Weak sauce

This was not the week I wanted, to say the least.

The thing about the seven stages of grief is you can cram all of them into your outlook at once if you really commit yourself. And I really have committed myself since going to bed Tuesday night, knowing Kamala was cooked. The Senate was cooked. And the House will be cooked.

There’s A LOT of blame to go around. And I’ve literally been smoldering rage about it. Entertained moving to THE Netherlands (we’re going to say it like THE Ohio State University). Decided never venturing to a Red State ever again. Decided to tell all these fools to fuck right off.

But that’s not going to help.

A couple of weeks ago, Kathy Bates and Steven Colbert reintroduced me to the Litany Against Fear from Dune. It goes as follows:

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

I've spent a lot of time this week permitting my fear to pass over me and through me. To be sure, as a middle aged, 6 foot 5, straight, white, cis, “protestant” married guy with a fucking fantastic head of hair, I have less to fear from the next 2 to 200 years than most.

This week, “fear is the mind-killer” is the line that has stood out the most to me. I’ve been reading it as fear causes us to shut down our thinking and fire up our reacting. Lizard brain type of shit. And that is not what this situation requires.

We (and I am kind of using that term to mean Never Trumpers, Democrats, Liberals and Progressives fairly interchangeably) have to keep our heads. Well, first we must comfort and protect our most vulnerable populations. Reach out to those around you. Just say hi, if that’s all you got. I believe it was Ted Lasso that said, the only thing worse than being sad is being sad alone.

We must also above all comfort and protect our hope. We cannot fight the darkness with shadows. Hope and joy and glee are the only way. (that might be Ted Lasso, too.)

If calling Trump supporters racist, sexist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic defeated Trump, he would have been sent right back up that golden escalator in 2015. So we can safely cross that off the list of tactics.

Not only does it not work to defeat him, it serves two calcify his supporters. I know … I know … it’s not fair, that some of them get to say the most heinous things you can think of. They get to rub noses in it. It sucks, right? Kind of makes you not want to joint that side and give credit to any valid points they might ever stumble into making, right? Funny that.

I’ve long thought a winning, ethical, palatable political message is not “othering” groups and shouting about how “they” are taking advantage of the system. But instead is saying, “what we need is more taxpayers.” What we need is more people paying into this society. That prisoner you’re warehousing for 50 years for a low level drug charge? He’s costing you an average $115,000 a year in New York State (that’s a real number). That’s entirely wiping out the tax bill of 10 people making $100,000 a year. (I kind of made that number up, but you get the drift) As well as making him unlikely to contribute when he does get out.

That homeless fellow over there? He costs us an average of $36,000 a year in New York State (also the real number). That’s 3.6 entire tax bills from folks making $100,000 a year.

Make capitalists realize the untapped financial resources the system is robbing us of.

Our society needs the best of all of us. Our resistance is going to need to best of as many of us as we can cobble together. And they’re not coming along when we call them racist, sexist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic. They just aren't.

There’s an episode of Bluey where Chili tells Bingo to stop being cheeky. Bingo gets upset and says she’s not cheeky. Chili responds by saying, “I’m not saying you’re cheeky. I’m saying you’re being cheeky.”

Ironically, the episode is called “Bad Mood,” and being called cheeky sends Bingo off in a bad mood for the rest of the episode.

“I’m not calling you a fascist, I’m saying that policy your guy is proposing is fascist.”

Fascists are irredeemable. Fascist policies are fixable.

Also, there are so many promise circles that Trump is going to have to square that he’s about to be in trouble. Like deporting 40 percent of our agricultural workforce and handing 10 percent of the world’s wheat to Putin when everyone thinks food prices are too high. Good fucking luck with that mess you’ve made, buddy.

Oh yeah, I also got laid off on Monday. Banner week.

Saturday, November 9

10:00

Brentford - Bournemoth (Peacock)

Palace - Fulham (USA - Universo)

West Ham - Everton (Peacock)

Wolves - Southampton (Peacock)

12:30

Brighton - Man City (USA - Universo)

3:00

Liverpool - Aston Villa (Peacock)

Sunday, November 10

9:00

Man United - Leicester (Peacock)

Nottingham Forest - Newcastle (Peacock)

Spurs - Ipswich (Telemundo - USA)

11:30

Chelsea - Arsenal (Telemundo - USA)

Take care of yourself and each other.

-Colby