I'm glad you liked yesterday's photos. That may be the shortest blog post I've ever made! Honestly, it was borne of necessity -- I was running late for work and didn't have time to write. Today I was up early so my morning is a little more mellow.
Not that it's relaxing, exactly. Trump is continuing to drag us all along on his personal campaign of imaginary grievances, so the news is stressful. We all knew this period between election and inauguration would be bad, but I'm disappointed at the degree to which others seem to be supporting his charade. Dave has basically forbidden me from reading right-wing media because the commenters freak me out so much, with their calls for resistance and armed insurrection.
Even the Times freaks me out. Thomas Edsall set forth some sobering possibilities for the government in his most recent column. Don't read it before bed.
I don't want to dwell too much on all that. After all, beyond Trump's imaginary fraud claims, it's just "what if" speculation. But I find it terrifying to be in such uncharted waters. I'm hoping that Trump will realize that destabilizing the nation is bad for his business interests, and that might help him see the light. If he'll respond to anything, it's the almighty dollar.
A couple of days ago, a student checked a book out from our library called, "Could You Survive in a Dystopia?" It's billed as "an interactive doomsday adventure." I thought to myself, "Kid, we're living it!"
Our nasturtiums are still bravely plugging away, which is pretty impressive in mid-November.
Oh, and those foxglove seedlings I spent hours replanting on Sunday? Squirrels got into them and dug several of them up. Aaaargh!
Dave and I watched a fascinating documentary on Netflix called "Disclosure," which is one of those terrible one-word titles that are so in fashion now and that I can never remember. (I just had to look it up.) It's about the depiction of transgender people over the years in media. I never realized how many transgender characters we've seen, even incidentally, on television and in the movies -- and rarely have they been shown in a respectful light. I've mentioned before that one of my own childhood media scars came from seeing a gay character on "Barney Miller," a swishy guy who kept getting arrested for picking up men in the park. Well, "Barney Miller" surfaces here too, with a transgender character played for laughs. Some of those old shows were more problematic than we ever realized at the time.
We are living in it....
ReplyDeleteOur nasturtiums are still flowering like yours..just awaiting the first really hard frost
I'm impressed at how long they hang on!
DeleteThank you, Steve, for delivering a yellow once more.
ReplyDeleteNasturtiums, not least their greenery, are great in their simplicity. Alas, there was a time in my life (think women's shoulder pads and early Nineties) when I had not so much an ambition as a wish to feed the five thousand. Dinner parties. I am not the hostess with the mostest. I just like to satisfy. The stomach AND the eye. HA. Enter Nasturtiums, homegrown (naturally). All my dreams of decorating the decadent on the table came to nothing courtesy of blackfly. If I were the obsessive compulsive kind I'd probably devoted my life how to . . . I don't know . . . intervene in the food chain? Import Ladybirds? As was, I just let nature take its course. AND GAVE UP (on Nasturtiums). Eye Candy - lots of Eastern promise without delivering.
Next time I need a Nasturtium, unblackflied, can I borrow yours?
As to "Disclosure"(I'll watch it) and transgender. What I have taken away from one of my nephews and one of the Angel's friends that there appears huge confusion in their own minds as to where they feature on the spectrum of their sexuality and/or gender. And I have no idea how to help my nephew. He appears not to know (as we say in the motherland) whether he is "flesh or fish". Oddly, and this may stir controversy, it's precisely their predicaments which make me think that our sexuality should not only NOT define us but also NOT dominate us. What do I know? Nothing.
U
Oh, our nasturtiums have plenty of blackfly. They are definitely not suitable for dining-room use! "Flesh or fish" is a very bizarre expression -- don't fish have flesh?
DeleteYes, sorry it's "neither fish nor fowl" as I corrected somewhere below; as in "it neither swims nor flies". And therein dilemma lies. As humans we have an inbuilt need to know where we stand. No one wants to be left floundering.
DeleteU
Thanks for sharing some beauty. Looking back on those minorities that were only used for laughs is painful. But I’m glad SOME of us are wiser and kinder now. Feeling anxious most of the time. Always reassuring to know there are good people like you and Dave in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe embarrassing thing is, I found myself laughing at some of the old shows that are now seen as cringe-worthy. I guess I still have some dinosaur in me. :)
DeleteI read that Edsall column yesterday and I had a stomach ache after that. I had to close NY Times altogether. That was enough for one day. I wanted the election over so we could get on with this circus. Now we are in the circus and it's just as stressful. I wanted to slap Pompeo yesterday. That administration is so horrible. I want them gone.
ReplyDeleteThat Edsall column was brutal, wasn't it?! I'm feeling better about things now than I was a few days ago. Trump's grip appears to be slipping.
DeleteYou've given me a glimmer of hope with your thought that even the orange idiot might realize that destroying the nation could possibly be a bad thing for his business interests. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about the $$$$$$!
DeleteI should watch that documentary. I know quite a few transgendered people, as you know, and in partial answer to Ursula's comment, their sexuality is as varied as the the rest of the population's. Someday we'll get away from this bi-ordered thinking to accept that we are none of us fish nor fowl, no matter what some people would like to believe. And quite frankly, the term "fish nor fowl" is rather offensive to my ears when applied to human sexuality.
ReplyDeleteI cannot think about what's going on in the government. At this point, there being absolutely nothing I can do, I intend to just let those who CAN do something do it and trust in the process which after all, did manage to work quite well to get that piece of trash voted out. Now whether or not he wants to leave is another matter. I don't even believe that his thinking is clear enough to lead him to the logical conclusion that you made- that a more stable government is good for his bank account(s). Chinese and otherwise. He's just flat-out insane and of course those around him are standing on his invisible coat tails, hoping to be escorted into...what? It's all insane.
