This month in the downfall of the United States of America....
I've been away because it's busy holiday season, but also I just dread opening up the news. I have been shutting it down before I read a couple paragraphs. It is just so dreadful, and it doesn't feel good. When I think too deeply on the ramifications of this election, it hits me again.
But look we must. We must face all of it, even when we're directly in front of the fan while The Incontinent Incompetent dumps his latest load.
We must not let the dread stop us from understanding and fighting back.
Both Things Can Be True
Murder is bad. Gun violence is bad. Luigi did the wrong thing when he murdered a person by shooting him in the back in cold blood on the streets of Manhattan. There is no justification for murder.
Corporations are bad. Health care should not be a commodity, wrung of any and all profits at the expense of people's health and welfare.
The interesting part about this event is people's reaction to it.
There's a lot to unpack.
The People
Luigi Mangione is undoubtedly a folk hero. Nicknamed "The Adjuster," the public is downright applauding his actions. People feel it was justified.
People are angry at the McDonald's employee for turning him in. People are calling Mangione's lawyer, offering to pay for his defense. Luigi is their Batman.
They've meme-fied him (which I won't share), and lusted after his bone structure and abs. They've given him names like "Cutie McShootie," "hot assassin," and "mug shot hottie."
To many, Luigi did us all a favor by murdering a CEO.
The Corporations
Many, if not most, corporations are evil. They do harm to people and the world, in the hunt for every last holy dollar.
Corporate health care is extra evil. They put profits above people's health. It's their base model! They delay care, they deny care, they refuse to pay. People die. People go bankrupt.
It's wrong. Health care is a human right. The health care system should not have profits. Period. When people suffer for the sake of higher profits, it is a travesty. Health care profits are through the roof, and very often at people's expense. Their delays and denials of care harm people.
Anger is further erupting from the fact that it isn't even real people who are deciding these life and death issues. Insurers are using AI to decide on prior authorization and process claims.
You've heard stories; we all have heard stories. Or lived them. And no one, no one is denying that America's heath care system yields huge profits. Why is this ok?
The symbol of this evil is the CEO, with his $10 million yearly salary. He leads the system that causes harm to people.
The Crash at the Intersection, or The Reign of Terror
There's a collision happening at slow motion at a complicated intersection.
The unfettered gun culture intersects with the thoughts and prayers culture, which intersects with a corrupt corporate culture, which intersects with a large population of disaffected human beings, which intersects with a likeable-looking, handsome man with a grudge in his heart and a gun in his hand. A big collision is happening.
Hey Corporate America, you have arranged the blankies on this bed. The people are fed up with it, and now you are learning where that frustration leads to.
You want your corporation to be considered a person? Surprise: your CEO is the symbol of said personhood. You want the public to have freedom to access and use firearms? Surprise: the people are seeing violence as a solution. In fact, 41% of young voters find this murder acceptable. It's a hate that crosses party lines. You can read more about that from God.
This. This is what toxic capitalism has wrought. People cheer when a multimillionaire is shot dead, by virtue of the fact that he was made a multimillionaire by a corrupt system. His net worth symbolizes what is so drastically wrong with the corporate systems, especially the health care system, in America.
The health care system should not have profits. Period. When people suffer for the sake of higher profits, it is wrong. The reaction to the murder of the symbol of toxic capitalism says a lot.
CEOs are rightly scared.
I am not going to celebrate someone's death. Thompson had a family, now in deep despair. This is very sad commentary on our United States, and I understand the despair of thousands of other families going through sickness and death and bankruptcy because of our broken health care system.
Until corporations are no longer people, and huge contributions to lawmakers are a thing of the past, and the almighty dollar is considered secondary to the citizen, the corporations will continue their march over real people. Until health care is considered a basic human right and is accessible to all, then health care companies and insurers will continue to wring every last dollar they can, until their customer dies.
That is not going to happen anytime soon, and murdering won't make it happen sooner.
Until they let us eat more than cake, let them be afraid, I guess.
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| Lalo Alcarez |
Obeying in Advance
More media outlets are bending a knee.
ABC News
ABC News paid King Minus a stupid amount of money for a stupid reason.
During an interview, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Nancy Mace, herself a rape survivor, why she continued supporting Gropinführer after he was found, "liable for rape" in the E. Jean Carroll case. Because of New York's narrow definition of RAPE, the ruling, in fact, found that Trump was "liable for sexually abusing" Carroll. The judge clarified the ruling saying, (from the New York Times): "that because of New York’s narrow legal definition of RAPE, the jury’s verdict did not mean that Ms. Carroll had “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word 'RAPE.'"
