Category: AFK

I don't like it.

I don't like doing it.

I don't enjoy myself in the process, I don't like knowing that people I know are blocking me, or rolling their eyes, or just (even if they agree) settling me into that category of "those people who are always posting political stuff."

I don't like cold-calling volunteers at district congressional offices.

I don't like sending blankets and safety gear to the water protectors in North Dakota WITHOUT knowing if it'll do any real good, or be enough – I want to help, you know, but I don't want to waste money, either; I want to know it'll help, and I just… don't. It stresses me out.

I don't like following every breaking story on the Washington Post, or scouring the four-page-long posts on 'what you need to do as an ally' from the LGBTQ people I know, just in case there's something I should be doing that I didn't know about.

And I don't like that I almost never LET myself just repost something someone else said – that I have to rewrite everything myself, so at least it's not just a spammy re-post – it's a spammy original post.

So… I don't like it. Don't imagine I do.

I don't like paying my mortgage, either. I do that.

I don't like getting up at 6am to get my kids breakfast. I do that.

I don't like doing laundry, or doing dishes, or a hundred other thing that I do anyway.

I do them, because I signed up for them.

I wanted the house.
I am a dad.
This is what's required.

And all this other stuff? The politics? The calling? The researching? The reading?

I asked for it.

Because I'm a dad, or a husband, or an uncle, or just a friend, and I can't see these people in my life in pain, or in danger, or in fear. I won't.

I don't enjoy any of it – if nothing else, I don't like knowing even more about politicians I didn't like much in the first place. I have a hard time understanding folks that do genuinely enjoy breathing this stuff, day after day. Maybe they don't exist – maybe it's all people like me, doing it for a reason. Maybe. Nice to think so.

So: sorry if it's tiresome to see on your newsfeed. Sorry if it's annoying or just boring. I understand, but please don't imagine I'm like some kid at a birthday party, throwing cake frosting around and having a grand old time. That's not what this is.

But I'm not going to stop, either.

So I’m posting a lot of stuff on politics.

And I get emails about the words I choose to use.

As if I did so by accident, or casually.

(So, you know, clearly not emails from people who know me.)

Anyway, I wanted to speak to that topic.

There’s a desire for temperance. I get it.

Don’t escalate a situation. Don’t meet charged language with more charged language.

But here’s the thing.

If I see racism, or fascism (nascent or not, doesn’t matter), or bigotry, I prepare for that thing I see.

Hitler went from “the guy that won the election” to “no one in this country can stop my control” within forty days of taking power.

Because people went along until it was too late.

You want to mutter about Godwin’s Law? This isn’t applicable.

I’m not calling someone Hitler because they wrote my HOA about leash laws.

I’m saying we have fascists and neo-nazis actively supporting our president-elect.

This was Washington D.C., two days ago:

[Spencer] railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”

As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, “Heil the people! Heil victory,” the room shouted it back.

Please, tell me how I’m fear-mongering or worrying about things that could never happen in America.

Please, tell me how I’m applying harsh labels too quickly.

Godwin’s Law isn’t relevant if you are talking about Nazis, you know? Fun fact.

There is a train coming. A full-on, diesel-powered machine, and it is gaining speed.

If we act like it’s going to brake at the last minute, or as if it isn’t a “train”, not really, not in America, surely…

We are going to get run, the fuck, over.

If hindsight proves I overreacted? I will dance a jig.

Until then?

No cutesy nicknames from 4chan.

These are Fascists. Racists. Bigots. Nazis.

But it's not about the time Pence went to see Hamilton.

(Even Pence said that was no big deal. His comments on the event were far closer to a statesman's than Trump managed, (he said, damning with faint praise).)

But no. The thing I want to focus on is the Hamilton show in Chicago, a few days later, and an event probably… I'm going to say "incited" by the Pence story.

A Chicago man was arrested Saturday after what several audience members said was a disruptive incident at the PrivateBank Theatre.

Accounts say the audience member began loudly ranting after actors playing Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette sang “Immigrants — we get the job done!” — a lyric that always draws cheers.

