#i swear healthcare in this country fucking sucks

[xxxemilyg1996]

But why can't I schedule a gynecologist appointment through mychart? What's the point of having that feature if I have to go to my primary care physician, that I don't have because I live in the middle of nowhere with no health insurance, instead of just contacting the hospital system and making an appointment? Just let me get my cervix looked at and some birth control!

[oct0whyllow]

Im going to start vandalizing at this point i swear to fucking god. I am going to have the worst four years of my life under this presidency. Im literally a child, a queer, a poc, and (likely, im waiting for the assessment in january) mentally disabled. All my friends told me not to be worried because this wasnt something i could control, BUT THAT MAKES ME WORRY EVEN FUCKING MORE. My parents moved to this country with me when i was nearly a toddler, because they believed it was great. But now it sucks ass, they're committing genocide on the middle eastern (iran, palestine) people, they're constantly oppressing intersex people by enforcing a binary that harms them and prevents them from getting proper healthcare. Theyre prohibiting trans people from transitioning and showing their faces around.

I hate all of the people who voted for trump. I hate them so fucking much. To all those who voted trump, I hate you. You endangered me drastically, and you're just speeding up the final minutes of the clock left until we overthrow this shitty government.

Normally, I don't talk about politics, but when you start killing innocent people, harming oppressed groups, and committing multiple genocides, it makes me want to yell at everyone until their ears bleed. It makes me want to yell so hard everyone can still hear my screams for months.

[beaversatemygrandma]

Thoughts about the FL thing, sans money now.

So that one friend who moved to Cali FINALLY texted me. I can't blame her at all for taking that time. It was hectic. Basically suddenly finding your existence illegal and the fact that she was in an accepting household could risk her mom losing her youngest kid. Like FL is fucked up and I'm glad she's safe now. And then me saying that I'm moving back to FL soon and she's just instant panic. Instantly worried about me. Telling me that if i go, i shouldn't come out. I shouldn't continue with that at all. Put the gender fuckery on hold. I think she even offered to help me out to Cali also once she's got her own place out there. Honestly, sounds pretty nice. I mean, the guy I've been talking with for all this time and basically have a long distance, soon to be short distance, relationship with has been listening to everything I've been saying about FL and iirc, Cali is actually a state where his insulin might come cheaper and easier. We've literally been talking about taking our time in town, getting money, saving money, and leaving the state, perhaps even the country. Like, he needs a place with socialized healthcare so he doesn't have a pricetag on his life and i need a place where i can literally be myself. And that place sure isn't FL.

Jeez, going back to FL in this political climate is so damn terrifying but i can't stay here. I'm losing my mind here. I'm stuck in a tiny ass place with too much stuff to fit into my damn 6x8 ft room that has 0 air flow, with a 14yo who acts like she's 7 (she's mentally okay, she's just immature and won't grow. like you give her advice and she starts guilting you about how she's not perfect). I've got my dad who i haven't been with for longer than a month since i was 8, who can't get anything done without at least a month of procrastination. We're all broke. There's planes and trains and trucks that shake the whole trailer every hour 24/7. It's not walkable. Hell, it's hardly drivable with all those axle-breaking potholes and blind intersections. There are even air quality warnings like once a week. And that's not about the smokescreen over the northeast. That's just what it's Like Here. Our water is brown like once a month. I swear like three water mains leading to our area burst since January. There are even shootings basically once a week within five miles of here. I hear guns firing constantly at like 2am like clockwork. I'm broke. I can't deal with it here. The payments needed to keep a car legal are higher in this state than most others. (including mandatory inspections? That YOU pay for??) What the fuck even is this city?

At least in FL, i know the town well. I know the people. I know the roads. It's kept nice because it's a damn tourist trap. Not some still-segregated urban sprawl. Sure, there's annoying rednecks there and snowbirds who act like they own the place, but you're less likely to get shot going to the gas station or break your car's entire front axle after not swerving around the wrong pothole so you don't get hit head-on by a tanker. Sure, I'm going to be terrified to be as gnc as i am. But what's another couple years in the closet, right? right? 🙃 Just have to keep my job, keep that guy close so I seem straight/cis passing, and hold my tongue in public. And maybe not look queer to an emt if something bad happens. Suck up dysphoria for a while and actually wear form-fitting clothes so nobody will try anything.