So, The Rapey Tangerine sued over this semantic silhouette, and instead of continuing in the fight, which they should have done and probably would have won, ABC capitulated. They paid him $15 million and an extra million for legal fees.
Time Magazine
Time made him "Person of the Year." Disgusting, but let's just put him in the same column as these other persons of the year:
- 1939 and 1942's Joseph Stalin
- 1979's Ayatollah Khomeini
- 1971 and 1972's Richard Nixon
- 2007's Vladimir Putin
and
- 1938's Adolph Hitler
Time indicates that their Person of the Year is "[T]he person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse." The trouble is, Orange Julius Caesar will forget the "ill" and the "worse" and just twist this "honor" to suit his ego.
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| Ricardo Caté |
At least he gets to swap out the fake cover of Time that he made a few years back.
Los Angeles Times
LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong continues his shenanigans. In his quest for the paper to be "fair and balanced" (read: pandering and capitulating), he wants to bring on more conservative voices to the editorial page. So, uh, just do it?
In a weird move, he wants to implement an AI "bias meter" for the opinion pieces, to inform the reader of the political bent of each piece. How insulting to the reader. Really!? I'm disgusted.
Here is a piece from the Los Angeles Times about the Los Angeles Times. Very meta.
Harry Litman resigned from the paper. It's too bad that they are losing intelligent, important voices. That's the way the cookie crumbles when you sell out your newspaper to fascists.
The Des Moines Register may be next.
Red Don is suing the pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Register for the pre-election poll that showed that Harris was ahead in the race. The New York Times quotes Samantha Barbas:
“It’s clear that Trump is waging war on the press,” said Samantha Barbas, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law whose book, “Actual Malice,” is about the Supreme Court’s most famous defamation case. “Trump and his lawyers are going to use any legal claim that they think has a chance of sticking. They’ll cast a wide net to carry out this vendetta.”
Ms. Barbas added that prevailing in court may be beside the point. The lawsuits “are not so much geared toward winning as much as threatening,” she said.
I hope they fight it, and I hope that a judge throws it out on basis of merit.
MSNBC/Morning Joe
Dear Lordt. When Joe-Joe got push-back on his and Mika's visit to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the golden ass, he became agitated and oh-so-defensive. See his rant here:
MSNBC's and CNN's viewership has been tanking. Having their media person fawn over a dick-tator doesn't help much. You won't see me there.
Stock up on Toilet Paper
I've a feeling we are on the verge of a new pandemic.
The avian flu has jumped species (and Families) to infect cattle. Seriously, it's not long before Farmer John catches it and we're all masking up again.
Just in time for the Idiot-in-Chief and his Idiot Anti-Vax Posse to lead us into another tragedy.
And related:
Stock Up on Iron Lungs...
...Cuz RFK Jr and his vaccine-hating ways is coming to town. The idea that he could help ban the polio vaccine caused a kerfuffle this week, including Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, speaking up. Bobby Jr. has worked to smooth the feathers and stated that he supports the vaccine. I don't trust him, though. He's scary.
The Cabinet
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| Nick Anderson |
I was going to summarize the comings and goings of the Cabinet nominees, but it's all so tiring and daunting. So, let me just quickly give a little:
Matt Gaetz, now out of the House and no longer a contender for Attorney General, is making a living on Cameo. Weird.
Matt Gaetz on Cameo...so cringe
— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) November 24, 2024 at 9:09 AM
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Breaking News: the House Ethics Committee voted to release the report on Gaetz. Let's hope it leads to criminal charges for this scumbag.
Pete Hegseth is trying to navigate his way toward a confirmation for secretary of defense. He has been talking to all kinds of Senators to downplay the reports of his (alleged) alcoholic bad behavior and (alleged) sexual abuse allegations.
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| Jack Ohman |
And an email from his mommy calling out his misogyny:
Son,I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.I am not a saint, far from it.. so don’t throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.Sam is a good mother and a good person (under the circumstances that you created) and I know deep down you know that. For you to try to label her as “unstable” for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you? She did not ask for or deserve any of what has come to her by your hand. Neither did Meredith.I know you think this is one big competition and that we have taken her side… bunk… we are on the side of good and that is not you. (Go ahead and call me self-righteous, I dont’ care)Don’t you dare run to her and cry foul that we shared with us… that’s what babies do. It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against womenWe still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character. I don’t want to write emails like this and never thought I would. If it damages our relationship further, then so be it, but at least I have said my piece. [Redacted]And yes, we are praying for you (and you don’t deserve to know how we are praying, so skip the snarky reply)I don’t want an answer to this… I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself…Mom
Hegseth is disgusting, just what MAGA loves. I bet he will eek out his confirmation.
