A Fun Survey for These Dark Times!

Why not take a break from political negativity and learn about each other? 😊

1. Who are you named after? There is literally a fascist administration in office in the United States.

2. Last time you cried?
Resist it, unerringly, with all your strength.

3. Soda or water?
One woman, refused entry at the airport, seeking needed medical treatment in the US has died. Another woman, scheduled to be deported, reportedly attempted suicide in the airport. The youngest child detain by our government was eleven months old. Sean Spicer, Trump’s Director of Communications, defended the detention and arrest of tiny children by claiming even five-year-olds could be dangerous.

Other Things You Can Do to Resist

Nicole and Maggie have a list

See also here

ETA: See N&M's update in comments!

Well, That Was a Week

I knew the Trump Regime would be awful, but who could have guessed it would be this astoundingly awful? Not even me, and I had fascist dystopia for 300, Alex.

Just a reminder: donate to the ACLU. Donate to CAIR. Donate to the local food banks. Write and phone your reps. Volunteer when and where you can.

Resist. Tear this vile fascist down.

And don't be afraid to take a break. It's all right to take care of yourself, to breathe, to exercise, to make your art. This will be a long fight. Be kind to yourself as well as others.

And now a word from the Doctor:

How Can I Still Be Sick?

I think the stress of living in Trump's America is wrecking my immune system.

I've been sick with what Web MD insists is nothing but a cold since just after Christmas. That's over a month now. I'm sleeping ten and fourteen hours a day, broken, unrestful sleep, since I spend a lot of it coughing violently. I coughed so splendidly and thoroughly at work the other day that a colleague came down the hall to offer me emergency cough drops.

I suppose I should consult my doctor. I hate doctors.

Meanwhile, teaching is going excellently. I'm teaching that Popular Literature class on Zombies, Vampires, and the Apocalypse. (The perfect time in America to be teaching such a class, as we drive off the cliff into the apocalypse.) We started with Train to Busan, a Korean movie. If you haven't seen this one, and you don't mind terrifying zombie movies, it's very much worth watching. You can rent it on Amazon streaming video.

Now we're reading World War Z, a different sort of Zombie tale. On to Naomi Kritzer's "Zombies in Winter" after that. The class itself is lively and engaged. It's just delightful to have students who not only have read the work, but have avidly read the work and can't wait to talk about it.

Even Better Than the Last

I might get tired of Watch the Nazi Get Punch Memes one day

By popular demand, here's an extended cut of the #Hamilton nazi punch remix pic.twitter.com/nj70DXQH2P

— Nate Coraor (@natefoo) January 23, 2017

But that day has not yet come.

On the OTHER hand...

...as someone said on Twitter, the fact that this was the first big meme of 2017 gives me a lot of hope!

this is as patriotic as I've felt in a long time pic.twitter.com/yiVxd8semM

— PESTERING PUPPETS (@prttybadtweeter) January 21, 2017

Maybe you're one of the people who deplores violence, and thinks it is terrible to punch anyone, even a Nazi. I can certainly understand your position.

My position is we should not only punch Nazis, we should punch them two or three times, and then kick them when they're down.

Bad News, Y'all

This morning I woke up in a country where Donald Trump was president.

Now it begins.

Breaking News: Rod Dreher More Batsh*t Crazy Than Ever

Even his own Commentariat turn on him with this one.

"Obama Springs Transgender Traitor," he shrieks, and spends most of the post in an uncontrollable tantrum over the fact that Chelsea Manning is transgender.

This penis-having traitor suffers because people might not think she is a “real woman”. Think about that. Manning suffers serious psychological problems, and has tried to commit suicide. He should receive medical treatment — but not boobs grown at taxpayer expense on his traitorous breast, and not liberty for breaking his oath under arms.

But It's NATURAL LAW!

At least that's what the commentariat at Rod Dreher's place (and elsewhere) keep shrieking at us.

Take THAT, fuckers who associate strict gender binaries as "natural" pic.twitter.com/3RoQ81U0v9

— Danielle Riendeau (@Danielleri) January 15, 2017

By "Natural law," of course, what they mean is "How I believe the world ought to be."

I used to sort of enjoy reading Rod Dreher's blog, and other Conservative and Moderate blogs, because they gave me a look at what people not like me thought, and what they believed. Since Trump's election, though, wow. It's just a gibbering hate-fest over there.

Anyone not precisely like them -- which is to say heterosexual, Conservative, their very own brand of Christian, cisgendered, educated to their precise level of education, and (very often) from their own region of the country has become not just the enemy, but not even human.

Two-minute hate? I wish. Non-stop hate.

ETA: See also this, over at alicublog.

LOL

One of the fans of my kid's comic made this shitpost for it

i love Fragile so here's a shitpost. https://t.co/nQ8ARTU1Y5

— fire type tobes (@TobyHopps) January 15, 2017

It's perfect, and hilarious.

(It's only funny if you've been reading the comic -- sorry!)

My Score

I only score 15 on this -- or sixteen, depending on how whether we count "immodest and rebellious women" as one point or two.

Gotta up my game.

(Stolen from Alas a Blog.)

Things I Like About My New Office

...v. Things I don't

It's my first real day in my new office, and the first day of the semester, sort of. (We don't start teaching until Tuesday, January 17, but today we have meetings all day. How I love meetings.)

Anyway, I arrived today at 7.30 a.m. to find that the key to my office door didn't work. That's one thing I don't like.

Whining

• I have to go back to work on Friday -- sort of. It's the pre-school conference day. I don't actually start teaching until Tuesday. 

The Real Bubble...

...is the bubble of militant ignorance.

I've lived in Red States very nearly all my life. I was born just outside Seattle, in a trailer park, but we left there when I was three to move to New Orleans, to another trailer park.

Graduate school in Arkansas. First job in Idaho. Second job in North Carolina. Third job -- this job -- back in Arkansas.

What I'm Reading (and watching) Now

I'm still tragically, dramatically sick, which means I can't do much besides lie on the sofa and whimper. Also blow my nose, emit hacking coughs, and read novels.

(I lie. I'm also writing. Each day I trawl up sufficient energy to write for at least two hours. Then I collapse.)

Anyway, I'm reading a lot. Also binge-watching a lot of Netflix.

Here's what I've been watching: