Schreiber

The Decembrists' "This Is Why We Fight" on repeat.
(Even though I don't know how I'm supposed to fight. Send articles by The Rude Pundit to my congressional delegation? Protest outside a state capitol full of people who mostly agree with me?)

Accidentally tried to use spot remover as shaving cream this morning. Argh.

(It's not nearly as bad as it sounds: this kind of spot remover is basically glorified soap, and so's shaving cream. So no side effects as YET, aside from smelling like spot remover.)

The real problem of the week is that last Friday Trump put a freeze on all USAID programs. ( Read more... )

New dream: Presidential debate, moderated by the Fallacy Football referee.

(Wow, I'm posting a lot today)
Sor. just texted me to make sure I had voted/a plan for voting, which was super sweet of them!

So before anyone else asks, let me reassure you that:
... Yes, I voted already: Belmont has a drop box at the town hall, and the roommies put our ballots in a few weeks ago.
... No, fortunately/unfortunately, I am not working the polls today. Somerville never got back to me after I sent in my application. I heard later (from other bellringers who'd had the same idea) that apparently everyone heard that places were potentially going to be short of poll workers this year and deluged the municipal offices in question with applications.
... Yes, I care deeply about this election (in case you couldn't tell!), but I am NOT going to be staying up late watching the results. In fact, I am probably going to spend my time after dinner putting in a couple of extra hours "at the office". This is because I do not expect to have any sort of meaningful election results until Wednesday at the earliest.
If I am *wrong* about this, please DO text me, at whatever hour of the night, if I need to get up and celebrate/make plans to be at a protest all day/buy a gun. Or if you urgently need emotional support. But otherwise, I am going to try to avoid looking at election-related stuff or social media today, and to get to sleep at a normal hour. If that requires prayer and/or chugging a beer at some odd hour of the night, then so be it.

Apparently the Man in the White House is making an important announcement at 3?

(This may be the only case where you HOPE that an announcement is about declaring a nationwide state of emergency, since the alternative is something on the lines of "I did something godawful to try to distract attention.")

I have just realized what Trump's real motto is.

"The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn't know what to do with it:
If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'til I get through with it!"

(Why yes, I just heard that Grabbers Of Pussies were making a last-ditch effort to repeal the ACA: why do you ask?)

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Not that I would actually VOTE for it, but I'd like to create a Christian Democratic Party for the US.

Basic tenets would include:

1) Restrictions on abortion
2) A moderately green environmental policy (particularly with regard to restrictions on emissions, more careful policing of CAFOs, etc.)
3) A moderately "hawkish" foreign policy: it would seek to "Stay the Course" in Iraq, but attempt to negotiate with Iran, and perhaps modify our policy toward Israel.
4) In favor of retaining or extending anti-poverty programs.
5) In favor of creating some form of national health-care system.
6) Opposition to tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals.
7) Opposition to gay marriage.
There would probably be a few more...

I'd also like to see a New American Party, a more viable Libertarian party, a "Meadow Party" (moderate Libertarianism, combined with fairly stiff environmental legislation) and the split-up of the Democrats into Democratic Labor and Progressive-Green caucuses.

[I'm a Democrat, myself, but the polarization between two parties (of whom one never has a well-defined platform, and neither have any new ideas) is getting absurd. A multi-party system would (hopefully) force parties both to define what they actually stand for AND to work together.]

We spent yesterday holding signs for Murphy in the 5th district. So while we didn't do THAT much to put him in Congress (I think two people may have asked us about him all day--everyone was sick of the campaign, and we spent much of our time chatting with sign-holders for Lieberman and Lamont), we can say that we were there.