Darkness alone lights my way to another place

[sovay]

So it's snowing in Boston. It has been snowing in Boston since sometime early this morning, although it was only crisp and overcast when we had two blackouts last night. (One at half past midnight, one about two hours later. The cats rocketed through the darkened apartment, chasing flashlight beams. I wrote a poem by hand on legal paper by the artificial flicker of those little plastic tea lights that were all CVS was selling the last time we had a real blackout. I felt like a very hipster garret.) It's the fine dry kind that blows around a lot, so I have no idea of the total snowfall so far, but I can see about six inches piled on the ledge outside my office window and a fire hydrant down in the street looks drifted about halfway up. There's a shallow channel down the center where the occasional car can pass without spinning out its wheels, but the equally infrequent movement of heavily bundled people through the merrily spinning snow devils is still best described as "slogging."

This is some political stuff.

1. I could not leave a message for Governor Baker this afternoon because his mailbox was full, but I will try again tomorrow: I want to let him know that I appreciated his statement in support of Senator Warren. It may have been cautious, but it was still a party break and I am operating on a theory of positive reinforcement. Also, when he says, "I do find it hard to believe that a letter from Coretta Scott King would be out of order in any public place or space anywhere in the United States of America," I agree with him.

2. derspatchel came home last night and said, "So you heard Mitch McConnell gave Warren her campaign slogan." Works for me. Meanwhile, I like the damnatio memoriae suggestion—shared and expanded by Bernice A. King in the version I was linked—of strategically limiting use of the name of the man who currently occupies the Oval Office. I've already seen some people simply calling him "45." I assume that none of his unnecessarily crimefighting new executive orders will, in their investigation of international organized crime in America, look into things like the circumstances of his election and his relationship with Russia. I still can't believe I have to type that sentence. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is supposed to be a period piece. I feel quite sympathetic toward Raymond Shaw, anyway.

3. You may have seen this tweet about the reverse-applicability of the insult "snowflake." I'd heard Chuck Wendig's Fight Club (1996) claimed as the origin of the fragile-SJW connotations, but I had no idea the term was also Civil War-era Missouri slang for anti-abolitionists. Under those circumstances, perhaps we should use it to describe white nationalists and all who tacitly align themselves with their views. Like a president who signs an executive order prioritizing the prevention of crimes against police when the vast majority of police-related shooting deaths go the other way, a little Blue Lives Matter just in time for Black History Month. House Republicans who actively blocked a resolution to affirm that Jews were targeted in the Holocaust, I am also looking at you.

4. It's not that I contest the information, but the wording of the latest Harper's Weekly Review leaves me feeling that at least someone on their staff must listen to Welcome to Night Vale.

5. One of the foremost Hitler biographers of our generation weighs in on the current administration. Because I haven't read Ron Rosenbaum's Explaining Hitler (1998), I had not heard the story of the Munich Post and their decade-long refusal to normalize anything about Hitler's politics, tactics, or self-presentation. It's worth reading the article for their story alone. That said, I think Rosenbaum is wrong that we're dissolving back toward acceptance again. CNN, of all people, just declined to give Kellyanne Conway a platform for her fake news. When people I know talk about settling in for the long haul, they're not talking about ceasing to push back.

And since all of that raised my blood pressure, I am going to make dinner and see if I can watch a movie. I'd like to write about one. I haven't in too long.

[edit] Except I was just given some positive political news: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled to uphold the nationwide restraining order on the travel ban. Their full text of their ruling is here, if you would like to read some levelheaded application of law: "For the foregoing reasons, the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is DENIED." The Guardian has some continuing updates here, including Trump vowing to see the federal judges responsible in court, which strictly speaking he has already done and it didn't go well for him.

Comments

[kore]

It snowed here too! like, 2-3", which makes everyone on the east coast laugh, but typically February is very dark and rainy here. Not snowy.

Go CNN! Which I did not expect to type after the election! Not so great Conway and Trump both broke the law about federal employees endorsing products and won't get anything for it, though. sigh.

[sovay]

It snowed here too! like, 2-3", which makes everyone on the east coast laugh, but typically February is very dark and rainy here. Not snowy.

We went from a springlike sixty degrees to full nor'easter. As if we needed any more pertinent reminders that the climate is broke and we should be in full triage mode on it.

Go CNN! Which I did not expect to type after the election!

I know! It doesn't erase or necessarily mitigate the damage they may have done before, but I always enjoy seeing people or organizations start doing the right thing.

Hey, check out my update. It's good news.

[kore]

the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled to uphold the nationwide restraining order on the travel ban

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY

its provisions – which include a 90-day travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries, a 120-day freeze on admission of any refugees into the United States, as well as indefinite halt to admitting any refugees from Syria – cannot be enforced again as the legal battle moves forward.

That is excellent news.

Trump responds. The president is in full caps-lock mode: SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!

Ack.

Is he going to appeal? Do we know yet?

[dewline]

That he'll appeal is a foregone conclusion.

What else he'll do...I worry about the possibilities. Especially in the context of my country's Prime Minister visiting the White House next Monday.

[kore]

I just hope he doesn't attempt to enforce it despite the ruling (and I've already heard about border patrol types enforcing it when technically it was ILLEGAL and they couldn't), because I do think that really would be a Constitutional crisis and God knows what would happen.

I think I've hated batshit members of my actual family less than I hate Kellyanne Conway right now. argle.

[tree_and_leaf]

I've already seen some people simply calling him "45."