And also- was Corporal Klinger from MASH brought up?
DeleteInstead of focussing on whether "neither fish nor fowl" qualifies as "offensive" you, Ms Moon, might have addressed those two youngsters' confusion. One who - whilst fucking women (paid for) - wonders whether he is gay, my nephew who wonders whether he is a woman in a young man's body but doesn't know what to do about it. Or whether he should.
DeleteAs you say, sexuality may be varied. However, there is being SURE as in say, definitely hetero, defo gay, defo up for anything, defo a-sexual, defo give me a goat. And there are the ones - see above - who are in no (wo)man's land.
You mention "bi". From what I see bi is easy. The world is your man, the world is your woman. Talk about competition should you have the misfortune of falling for someone bi.
U
I do think most of the world is coming around to a "spectrum" idea of sexuality and sexual identity, which is much more accurate. There's a lot more flexibility in most people than we acknowledge even to ourselves, and I think we ought not to worry about labels so much. Your two young relatives, Ursula, might benefit from a conversation that helps them understand they don't need to strictly define themselves.
DeleteMy son is transgendered, Ursula. And I am not betraying him in any way by saying this here. He is out, out, OUT! And his sexual life is not my business nor has it ever been. It is quite possible to transgender and be gay. In that gender. I have learned so very, very much from him and from friends of his who have transgendered and one of the things I've learned is that the range of human sexuality is vast and it is neither our place nor our task to try and "help" anyone define their own.
DeleteI have been trying to avoid the daily news about the chaos unfolding in our country. I am holding on to some shred of hope that a few Senate Republicans will help usher this guy out of office without the doomed chaos we all fear.
ReplyDeleteOur nasturtiums are still blooming here. They made it through our 28 degree freeze the other day. We'll see what happens with the big rains coming soon.
Wow! I can't believe your nasturtiums hung on through that freeze!
DeleteIt really is scary right now. I'm trying to make myself believe that we knew it would happen this way, but theory is a little different than lived reality. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteExactly. We all knew he wouldn't go easily or willingly, but now that we're seeing it, it's angst-inducing.
DeleteThere are some horrible scenarios for Trump's last days. Transition is the least of the worries. What if...well I won't go there.
ReplyDeleteNo what ifs allowed! :)
DeleteIt is lovely to see your nasturtiums still blooming. ours were done in by a freeze a little over a week ago. It's been in the 60's almost every day since which has given more time for garden cleanup.
ReplyDeleteI share your anxiety and stress in this post election period. At first I was greatly relieved but now have such fear as to what Trump will try next. He cannot bear to less than the total focus of the news.
Fortunately I think he's losing his grip on his fellow Republicans, who are slowly turning against him.
DeleteWe're all terribly unsettled. The hardest thing of all to believe is how unresponsive the Republicans are to this crisis of leadership.
ReplyDeleteThey're all scared of their own constituents. They don't want to be seen as accommodating Biden, and thus open themselves up to a challenge from the right during their next election.
DeleteI am terrified and have to keep myself away from the news and the speculation. We already know that Trump has no ethics, morals, intelligence or common sense. But the rest of the GOP supporting him? They are heinous.
ReplyDeleteHe really IS the most amoral leader we've ever had -- utterly blind to his responsibilities to the country as a whole.
DeleteSteve before I go negative I will like to be positive for a few minutes. Your gender doesn't over ride the qualities in a person. I had two guys that lived behind me when I had moved back to Louisiana. One was a police officer and the other one was in the airforce station on barksdale airforce base. They were gay and my best friends. We went to the casinos, ate dinner, and back yard bbq. The only difference in us was I am a mixed race straight female and they were hispanic and caucasion gay males. But the quality of a person is not because of their gender or lifesytle. That's your business. I don't know you or Dave but just the way you blog your qualities are A+ to me. We seem to think a like and don't care how anyone else feel about how we think. But we do it respectful and say what we believe in. (laughing) Now here I go with that dam orange thing. It's really sad that a leader of the United States can be so ignorant and think everything should go his way. We believe in democracy and not dictatorship. If he didn't know, we have shown him. But Joe is the bigger person. He is moving on without his support. Now he is a leader and one that we need very bad.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about sexuality not defining personal qualities. There are plenty of good and bad people all along the gender and sexuality spectrum, I'm sure. (In fact, I hesitate to call anyone "good" or "bad" because for most of us that's a spectrum too -- except for a very few utterly sociopathic people, one of whom is our president!) I like the way Biden is moving on very calmly and methodically. He knows what the country needs now.
DeleteThanks for the "Disclosure" recommendation, Steve. I just finished The Queen's Gambit so I need something new to start.
ReplyDeleteTrump is certainly making himself look like a poor loser. How do people play golf with him? He is embarrassing himself to the whole world. The Republicans aren't doing themselves any favors either. Biden looks and acts so much more presidential already - cool, calm and collected - large and in charge!... Maybe I can come up with some more cliches but you know what I mean! :)
Unfortunately "Disclosure" is just a movie, so it will only fill one evening, but it's worth watching! We're watching "The Queen's Gambit" too. I bet Trump pays people to play golf with him! LOL
DeleteI read a long thread on twitter by some guy who 'knows' and he debunked the republicans idea and possible attempt to replace electors with ones who will ignore the popular vote of their state and vote for Trump. Ain't gonna happen. They don't really have the power to do that according to how the laws are written about who and how electors are appointed. my position is if Biden isn't worried, I'm not going to worry.
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