Holy fuck the entire southeast is so fucked up. Why do i have to be stuck here?

[designatedbreadbox]

So this is goin' off of

this post, so this is like a continuation of sorts. Do note that I don't have any medical conditions, autism, I'm not deaf and none of my friends are blind. So if I portray something wrong/offensive, do correct me. :)

MC with ADHD? Lucifer will get the medication needed for you, as often as you need it if it isn't available in Devildom. If you don't take any meds? He can get you the perscribed ones if you want/need them. Fuck, he can even get you a diagnosis if you're country's healthcare system is shit.

MC in crutches? Can you go dowbln the stairs MC? If no, Mammon doesn't mind carrying you down; and don't worry about weight. He's a demon, his strength is bigger than yours. If you can go down stairs, that's great MC but he'll be at your side in case anything happens.

MC needs constant medical attention? Mammon will pay for it. End of discussion MC, he's paying and he doesn't mind one bit. Expensive medical bills mean shit when you're fuckin' rich.

MC in a wheelchair? So uh, about that....Satan has to get Diavolo's permission and call a company to install ramps as needed around campus. If you want, Satan can give you stickers to decorate it with; he swears he has some lying somewhere.

MC with autism? Levi gets excited to hear your vocal/physical (idk other name) stims; it means your happy with what's happening and that makes him happy.

100% Deaf MC? Fuck, well, Belphie doesn't know sign language but the only time he's awake for notes is if you need him to write them for you. This is assuming, of course, that you can't read lips.

100% mute MC? Same thing about the sign language thing but as long as you like the same stuff he does, Levi doesn't mind. Sucks that he can't hear your passionate rants without assistance, though.

100% blind MC? Asmo will help style your clothes if needed and will fight anyone ON SIGHT if they harass you in a way thst isn't physically.

MC with Tourette's? Lucifer worries about you having a tic attack but can and will excuse the swearing, should you have any.

Prosthetic limb MC? It it wasn't traumatizing, mind telling them what happened? Be warned! Asmo will exaggerate details.

[lost-it-all-forever]

Look, I get that America has a lot of issues. I I don't think the government gives much of a shit about anybody or anything but itself and the people who run it, even though a government SHOULD work and advocate for it's people. It's just filled with corruption and self interest. I also think this country has a gun problem and an unhealthy obsession with the military and law enforcement.

However

The amount of posts I've seen in the 5 minutes I've had this app open today saying stuff like ' All of the veterans should kill themselves' and a lot of other really disgusting and hateful stuff is kind of appalling.

I'm not saying you need to thank anybody or celebrate, but why do you have to go out of your way to be so hateful???

I swear everyday I see more and more people on both sides of politics get more and more hatful and more and more like each other.

Why???

It's disgusting and every other awful thing in the book when this kind of behavior comes form Group A towards Group B, but totally acceptable the other way around???

I mean seriously??

Don't get me wrong I think our military is GROSSLY over budgeted for and has a lot of corrupt or just generally awful people in it, but it also has people who felt stuck and only joined because they didn't know what else to do and can't wait until their contract is up so they can leave. Or the only reason they decided to join and stay in is because their spouse or child has serious medical needs that they couldn't afford (because our fucking healthcare is TRASH in this country) but the military will cover the costs. I know people like that.

I'm not sucking anyone's dick or thanking people for service, but I'm also not telling people to fucking kill themselves.

Grow up.

[asleepymonster]

The military fucking sucks, most people understand that. You can't dismantle a system just because you want the queers to not fucking join. Do you understand poverty? Do you understand that for some people the military is literally the only job they can get?

The military puts a roof over your head. They feed you, they pay you, they give you healthcare. For some people that's the only way to get those things, and when I was young queers COULDN'T get those things without going right back in the closet. Their partners couldn't live with them because they weren't allowed to have them. Do you understand what that fucking does to people? No, you fucking don't or you wouldn't be arguing this point.