“He started raising his voice and throwing up middle fingers at anyone who looked at him."

Kate Hoyt: “He was saying things like, ‘We won. Trump is president. Get over it.’ At some point Ken leaned into the aisle to try and tell him to leave and the guy then put up both his fists and said ‘Let’s go, Democrats. I’ll kill you all.’ ”

So here's a few interesting bits.

The Hamilton cast in NYC didn't boo Pence. That was the audience.

The Hamilton cast read a pre-written speech that asked the VP to represent all of a diverse and vibrant America… and thanked him for coming and sharing in the show. That's it.

And people are mad.

This guy in Chicago is mad. And drunk, also, but mostly mad.

But… when does he get mad?

The immigrants line.

I look at this – all this, all the reactions and yelling, and you know what I see?

I see a whole lot of people who thought – really, truly believed – after Trump won, all the minorities and immigrants and gays and marginalized not-us people would, finally, after eight years, sit back down and shut up.

And then this calm, well-spoken brown man stands up on a stage and has the temerity to address an older white man as an equal.

So that sitting down? That shutting up? It's not happening.

That's what they're mad about.

Trump won (the electoral college), but no fairy dust came to make it 1950 again.

All these other people keep… talking like they have some right to.

I mean, I could be wrong. Sure.

Sure.

——-

I stand by what I said, every bit of it
You stand only for yourself
It’s what you do
I can’t apologize because it’s true.

— "Your Obedient Servant", Hamilton

Finally replaced my (badly beat up and aging) slow cooker with an Instant Pot pressure cooker (that also does slow-cooker duty, as needed).

Broke it in this weekend to make some steel-cut irish oatmeal for brunch, then some chopped up some garlic and celery and tossed it into the pot with some frozen chicken (covered in 2:1 water and white wine) for supper. Took probably 45 minutes to cook, which I consider pretty good for rock-solid frozen chicken, and came out yummy. I'm sold.

Ditch your slow cooker for a pressure cooker
On Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt tests out different recipes using slow cookers, Dutch ovens, and pressure cookers and comes to th

Here’s the thing: the Hamilton/Pence drama is just that: drama.

Distraction.

It distracts from Trump’s $25million settlement with 6000 defrauded Americans.

It distracts from the Washington Post “stay to play” story about Trump coaxing foreign diplomats to stay at his D.C. hotel.

It distracts from his hiring Jeff Sessions as Attorney General – a Senator who was denied a federal judge appointment by a REPUBLICAN Senate, during the REAGAN era, for being racist.

It distracts from his hiring Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist – a white nationalist who wants to "tear America down" and who compares HIMSELF to Darth Vader and Satan.

It distracts from his hiring Mike Flynn as Security Adviser – a guy who was forced out of the Defense Intelligence Agency for being mentally unstable, and is an Islamaphobe whose own fears will make it nearly impossible for him to rationally find the best solution to problems in the Middle East.

It distracts from his hiring Mike Pompeo as CIA Director – a guy who supports the NSA surveilling all Americans, opposes closing Guantanamo, and criticizes the Obama administration for closing CIA black sites.

Now, DON’T GET ME WRONG: Pence managed to be the least popular vice-president at a musical where the vice-president kills the hero, and that’s funny and ridiculous and horrible. I get that.

But it’s not IMPORTANT.

Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.

This piece is positively prescient.

This week, Trump settled a lawsuit for $25 million, and the Trump administration is getting packed in with racists, bigots, and white nationalists.

And Twitter's talking about Pence getting booed at a fucking play, and Trump getting shitty about it.

Because of course he is: first of all he's Trump; second, tactically and strategically speaking, he wants everyone's focus on meaningless drama.

Yes, he's a crap human being, but THAT DOESN'T MATTER: pointing it out isn't enough to stop him; it might not even help.

We need to focus on the stuff that actually matters, or he's going to burn the house down while we're shaking our heads at the ugly drapes.

The Right Way to Resist Trump – NYTimes.com