time. Have some health related work and remember that free form anxiety is to be expected. It will pass.
I was saying to myself in the middle of the night, when I checked election results, that I could just opt to fall apart and not try. But that would let him win. So I need to work to become stronger (physically and mentally) and not give up.
This is the first election where the outcome scares me. At Trump's first election, I thought "Well, let's see if he can do any of the things he promises to do." That was mostly because he said he had bigly plans to help people - better than Obamacare! More money in your pocket! Somehow brining jobs back to America from overseas!
This time, what he is promising is the build huge detention camps and throw people in them, get even with everyone who disagrees with him, take away licenses of new outlets that don't tow his party line, replace knowledgable federal employees with yes men with neither the education, the skills, nor the experience to do anything (RFK Jr? He'll be in charge of women's healthcare because, well, he was in the hospital for a while so he MUST be the man for the job! Elon Musk? He supported me by throwing money at people if they participated in my plans and he's looking forward tom the bigly tax breaks I'll give him to thank him for giving me that boost! Herschel Walker? He may not know which Donald Trump was running, but you can bet he's got a cabinet post!).
I'm afraid someone read him Mein Kampf and he's using it to successfully walk in the footsteps of Hitler. Project 2025 is going after women's healthcare, women's rights, the two party system, and so much more. I am afraid for the first time in my life by the outcome of an election because Trump said - out loud and in front of large crowds - that he wanted Harris investigated and tossed in jail (for what? He didn't say, but people apparently ate it up), that he would instigate tariffs that would raise our cost of living, but he and his misguided followers don't have a good enough grasp on economics to understand that ALL costs incurred by businesses are passed off through higher prices to the consumer and NEVER 'force; any business into returning to the US - "I just spent $20M on a new factory in China but Trump is making my widgets more expensive to consumers with tariffs - I guess, to save $200 per item, I'll go back to America, abandon my $20M investment in the facility, and start paying US employees $30 an hour rather than paying someone in China $1 a day. Sure, that's how it works!"), that he would revoke licenses for media outlets that disagree with him (making the media more like China - he seems to admire their model greatly), and be a dictator from day one. When he spouts thanks to Barron in his acceptance speeches, there is a reason for it - when you become a dictator at the behest of your rabid followers, you need to choose an heir to the throne....
Democracy was a nice experiment while it lasted......
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." --- Winston Churchill, Speech, Harrow School, October 29, 1941
Dogs know what’s important: strokes, food, Lounging, romping, playmates, squirrels to plot against and fantasize about, new smells, probably in that order.
I think I would feel better if the other two branches of government were in better health. Not much check and balance there. I’m very worried for my former fellow federal employees. (I was there in his first administration, but I suspect this four years will be something different.)
I went to bed last night at 9:30, precisely because I didn't want to doomscroll CNN until 2:00 in the morning - - then I lay like a plank in bed with my eyes wide open until dawn.
For that reason I was a little tired when I drove into work, and maybe I was projecting but it seemed like everyone else was tired too. There were none of the 'move over assholes,' or honks or anything like that. Traffic was slower but perhaps less ... bellicose.
I'd say it was me projecting, but then again, maybe not, as I myself am feeling quite bellicose today
I hope to come back as a dog to a home like my yellow Lab Max had with us. He was loved everybody, everybody that met him loved him and he was happy to find a warm spot in the sun to watch the world go by. Or sleep.
As I lifted him onto the exam table for the last time, I said to him, “Benny I hope that the Buddhist are right.” The vet asked me “What do the Buddhist believe?” “That if you live a good life that you will come back to a better life.” “What,” she asked me, “could be better than to be a Golden Retriever in a family that loves you?”
Maybe, just maybe for once in his miserable existence, Demento will be noteworthy for NOT doing some appalling things. I'd say "to his credit," but he has none.
"If you're going through hell, keep going." --- Winston Churchill
Indeed. This is not original to me, but on January 21, I expect Thomas and Alito to resign and for the new Republican-majority senate to ramrod through two new justices who are just like the aforementioned, only age 40.
Life is indifferent to the fate of individuals and species. So, yeah, it goes on in whatever way it can devise. A variant of "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." It leaves wisdom to those foolish enough to have evolved it. And then it dispense with them.
Yes, life certainly does go on, at least for now. However, my being about the same age as Gene, it's not going to go on for all that much longer, at least compared to what's gone on before. That makes it easier for me to say, "F it. I'm done with fighting. I just don't care anymore. I'm tired of the national Democratic Party botching campaign after campaign. I'm going to spend my remaining years in a less crazy place—mentally and/or physically—no matter how I manage to do it."
Dogs will not have to live with the consequences of yesterday's election because their "parents" will not change their ability to care for their furry four-legged children. They will never see the total darkness - only that darkness that will be in the eyes of the people they love and who love them back.
This was my immediate thought - it lovely we can protect dogs [and cats, if they allow it] but so many people are likely to not have that protection now. I am sorry to be so dark, but this is just overwhelming.
and by and large, they get to adhere to the advice of Philip Larkin: "get out as early as you can/and don't have any kids yourself."
My car accident 28 years ago (29 in Feb) that left me paralyzed from the chest down taught me not to worry about things I can't control. I have been a much happier person for that lesson.
