Beam

It's that time of year, and the sun streams in upon felines.

Fuss

Another Pat Bagley.

Slogging through. Trying to stay pragmatic.

Eleanor chasing about is good.

Getting the porch renovated is good.

Had dinner with Dylan's family, I just ate flan, which was lovely. Monday off, as the one requirement for me for birthday. I hate fuss, except from Dylan.

Work has been trying, for everyone. Usually I prefer take a week off about now, but I delay it to coincide with surgeon conferences, when the schedule is slow and people get called off. So, it's the 2nd week of March this year. I know it's coming.

Purgative

Pat Bagley is a local political cartoonist. He contributed this image to the resistance.

We the people are whole beings who cannot and will not be reduced to parts. As a country, our responsibility to ourselves and the freedom we hold so dear is to understand how we are complete. Our American sensibilities and culture have taught us all to be a community, looking out for one another, standing together against enemies both foreign and domestic.
For that reason, it is imperative to note that the majority of the protests, the marches, and the influx of ordinary people attending extraordinary town hall meetings are a grass roots, organic effort to stand for the values we feel make America so great.
Seeing the American people band together under the banner of hope and stability has been beautiful. Being a part of a movement which values individuals coming together is inspiring. There is a reason why so many still choose to flock here and make America their home.

-Abbey Barker.

Maybe this is the horrible purgative we needed.

Sol

Cats and sun.

My sign for tomorrow says, Jason Chaffetz, who's paying you? We are, Do Your Job.

Not stellar, but the best I could come up with.

Trying to avoid both hope and despair.

Twit

I got on twitter as a way to keep myself entertained at work during the long gaps of anything I had to do. I had to stay there and stand in waiting, boredom would get to me, and this was a good way for me to look, look up, check in for a moment, switch up...

I followed linguists and British comedians, local fire and police and weather. Not thrilling, but it worked pretty well.

Then.

Then the "election" of the turnip. And the #resistence. Which I wholeheartedly embrace. Turnip hits all my paternal PTSD buttons. And I found myself unexpectedly in favor of my country. Mostly because I have vowed to lay down my life if needed (army) and protect with my life if needed (nursing) and simply being humane (protect patients, neighbors, friends) at a start.

I have nearly 100 followers. Which is embarrassing.

And alarming.

But, given that I do, I feel a duty to send them whatever I can. So they also spread the word.

Told the woman at the wine store about the rally on Monday. She plans to be there now.

Want a good sign to take with me. Any suggestions. We have Traitor Jason Chaffetz to oppose. And Paul Ryan is a brown noser. And Samantha Bee is still nailing it.

Mary

Read a tweet this morning. About how the Democrats in congress/senate are dragging their feet, gumming up the process, so that legislation gets stalled. Another about how the intelligence community is stringing out the revelations, possibly to snare more corrupt politicians. A known police technique.

And thought about how Obama was strangely silent at the questionable election results, encouraging HRC to concede, not contest the results. Her win would have been great, but would also have pushed the horrors underground another four years. Perhaps understood that his own moderation, necessary and welcome, was also a fertile ground for the nutjobs on the right, and greedy, corrupted Republicans.

Wondering if this isn't a desperate throw of the dice. Lure all the monsters out from under the bed, so we know who they are and destroy them. Risky, but against what may be inevitable horrors and public apathy, perhaps the only chance - long term - to save our freedom. Maybe more accurately,instead of dice, a high stakes chess game.

Let the horrors step into the limelight, feeling safe, so that the vast majority of decent people understand what is in peril, and fight them from the bottom up. In a way that having competent people on top precludes. We shouldn't feel safe, but we can win if we fight.

Because having another moderate in the presidency, although ideal, may have let the evil continue underground, nipping at the heels of progress.

And I see Obama as a chess player. Even knowing innocent lives will be lost, eventually justice will prevail. If we win through. And the stakes only get higher if the battle is delayed too long. He certainly understood the rise of White Supremacy across the globe, as well as here. He was in a unique position to know which way the wind was blowing. Better, perhaps, to take the chance while we were prospering, and people really felt how much they were going to be giving up. Retreat to gather our forces, and wage a guerrilla war. Strengthen our free press. Remind us of our duty as citizens. Such was our original revolution based upon.

We unite and harass and harry, make them the enemy. Those who would enrich themselves out of our pockets, who would divide and destroy us, the inflexible and proudly ignorant. We will science the hell out of them. We will never let up.


Hail Mary passes all around.

Debridement

Moose Lambs.



Cats in the sun.


Poop emojis? Brought by cow-orker for Vday.



Never had much use for V day. Don't even need half price chocolate day anymore. Chocolate is fine, but I get what I need in small amounts routinely.

Waiting for the contractor for the utility room renovation.