Jared Isaacman, another oligarch, has been tapped to head NASA. This joker's qualifications? He's a billionaire credit card processing guy who bought a ride on Musk's spaceship and performed a spacewalk.
Hell yeah, he's qualified to lead NASA!
Kash Patel, immigrant from the Planet Disgustoid V, has been nominated to lead the FBI wreak havoc and destruction on his boss's political "enemies."
It's been distressing that Christopher Wray, appointed to a 10-year term under the Mango Mussolini, decided to resign rather than forcing Drumpf to fire him. But it may have been a bit of a chess move.
By resigning rather than being fired, Wray put up a bit of a legal hurdle for Patel to take over immediately. According to the Vacancies Reform Act, the seat of a resigned director can only be filled by someone who has already been confirmed or by someone who has served in a senior capacity, such as the deputy director. Patel will have to wait to be confirmed and cannot simply be installed, which would've been the case had Wray been fired.
The White Billionaire Brigade:
I'll let Randy Rainbow sing you more:
Oligarchs gonna Olig
- This almost flew under the radar. "Department of Government Efficiency" oligarch Vivek Ramaswamy is working to revoke loans made to Rivian, a Tesla rival.
- The Muskrat and Vivek are gunning for your social security in their quest to trim $30 trillion. And they👏 don't👏care👏 (Please remember these two clowns were not elected nor will they be confirmed by the Senate to real cabinet positions. They were installed to do the oligarch thang. That's all.)
- King Ketchup's aide Boris Epshteyn has apparently been asking for money from potential appointees to "promote" their candidacy. Hold up, now! Only one of us can grift this whole presidency thing!
- They aren't even trying to hide it. Applicants for federal jobs must pass a loyalty test.
- This:
*Shrug* We'll just change the Constitution
Babyhands wants to do away with rights to citizenship by birthright. The only problem is, birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment.
It's probably Stephen Miller who has been whispering in his ear, telling him how the 14th Amendment arose from wanting formerly enslaved people to be citizens. This administration wants to kick out any and all black and brown people.
If he were to succeed in eliminating birthright citizenship, four of his own children from two of his non-citizen wives would be deported. Hmmmm... yanno, I wouldn't be mad.
Pound sand, Goofus.
Speaking of deportations, look at this mushy-mouthed pond scum Stephen Miller frothing at his ugly, racist mouth:
"Everything in the world is gonna change on January 20" -- Tim Miller on his pod today flagged this clip of Stephen Miller outlining Trump's hardline immigration policies, including using the military for deportations. It's a sobering watch.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) December 10, 2024 at 4:09 PM
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If they are successful in their "mass deportations," the U.S. will be in a world of hurt. Look what happened to this tech company back in 2021. When all the undocumented workers were fired, they were unable to find replacements, and it cost the business $50 million. Read more in the New York Times.
This Bozo
You know what burns my butt? This bozo, who worked for years to obstruct and deny the rule of law in these United States, not the least of his odious actions was to block a legitimate Supreme Court nominee in Obama's last year, is now calling this a "very, very dangerous world."
Mr. McConnell, you were the one holding the mace and chain all those years, you twit.
The Economy
Is growing by leaps and bounds. Up, up, up. It's all looking good; jobs, wages, inflation, stock market, interest rates. Biden oversaw the regaining of the strongest economy in the world, and the Grifting Goldfish will take credit for it.
Opposite Day
- This weird post went up on T. Social:
Ummmmm......... huh??
- This lie. No, we are not "energy independent," and the closest we've come has been under Democratic presidents.
- He's walking back his promise to lower prices. In his interview with Time Magazine, he was posed the question, "If the prices of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure?"
Answer: "I don't think so. Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will."
Tangential note: You can see him here on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he practices the word "groceries" (good job, pal!). I started the video at the interesting word grocery part. Watch the entire shitshow of an interview at your own peril.
All of these are just more reminders that we are entering into 1,460 more opposite days here in the Upside Down.
The Pardoners
Joe Biden's Pardons
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter, like any father would.
I've equivocated on how I feel about that pardon. I think pardons are not a great power for the President to have in the first place. Secondly, Biden said over and over that he wouldn't pardon Hunter. Without a pardon, though, Hunter would be in the crosshairs for years to come. TЯUMP has vowed retribution against his enemies, and Hunter was one.
