The rebuilding at home will be, by comparison with the destruction of trust, be quick and easy.
I wish I shared your optimism here, but unfortunately I do not.
The problem I see is that all the people who are more than fine with what's going on now are still gonna be here. They might not be an absolute majority, but there are a lot of them, and the non-democratic aspects of our polity - the Senate, the Electoral College - give them political clout beyond what their numbers would merit.
And a lot of the people who Trump and the conservative movement in general have brought into government are still gonna be there. Especially in the judiciary, not to exclude the SCOTUS. Roberts, Alito, Thomas are all 70 or older, but Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney Barrett all have decades of time ahead of them.
To add to that, I think the Trump years are gonna make the professional civil service - the people who actually do the governmenty stuff - a much less attractive option for people who might otherwise be interested in basic public service.
If every four years you're gonna have to worry about having to explain to some 20-something techbro asshole why what you do - monitoring economic and labor data, tracking the weather, medical research, etc. - is important enough to justify your continued employment is gonna make a lot of people look elsewhere.
Some folks who have been RIF'd would probably go back, a lot will not. And I can't blame them.
2025-10-27 18:09:01
"it’s something I can do without having to rely on a functioning government to sustain it"
this ^^^
I'm sure it's obvious from my comments here over the years that I'm fine with an active government.
But the government we have right now is profoundly toxic.
We need to resist all of that wherever we can, to the degree that we can, with whatever resources we can bring to that effort. But turning all of that around, for whatever meaning of "turn that around" manifests itself, will take time. And a lot of government-y stuff is going to be broken, and some it will stay broken indefinitely, perhaps forever.
So it's important to find other avenues for, as the cliche has it, making the world a better place. Which mostly amounts to helping each other and not shitting on the given world we all live in. Or, you know, trying our best to do those things.
The federal government we have right now is effectively a cabal of greedy vindictive malicious wanna-be tyrants. Most of them are deeply incompetent, and the ones that aren't we probably wish were.
Find ways to work around them. Get in their way if you can, to whatever degree of risk you can tolerate. Which might be none, which is OK. But find ways to do constructive things in spite of them.
That's how we get through.
2025-10-27 14:25:09
For the last week or two I've been dealing with water infiltration and resulting black mold in the basement. Which has been, to a surprising and welcome degree, a great way to keep from feeling overwhelmed by all of the Trumpian BS.
It's a tractable problem, and I can fix it. Tear out bad sheetrock and insulation, bag it up and throw it out. Treat the remaining nasty spots. Hang new insulation and sheetrock. Tape prep and paint.
All done! All better! It's actually been kind of therapeutic.
Household chores, same. Pruning, fall cleanup. I've been putting peanuts out for the crows, who have figured out my schedule and arrive more or less on time each morning in a kind of raucous crowd. Gonna put the feeders up for the songbirds this weekend.
Listen to music, play music. Stay in touch with friends. Be mindful of my own reactions to events, emotionally physically and spiritually, and step away when it begins to overwhelm.
It will, for better or worse, still be there when you feel up to dealing with it.
I was volunteering at a local food bank, but stopped back in June when I got COVID. Now I just send them money, but it's actually much more satisfying to contribute in person. So I may go back to that once I finish getting the basement cleaned up.
There is a limit to what any one of us can absorb, and to what any one of us can do about it all. Recognize and respect your own limits. That doesn't mean put your head in the sand and pretend nothing bad is happening, it just means don't let it run you over.
You're doing all good things, wonkie. It's an inspiration to me, personally. Carry on, and take care of yourself.
The rebuilding at home will be, by comparison with the destruction of trust, be quick and easy.
I wish I shared your optimism here, but unfortunately I do not.
The problem I see is that all the people who are more than fine with what's going on now are still gonna be here. They might not be an absolute majority, but there are a lot of them, and the non-democratic aspects of our polity - the Senate, the Electoral College - give them political clout beyond what their numbers would merit.
And a lot of the people who Trump and the conservative movement in general have brought into government are still gonna be there. Especially in the judiciary, not to exclude the SCOTUS. Roberts, Alito, Thomas are all 70 or older, but Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney Barrett all have decades of time ahead of them.
To add to that, I think the Trump years are gonna make the professional civil service - the people who actually do the governmenty stuff - a much less attractive option for people who might otherwise be interested in basic public service.
If every four years you're gonna have to worry about having to explain to some 20-something techbro asshole why what you do - monitoring economic and labor data, tracking the weather, medical research, etc. - is important enough to justify your continued employment is gonna make a lot of people look elsewhere.
Some folks who have been RIF'd would probably go back, a lot will not. And I can't blame them.
"it’s something I can do without having to rely on a functioning government to sustain it"
this ^^^
I'm sure it's obvious from my comments here over the years that I'm fine with an active government.
But the government we have right now is profoundly toxic.
We need to resist all of that wherever we can, to the degree that we can, with whatever resources we can bring to that effort. But turning all of that around, for whatever meaning of "turn that around" manifests itself, will take time. And a lot of government-y stuff is going to be broken, and some it will stay broken indefinitely, perhaps forever.
So it's important to find other avenues for, as the cliche has it, making the world a better place. Which mostly amounts to helping each other and not shitting on the given world we all live in. Or, you know, trying our best to do those things.
The federal government we have right now is effectively a cabal of greedy vindictive malicious wanna-be tyrants. Most of them are deeply incompetent, and the ones that aren't we probably wish were.
Find ways to work around them. Get in their way if you can, to whatever degree of risk you can tolerate. Which might be none, which is OK. But find ways to do constructive things in spite of them.
That's how we get through.
For the last week or two I've been dealing with water infiltration and resulting black mold in the basement. Which has been, to a surprising and welcome degree, a great way to keep from feeling overwhelmed by all of the Trumpian BS.
It's a tractable problem, and I can fix it. Tear out bad sheetrock and insulation, bag it up and throw it out. Treat the remaining nasty spots. Hang new insulation and sheetrock. Tape prep and paint.
All done! All better! It's actually been kind of therapeutic.
Household chores, same. Pruning, fall cleanup. I've been putting peanuts out for the crows, who have figured out my schedule and arrive more or less on time each morning in a kind of raucous crowd. Gonna put the feeders up for the songbirds this weekend.
Listen to music, play music. Stay in touch with friends. Be mindful of my own reactions to events, emotionally physically and spiritually, and step away when it begins to overwhelm.
It will, for better or worse, still be there when you feel up to dealing with it.
I was volunteering at a local food bank, but stopped back in June when I got COVID. Now I just send them money, but it's actually much more satisfying to contribute in person. So I may go back to that once I finish getting the basement cleaned up.
There is a limit to what any one of us can absorb, and to what any one of us can do about it all. Recognize and respect your own limits. That doesn't mean put your head in the sand and pretend nothing bad is happening, it just means don't let it run you over.
You're doing all good things, wonkie. It's an inspiration to me, personally. Carry on, and take care of yourself.