inquietstrength

[inquietstrength]

John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882

Oil on canvas 221.9 x 221.6 cm (87 5/8 x 87 5/8 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,

[inquietstrength]

I am so scared with the state of the world right now....

[inquietstrength]

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

me: 

ao3 summary box:

me:

ao3 summary box: 

me:

[inquietstrength]

Trump has become an American Chairman Mao and this is his Cultural Revolution. This time it's not a little red book they're following, it's the big book that was prepared by the Heritage Foundation for exactly the purpose of what's happening right now all over Washington DC.

It was said that Chairman Mao launched his Cultural Revolution to purge his government of people who clung to traditional Chinese ways and practices that smacked of so-called capitalist elements. Every dictator who sees himself as a supreme being entitled to absolute power has his own reasons for what he does. Mao was obsessed with creeping capitalism that he thought infected Chinese society. With Trump -- and you hear it every day coming out of his mouth and the mouths of Co-Chairman Musk and the rest of Trump's MAGA lackeys -- the obsession is liberalism, which they cover with the rubric of DEI and something they call but never quite define: wokeism. They don't have to define it. They've got their MAGA base and the Republicans in Congress trained at this point to react exactly the way they want them to react when they hear the word woke or wokeism or DEI or Marxist any of the other catch phrases they've warped for their own purposes.

Chairman Mao used cadres of Red Guards to carry out his revolution. I remember reading stories back in the late 60s, after the Cultural Revolution had taken hold, of young members of the Red Guards going to their own homes in places like Beijing and Shanghai and arresting their own parents, whose crimes were being university professors senior researchers in government health agencies and the like. Does that sound familiar? I haven't seen anything yet about purges at the NIH but just wait until RFK Jr. moves into his office at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Reporters may have to use numbers with quadruple digits to write the stories about the firings that'll take place there.

Trump isn't following the Mao playbook of using young people and college students to do his dirty work. No, he's got Elon Musk and his battering ram of functionaries --who are unelected and do not hold government jobs -- to tear through the government for him.

But Trump is not without his own Red Guards. He just let their leaders out of prison with pardons and commutations. Enrique Tarrio is a free man now, ready to retake his position running the Proud Boys. So is Stewart Rhodes, free as a bird, back at the helm of the Oath Keepers. Stunningly, MSNBC aired a documentary tonight, February 2nd, with the glorifying title “King of the Apocalypse” about Rhodes. I didn't watch it and probably you didn't either, but you didn't have to if you tuned into MSNBC this week where they ran trailers around the clock advertising their documentary with a shot of Rhodes wearing camouflage, picturing him as a kind of twisted Patton.

Be ashamed of yourself, MSNBC. You're playing right into these fuckers’ hands.

It's scary to contemplate, but there is probably a whole panoply of right-wing militias that are in one stage or another of forming as we speak. Trump told his violent extremists to “stand back and stand by” during the 2020 election campaign. Little did we know that they were just waiting for his orders on January 6. I think it's safe to say that we're not going to hear those words from Trump this time around, because Trump appears to have learned a lesson on January 6: Don't wait until the last minute. This time, Trump is moving with lightning speed. His stormtroopers have their headquarters in the White House Executive Office Building. Their leader, the odious Musk, has been welcomed into The West Wing where he has an office upstairs from the Oval Office.

Dear readers, this is a nightmare I don't think we're going to wake up from anytime soon. The Founders of our country described the democratic system they sought to form as a “government of laws, not of men.” With Donald Trump's January 6 pardons and commutations, with his appointment of the likes of Kash Patel to run the FBI, with Hegseth ready to put the military in the street anytime Trump orders him, we have lost that noble dream of our Founding Fathers. One day in the not too distant future, unless some lawsuits are filed by brave civil servants and groups like the ACLU and the Democratic Party gets its act together, we won't have the federal government anymore. We won't have school lunch programs and Head Start and research for new cures for cancer and development of plans to be ready for the next pandemic. I could go on with what will be missing from our government and our lives, but you get the picture.

I don't know what our country will become, but it won't be recognizable as the United States of America we have loved for 240 years.

[inquietstrength]

Duart Castle, Scotland

[inquietstrength]

I'm knitting in the corner at a party

and guys my age stop by to tell me I remind them of their aunt, of their grandmother. This is a compliment and I take it as such. They confess to having tried crochet once, and I smile. They get back in line for the bathroom.

I'm knitting in the corner at a party and a queer woman sits on the floor next to me, arranges her skirt, and smiles up at me. (I try not to blush.) She asks me all the questions on her mind about my craft and I answer them, hands still moving. We swap yarn sources. She doesn't stay, but she knows where to find me.

I'm knitting in the corner at a party and everyone knows where to find me when they need a minute, when socializing is too much and the music is too loud and they need to catch their breath. They pretend to be checking in on me, which is sweet, but I can see the relief in their eyes the moment they stop performing for a house full of people. They sit down and tell me things and all the while they never take their eyes off my hands.

