My main advice? Don’t read the polls.
I know some of you are canvassing, making calls, posting excellent content, writing postcards. If you are, keep at it. Today, I’m sending 10 more postcards, this time to New York trying to flip back one of those five seats that went red last time.
Try not to think too much about how even if Trump loses we have a major problem with the oligarchs in this country.
(And also with the brain-washed. The death of facts. The disinterest in shared reality. No small parenthetical, this).
Peter Thiel, have you heard? He thinks the non-innovators in our country ought to be boiled into goo to fuel the lives of the innovators. He was joking, I guess. Jeff Bezos can date a giant-breasted younger woman, but has no balls, apparently. And “jumping dipshit” while a perfect description of Musk (courtesy of Walz), doesn’t even begin to describe the danger of THAT immigrant, whose acts at this point can only be described as treason. Security clearance, anyone?
Of course in the inexplicable way of looping media, we knew AGES ago that Musk cut out Starlink communications to Ukraine at a critical moment early in the war. And Kelly’s “revelation”? The only really new thing is that he was willing to say what he knew about trump out loud, on tape. Jeezus. Bring me back to a world where October surprises are even possible.
Although it’s almost unavoidable, try not to focus too much on the moral collapse of our media. Trust your gut. Trust your God, if you have one. Watch an Obama speech. Read the James Carville opinion piece that I’m gifting you: Three Reasons I’m Certain Kamala Harris Will Win.
Take a walk. Make an apple crisp. Rake leaves. Sign up for Jude’s new Substack. Go to the gym. Knit. Ignore the polls. Read Robert Hubbell. Get a manicure if that’s your thing. Call your mother if she’s alive. Brush the dog. Clean out a drawer. Leave me a review on Amazon. Really. Go leave me a review on Amazon. Go read about Liz’s peace pins. Maybe make one of your own. Or go read what I wrote after receiving one in the mail, years back. Get your haircut. Learn how to cook a perfect omelette. Or just go out to breakfast.
Speaking of that fuckwad Jeff Bezos, I hate that Amazon book reviews matter, but they matter — algorithms, puke. I’m not above begging here. If you’ve already left one, thank you! They don’t have to be brilliant or long. They count the number of reviews and not really their content beyond the number of stars. But of course I love praise — who doesn’t?
And now off for my morning coffee. Getting out of bed at 8:30, staying up ‘til after 11, still somewhat on California time.
Remember Joyce Vance’s line: we’re in this together.
P.S. After lamenting the lack of making in this house, yesterday I finished stitching a heart pillow begun ages ago and filled it with balsam. And cut and paste a little. Below are a few of those collages.
BTW, the maga hat wearer is Andrew Anglin, founder of the Neo-Nazi website “stormtroopers.”
Resurrecting his ugly mug just in time for trump’s Madison Square Garden Nazi rally!
These collages are great. They express beautifully how sickening this all has been feeling through my brain and body. I have to say that hub and I watched Harris w/Beyonce last night. We were exhausted by 9:30 pm, and hub couldn’t figure out how to stream it. The YouTube on the phone was unbearable. We fought over who knew the smart-TV best, even me grabbing the remote and him not letting go! and neither of us found it funny (usually we would). I finally I walked out, calling him a dick. He did apologized, but much too long after the incident IMHO. It was OK, we resurfaced as adults, though still not laughing. By 10PM we were ready to give up – but first (I said), let’s check on Lawrence O’Donnell. Guess what? He had it on and there they finally were, without commenting and without commercials. Finally! Thanks to Lawrence whom we never watch, and: Beyonce, for speaking truth from her astounding platform; thank you Kamala, thank you Dee for your words and images, and thank you Liz for the peace pin DIY link. Quaker Makers will be on the make 🙂
Now, I will be making something, some sort of progress on some aspect of something.
Funny story. Married life! Thank you for sharing. I was watching it live on pbs streaming until O’Donnell came on (he’s my favorite MSNBC anchor these days, BTW. Well worth recording and watching with lunch!) Beyonce spoke with poetry and passion and as a Texan, which was all very powerful. I was sorely disappointed that she didn’t sing at least a few bars of Freedom, however. I mean, seriously? We didnt watch the Harris portion.
Long comment here but I wanted to share what I have been doing in these limbo times, when I’m not out and about wearing my Harris t-shirt, pin and carrying my Harris for President tote bag:
By all means, we should do something silly but in keeping with the season. Every year my daughter Erika sends a Halloween playlist, spooky movies, bits of folklore, seasonal rituals, etc.. that she and my daughter Shelley and I watch all through October. I watch at the end of the day, a decompression ritual that is a yearly thing with us, certainly, most especially needed this year!
As for making; well no, nor dyeing cloth, my main creative pursuit, but earlier in the week, lamenting that I don’t have a lot of time to forage up in the hills for dye materials, I looked at the pile of leaves that had danced under my patio table, scooped up a bunch, laid them out on a recycled piece of white cotton, sprinkled some loose tea leaves, bundles them up and placed them in a glass jar to wait the alchemy of the sun. Took the bundle out this morning and it is filled with amber colors and some dark blotches,, kind of “witchy” looking. I hung it on a hanger and placed it on the black iron trellis to dry. The photo I took of it is so moody, the cloth is thin and the black spiked trellis looks haunting against the light cloth and so fits the days.
Besides reading your amazing tour de force book and writing a review last month, I have just finished reading a critically acclaimed Irish novel, well over 600 pages, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, that brought me to my knees,. I am overwhelmed, numb but also angry at the ambiguous and totally frightening, possible ending. This book will haunt me for days because you cannot help but be drawn into the lives of each character, wondering about these characters, especially Dickie.
For the first time ever, I was not able to read it in one fell swoop as I do with all of the books I read. I had to put it down, once it started to get dark, set it aside and read another book, before I could continue. Murray’s characters are alive, warts and all. and his use of descriptive language makes them overwhelming plausible. Murray’s book invites you in, leading you further and further into this tragic comedy of life and then slams the door shut. His ability to inhabit his characters, a father, mother, teenage daughter, young son, etc. is astonishing.
I am reminded of the words that the British/Irish actor Daniel Day Lewis said upon receiving his first Oscar for My Left Foot. He said or words to the effect that he had been given the makings for one hell of a weekend in Dublin. Reading this book feels like I’ve been given an honest but surreal portrait of life in Dublin and it has been a hell or a ride !
Thanks for this comment Marti. You are a role model!
Funny, I started Bee Sting and put it down too. Now you make me want to go back to it.
Fingers crossed, deep breaths and weeding in the garden today.
Tomorrow, we’ll carve Jack-o-lanterns with the kids (ages 29 & 31)
Did I mention DEEP BREATHS ?! ( but not hyper-ventilating….🤪)
Thank you for your words of courage, Dee. They help. And that’s something we can all do: lift a burden, offer encouragement, don’t stop caring about and for one another. No one can take that away from us unless we just give up. Never give up.
Not giving up. Nope.
Love your distractions list. We have to do what we have to do…
The images troubling and powerful, the phrase ‘Neo-Nazi’ terrifying.
Hanging in.
we follow the news over here (course we do) but limit the amount as much as possible in order to stay sane
almost everyone with a drop of intelligence knows t. to be the crazy guy he is, same goes for e.m. and they say so out loud, all over the/our media
however this does not mean there are no morons over here too, rooting for team t./e.m.
what has the world come to
fortunately lots of distractions: Snoop, walnuts, stewing fruit, walks, painting, wine, friends & family, cups of tea
am now going to check out the Harris link!
now that I’ve read James Carville’s article I am hopeful