Taking every crumb of hope for the breaking dam of scandal and treason gushing over the political landscape. I am hyper vigilant, as most abused kids tend to be. Ignoring all of it much more anxiety inducing, so I obsess. Dreamed the old fart had grabbed a secret service agent's gun, shot his entire cabinet, then ran around the white house naked, while unwitting agents tried to figure out how to constrain him, finally deciding to taser him.

Got a chance to deny being White. My paleness does not mean anything, save a tendency to burn in the sun. Detest the very idea of private law, privilege.

Love the illumination of this photo.



So many like it. Abe, the Japanese envoy had a similar look of contempt and dismay. Melania's candid looks of being trapped. Senator Al Franken's assessment of 45 being nuts. This won't go on 4 years. Certainly not 8 years. Eight months is stretching it. The fart is looking blown out at eight weeks.

The damage being done is dreadful. But maybe, if we pay attention and work hard, this will become an opportunity to fix long, nagging issues. Brought to the light and scraped away. Painful, but necessary.

If we survive it.

Almost all my OR deaths have been due to sepsis.

No guarantees.

I've wept for every death I've been witness to.

This sucks. This will hurt for a long time.

How

"You never hear people put it this way, and I don't intend to start a trend, but when we consider the ever-evolving process of a person's thinking, the way a person imagines and organizes the world, it could almost seem appropriate to ask each other from time to time, How's your religion coming along? How's it going? Born again, or the same old, same old? Did you successfully distinguish darkness from light in the course of your day? Is there a fever in your mind that won't go away? Mind if I prescribe a poem?"
- David Dark

So, how's it going?

Snowball

Last night, I disengaged. Not from the fight, but from seeing it as personal. It is, but I need to sleep at night. So, I made the rational decision to see this as me fighting for others, not myself. The only monkey I have in this circus is being female. And a middle-aged one at that.

Still going to fight, no question. You have to chose, you have to commit. But this is for everyone else. Which is both more compelling, and less... personal. Like putting my own O2 mask on first. Making sure I'm safe to rescue the drowning person. Staying strong and persistent.

I've been worried about the misogyny creeping up over the last few years. Seemed so backward. And now it's out in force with the bigotry. Time to scrape it out and finally dilute it into meaninglessness.

So, this quote,

We're getting it from all the times we've heard 'throws like a girl", "crying like a little girl"; calling football players "Ladies" when the coach is displeased with the players, hearing "weak as a woman", telling boys as an insult they should "go play with their dollies"; saying women are "PMS'ing" when they are acting any way but happy .....shall I go on?

Women are still seen by men as "less than." It's ugly, and wrong.

Taking every little crack as hope letting the light in. But making no assumptions. This is a siege. I must resist, and persist. The enemy is old and violent. We are revolutionaries down to the marrow, though.

And then, the snowball fight.

Wishes

Out of turkey, only whole frozen ones where we get it yesterday. With hungry cats, we ran out of the homecooked. Canned food is acceptable, but Eleanor horks it up, after hoovering it up. She's already done so twice this morning. I'll go by later and make fresh catsoup this afternoon.

I heated up potatoes for breakfast, and Eleanor has her nose stuck into the bowl now, perched precariously across the stool it's on, and the hassock. I was done eating anyway, and I'll always share food with my family. I assume it's the salt and butter attracting her, making it palatable.

Thinking about schools, and the damage to come. But, honestly, the public school systems have been in trouble for a long time, maybe they need a good rattling. The interregnum will be awful, but maybe after the house is burned to the ground, a better solution can grow. I wrote about this long ago.

For many years, I have thought the never-will-be-done answer was to have storefront schools. One room schoolhouses, two teachers and a local adult volunteer, no more than a dozen students, all online classes - a national, self paced, curricula. Touring experts and scholars for special lectures and demonstrations. Kid has a problem with a particular teacher, move 'em to the next neighborhood over. Walking distances from their homes, field trips common (easier to arrange with small groups), flexible schedules (let the teens sleep in). A circle of homeschools in rural areas instead of warehouses to haul whole populations into.

Yeah, yeah, there can be sponsored team sports, and credits to families for music or art or individual athletics. Those schools can become colleges and libraries and social meeting space. Clubs and dances and charities coming out their ears if they want.

It'll never happen, but it could work. If anyone cared enough to change everything.

-me.


Thinking about genies/demons granting wishes. Be careful what you wish for. I'd never considered it from a political standpoint before. The right wing nutjobs are on their second wish, and not quite willing to reset.

"In any story worth tellin', that knows about the way of the world, the third wish is the one that undoes the harm the first two wishes caused."
— Granny Weatherwax

-T. Pratchett

I think this is why so many people voted for Dampnuts, they wanted wishes, ignored that he was a demon.