My wife would agree. She is legally blind. She has long since had the attitude of being grateful for what she still has, rather than obsessing and being bitter about what she has lost.
I have survived a lot, and this is just one more reminder to me: if I have something to do, I should get at it. I could give a list, but we all have a list. I suspect they are much the same. What to do now? Just make a new list and work on it a day at a time. Have some health related work and remember that free form anxiety is to be expected. It will pass.
I was saying to myself in the middle of the night, when I checked election results, that I could just opt to fall apart and not try. But that would let him win. So I need to work to become stronger (physically and mentally) and not give up.
Dogs are just better human beings.
This is the first election where the outcome scares me. At Trump's first election, I thought "Well, let's see if he can do any of the things he promises to do." That was mostly because he said he had bigly plans to help people - better than Obamacare! More money in your pocket! Somehow brining jobs back to America from overseas!
This time, what he is promising is the build huge detention camps and throw people in them, get even with everyone who disagrees with him, take away licenses of new outlets that don't tow his party line, replace knowledgable federal employees with yes men with neither the education, the skills, nor the experience to do anything (RFK Jr? He'll be in charge of women's healthcare because, well, he was in the hospital for a while so he MUST be the man for the job! Elon Musk? He supported me by throwing money at people if they participated in my plans and he's looking forward tom the bigly tax breaks I'll give him to thank him for giving me that boost! Herschel Walker? He may not know which Donald Trump was running, but you can bet he's got a cabinet post!).
I'm afraid someone read him Mein Kampf and he's using it to successfully walk in the footsteps of Hitler. Project 2025 is going after women's healthcare, women's rights, the two party system, and so much more. I am afraid for the first time in my life by the outcome of an election because Trump said - out loud and in front of large crowds - that he wanted Harris investigated and tossed in jail (for what? He didn't say, but people apparently ate it up), that he would instigate tariffs that would raise our cost of living, but he and his misguided followers don't have a good enough grasp on economics to understand that ALL costs incurred by businesses are passed off through higher prices to the consumer and NEVER 'force; any business into returning to the US - "I just spent $20M on a new factory in China but Trump is making my widgets more expensive to consumers with tariffs - I guess, to save $200 per item, I'll go back to America, abandon my $20M investment in the facility, and start paying US employees $30 an hour rather than paying someone in China $1 a day. Sure, that's how it works!"), that he would revoke licenses for media outlets that disagree with him (making the media more like China - he seems to admire their model greatly), and be a dictator from day one. When he spouts thanks to Barron in his acceptance speeches, there is a reason for it - when you become a dictator at the behest of your rabid followers, you need to choose an heir to the throne....
Democracy was a nice experiment while it lasted......
If our Second Amendment was the right to bare teeth, we would be better off. Yes, the dogs are right.
"The right to bare teeth" is excellent!
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." --- Winston Churchill, Speech, Harrow School, October 29, 1941
People at work want me to resurrect my chicken cam so they can watch the girls go about, oblivious to the machinations of man.
Dogs know what’s important: strokes, food, Lounging, romping, playmates, squirrels to plot against and fantasize about, new smells, probably in that order.
I think I would feel better if the other two branches of government were in better health. Not much check and balance there. I’m very worried for my former fellow federal employees. (I was there in his first administration, but I suspect this four years will be something different.)
I went to bed last night at 9:30, precisely because I didn't want to doomscroll CNN until 2:00 in the morning - - then I lay like a plank in bed with my eyes wide open until dawn.
For that reason I was a little tired when I drove into work, and maybe I was projecting but it seemed like everyone else was tired too. There were none of the 'move over assholes,' or honks or anything like that. Traffic was slower but perhaps less ... bellicose.
I'd say it was me projecting, but then again, maybe not, as I myself am feeling quite bellicose today
I hope to come back as a dog to a home like my yellow Lab Max had with us. He was loved everybody, everybody that met him loved him and he was happy to find a warm spot in the sun to watch the world go by. Or sleep.
As I lifted him onto the exam table for the last time, I said to him, “Benny I hope that the Buddhist are right.” The vet asked me “What do the Buddhist believe?” “That if you live a good life that you will come back to a better life.” “What,” she asked me, “could be better than to be a Golden Retriever in a family that loves you?”
Maybe, just maybe for once in his miserable existence, Demento will be noteworthy for NOT doing some appalling things. I'd say "to his credit," but he has none.
"If you're going through hell, keep going." --- Winston Churchill
Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor: Stay healthy.
Indeed. This is not original to me, but on January 21, I expect Thomas and Alito to resign and for the new Republican-majority senate to ramrod through two new justices who are just like the aforementioned, only age 40.
Life is indifferent to the fate of individuals and species. So, yeah, it goes on in whatever way it can devise. A variant of "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." It leaves wisdom to those foolish enough to have evolved it. And then it dispense with them.
Yes, life certainly does go on, at least for now. However, my being about the same age as Gene, it's not going to go on for all that much longer, at least compared to what's gone on before. That makes it easier for me to say, "F it. I'm done with fighting. I just don't care anymore. I'm tired of the national Democratic Party botching campaign after campaign. I'm going to spend my remaining years in a less crazy place—mentally and/or physically—no matter how I manage to do it."