Yeah, I Am Still Here
It's emotional whiplash, for sure.
So a couple of days ago I was pretty upset.
I am still not great, and I figure “great” is going to be very relative for a while yet. Hell, I will be happy with “good” or “fine” for a bit.
So when I started doing this site, it was primarily a place for me to dump, to get the thoughts in my head out somewhere, as a release. By sharing it with you all I figured it was a way for us to realize that we are not alone in our thoughts. None of that has changed, but I just wanted to reiterate that what you see here will be a real-time look into how I am feeling, so it’s going to have ups, downs, rants, flowers (I hope), the whole nine. While I would love nothing more than to start talking about positive topics, I am afraid we may have to wait a while for that. What I can do, right now is share a picture of Zoe.
Ok, with that done, let’s catch up.
Right now, I am experiencing a nearly constant sense of… despair? Fear? Anger? I am not really sure. It ebbs and flows, sometimes far more noticeable than other times. But it’s always present. The best analogy I can come up with is tinnitus. I have suffered from that particular malady for years (thanks years of drum corps, headphones and loud music in my car…) and this is pretty similar. Sometimes the ringing is barely there, and other times it feels like a huge speaker broadcasting microphone feedback my head. Make sense?
I have to remind myself daily, hell, sometimes hourly, of a few things:
We are in this for the long haul. This is a marathon, and nothing is coming any time soon to help us out. At best we can hope for some favorable rulings from the courts to stave off some of the most dangerous efforts, but those may be few and far between. This is a marathon, and we need to bear down.
Trump and his goons are hoping that, after the initial flurry of illberal acts and the protests that will (and, finally, have started to) rise against these acts, the majority of the American people will settle down and slowly accept their “new normal”. We must realize that this is the strategy and not let that happen, all the while protecting against burnout.
While the MAGAs and legacy media would like us to believe that Trump has some incredible mandate, the facts are that he won by less than 2% of the vote. There are still 75 MILLION of us out there that did not vote for him, along with a not-insignificant number of people who don’t agree with him but did not (or were not able to) vote. We need to keep that in mind when it gets hard… remember that we are far from alone.
One of the most important things to keep in mind while you take in all that is going on is that Trump’s primary strategy is twofold: he “floods the zone with shit” to keep people off balance and freaking out, and he uses that flood to try to hide the truly sinister shit he is doing. As hard as it is to do so, try not to freak out about every. single. crazy. thing. he. says. Because let’s face it, most of the things he says are crazy. And while he may actually try to do them all, he simply won’t be able to accomplish all of it. He is counting on folks like us to freak out on the regular, and eventually for us all to be worn down. So, try to triage his bullshit. If you must freak out, do so when he actually does something.
Here’s an example… When Donny announced our latest Imperialistic Venture, the Annexation and Gentrification of Gaza, people, understandably, freaked out. BlueSky was flooded with posts, as was Substack, legacy media, and I would imagine many other places. Meanwhile, his Co-President was invading NOAA and the Department of Labor while his freshly minted Attorney General was issuing orders that the Department of Justice’s attorneys would be expected to carry out the President’s agenda. (DoJ Attorneys work for the USA, not the President, but why would that matter to these people?)
The White House has already started to walk back some of Trump’s Gaza plans, although both he and (literal) partner in crime Bibi Netanyahu are still pumping the idea. Realistically, there is little chance that the Trump Riviera - Mediterranean will ever see the light of day, but the harms from the DOGE coup and Bondi’s DoJ could be far-reaching. Focus on the latter.
One other note on the Gaza announcement: As expected, the announcement precipitated a torrent of bullshit directed towards the Arabs and others who didn’t vote for Harris as a protest. While I can understand the basis for that anger, seeing so many “woke” folks turn on them was and is disgusting.
Rather than rehashing my position on that, I will just point you to the piece I already wrote that covers it.
Lots to Say
I had intended to include a few things that you can do to help get through all of this mess, but this one is getting pretty long. I will work on that piece separately, so keep an eye on this space…
Housekeeping Note
Some of you may have noticed a few cosmetic and functional changes to the site. And yes, it’s now a site and not just posts on Substack. Welcome to Analysis Paralysis, a fitting name for our times. I have enabled all of the community features, including chat, comments, etc. You can also share the site, here’s a convenient button to do just that:
While I created the site to share with my friends and family, I have no issues if you have anyone you would like to invite here as well, so please do!
I think we need to come to realize that most of what is coming out of the White House is performative and distraction. Similar to the "protests" carried out by the establishment Dems in the past week or so. Schumer holding his hands up with fists clenched is some weak tea.
We will need to admit that our empire is on the decline and what Trump does is a reaction to that but will have no difference on the outcome. China and BRICS are winning, and while they are getting stronger, our leadership from both parties are complicit in the failure to act.
For decades our leaders have made the wrong choices when it comes to foreign policy and the economy. Playing games with interest and inflation, while taking loans from China and Japan to fund our wars...including the one in Ukraine. Note the irony that China is paying us to prop up Zelensky while also being an ally with Russia in the war.
But while our rights are being stripped away and subsets of the population finding themselves marginalized once again to the point where a very manly Nancy Mace repeats "tranny" over in the oversight chamber in Congress with only a slight rebuke from the ranking Democrat, the oligarchs are running rampant to try to collect as much wealth as they can while we, you and me, and all the working class are being squeezed.
While the cultural oppression that is taking place at a rapid pace now is disgusting, depressing, alarming, and wrong, it is the distraction that it creates which is the key. The chaos causes overload and we reflexively shutdown. When we disengage, they can do whatever they want until it's too late.
I certainly hope that we are able to wake up and when we do it's not too late.
I also hope that this doesn't sound like nonsense that I've just spewed all over your page :)
Stay strong and power to the people! We're all we've got at this point!
To be clear, Yes Trump beat kamala by 2M votes but.....More people voted against Trump than for him. He only got 49.8% of the vote total. 50.2% of the vote was for someone else. HIS supporters are technically a minority of Americans. Not that that will stop him from destroying America beyond recognition but its a comforting fact.