Plus, as stated above, when you get out you have more opportunities as a veteran. Civilian military jobs are more open to you, general employers like to hire veterans. The military will pay for college even. I've had friends join because it was the only way for them to get a college education, queer friends who had to go right back in the closet and pretend their partners were friends who they sent money to so they could live. It's just a fact of life in this country and some people literally have no other choices. Except that was (and still is to some) closed to queer people, leaving us to die in and because of poverty.

I swear young people need to learn our history and understand that sometimes this is the only way in a country that values the military above all else. People want to live, would you rather them die? Would you rather them live in the closet separated from their partners and a community? Because the military isn't just going to stop killing poc just because the queers aren't there. It's just closing an opportunity that some people desperately need.

I'm not pro military, I hate what this country does to other countries, to individual people, to families. I don't WANT for people to have to join, but it is what it is and we need to have the opportunity to pull ourselves out of poverty. Understand that, have some goddamn empathy. This is a nuanced subject with no real resolution and we have to do the best we can do with what we're given.

From now on, every time someone calls gay marriage or gays in the military an "assimilationist" thing or an "assimilationist victory," they owe me $5. If they're under 35, they owe me $10.

[josukebisexual]

why are some radical leftists like “let’s just let Trump get elected to own the libs.” like maybe a shitty spineless establishment centrist is still slightly better than a fascist. YOUR MORAL SUPERIORITY OVER OUR SHITTY SYSTEM IS NOT GOOD “PRAXIS.”

Like WE KNOW Biden sucks. we know it and we all hate it. however Biden is not a fascist and trump quite literally is. And yeah the bar shouldn’t be THIS low. But it is. This is the result of a trump presidency.

idk how to put this nicely but right now... refusing to vote is an ineffective form of protest bc it’s literally making fascists (ie trumpians) happy.

im so sick of leftists i swear we’ll all just self destruct from the inside if this kind of infighting keeps up. im apathetic as hell and i can still see that not voting is unconscionable. why are we doing this again i cantttt

i might not be an anarchist but i sure am a socialist/commie ... dare i say: healthcare (during a deadly pandemic)? Racial justice? Reproductive rights? Education? Combatting climate change? LGBT rights?? Are all things that matter and im just frustrated that leftists have to keep fighting against each other. Why must this continue when we should be working together to fight fascism ???

If we can get trump out, we wont be complacent. we gotta keep fighting. obviously. but then we won’t have a FASCIST in the WHITE HOUSE. While thousands of ppl DIE EVERY DAY from covid. god. i hate this fucking country so goddamn much.

[demon-dance-club]

I posted 134 times in 2021

23 posts created (17%)

111 posts reblogged (83%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.8 posts.

I added 47 tags in 2021

#fer.al - 8 posts

#swearing cw - 8 posts

#feral wildworks - 7 posts

#wildworks - 6 posts

#caps tw - 4 posts

#genshin yanfei - 3 posts

#genshin scenery - 3 posts

#genshin screenshots - 3 posts

#genshin impact - 3 posts

#youtube - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 116 characters

#especially in countries where healthcare is free it’s pretty fucked the amount of stuff people still have to pay for

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Just saw the q force trailer and I regret to inform everyone that I am no longer attracted to men. I am attracted to everything but men. In fact I’m becoming one of those people who hate men. I am mhm now (men hating men). As I type this I am running away into the woods to hide from the world.

/j

BUT ALSO WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. I have two theories: the show actually sucks and was written by a team consisting of a straight 13 yo girl and a 50 yo straight man. Or: the show still sucks but it’s on purpose and the marketing team wants to exploit the power of hate watching.

Either way, don’t watch it whenever it comes out. Also I hope the queer voice actors are getting paid WELL for this. The straight actors,,,,idk the circumstances of their hiring but I sure hope they didn’t do it willingly cuz this is FUCKED UP.

Final thoughts: I would beat up the guy with drag makeup and a weirdly large mouth. On top of being stereotyped to hell and back he also ends up acting predatory and creepy towards the most “straight passing” guy of the group by making unsolicited comments about him. This is SO dangerous because it perpetuates one of the worst stereotypes about mlm: that we try to force ourselves on straight dudes.

