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A new challenge today:
The WordPress reader is only feeding me my own posts, meaning I had to hunt around for those I follow.
You never know if it’s something you did wrong or if this is the latest “improvement”.
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After such a black week in America , challenges are unwelcome.
It was always bound to be dark, following the inauguration, but it has been a tsunami of awfulness I was not prepared for.
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Believing that the Constitution will protect us is I think naive, considering the new president’s lack of respect for anything and the unwillingness of anyone to hold the man to account.
People in the media who dared to express opposition – in private – have lost their jobs.
So much for free speech.
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Clearly, this is not a good time to be gay in America.
Or Hispanic, even if you are an American citizen, apparently. If you look suspect, you’re likely to be detained.
– after someone snitches on you because they have been bullied into doing so.
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It remains to be seen how I personally will suffer under the new thugee government. No doubt it will come in economic terms.
But I have always been enraged by injustice and by corruption, no matter who it is directed at.
It is now rampant in the USA.
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There’s nothing I can do to fight it – I should calm myself, put it out of my mind and yes, maybe I should, but I am not convinced it it the right thing to do.
Someone has to protest and soon, before it becomes no longer safe to, which I believe will happen.
Anyone who lives here knows this, unless they are part of the seriously deluded who will learn all too soon.
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Those who live elsewhere obviously have a good idea that the USA is in serious turmoil and you must wonder how it is possible.
How did people who had every sort of freedom and benefit toss it away at the bidding of a failed businessman and reality TV star?
Indeed.
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What I want you to know is that it was taken from us by the narrowest margin, by people who were misinformed, and/or taken advantage of.
By billionaires.
And by an enormous number who simply did not bother to vote, who deserve much of the blame.
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We are not all stupid, ignorant, racist, homophobic, mean-spirited, nasty people.
Which is how it must seem.
Very well said, Carolyn.
The depth of your (righteous) despair is only heightened by the beauty and majesty of your photos. Breathe deep and hope that four years can pass without TOO MUCH damage.
Well, this is my third attempts to comment on your post! The depths of your despair is heightened by the beauty and majesty of your photos. Breathe deep. Maybe he can’t do too much damage in four years…
The other comment came through from “anonymous”. Have you received any of mine on your blog posts?
Ha ha! Well that’s me, totally anonymous. I don’t get comments from you on the site currently, but I very much look forward to your emails…
Their version of free speech is very different to the one we all know and understand. Outside the US, we are aware that the margin of victory was small, and just as many people detest Trump as admire him. But the population of America is very large, so the percentage of people who voted for Trump, who love Trump but didn’t vote, or sat at home because they wouldn’t vote for a black woman, that all amounts to a lot of people. People who are soon going to regret their ill-informed decisions and actions. But in the meantime they will divide America, perhaps irreparably.
Best wishes, Pete.
Indeed. If the election had gone the other way, the country would be in an uproar now, I have no doubt and I think many people were afraid and either voted for him or stayed home as a result but in the end I see a fight ahead – for no good reason.
Hi Pete – As far as I can see in the polling data there were four main reasons why Trump won. 1. Millions of Democrats did not turn out to vote or chose to vote Trump
2. The economy.
3. Immigration and
4. The Democrats support for cultural issues that are widely unpopular with both Republicans and Democrats.
I think that it was #4 that enabled Trump to gain ground with women, African Americans, Latinos and possibly why he won the majority of the Native American vote.
The reason Americans did not vote for Kamala has nothing to do with the color of her skin. First of all no one voted for her to be the nominee. She was installed by the Democrat Communist party. President Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote. If you would listen to a reputable news source you would know the truth. I am sure if you had a family member raped, tortured and murdered by illegal aliens you would have a different tune. The Democrats sole purpose is to ruin the United States. President Trump is putting America first. The ignorance of you and most of the comments are here is staggering.
You are not obligated to follow and if you have only nasty things to say, please go elsewhere.
Congratulations, by the way. You are the first nasty visitor I have had since I began in 2019. It figures it would be a Trump supporter.
So far he has not made any anti LGB moves. He has in fact hired gays and lesbians to important positions in the administration. (This does not mean of course that he – and certainly many of his supporters – would not like to roll back civil rights for LGB people.) the first executive Oder was very welcome as it clarified the difference between sex (material reality) and gender (an idea in the head) and that is helpful. The deliberate confusion between sex and gender in law and policy harms women, and opens women’s spaces, awards and sports to self-identified men.
And one other bright spot – he has dismissed the prosecution against the Texas hospital whistleblower DR. Ethan Haim.
That said – you are right – it is generally a dark time in so many other ways. i just want to at least see the brights spots when they appear in the darkness.
Yes, a good move although from what I understand he didn’t do any research (or his people didn’t), so according to the science, he has declared that everyone in this country is a woman. That aside, we must celebrate where we can.
That’s a distortion via the activists. Don’t as me to explain (!) but the world’s best evolutionary biologists such as Carole Hooven, Emma Hilton, Colin Wright and Zachary Elliot have all explained why this is nonsense and a willful misinterpretation.
What’s actually amusing though is to imagine that Trump has any understanding of any of it or that he cares about any of it. The Democrats gave him an open goal by supporting completely unscientific nonsense (people can change sex; children can be born in the wrong body; puberty blockers are safe and reversible; males belong in women’s sports, changing rooms, and prisons) that was widely unpopular with voters of both parties.
Trump took advantage of it. Poured money into campaign slogans, and won.
I fear that repercussions will be experienced worldwide, not just in America. What worries me is that so powerful a man clearly does not have the sense or knowledge to be doing what he is doing. Clearly, people and forces behind him are pulling the strings, which is frightening. I sincerely hope that world leaders do not just sit back and accept his stupidity and manage to rein in any actions that would do lasting harm.
On the issue of declaring that there are two sexes – male and female – I hope there are worldwide repercussions and a return to reality.
On many other issues, however, there is room for deep concern on the repercussions.
I think for years many people in South Africa also thought they weren’t going to vote because it wasn’t going to make a difference. Until those people decided last year that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all … and it, amazingly, made a big difference. This has led to a major shakeup in the current government, but alas, it does not seem to be to the benefit of the citizens. As you say, it’s hard to be positive in such dark times – and that’s why we spend so much time in nature, because there you find some peace for a turbulent mind.