The party has wound down and I'm still knitting and the hosts, two guys in their twenties, thank me for "helping to curate the vibe." I had no idea that's what I was doing. I leave the party having forgotten to drink anything and without that woman's number but with many rows added to my top-down raglan sweater. I call it a night, and a good one.

[inquietstrength]

I really just want to hit people who have Republicans Reps/Senators over and over again until it sets in: Hound them constantly. Trump answers to nobody, but your reps do have to answer to their constituents. Get a group together and dedicate time to calling their offices. Trump freezing federal grants and loans? The purse is the Congress's turf. Demand your Republican Rep/Senator(s) explain why they think cancer funding should be stopped.

Don't take your boot off their necks. Trump is unreachable, but your Republican rep is not. Put their office numbers in your phone and make it a weekly habit to call them.

2025 is the year we make the Congress more important than the president.

[inquietstrength]

First Felon has given American security to Elon to exploit. The Russians won.

Global economy depends on security. Why would any country trust America?

[inquietstrength]

From Glee Violette, published yesterday January 30, 2025.

So here is what is happening.

It's not Trump.

He is looking so miserable because he is being forced to do WORK, and he hates doing WORK. Hopefully, at some point he either balks, or he runs out of steam at the pace he is being forced to keep. The way he is looking lately, that may be sooner rather than later. Hopefully.

All these reams of Executive Orders he is signing? He did not write a single one of them.

Some were written since the election, of things Trump promised at his rallies. But most of them were written over the past 4 years. They were written by Stephen Miller, AKA Wormtongue, his former and once again speechwriter and adviser.

They were written by Russell Vought, who is going through Senate confirmation hearings for the OMB, which put out that order stopping all federal grants, loans and disbursements Monday.

They were written by ALL the writers of the Project2025 playbook, the agenda Trump pretended he had nothing to do with.

How many writers? Project2025 is made up of over 100 conservative organizations! THAT is why there are so many Executive Orders waiting to be signed. Trump is probably having to ice his arm every night.

What is the overall agenda? To totally tear down our government. Totally. The good with the bad. Seriously.

Rachel Maddow showed video of JD Vance praising a mentor of his, Curtis Yarvin, on a far-right talk podcast, and that mentor not only advocates the complete destruction of the governement, closing down every department and firing every single person, but then building a new corporate style organization instead, with a CEO, not a president, at the top.

No three branches of government, just ONE. A corporation, to run America like a business. And he said that the other name for a CEO is a "dictator", and that is what America needs. Curtis Yarvin said emphatically that we must "get over" our fear of the word DICTATOR.

JD VANCE told podcaster Jack Murphy, "So step one in the process is to totally replace — like rip out like a tumor — the current American leadership class, and then reinstall some sense of American political religion."

Jack Murphy responded in the video, "How do we rip out this leadership class? What options do we have besides voting them out?"

"This is a tough question, but this is maybe the question that confronts us right now. There's this guy Curtis Yarvin who's written about some of these things," said Vance.

And Jack Murphy grinned and nodded in agreement. That is what they plan, folks. Corporations are businesses. They were there to make money. They are not there to take care of their workers, or the customers, or the environment, or public safety, and ESPECIALLY they are not there to hand out help to people who NEED help from disasters, or illnesses, or old age.

That is why they are starting by trying to eliminate oversight, and stop all funding of EVERYTHING. And now, gettng rid of EVERYBODY.

Trump signed a new order last night for EVERY WORKER IN OUR GOVERNMENT. In EVERY department. He is offering EVERY SINGLE WORKER, every department manager, every civil servant, every scientist, every inspector, every accountant, every researcher, every secretary - EVERYBODY - a termination package. They will get a nice payoff and perks if they agree to quit their job.

But they only have ONE WEEK to decide.

Otherwise, the threat is that they could be terminated at any time with no nice goodbye package at all.

And the threat is also there that they could be transfered from the job they know and are invested in, to doing something totally ridiculous and hateful. Trump said out loud he may send the new IRS hires to deal with immigrants at the Border instead. In fact, he may send ANY entire department to a far-off location, uprooting and disrupting their family, as he did when he sent all the FDA scientists to a midwest location, during his first administration. Half of them quit.

The INTENTION of Project 2025 is to TOTALLY dismantle our government. And to rebuild it as a stripped down corporation, with workers only loyal to THEM.

What happens to US? We have been here before, folks. I remember the days when there were no protections for people. You worked, paid for your own food, shelter and medical bills or you died. Old people. Disabled people. Unmarried women. Children.

If you got unjustly fired, too bad. If you could not get a job because you were too old, or just got out of the hospital, or out of prison, or out of rehab, or were a disabled veteran, or disabled, period, or had kids at home, or might become pregnant, or were ANY minority that a business owner hated, too bad.

If your house burned down, if you got cancer, if you had an accident, too bad.

When I was a young adult, hospitals refused to treat people without money or insurance, even in emergencies. They died outside the door, on the sidewalk. If they ran out of money, they were pushed out the door in a hospital gown to die on the sidewalk. THIS HAPPENED. Every day.