Final thought 2: Also I’m confused as to why there seem to be two other dudes who are part of the “main group” but don’t get any lines?? My best guess is that they’re less “gay” as characters and that therefore they don’t have so many wild lines to show in the trailer.

Anyway if I’ve gotten anything wrong just let me know. I haven’t done much research or anything, I’m mostly going off what I saw in the trailer.

21 notes • Posted 2021-06-24 17:23:57 GMT

#4

At last, a worthy sequel to my good old free to play feral post, fresh picked from the latest discord announcement and once again deep fried for effect~

Allow me to introduce all the players who got softlocked by broken challenges :DDDD

28 notes • Posted 2021-07-17 01:40:16 GMT

#3

My serenitea pot is finished! Or the main island exterior at least. I'd add more but the furniture limit is ridiculously low hhhh Anyway just look at that view~

29 notes • Posted 2021-05-12 00:38:35 GMT

#2

About the goddam WW Crypto thing

I really should have known by now wildworks was unable to do anything right...If they go through with this shit I'm gonna riot fr, gimme my fucking 8$ back lmao.

Anyway, here are some of my concerns:

1. Where is all this money/staff coming from, and why can't it go towards games that are already in development??

WW can barely hold 3 games (or two and a half, let's be honest...feral is STILL IN BETA NEED I REMIND YOU) together right now, from what I know there's very little staff and not much money to go around. Feral was taking staff from AJ for a while, and now that they've been sent back to AJ there's supposedly no replacements being hired. That may be because there's no money, but also it's likely that they've been planning this for a while...still you'd think that Feral is a number one priority. Are they *trying* to kill it or what? Once Fer.al is more finished, they should be able to rake in more sweet sweet cash (cuz spoiler alert, many people like to play games that aren't broken), so why hold it back in favour of a new project?

2. The hypocrisy of making Animal Jam and then THIS???

This needs no explanation.

3. This was so obviously the wrong move?

If anyone at the top tier of WW knew SHIT about their demographic, which is honestly probably the exact opposite of crypto bros, they would know that literally no one wants this. This company is so shockingly out of touch, how could this possibly happen?? Massive boomer energy lmao, they really don't have a single person in a leadership role who could have said "yeah idk how that's gonna be received bestie" Also HELLO DID Y'ALL NOT SEE THE MASSIVE BACKLASH FROM THE COOKIE RUN FANDOM WHEN DEVSISTERS STARTED TALKING NFTS???

Aight that's all I got for now, we better fuck this company up until they back down.

36 notes • Posted 2021-11-27 22:01:54 GMT

#1

Following my last Whining About Fer.al Advertising post I would like to call bullshit on this line in particular thanks to the decal paywall and jelly quests in the new sp (deepfried for emphasis <3)

I truly hate seeing this game go to shit man ://

43 notes • Posted 2021-06-07 17:36:34 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[treehugginglibrarian]

Bob & Sally Are Not Friends

There have been a lot of calls on social media lately, in the form of blogs, memes, videos, and status updates, demanding that Trump supporters and not-Trump supporters put aside our pitch forks and learn to get along. Given the current political climate, and the fact that the more liberal sections of society are the ones doing the loudest protesting, it’s safe to say that most of these memes et al are probably not aimed at those supporting the President. Since many make references to “snowflakes” or encourage one side to “grow up,” two insults pretty routinely flung at minority factions who are busy stomping the streets attempting to ensure we don’t start losing rights we’ve worked literally decades to attain, it’s safe to assume that most of these memes are aimed at making the anti-Trump team get over their anger.

Here’s the thing, your memes aren’t working. You can shove stick figure Bob and Sally up your ass. If you voted for our current President, I may well tolerate you, but I’ll never accept you- a stance many Trump supporters should be quite comfortable with, since they’ve been applying it to minority populations their entire lives. I don’t forgive you. I probably never will. And for those of us who are suffering, or stand to suffer, under the current administration’s practices, your memes are doing nothing more than illustrating the same privilege that let you vote for him in the first place.