Someone on my flist keeps referring to him as [varying ridiculous noun beginning with a D] 'Twat', and while I sympathise - and am conscious that I'm not an American so am affected by him much less, I'm starting to wonder how long I can stand the misogynistic language. (Is it a common term in American usage? I had it in my head that it's a Britishism). 45 seems a better strategy to my mind.

[sovay]

(Is it a common term in American usage? I had it in my head that it's a Britishism).

I've heard it in the U.S. pretty much my entire life, but I think of it as strongly British. I would not have said it was in common usage until relatively recently; I also feel there's been a recent shift from the specifically sexual sense to the more generally derogatory, which may or may not reflect the way it's used in the UK. Is the person on your friendlist American?

45 seems a better strategy to my mind.

It's unambiguous and succinct.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, they're definitely American.

[genarti]

Is it a common term in American usage? I had it in my head that it's a Britishism.

For another data point: I also (as a US American) think of it as very much a Britishism. Certainly I've heard the term used, but either by Brits (or other Commonwealth folks with slang overlap) or by Americans in a consciously Here Is My Impression Of A Brit sort of context.

I've never been sure to what extent the insulting usage still carries the sexual meaning, or if the two have been somewhat divorced from each other in the minds of people who use it, the way many people seem to not actually think about anatomy when calling someone an asshole. But I would look to British folk to tell me about that if I wanted to actually investigate the question. I do wonder if perhaps your American flister has heard it used as an insult and doesn't realize, or doesn't fully realize, the misogynistic connotations? I don't know them in the slightest and have no idea, but I think it would be possible to miss that half, as a USAian.

[sovay]

Certainly I've heard the term used, but either by Brits (or other Commonwealth folks with slang overlap) or by Americans in a consciously Here Is My Impression Of A Brit sort of context.

I've actually encountered it used by Americans in the strictly sexual sense, but I can't right now think of any examples later than the 1980's. I don't know if that's significant. These days I definitely hear it more in the imported Britishism sense.

T(here was also the time Stephen Colbert in his pundit persona used it as the perfect active indicative of the verb "to tweet," but I'm pretty sure that was riffing off both senses. I believe it was when his character got a Twitter account.)

[dhampyresa]

Meanwhile, I like the damnatio memoriae suggestion
"Agent Orange" is what I use.

[sovay]

"Agent Orange" is what I use.

That's good.

[genarti]

"Agent Orange" is what I use.

I hear that one around! Also "the Cheeto" with or without an adjective attached.

[sovay]

I hear that one around! Also "the Cheeto" with or without an adjective attached.

Or "Cheeto" used as a descriptive, like "Cheeto Hitler."

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

:( I'm feeling how fragile things are, as epitomised in the blackouts, which for you are snow-related, and right now, today, are floods-related in Western Australia, and right now, these past weeks, have been heat-related in South Australia. (Really brutal heat - over 45 Celsius.)
Things are so close to breaking, and vicious, vicious idiots are still peddling lies and wrenching politics aside to protect their (huge, unimaginable) fortunes. Which sounds anti-Trump, but actually I'm thinking of Gina Rinehart, in my own country, reportedly bankrolling the formation of a new "political party" - and it'd take too long to unpack why I put that in quote marks, so I'll leave it there. :(

[sovay]

I'm feeling how fragile things are, as epitomised in the blackouts, which for you are snow-related, and right now, today, are floods-related in Western Australia, and right now, these past weeks, have been heat-related in South Australia. (Really brutal heat - over 45 Celsius.)

The day before the blizzard, the weather in Boston was in the sixties Fahrenheit. Balmy, springlike. I keep saying we broke the planet, but it's not really a joke. I think it's okay not to pretend things aren't fragile. I hope you and yours are all right.

Which sounds anti-Trump, but actually I'm thinking of Gina Rinehart, in my own country, reportedly bankrolling the formation of a new "political party" - and it'd take too long to unpack why I put that in quote marks, so I'll leave it there.

*hugs*

I hope your country does better with its vicious idiots than mine.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

"we broke the planet"

Yes, I feel this, and independently a friend in Hong Kong has said the same in those words, or rather, just "we broke it".

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

good ole Kellyanne is in getting into trouble for hawking Ivankas line of goods as a White House spokes person, whats that about violating the law to do so?

[sovay]

good ole Kellyanne is in getting into trouble for hawking Ivankas line of goods as a White House spokes person, whats that about violating the law to do so?

I've heard she's slipping out of favor (and that should not be a reasonable criterion for political office, as if the White House really were the court of the Sun King that its current occupant likes to fantasize) and I would be fine with it, so long as her successor continued to make it obvious how little idea this administration has of how to make anything sound convincing or real.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if this is where the idea started, but a week or two ago on The Daily Show Laurence Fishburne was being interviewed and in passing happened to refer to Trump as "45" several times. The host, Trevor Noah, who is South African, explained that "45" is slang for "penis" back home. I like the extra zing this gives to using 45 instead of his name.

[sovay]

The host, Trevor Noah, who is South African, explained that "45" is slang for "penis" back home. I like the extra zing this gives to using 45 instead of his name.

I am delighted. Perhaps it can be alternated with "Easy D."

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I've also been seeing "little d" which has all manner of disrespectful implications, but I worry that there's a rapper out there who shares this handle.

[sovay]

I've also been seeing "little d" which has all manner of disrespectful implications, but I worry that there's a rapper out there who shares this handle.

There is a Baby D, but not visibly a Little. I think we're good.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha! Excellent idea.