Gentleness

Not that it matters, because if all government employees are changed to “at will” and they decide to fire everyone who has donated to Democrats I’m out anyway, but all opinions are my own and none of them represent official views of my employer or official government policy. I am not that important.

Also, upcoming economic policies will trash employment for many other people as well. 

I’m going to have dinner and cuddle with a friend. We’re getting food she identifies as comfort food. 

The morning after the election I sent virtual hugs to a number of people and that afternoon some people sent kind notes to me. 

My neighbor and I hugged. She said she hopes Karen and I can stay married.

I just had a conversation with another friend. She has long said the government couldn’t/wouldn’t get rid of gay marriage because it would be such an administrative mess. She did not say that today.

Somebody somewhere created a big list of thousands of cell phone numbers belonging to Black people and, after the election, texted them when the van would pick them up to start picking cotton. So somebody had this all ready to go. 

There are reports of little boys chanting to little girls, “your body, our choice.” 

I’ve been holding off on full scale panic until we know who wins the House. 

Senator Warren put out a message reminding us that when Republicans controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency we will managed to hold on to the Affordable Care Act. She used this as an example that we may win some of the fights. 

There will clearly be some fights within the Republican Party. Do we deport massive numbers of cheap labor that businesses count on? I suspect that a few thousand will be deported in a performative manner, sort of the like the Wall. 

Elon Musk campaigned and donated for Trump. Elon Musk believes in climate change and has an enormous stake in an American electric car company - so will we completely stop progress toward climate change and roll back incentives for electric vehicles? 

Elon is yet another person going on the attack against trans people. Young people didn’t see us fight for gay rights. They didn’t see things improve. They don’t understand how bad it was and how much better it is now. They don’t understand that it was a process and that things got better so they don’t understand that it could get better. They’ve only watched as it has, during their aware years, gotten worse. At some point we had a campaign to reduce gay teen suicide - “it gets better” - I think we need to go on a concerted campaign to protect trans people but especially trans kids. Trans kids are less likely to kill themselves if they feel their communities are supportive and if people around them try to use their pronouns. 

Gaza is toast. We had a president who was trying to pressure Netanyahu. The next president will cheer him on. I don’t know Israeli politics well enough to know if Israelis can stop him. I have no hope for the hostages Hamas is holding and hurting. 

Unless Europe is able and willing to begin manufacturing weapons in a larger scale, or unless the US says over the next few months that Ukraine can use the weapons we’ve given inside Russia, I think Ukraine is toast. 

If Ukraine is toast, Taiwan is toast. Every other little country with a nearby large country that wants to possess them is in trouble. 

I didn’t have tremendous hope for the climate anyway. We only have so many years to get emissions under control and we didn’t seem to be making progress. Our reaction to Covid convinced me that we were not going to make it with climate. But anyone else who had hope - do you still?

There are many people who are angry and are lashing out. Many are lashing out at the people near them, allies. This is completely counterproductive but something the Left is traditionally really good at doing. The kindness and gentleness of my friends is helping me.