It’s super easy to look at a hostile political climate and scream “can’t everyone just get alone” when you stand to lose absolutely nothing. If you are a white, straight, cisgender, Christian human, this administration is going to take almost nothing from you. If you are male, on top of that, they are going to literally take nothing from you (except your healthcare, some of your finances, and possibly your job. Sucker). If you are not these things, there is a good chance that at some point during the duration of this administration, you are going to lose a right that has already been given to you, or you are going to find yourself staring down an extra decade without a right that you felt you were pretty close to securing.

Since I’m queer, I will use my queerness as an example to illustrate the overwhelming frustration that minority populations feel when Trump voters, or generally privileged populations, whine loudly that we need to just all get along.

All things considered, I’m a pretty privileged queer person. I live in a city that has anti-discrimination ordinances on the books. I work in a city with the same. Our capital is the second largest gay mecca in the country. My employer has incredibly stringent anti-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender presentation, and everyone at my place of employment is either very accepting or completely silent regarding their homophobia. My neighbors don’t harass my wife and I for being queer. I am, in general, pretty safe. I know how lucky I am, because I know how unfriendly spaces can be to queer people. Some of those spaces exist in my state which, despite locally granted protections, does not have a single state-wide protection granted to LGBTQ persons.

In my state, the state Constitution stipulated that marriage was for only a man and a woman up until three years ago, when the Supreme Court rule that this wasn’t okay. Because of that ruling, queers in my state are entitled to get married and are entitled to all the rights that come with that marriage, but they are entitled to absolutely nothing else. We can be fired for being queer. We can be denied housing, denied promotions, or asked to leave a business or public space, because we are queer. We can be told which bathrooms we are allowed to use, we can be denied the right to adopt just because we’re gay and, at times, we can even be denied medical treatment or other basic services. Since there are also absolutely no protections for sexual orientation built into federal law, excepting the right to marry, we have no recourse if we do not live in a space that has incorporated these rights and protections into their local laws or ordinances.

Thankfully, my state is one where cities and towns have been allowed to create their own local protections for queer people, since not all states are quite so… “kind.” North Carolina, for instance, all but went to war with itself when individual cities attempted to rebel against the hatred often espoused at the state level. The end result was a statewide “bathroom bill” that isn’t really abided by in a lot of more liberal spaces, but does a great job of making homophobes and transphobes feel like their views are valid and worthwhile. Indiana has had similar issues with Mike Pence’s religious freedom bill.

Telling a queer or trans person to suck it up and get along with a Trump supporter is, effectively, telling them to suck it up and get along with someone who is comfortable stripping them of their rights or allowing them to continue living in an environment where they have fewer rights than those who are straight or cisgender. Admittedly, not all Trump supporters voted for him because they hate gay people or because they want to see gay people oppressed or treated like shit. A vote for him, however, is an admittance that they don’t really care if gay people are oppressed or treated like shit, though. Trump told us exactly how he felt about the LGBTQ community when he selected Pence, possibly the most anti-LGBTQ politician in the country right now, as his Vice President. He told us how he felt about us when he acknowledged that, though he would be unlikely to work to overturn the Supreme Court decision allowing us to marry, he would have no trouble signing a national religious freedom bill, ensuring that those with a moral opposition to who I am as a human, never have to actually treat me like a human.

Bills like that are more than just “cake” and “flowers,” as anyone who is actually queer can tell you. A bill of that nature would guarantee that full rights under the law, for LBGTQ individuals, would never exist. All anyone who didn’t like us would ever have to do to legally discriminate against us, is claim that serving us is a violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs. Don’t want to serve gay people at your coffee shop? Claim we violate your religious beliefs. Don’t want us to go clothes shopping there? Claim our shopping method violates your religious beliefs. Don’t want to have to treat us in the emergency room? Claim that doing so violates your religious beliefs and, just like that, you’ve contributed to the death of yet another queer or trans person in America. Fuck the cake. Fuck the flowers. I want to know that if my house is on fire, the local fire department isn’t going to let it burn down because, “Ew, lesbians are  yucky,” and actually get away with that response.