We are returning to a MERIT based system? No more bad old DEI? People will be hired for what they are qualified to do based on their education, accomplishments, skills and experience? BULLSH!T.

Once again, hiring will be done BASED ON THE CODE OF THE OLD BOYS CLUB.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS does Robert F Kennedy Jr have? Education? Harvard and then Law School. He does not have one single medical degree. And he is on record for himself saying he was a heroin addict from high school all the way through college. He dealt cocaine from his dorm room at Harvard. He got arrested.

THIS IS ALL ON RECORD.

Experience? He knows NOTHING about medicine. Nor does he know anything about managing a business. He is a lone wolf who has traded on the Kennedy name and his famly fortune to get attention, be a celebrity, and GET MONEY.

His cousin Caroline Kennedy, JFK's daughter, just wrote a letter to the Senate reminding them of all this, not they they were unaware of ANY of this in the first place.

HE VACCINATED HIS OWN CHILDREN, while discouraging other parents NOT to vaccinate their children, for MONEY. To fundraise for donations. To rake in their cash and do NOTHING in return but book celebrity appearances to make speeches full of lies.

Caroline Kennedy called him a predator, who used his charisma to talk his younger brothers and cousins into buying the drugs he was selling, and getting them addicted. His younger brother died of a drug overdose.

She talked of unspeakable acts of animal cruelty involving his pet reptiles. He did right it in front of people, to show off. He thought it was funny. He would put live baby chicks with mice into the blender and turn it on in front of his children. Like he thought his prank with the dead bear cub and eating a dog were funny.

So he is not even being considered for Cabinet Head of the entire Department of Health because he is a stand-up guy with integrity and CHARACTER.

He is being hired for his NAME. Not HIS name, his father and his uncle's name.

He is being hired because of a Quid Pro Quo arrangement. He quit the presidential race in exchange for running the only part of the government he REALLY wanted.

MERIT? Merit does not count at all. What counts is that he is all in on the vision of Project2025. To destroy the Health Department and eliminate it.

What counts is his stone-cold desire for money and power in the new Corporate American Dictatorship.

What counts is his ethnic bona-fides, his BIRTHRIGHT into the Old Boys Club.

This is happening in real time, folks.

Donald J Trump is just the figurehead in all this.

He is the cult leader who can do no wrong in the eyes of his followers. He can get away with ramming hundreds of Executive Orders, most of them illegal and unConstitutional through, like a machine gun, at our entire country.

While half the country - people too blinded by hero worship to see this affects them too - cheer and fistpump. While WE are shocked into inaction. And while our politicians DUCK, and try to figure out the best way to hang on to their careers and their power and their money. And maybe their lives.

Donald Trump removed the protection details from leaders of his last administration who turned against him - or who HE now views as an "enemy". He released 1,500 former rogue militia members and their leaders back onto the streets. He pardoned religious activists who harrassed and assaulted patients at women's clinics.

The message is as clear now as it was on January 6th, 2021.

Violence is OK. Don't worry about the law. Trump doesn't obey any. As long as you are loyal to Trump, you don't have to obey the law either. Wink-wink.

From now on, the LAW is only what Donald J Trump SAYS it is.

So what happens if Trump is no longer President?

JD Vance steps right in, and pushes the Project 2025 agenda through with a vengeance, of course.

But here is the thing. JD does not hold the blind devotion of the cult members. They do not idolize him. In fact, they are at best lukewarm towards him. He will not be able to manipulate them as Trump does, or even pull their wool over their eyes about what he is doing, and what the adverse consequences will be for them.

Because of this, JD does not have the leverage over the politicians in Congress or the Supreme Court Justices that Trump has.

Trump MUST be stopped. By the courts, or by impeachment - but it must happen. He must be removed from office ASAP.

Or, as he is so fond of saying, "We won't have a country anymore."

[From Glee Violette, published yesterday January 30, 2025.]

[inquietstrength]

Saint Bride by John Duncan 

[inquietstrength]

[inquietstrength]

[inquietstrength]

Largest christian denomination in european countries

[inquietstrength]

Just an FYI. The FDA is not allowed to announce any food recalls due to the health communications pause the current administration enacted. You can still find this information by visiting USDA the site directly.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls

Here’s the fda link to use to search for recalls, safety alerts, and market withdrawals.

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts

So, while you are making your grocery list, you may want to visit the recalls list since there’s no public communication right now.

[inquietstrength]

Day 6

The goat is still standing, it has almost survived a whole week.

[inquietstrength]

in honor of shark week starting tomorrow 🦈

[inquietstrength]

With everyone sharing their Spotify wrapped and also rightfully sharing how little artists get paid by Spotify, I wanted to mention that Bandcamp Friday is tomorrow. If you don’t already know, Bandcamp Friday is held on the first Friday of every month and is when Bandcamp waives their revenue share so every purchase goes directly to the artist.

Fans have paid $192 million directly to artists on Bandcamp this year alone, so if you’re looking to support musicians (most of which are independent or are signed to an independent label on Bandcamp) then go find out if they have a Bandcamp page. You can even gift purchases to friends and family!