When there is trap set up for you in every corner of this town

[sovay]

So today I basically fell over and slept for most of the afternoon. Three days without sleep will do that to you. This must be the self-care half of the equation.

Tomorrow there is a protest of Trump's anti-Muslim executive order taking place at Copley Square and I will be there. It's early in the afternoon, so I figure I can make it and still get to the active bystanding workshop in the evening.

Trump's Muslim ban is unconstitutional. It is already being challenged by the ACLU. But it was already implemented by officials in U.S. and foreign airports. People have been turned away. People are being detained. Refugees, green card holders, foreign nationals with U.S. visas, original citizens of any of Trump's cherry-picked list of countries (carefully excluding his business interests) now traveling on visas of different countries entirely. People are behaving as though it is legal, as though it is right, as though it is business as usual—or maybe they think it's sketchy and it makes them feel weird, but they must be following their orders anyway, or there wouldn't be anyone in detention or anyone stranded, unable to come home. And I keep coming back to that. It is not a moral act to follow immoral orders. We fought that out sixty years ago, if it hadn't been clear before. Stop making Trump's fantasies a reality. They don't deserve to be.

There are protests at JFK and Logan Airport tonight and those are only the ones that have crossed my friendlist. I hope at other airports. I hope in front of the White House. Anybody going to one of those, stay safe.

This must be what it feels like when people say to one another, "We need to take our country back." What an interesting historical feeling.

[edit] I got home and heard about the nationwide emergency stay of Trump's ban. That is good. So is the list of states with protests. The news about Bannon is not good. The All Lives Matter-ing of the Holocaust, as my husband calls it, is also not so hot. But the other things are also true and they may make a difference yet. And Autolycus has not thrown up once so far today (don't make me a liar, little cat), and that is also a victory.

Comments

[sovay]

People keep telling me there's no way the Dems can take back the Senate, though, since all the contested Republican seats are in swing states -- apparently NV, UT, AZ, TX, NE, AL and one other state are all Republican, but there's 23 Dem seats up and the Republicans are going to try for IN, MO, MT, ND, WVA, FL, OH, PA, WI, and MI.

And there have been protests in all of those states since Trump took office. If we are still in this fight in 2018 (and I certainly hope either that we are or that it is unnecessary because Trump and his garbage cabinet are already gone), I suspect there will have been more since. It's been a week and it's awful. But it's been a week that has made a lot of people angry, including people who were cheering previously. (I wish I could find the photograph from the anti-abortion march in D.C. that showed women carrying anti-Trump signs, because they don't believe he's pro-life. That is hilarious and fucked and demonstrably true, if perhaps not according to their definition: but if they want him gone, too, they're allies.) People who were already against Trump are mobilizing fast. We just need to hang on to a functional enough democracy to vote out the Republicans who will throw in with him for self-interest. Remember: he lost the popular vote.

[kore]

the anti-abortion march in D.C. that showed women carrying anti-Trump signs, because they don't believe he's pro-life. That is hilarious and fucked and demonstrably true

HAH, OH MY. I think it's totally true! He doesn't strike me as any kind o religious person at all. (Pence does. Pence is scary. I don't think Pence would have Bannon doing foreign policy, tho. I hope not.)

We just need to hang on to a functional enough democracy to vote out the Republicans who will throw in with him for self-interest. Remember: he lost the popular vote.

Yeah, T says "Trump is starting where Nixon ended," and Nixon was re-elected with a big majority while Watergate was still being reported, I think, and wasn't tossed out til months and months later. ....still, two years. Jesus.

[sovay]

HAH, OH MY.

[edit] Found the sign!

(Pence does. Pence is scary. I don't think Pence would have Bannon doing foreign policy, tho. I hope not.)

I don't think Bannon is a Christian Dominionist, so, no, I don't think so, either.

The danger is that Pence will begin to look like a normal, healthy alternative to Trump's horror, whereas the best formulation I've seen of this choice is "Lawful Evil vs. [UNTRANSCRIBABLE CTHULHUIAN WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN]."

[dewline]

You are not alone in seeing things in those terms. Margaret Atwood does not want that particular book of hers turned into a "how-to" guide. By anyone.

[kore]

The danger is that Pence will begin to look like a normal, healthy alternative to Trump's horror, whereas the best formulation I've seen of this choice is "Lawful Evil vs. [UNTRANSCRIBABLE CTHULHUIAN WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN]."

SERIOUSLY. I mean, I realized if Ryan or Pence were in power right now, I would feel such relief, which then made me feel dirty.

[sovay]

I mean, I realized if Ryan or Pence were in power right now, I would feel such relief, which then made me feel dirty.

I appreciate the friend on Facebook who counseled, "We impeach Trump. And if Pence pulls the same shit, we impeach him too. It's not rocket science." Because removing Trump—and his cabinet—from office is the first critical step toward not winding up in the kind of dystopia we wouldn't even enjoy reading.