If you voted for Trump, you might not personally light my house on fire, or kick me out of a coffee shop, or refuse to treat me if I’m sick, but you’re admitting that you don’t really care that much if these things happen to me. Because it was stated, clearly and repeatedly, that things like this were a possibility if he won, which meant you voted for him knowing that his election to office would probably hurt me and others like me. You don’t get to passively allow injury to another party out of some espoused indifference to their well-being, only to then get angry when the party in question decides that maybe you’re not actually their friend after all.

Now take this is and multiply it by every minority group in this country that is being negatively effected by this administration’s quest to do precisely what they said they would do while they were campaigning. Racism is rampant, with crosses being burned in yards and white supremacist rallies taking place all over the nation. There are literal Nazis in the streets, as evidenced by the fact that they are carrying Nazi flags and sporting Nazi regalia. Our nation is locking small immigrant children into detention centers and, even after swearing that they will get them back together with their parents, routinely failing to make that happen. Women may well lose the right to abortion and certain types of birth control with the inevitable appointment of another far-right, anti-Roe v. Wade, justice to the Supreme Court.

If you voted for Trump, you helped make this happen.

I’m not going to be mean to you about it. I’m not going to taunt you about the fact that you might not have healthcare anymore and, if you work in manufacturing or agriculture, there’s a real chance he’s going to kill your job instead of make you more money. I’m not going to point at you in public spaces and taunt “look everyone! A Trump supporter! Look upon the face of stupidity and evil!” But I’m also not going to make myself be friends with you and I’m not going to forgive you. It won’t matter how many times you call me childish. It won’t matter how many stupid fucking memes you make about Bob and Sally and their stick figure friendship.

At the end of the day, my well-being was not a factor in your overall decision making when you went to the polls. To that end, your well-being, specifically your desire to feel liked and appreciated, is of absolutely no concern to me. If you wanted me to like you, perhaps you should have cast a vote that implied that you like me. I deserve better from my friends. So do the black people in this country. So do the immigrants in this country. So do the young children this country is keeping in cages. I can’t make you realize that you need to care about other people, but until you figure out how I think you need to stop bitching that the very people you don’t care about, don’t really care about you, either.

So, no. Bob and Sally aren’t friends. And Bob’s just gonna have to get over it. It’s a concept he should be familiar with, since he probably spent the first six months after the election telling Sally precisely that. It sort of sucks when people you thought were your friends make it apparent that they don’t really like you, doesn’t it?

Now imagine that “sort of sucks” coming with a side of “no more civil rights.”

Fuck you, Bob.  

[xcalli0pe]

I'm so far beyond angry that I'm just laughing at this joke of a fucking country. So, I can join the army for the sole reason of getting a free education, and I'm a smart kid who is willing to sacrifice for my goals. But a trans person enlists for the military to pay for some of their medical needs, and they are suddenly a burden?????

Like do you have any idea how fucking unlikely it is that a trans person would just enlist for that? Like, first of all, being in the military just generally sucks. Not to mention the toxic fucking culture. Rape threats, sexual harassment, a climate that discourages getting help for mental health.

Second, the military literally has to bribe people to join. I literally negotiated stuff into my contract to reenlist. Part of that? Four thousand dollars. 4k for two years of me just being there, not doing anything. We need people so badly that we’re offering people thousands of dollars for their time, yet a trans person needing some fuckin hormones or something is all of a sudden too much. SMDH They pay for your school, you get great insurance benefits, VA loan later on, you know this isn't because they're being nice! I'll tell you a secret; NO ONE WANTS TO DO THIS SHITTY JOB.

My daughter sucks at breathing. I reenlisted to make sure she had healthcare for her asthma. Am I also a burden sucking away the resources with my shitty kid? No one sees it that way. This shit is no different.

So I legitimately don’t understand how a trans person could be a burden or disruption. I swear to GOD I am sick of this draft dodging shitlord making decisions for a military he never had the fucking guts to serve in.

