I'm a slayer, ask me how.

Me, logging on to Twitter and seeing ALL THE BANNED ACCOUNTS !!!!!





He tried to hijack the official POTUS account and his head of social media's account and then made a new one and they were just SUSPENDED! Also Rush Limbaugh was suspended.



okay, on that note, I'm going to bed, to dream of all these hate-mongering asshats being removed from social media.

On my way to/from work there is a house with a flagpole out front. It doesn’t have the American flag flying from it right now. For the past few months, it has had a white flag that reads: Trump 2020: No More Bullshit.

I don’t consider myself a prude, but it did seem kind of wrong to have “bullshit” proudly displayed on a main road where families drive by and parents might not appreciate that word being sounded out by their child in the backseat. But, whatever, it is their opinion and it is clear what side the people in that house are on when it comes time to vote. I wasn’t offended.

But then last week a flag appeared underneath the white one. This one is dark blue, with Trump’s name emblazoned with the American flag’s stars and stripes. Underneath that is the phrase: Make Liberals Cry Again.

Now that bothered me. Because now it is not expressing an opinion about the amount of bullshit happening, but saying that you should vote for Trump to hurt other people, to vote out if a sense of malice, to elect him just to cause pain.

Why? Why does that seem like an ok thing to say? I have never said that we should vote for someone to hurt another person (well I guess Republicans believe that businesses are people so if you look at it that way…)

It just really concerned me because how could you even hope to converse with someone like that. The “no more bullshit” person sounds open to a debate, you probably won’t change their mind, but it sounds like their issue is with the government and how it is run. But the “make liberals cry” person? They are cruel, mean, and clearly don’t care if they cause harm.

And how can that feel like the side you want to vote for?

I was sort of in a bubble today - I played video games, watched Fraggle Rock, ran errands and did a bit of gardening today with Tim.

Bothered to check Twitter around 11pm as the night was winding down...and what do I see?

Another mass shooting in my country.

Another racist, bigoted crazy person with a gun ending the lives of innocent people.

Remember when these would happen and we would be shocked? Now it just happens every weekend and we forget about it by Monday.

I hate that this is just normal now.

Fuck this, I'm going to bed.

EDIT: Woke up and guess what happened while I was sleeping? ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING! This is America.

If you have not seen this yet, definitely check it out --

New York Times - Political Bubbles and Hidden Diversity

The article has a link to the full map for you to play with, but I recommend looking at both.

Pay attention to those voting numbers. It was amazing to see the contrast for east coast areas to the middle of America. Some districts literally had 25 people vote. TOTAL. And I'm guessing those areas with low numbers do not have very diverse populations. Or if they do, they are so spread out, they never interact beyond a "hello".

Stephanie was able to point out to me the Native American reservations in Arizona - they are very bright blue.

Yeah, I just spent 20 minutes zooming in and around this map. The United States is huge and scattered and you can see why we have a hard time getting along. :\

Is it just me, or would it be easier at this point to start celebrating men who have managed to get through life by not sexual harassing/assaulting someone rather than keep posting about who is guilty? It would probably be more encouraging and uplifting for everyone.

So, I'm about halfway through Hillybilly Elegy by J.D. Vance which is all about issues in rural America and the culture that exists there. It became a bestseller after Trump was elected president because it was implied that these were the people that voted for him so everyone is reading the book in the hopes of making sense of it all.

I saw this article in the Washington Post about rural Americans and disabilities and unemployment and it echoed a lot of the issues that Vance talks about in his book. And it all just blows my mind and I struggle to find any way we can all understand each other. This culture, the entire way the families function, it just is so alien to how I grew up, how I was raised, the values instilled in me.

And, the irony being that you could read about some of these situations they go through - the broken homes, the scraping by etc. and if you saw it out of context, you might think it has to do with inner city living and "minority" groups. And this is probably what makes the divide worse because most of us fight for equality for different groups, trying to figure out how to fix a broken system, but these rural poor white groups end up getting ignored because, technically, they are part of the majority?

I dunno, it is all so hard to even grasp because that world is just so alien to me having grown up in middle class suburbs. And I'm sure that is a huge part of America's problem right now because there is no way to have a dialogue that makes any sense because the culture of both sides is so different.

I had to return the book without finishing it, I'm back on the waitlist (only 100 people ahead of me blurgh!) but I wonder what each person is getting out of this story. Living in Maryland probably gives a unique perspective too since it has a large transient population due to military and government contractor jobs, but at the same time there are people who have always been here. And Virginia and Pennsylvania aren't that far, so I'm sure people who grew up in that society have migrated across the states to start anew like Vance did.

Has anyone read the book? Thoughts? feelings? reactions? Obviously his life story isn't the ONLY story of someone growing up there, but the news coverage of the unemployment issues and opiod crisis are making it seem like perhaps his story is more average than we would ever want to believe.

I've seen everyone post the Kate McKinnon singing bit and Chappelle's monologue, but I hadn't seen this one.



TOO REAL! It's funny and depressing at the same time.

Video and full text of his speech are here.

I am going to miss him so much. His eloquence and his voice and his sense of humor.

Reading his speech makes me feel sad and hopeful at the same time. There were so many things said during the campaign to just win votes, things that Trump and the Republicans can't really do, at least not as quickly as they claim. At least the full on apocalypse won't start for at least 6 months, right?

Everyone at work is very quiet. It is a rainy day in Maryland and you can feel the gloom hanging over us. I can't say that I'm not scared; I feel like the kind of people that support Trump probably don't value the public library and the services we offer. Because we help everyone and want to give everyone access to information. I think they would call us socialists.

But anyway, wanted to share. Clearly I am having a hard time focusing on actual work today. And I'm here until 9pm, so I will probably continue to spam you with random thoughts as the day goes on.

Oh good, I needed to laugh today. :)