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I know some people who voted for Trump. Some friends, some relatives. I’ve also seen a lot of his supporters on TV, at his rallies and such, and argued with lots of them, both known and unknown to me, on Facebook.
Two things I’d like to say tonight. First, Hillary made a political mistake when she referred to his followers as “a basket of deplorables,” but not really a factual one. Sure, people had different reasons. I even know some seriously progressive people who voted for Trump, to turn over the apple cart, to shake up the system, and it’s sure as hell done that.
But, there are a hell of a lot of deplorable people among his supporters. As in, not all Trump voters are racist, but almost all of the racists voted for Trump.
He got about 25% of the vote in a country where 25% of the people believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and take the story of Noah and his ark literally, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same 25%.
The other thing is one particularly bizarre line of argument I’ve been hearing from some of them. “Give him a chance,” they say. “We didn’t go out and protest like this when Obama took office.” Seriously, I’ve heard that from more than one person. They seem to have forgotten all of the chairs (and worse) hung from trees, all the racist memes and misspelled signs, all the freaking out over his place of birth, his religion, and a dozen other trivial, and stupid things.
They apparently have the memory of a goldfish,and just as expansive a world view.

Hillary people just won’t give it up, everybody’s having a perfectly lovely conversation and there’s complete consensus that we all hate Donald Trump and they’ll say something like “Hillary got way more popular votes,” which must make them feel better or something, because it sure as hell doesn’t do anybody any good.
It’s as if they believe that if they whine enough, and find a credible enough scapegoat (No, the Russians did not cause Hillary to lose. Neither did the FBI, or Bernie Sanders – although we Berners may have had some effect) that somehow, their expectations of the universe will be restored and she will magically be the first lady president again, just like you imagined it.
One of her scapegoats, imho the most ridiculous of all, is the press. This is not just absurd and obviously unbelievable, it is ungrateful and classless on her part. The mainstream media did everything they could to get her elected. But, they blew it, too.
Chuck Todd came out with a humdinger of a statement today. I’m paraphrasing because I’m too lazy to flip screens and look up the exact quote, but it was something along the lines of “We didn’t want to report on how insanely unpopular Hillary was in the Midwest because we were afraid that would have been seen as sexist. In reality, we were seeing ‘Hillary for Prison’ signs all down the block.”
So, he’s basically admitting they didn’t do their job. If they’d done their jobs, we might have President Sanders today.
But, there I go, doing the same thing I accuse the Hillary supporters of doing.

So, here’s my compromise proposal: I will try not to mention it first, to keep positive, talk issues, and try to step back from this Hillary/Bernie argument which is getting us nowhere. BUT, if any of you Hillary people post shit, I’ll be right there, blazing away with my metaphorical six shooter.

And that is that.

What is impressing me (and I am using the ing form quite deliberately here, because this is happening right now)about the airport protests against Trump’s immigrant ban, is the speed with which it all happened.
I mean, yesterday, I hadn’t even heard of the ban, but he signed it and it went into effect and all of a sudden they are stopping people at the airport, people with perfectly valid Green Cards or legitimate visa – in other words, people who had every expectation of landing normally in the United States and being at their home or hotel with a couple of hours of that.
And the protests came, seemingly simultaneously, at JFK, and LAX, and DFW, and MIA, and I’m pretty sure in just about every American city whose airport has international flights. And they waved signs and chanted but they also brought lawyers, and they’ve got some of the detainees out, and the ACLU has brought lawsuits, and there have been court rulings against Trump’s executive order, which DHS is ignoring, and things are escalating, and then I see pouring into town squares, and it’s going to be a serious test of strength.
How did it happen so fast? Well, social media is ubiquitous, but how did so many people get to so many airports so fast? It’s impressive.
My theory is that something happened during the Women’s March, more in the organizing than in the actual doing, but there were a lot of people (this is just my theory, if anybody has more direct insight and disagrees with what I have to say, leave a comment) who found out they ENJOYED protesting, it feels good, maybe you run into some people you know, you vent your frustrations, you feel affirmation, it’s a social event.
I’m not criticizing anybody’s level of commitment, mind you, the fun is in finding like-minded people and expressing yourself, and these are very good things. That you’re fighting to save the world is the cherry on the cupcake.
So, there are a lot of people ready to move at the drop of a hat, pick up their signs from the front hall on the way out the door, and within minutes they’re connected to the movement, they are marching in the streets.
It’s an awesome network, and I hope it continues to expand.

O.K., time to start typing been stoned as hell most of the day and procrastinating, did get one cute, little poem written, right in the middle of a joint out on the balcony and the other interesting incident from that semi-excursion into the outside world was I looked down, over toward the parking lot that’s on our right, and there was a guy pissing against a tree.
It was a bit distant, I couldn’t make out details, but he was facing the tree, in that very recognizable stance. The thing that weirded me out about it is that I’ve probably peed against the same tree, I can’t think of any specific instances but we’ve lived here almost 15 years and it’s right beside the paper and plastic bins.
Anyway, the poem I’ve been meaning to write, the poem that I think will be good, and meaningful, is about how most of the matter in the universe is dark matter and yet, we can’t see it and it’s only theoretically there, like it has no mass or something, I don’t quite get that, but the point is, it’s an intangible, as are so many other, very important things: hope, curiosity, ambition, love, and also a lot of negative stuff but I want the poem to focus on the idea that hope, being an intangible item, just like the dark matter dispersed throughout the universe, imperceptible to human senses, is therefore indestructible, but the one that came out is just about everybody in the world being the same so we should all get along and it’s a perky little ditty so I’m pretty sure people will like it.
And which is more important, after all? Writing poems that mean stuff, or writing poems that people like?

Went to a street dance show tonight, but it wasn’t in the street, it was in a proper theater, that’s just the definition of the genre, and it doesn’t refer to nice, suburban streets with white picket fences, that’s for certain.
That’s the thing I don’t like about it. They’re trying to be all hood and stuff, twerking and throwing what’s supposed to look like gang signs, I think, it all doesn’t make much sense otherwise.
In one sense it’s sort of a family thing, there are little kids, Isabel isn’t even the youngest age group I don’t think, and there’s an over 40 group. Still, it’s a little bit Miss Sunshiney.
I’ve got no reason to complain, though. Isabel loves it, it’s good, healthy, physical exercise, and I’m sure the kids don’t think of it in those terms, and they probably don’t understand all the lyrics to those songs, hell, I don’t understand all the lyrics to those songs, but the words nigger, bitch, and motherfucker sort of jump out at you. I’m sure some of the older girls know.
I’m not sure if I’m bothered more by the language, in which case I feel myself slipping more and more into the mindset of the generation preceding my own, the sexual suggestiveness of the choreography, which is a judgment call and perhaps as indicative of the mindset of the beholder as anything else, or the casual racism/cultural appropriation , as between everybody on stage and all of us in the audience, I didn’t see one non-white face.
But, I might as well keep my opinion to myself on this one. The women of the family are not putting it up for a vote.