FUCK

[tinyhatonapumpkin]

Funny story:

So we got our very own version of Trump up here; Doug Ford. He's in charge of Ontario. And for those who aren't aware: our healthcare is managed on the provincial level.

Anyway so within his first year in office, it was leaked that he had plans to privatize our healthcare. People were PISSED. And it showed.

He went from winning a majority government to at least three quarters of Ontarians hating him. Within a YEAR.

Oh and we have a federal election in October. 2 of the 3 major parties have adding pharmacare to our healthcare coverage as part of their platform (it's mandated on the federal level), with the party that gave us healthcare coverage in the first place (NDP) promising to expand it completely (adding dental, optical, mental health, etc. also). The Conservatives are tanking in the polls, no thanks to Ford's unpopularity in the most populated province in the country.

So yea. Canada LIKES our healthcare. It's clear in the stats. And in fact we want to add MORE healthcare coverage, not less. So how's that for some right wing bullshit?

Also ffs stop using Canada anyway we suck compared to the rest of the developed world. Mainly BECAUSE our healthcare system is most similar to your bullshit. But hopefully things go well in October (if you're Canadian and you don't vote NDP I swear to FUCK), but yea...

[howtonothatepeople2017-blog]

It's a New Day (Flash)

I didn’t want to watch the inauguration, but I felt a patriotic duty to watch the amazing and willing transition of power of a nation from a successful leader to the newly elected leader. It is so historically important since this nation has fought internally for control so many times. And interesting to me as there are so many countries in the world where the leader of the country stays in power until illness or death removes them. 

OK…That was me trying to be emotionless and non judgement and non partisan about this fucked up thing that is happening in our country today. 

If that was enough for you, just skip the rest of this entry. If you want my mildly filtered opinion, read the rest of this entry.

Why can’t the U.S. by like, say, the U.K.? Leave Barak Obama in office. He is young and smart and could lead this country forward for many years. It would be better for the economy to not have to move one huge family in and one small family out, and add another family to the lifetime Secret Service roster. It would be better for the environment if we didn’t kill trees for printed election materials every four years, and have cars and buses and planes and helicopters and trains transport candidates and reporters crisscrossing America every election cycle. It would be more soothing to our citizens to not have to worry about all of the changes a new leader might make. It would be less divisive to our population to not fight over whose side is in power. 

Ok, no political system is perfect. 

And I love that the oath that the President and Vice President take are only about 10 words different than the oath I took to serve in the Air Force. Stay with me, I am not so arrogant as to suggest my tiny military service compares to being POTUS. And I know there are more complex binding contracts to POTUS than what is televised during the inauguration. But seriously, at 18 I swore to defend this country and it’s citizens from enemies foreign and domestic; at 18! What did I know about the gravity of any of those words at 18? What does Donald Trump know about them today? 

As they wait for the official proceedings to start, I notice: Michelle Obama looks beautifully exhausted and disappointed. Melania Trump looks lost and confused. Barak Obama took that last walk out of the capital with his same swagger. Donald Trump can’t even bother to button his coat or smile. But, he got an evil grin during the swearing in part.

I can’t wait for the first 100 days. 

And, two important things just happened. Signs, you might call them. It started raining as soon as Donald Trump started talking. And I had a huge and urgent need to take a shit as soon as Donald Trump raised his right hand.  

Ok, I am supposed to be liking people. Sorry, my political ranting blog is still under construction. Liking people, Here we go. 

1. People all throughout this country’s history have fought hard so we can have basic human rights. And people will continue to fight. I am grateful for the people who continue to argue and stand up and sit in and fight for what is right. I am grateful that as a lesbian woman of color I have a job and a house and friends and family and feel safe and open and loved, and that I am not in prison or dead. 

Lesson: There are people who will continue to fight the good fight and take the hard road because it will make it better for us all. And more of them are activated to do this work every day. Thank you to all of those who braved the weather this weekend to walk for our rights in cities all over America, and most personally, thank you to my sister, Suzie Chapstick for going to the March in LA.