My hopes are on the 16 year olds getting a practical course in civics, who will want to vote in a couple of years. I like young people today, they are open minded and creative.

Nae

“Nac Mac Feegle! The Wee Free Men! Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!”

- T. Pratchett.


lord dampnut
An anagram or "alternative name" for the worst president in the history of the USA. Coined by Colin Mochrie (of Whose Line is it Anyway fame) on 20 January 2017.
Did you read the latest tweet from Lord Dampnut?

Urban Dictionary.

I look forward to a day when I can take photos of the house and garden and cats, and leave all politics alone. Today is not that day. In for a long, hard fight. I will never give up, I will stand.

There are little successes. We are having an effect. Not enough, not yet, but enough to prove we can win through. A sort of Cold War. We will not go back to 1917. Or 1817.

I'm sorry about the lack of mundane and perhaps soothing posts. But, this is important. We fight for our liberty and our lives. Not just one country, but a whole world.

So. I'm sorry. But I must.


There will still be cats.

Stalking

Really best not to get in their way when they are chasing and stalking each other.

March

A few more.

Next, the March for Science on Earth Day. Too much to hope for an effective Ides of March.

Sea

A sea of signs.


1984 is a warning, not an instruction manual.



If you truly believed #all lives matter, you would be marching too.





"...That does business with trump."

Resist

Just a selection. Thousands showed up. Takes a lot to really rile up people here, but once done...

A mile long stream of the most lovely crowd I've ever been in. We are not alone. Not at all. We were told it was larger than the Women's March here. Well, weather was perfect for a protest march.

We had a family argument, things were said that shouldn't have been... but now that bully has slapped your sister and called her a slut, kicked your little brother and called him a retard. When your dad swore at him, he called him far worse, and when mom threw him out, he threatened to firebomb your house. I know, he said he was your friend. But he lied.

And he just shot your dog.

America, we fight with each other. But we love each other. We're family, that's normal. We have to stand together, (still sniping at each other) and kick that bully out.

Olive

We will be leaving for the local march for refugees in a little while. I have a first aid kit packed, the camera. And a sign that reads, "Welcome Home. Sorry about the mess. (We're working on it)."



I reached out to someone this week. Got a big old NOPE back. It's very hard when one offers an olive branch, and it's yanked it out of your hand, then they smack you on the nose with it. Harder still to not try and get in the last word. Hard to realize it's not just my actions that were offensive, but me. Not wanted. Well, so be it. I slink off with a stinging nose. Never too old to learn.

This is in lieu of my getting in the last word. Saying it where the rebuker cannot hear doesn't count. Had to tell someone.



I had no idea that I actually loved my country. Seeing it suffering and about to be destroyed is breaking my heart, and I'm grieving for what could have been. A flowering of women's rights, better education, a Supreme Court with decent judges who know it's 2017 not 1917. Or 1817. Other important issues actually addressed, like climate change and immigration, health care for all, higher wages for the poorest, higher taxes for the richest. It all looked so possible.

Which is why I've been reaching out to people.

But then, many of us are grieving, and it makes people act unpredictably.

Superlattice

I have some incredibly intelligent people in my life. Kathy is one of the best of them. There is a Resist! zine made for the Women's March, about which more later. I told Kathy about it a while back. Today, I got this email from her.

So, I didn't come up with art for the Resistance magazine in time for submission before the deadline. But I did come up with something to share with you (attached). It's more of an application of an old idea with a revived expression, but the pink ears are there, anyway. The equation is a hamiltonian solution to the schrodinger wave equation for a quantum well. The reference to the superlattice applies in that a superlattice is comprised of a series of quantum wells, and electrons that would classically be trapped in individual quantum wells are instead following quantum mechanics and are found to be on both sides of their respective barriers.
The cat was observed by schrodinger and used by him in his thought experiment regarding a particle in a box. The cat lives, does not belong to Schrodinger, does not reside in a box, and thinks for itself between its own pink ears.

So there you have it. My thoughts on quantum confinement, overcoming barriers, and cats with pink ears!

And the churches are stepping up.