Biden is considering other presumptive pardons for 45/47's "political enemies," though some are against the idea, like newly-elected Senator from California, Adam Schiff. He thinks it is a dangerous precedent.
Yeah, well, precedent doesn't mean much to the Tangerine Traitor.
Biden has become a pardoning machine. He has set about issuing commutations and pardons here in the weeks before his term ends. He issued a record-breaking 1500 commutations and 39 pardons in one day, and continues his wand-waving as the days go by.
I'm not a fan of this stuff. One man's opinion of who should stay and who should go? It goes against our (admittedly flawed) justice system.
We're in unprecedented times, though. So, go on, Joe, while you have this weird power, crank up that pardon machine and protect those who they'll be coming after. Start with Jack Smith, national treasure, and media figures.
There are plenty of injustices. Maybe in the future we should work with Congress to do more to reform the criminal court system and work to fund organizations that set to right wrongs, like the Innocence Project. ....that's a whole 'nother blog post.
And don't elect vindictive fascists.
Putin's Girlfriend's Pardons
Precedence be damned. He already abused the pardon power by pardoning many of his bad-acting cronies last time around, people like Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Joe Arpaio, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn, among other scuzzbags.
He pardoned his daughter's father-in-law, Charles Kushner, and now has appointed him to be Ambassador to France! He has also vowed to pardon all the January 6 criminals. He will corrupt whatever power is given to him, or for that matter, whatever power he grabs.
Good Million- and Billionaires
- Taylor Swift, newly minted billionaire, just finished her Eras Tour and paid her performers and crew $197 million in bonuses. Yay yay, Tay-Tay!
- Author James Patterson sent $500 gifts to staff members at over 500 bookstores and 250 librarians across the country. (side note: please go buy a book at an independent bookstore this holiday season. And next month, too!)
Good Laws n Stuff
- I recently learned about the Posse Comitatus Act. The president may *not* use the military to police citizens. Let's not let anyone forget about this.
- Judge Merchan, who oversaw the hush-money fraud case in New York, has stated that he is not throwing out 45/47's conviction. He will remain a felon until the day he dies. And I hope on January 21, 2029 he walks out of the White House and straight into the Penitentiary.
- The Traitor Tot is still facing several civil lawsuits. Though it is DOJ policy not to pursue criminal charges against a sitting president, SCOTUS ruled during the Clinton administration that a president is not immune from civil proceedings. His legal troubles ain't going away so easy. Yay!
Grifting Edition
It hasn't stopped, and it won't stop. Don't think that his scams will be stopped by the Hatch Act once he takes the oath of office.Here are a few of the latest grifts:
- Two-dollar bill at just a modest 1000% markup. Yes, this is real, and I am seeing them for $29.99 too.
*Shipping and delivery dates are estimates only and cannot be guaranteed. The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product. There are no refunds. All sales are final.
What is really gross is that he used Jill Biden in his advertising. He happened to be seated near her during ceremonies for Notre Dame Cathedral's reopening. He grabbed this picture and came up with the oh-so-clever caption, "A fragrance your enemies can't resist!"
This is the photo. I can't imagine how Dr. Biden feels about this.
Your regular reminder
Never forget what happened on January 6, 2021.
Memes & 'Toons
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| Ann Telnaes |
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| Steve Breen |
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| Jack Ohman |
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| Chris Britt |
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| Uhhhh... aren't these all the same guy? |
Compare to Biden's cabinet:
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| Matt Davies |
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| Dave Whamond |
"What's wrong with this guy?"
A Couple Moments of Coping.