2. Rain is a sign of cleansing. I love rain. Really deeply love it. Rain is also a sign of luck and blessings. I was snarky earlier in the assessment about the rain starting as soon as President Trump started talking. I take back the snark and replace it with the hopeful blessing I believe rain to hold. Enough people of voting age believed that Donald Trump would “Make America Great Again”, that he is our new president. I choose this moment to believe that running the country with the thought to make America great is really what President Trump will try to do.

Lesson: The universe knows things. This is a new day and a new kind of president for America. Sometimes change is good. Words matter-I hope President Trump starts using them differently. Actions matter- let’s see what he will DO.

3. Nancy Pelosi has seen a lot, done a lot, spoken for the voiceless a lot, changed a lot. She has done this at a fearless pace, and she uses the quiet voice of wisdom. She has reached across the aisle and been the bigger person through some tough battles. (Which is a bit comedic cause she is a tiny framed woman). I had the privilege of working with her at the beginning of the Universal Healthcare movement, so I know I hold some bias. No one is perfect. But, I am trying to like people; oh wait, this isn’t about me. I meant, I know Nancy Pelosi isn’t perfect, but she sure turned an awkward moment into one of brevity during President Trump’s first official action. During today’s signing of his first orders, President Trump he didn’t know what to do with the pens. For the first several minutes, President Trump didn’t observe any of the pageantry of the pen. His VP, in probably his first act as VP, had to prompt the President to use a new pen for each page and gift it to someone. President Trump didn’t think about who should get or wanted which pen based on what he had signed with it, or who might be invested in whom. Speaker Paul Ryan pitched in to help remind people to recap the pens to avoid the ink stain of just shoving pen into suit jacket pocket. And as is her style, Nancy Pelosi reached across the aisle and gently suggested to President Trump who might want which pen. The mood in the room changed from tense, quiet and formal to a little raucous and humorous, but with a lot of pointed humor. Nancy got the pen used to sign Tom Price’s order. This caused laughter, and almost a reassignment of the pen. Trump offered the pen used on Elaine Chao’s order to Nancy Pelosi as if to appease her, he also offered her the pen used on Scott Pruit’s order. Nancy redirected the President as to protocol each time in a gentle and smart way. Lesson: Every situation contains a teachable moment and we often let them fly right by. Take time to teach and teach the whole lesson; even/especially if you find yourself teaching someone who holds views and opinions different than your own. Even if no one is watching. Words matter. Actions matter. Learn one, do one, teach one. Someday we will all be supremely omnipotent. 4. George Clooney called me this morning distraught about the inauguration. Sometimes he can’t even find the cloud, much less the silver lining. He talked about his personal fears- losing health insurance, the regression of LGBT rights and the possibility of economic recession impacting our business. It was a lot of big fear. I kept listening. I tried to say some comforting things, tried to redirect his thought train, asked him what he is grateful for and then tasked him to just focus on one tangible thing in his own world he could do/fix/change that might make him feel better. He decided he would plug in his new wifi router. He asked me how I could be so upbeat on a day like today. I assured him that I was taking my own advice by completing a blog entry for today. He asked me to read it to him and I protested because I hadn’t gotten to the list yet so, it was really an angry rant at that point. But I obliged. 

Lesson: (Relearned) When your people ask for help, give it to them; even though reading the angry post made me feel a bit like a failure in the liking of people. Letting your people see or hear you fail doesn’t hurt so bad. AND words matter. George didn’t know I could write coherently (that is being a little generous) he had only ever seen or heard me writing in a meeting, note taking, or strategy planning fashion. He now wants me to co-write his book with him. 

5. Global warming, over population, climate change, bad fishing and poaching practices all suck. This is not news to you, I am sure. I tell you this because today was Penguin Awareness Day. Penguins are all impacted by the things I listed that suck. Penguins are awesome, beautiful, magnificent creatures. I couldn’t find, in simple investigation, who came up with Penguin Awareness Day, but I am grateful that someone put in the effort for such a creation. 

Lesson: Awareness days are good. Penguins know how to use Facebook and have their own page for their appreciation day. Every person and creature should have the platform to tell their story and an audience to listen. Thank you for giving that platform to the penguins today. The rest of you…step on up to your platform, I am listening.