February 1, 2017
President Donald J. Trump The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Over two years ago, faith leaders across the nation wrote to President Obama, urging him not to include a religion exemption in an Executive Order ending discrimination against LGBT people in hiring by federal contractors. As faith and civic leaders who affirm the sacred dignity and equal worth of every person, we are now writing to you. We urge you not to undermine these important protections against discrimination by adding a religious exemption to the Executive Order. For more than two years, it has been the law of the land. It would be harmful and wrong for you to change federal policy to sanction discrimination with tax-payer dollars. Furthermore, we urge you not to include religious exemptions that discriminate against LGBT people, women, and others in any federal policies.
In our democratic nation, public service—particularly when it is directly funded by the federal government—must be aligned with the constitutional principle that all people receive equal treatment under the law. Requiring those who receive public funding to adhere to non-discriminatory hiring practices not only abides by this principle, but also it is the right thing to do. Beyond that, it protects our laws from confusion and abuse. If contractors and others were allowed to opt out of certain laws, depending on their religious beliefs, we would soon see a morass of legal confusion and dispute.
In addition, if a religious exemption were added to President Obama’s Executive Order, the people who would suffer most are those who always suffer most when discrimination is allowed: individuals and communities that are already marginalized. Adding to their burden is the opposite of what public service can and should do—and betrays the values we stand for as people of faith and conscience.
Federal policies that allow for discrimination against LGBT people violate basic human rights and dignity, as well as the belief shared by millions of Americans—that LGBT people should not be treated as second-class citizens.
In a nation as diverse as the United States, the federal government must follow—and indeed, must model—equitable and fair employment practices. Our mutual commitment to the common good is best served by policies that prohibit discrimination based on factors that have no relation to job performance. We are better and stronger as a nation when hiring decisions are based on professional merit.
Our pluralistic nation is among the most religiously diverse and devout in the world. Each day we make progress on our journey toward “a more perfect union,” where all God’s children are treated with dignity and respect. Many forces help spur this progress. They include the courage of people who live openly as who they truly are; the witness of faith leaders who provide a compass for religious growth; the commitment of political leaders who help guide our nation toward a more just path; and the passage of laws and policies that ensure fair treatment for all.
We believe that the path to national unity lies in affirming the full equality and potential of every person. In the spirit of equality, fairness, and justice, we urge you not to add a discriminatory religious exemption to the Executive Order or to other federal policies.
In Faith,*

Bureaucracy

James Hacker: Humphrey, I'm worried.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Oh, what about, Prime Minister?
James Hacker: About the Americans.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Oh yes, well, we're all worried about the Americans.

I keep hearing this, including at work yesterday, the resentment against artists speaking out on politics.

Why?

Because they have a platform, a way to reach many. And when they see injustice, they use it.

And they bloody well have a duty to do so. Not just a right, a duty.

We don't have to agree with them. We should respect them for their courage. And they risk their lives against authorities who want to destroy them. First target of tyrants? Free speech and artists. Such ire! And artists are marvelous at getting the story out, often covered in glitter and style. They go down hard, and making jokes. Satire is the ultimate enemy of the humorless bigots. We should protect them more, not dismiss them first. They get through when serious journalists are blocked. We live and die by our stories, to discount them is foolish of us.

Tyrants know how effective they can be. Those damned artists, actors, writers, comedians! It's like people listen to stories or something.

That, and our bureaucrats. They can drag their heels as the professionals they are. They may wind up being the unexpected heroes. I plan to attend the March for Science.

The signs of popular dissent from President Trump’s opening volley of actions have been plain to see on the nation’s streets, at airports in the aftermath of his refu­gee and visa ban, and in the blizzard of outrage on social media. But there’s another level of resistance to the new president that is less visible and potentially more troublesome to the administration: a growing wave of opposition from the federal workers charged with implementing any new president’s agenda.

Less than two weeks into Trump’s administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new president’s initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make.

And a few government workers are pushing back more openly, incurring the wrath of a White House that, as press secretary Sean Spicer said this week about dissenters at the State Department, sends a clear message that they “should either get with the program, or they can go.”



At a church in Columbia Heights last weekend, dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forum to discuss their opposition to the Trump administration. And 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop next weekend, where experts will offer advice on workers’ rights and how they can express civil disobedience.


At the Justice Department, an employee in the division that administers grants to nonprofits fighting domestic violence and researching sex crimes said the office has been planning to slow its work and to file complaints with the inspector general’s office if asked to shift grants away from their mission.

“You’re going to see the bureaucrats using time to their advantage,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Through leaks to news organizations and internal complaints, he said, “people here will resist and push back against orders they find unconscionable.”

The resistance is so early, so widespread and so deeply felt that it has officials worrying about paralysis and overt refusals by workers to do their jobs.

Asked whether federal workers are dissenting in ways that go beyond previous party changes in the White House, Tom Malinow­ski, who was President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said, sarcastically: “Is it unusual? . . . There’s nothing unusual about the entire national security bureaucracy of the United States feeling like their commander in chief is a threat to U.S. national security. That happens all the time. It’s totally usual. Nothing to worry about.”

The permanent bureaucracy, the backbone of the federal government and the bulwark against many presidents’ activist intentions, is designed to be at least a step removed from the crosswinds of partisan politics.

But for years, many conservatives have argued that the federal bureaucracy is stacked against them, making it harder for them to get things done even when they control the White House, Congress or both.

WP


Lets just soak a while, then.