1. Listen to Andy Borowitz's take on how to cope. Here's his written summation:
We’re living in parlous times, as they say.During the election, the media just covered the horserace. They weren’t really covering any of the issues. They were covering the polls. They were saying, how does Nate Cohn differ from Nate Silver? Where’s Ann Selzer in this?So they weren’t really focusing on what the candidates were going to do if elected. And as a result, we’re now at a point where we have this guy who is the president-elect, and the corporate media are still not giving us information that is valuable.They’ve now sort of gone Jekyll-and-Hyde on us. A few weeks ago, Donald Trump was a senile guy who was bobbing to the music. Now he’s this master political genius along the lines of Talleyrand and Metternich.Now, look, I think Trump is going to be a terrible president because he was terrible the first time. So I’m not denying or arguing with that. But what I am arguing with is this new characterization of him as competent. Because that is a media invention that I just find absolutely baffling—because there’s no proof of it anywhere. And day after day we have evidence that he is actually incompetent. And it may be our saving grace now.I mean, I think a lot of people are going to suffer and there’s going to be a lot of cruelty in this administration, as there was the first time around. But let’s get off this idea that he’s some kind of political genius.This election was incredibly, historically close. It wasn’t a “mandate”—that’s what Trump called it. And the corporate media have parroted that and only recently corrected themselves. Peter Baker of the Times did a good piece about how close the election was a couple of days ago—I would say belatedly. Because The Nation, a non-corporate outlet, had already done a piece about it about a week earlier.Trump, as it currently stands, did not win a majority of the popular vote. He won a plurality—less that 50 percent. His margin in the swing states was small. If 780,000 votes had gone in the other direction, Kamala Harris would have won all seven swing states and would be president.I bring this up because I want to dispel the idea that we now have this all-powerful dictator who we must obey, the way Joe and Mika are doing. There was no mandate. He was duly and fairly elected—I’m not an election denier. I’m not the QAnon Shaman here. But the Democrats have to get out of this circular firing squad they’ve been in. Because they just lost a very close election.What we’ve seen is there’s been this global shift to the right. With a few exceptions—for example, the Labour Party won in the UK. But there’s been this global shift. Post-COVID, a lot of backlash against inflation, which was a natural outgrowth of COVID. And Kamala Harris was the vice president to an extremely unpopular president.And yet there are these think pieces, like one by Nate Cohn in the Times today, about how the Democrats did so poorly. But he has one line in there where he’s like, “But because it was a very close election, maybe everything else I’m saying is not important.” So I can see why people are tuning out the corporate media. Because they have lost the plot.And I think it’s why readers are drawn to people like Heather Cox Richardson, who’s actually putting things into some historical perspective. People want to zoom out a little bit right now and take a deep breath and say, yeah, things are bad. They’ve been bad before. Are they historically bad now? We don’t know yet. Because the history hasn’t happened yet.But everyone is so intent on the hot takes that they’re spewing. They could be right, or they could be wrong—but most of the time, predictions are wrong. We humans are very bad at predicting things. And I totally understand why Americans are tuning out the hot takes. Nothing is obtained from watching talking heads. MSNBC is just Fox for vegans.I do hear from a lot of people who are anxious because they feel a loss of control. Now, I hate to get all New Age-y here, but I did live in California for fifteen years, so let me say this—and I’m totally serious. I’m a big believer in the Serenity Prayer. Look at the things that you can control and that you can’t control, and try to tell the difference. I’m not religious, but I think there’s tremendous value in this prayer.In fact, we don’t have any control over global things—and we never have. So we’ve got to kind of put them off to one side, and focus on the things we can control. Or as Susie Essman said on my podcast last week, focus on the micro, because the macro is fucked.This is probably the first time Susie Essman and the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) have been mentioned in the same sentence, but he introduced The Serenity Prayer in a sermon he delivered in 1943. Here it is:God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.As I said, I’m not religious. But the Serenity Prayer is helpful even if you leave out the word God. And if it turns out there is a God, I hope She won’t be offended.
2. In answer to a reader's question, WaPo's Jennifer Rubin wrote:
A reader asks: I have turned away from the news because I cannot bear what appears to be coming next. I am deeply afraid for the journalists and the scientists, the lawyers and the leaders, the scholars and the librarians, the noncitizens and the women who need health care, and the 48 percent who voted for Harris. Give me a real reason to hope and not give up — beyond my own self-respect.Answer: It is a common sentiment these days, but giving way to hopelessness ensures the triumph of cruelty and authoritarianism. We owe it to our more vulnerable fellow Americans to continue to fight for our democracy. Every day, civil servants trying to hold the line, judges committing to the rule of law and activists struggling on behalf of immigrants and other at-risk people will get up, do their work, and try to move the needle in the direction of justice, fairness and freedom. The least the rest of us can do is not surrender. No single person can fix everything, but there is something everyone can do, even if it is just buying one subscription to a quality local newspaper, writing one letter to a lawmaker, attending a school board meeting, volunteering in your community, or supporting a decent person’s candidacy for local, state or federal office.
3. Breathe.
The Caveman's Lament by Brian Bilston
A Moment of Action
Use 5 Calls or Resistbot to urge your senators to strengthen protections for the press by passing the Protect Reporters From Exploitative State Spying Act, or the PRESS Act, S. 2074.******RESIST, REBEL, and ACT!******
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| Mike Luckovich |
Hi, fellow blogger here and fellow resister. I've also got a blog, I mostly have written poetry and thoughts about my life there. This is excellent!
ReplyDelete
DeleteThank you for your kind words! Keep up the writing and the resistance! May I ask how you found my post? Happy Holidays!