...We were donating to groups on behalf of cages children and abused immigrants, showing up at airports to offer aid to Muslims, marching, voting, screaming. Joining with Black Lives Matter despite being white. This entire Spring and Summer Washington DC, Portland, and other cities were flooded with people of all colors protesting for BLM, enduring gas, beatings, and rubber bullets.

So no, “we” did not “let” them do any of the shit they did. Stop repeating that nonsense.

They had the Senate, the White House, and a malice like none we have ever seen before. They moved so fast it took my breath away.

Almost half this country seems to be really okay with authoritarianism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and school shootings. Fascism. That is really horrifying.

But more than half the country keeps voting Democratic. We have a severe problem getting our people into office — but we are the majority, and never forget that.

While I’m at it, may I point out that taking so much out of the Legislature and putting it up for direct popular vote (the “Propositions”) is a fricking stupid idea. We elect legislators to get into the details and legislate. Oh wait, we voted for term limits so just when an elected official is getting a good grasp on things, they get turfed out of office and like as not go find a job as a lobbyist.

My husband and I did what we always do: took all the recommendations from the Los Angeles Times (gravitas), the Santa Barbara Independent (liberal), and the League of Women Voters (impartial) and compared them. We looked at who is endorsing each Proposition: cui bono? We discuss it with each other.

The dialysis centers are a case in point. Prop 23 is something the Legislature should have hammered out, but it came up “from the people,” i.e. those who could raise enough money to get enough signatures on petitions. As near as we can tell, the bottom line is that trained sub-professionals are fully capable of running a modern dialysis center, and Prop 23 would have mandated that each one have an MD, NP, or PA on site. We are short of doctors, NPs, and PAs, and that would actually cause closures. You would not believe how many people are on dialysis to stay alive after their kidneys fail (often from the diabetes that is running rampant in the US).

But wait, there’s more. The Indy said vote Yes. The League of Women Voters was Neutral. The LA Times said they would not endorse because there was no evidence it would help patients, but was in fact being used improperly as a labor organizing tool. Say what? We ended up leaving the damn thing blank. We are pro-union as all get-out, but this is not the way to get there.

I’m not as grumpy as I sound just now & I didn’t mean to jump on you. This day when Joe Biden finally became the President-Elect has been emotionally exhausting, starting with tears and hyper-ventilation when I turned on the news early in the a.m., and ending with more tears watching Kamala and Joe speak in Delaware, and I have not slept well for 4 years anyway. Immediately after dinner I crashed on the couch and slept for 6 solid hours. My husband finally woke me up after 1 a.m. and suggested I go to actual bed. Now that I’ve done a few things, I will do that. It’s 3 a.m.

But first you, since you wrote this post. This should lead to the first page of the California section, 11-5-2020.

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?pubid=50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e&edid=30a5cd13-c5d1-42b1-9709-87a1488dbc9f&pnum=18

The first one is by Erika Smith, one of their Black columnists, and just kind of breaks my heart, as I suspect broke hers: “Facing who many of us are in Calif.”

The opening: in 2016, there were 4 million Californians who voted for Tump. In 2020, there were 4 million Californians who still voted for Trump, and they are a lot more diverse than you think. The closing: Biden keeps saying “This isn’t who we are.” But maybe, Erika Smith says: it is who we are.

Man, that just made me tear up to write. Tears running down my face. Like you, I am exhausted.

On the same page, by Gustavo Arellano, who as his name suggests is one of their Latino columnists: “Latino Trumpers? No surprise there.” I haven’t finished it yet, but it also looks like something we need to read.

That’s all I’ve got today. Thanks for your thoughtful post, as always.

...to see how badly wrong separation can go.

There are other countries where the “enemy” is your neighbor. Try Israel and Palestine. Have a look at Ireland during The Troubles. Everywhere there are examples of bloody conflict over land that can occur when people decide they can’t live together.

Seldom do we humans get a chance to just move on and start over in an empty land. It means leaving everything you know behind (house, property, farm, relatives) for one thing. But more importantly, no land is empty of other humans.

One of our foundational myths as Americans is that is how America was founded. The Pilgrims thought they could build a “New Jerusalem” — a perfect society. The pioneers thought the vast continent was empty and theirs for the taking. Too bad about those pesky Indians, though: they were here first.

My heart breaks at what we might become. But one thing is sure: we can’t partition our way out of it.

...but in scanning through the article, I feel like I am walking a maze not built for laymen.

I only know Melatonin as an OTC (over the counter) sleep aid, so bedtime use only and only as I remember.

So my questions are:
When to start? At onset of symptoms, onset of exposure, or prophylactically generally?
What dosage? My bottle is 5 mg, take one.
How many times a day?

Same questions about Zinc and D. Pretty damn sure I get enough D, as my doc started me on it several months ago: 50,000 units once a week. Zinc is part of my Calcium tablets.

Sorry to lay this on you! But you are the latest in a string of posters recommending supplements, and the only one I can recall who actually linked to a medical article, which I always appreciate. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

...on an election night. They had everything in place.

Then Ka-Boom.

I think it must have been like the local Sheriff getting ready for the university kids’ Halloween bash. You know, the one that got written up online last year.

Mutual aid from the next county over: check. All personnel present: Traffic cones: check. Road barriers: check. ID checkpoints: check. Hospital tent: check.

And then some *hole sets off a bomb.

DU was sabotaged and vandalized in 2016. Whoever did it tried to murder DU.

I can’t be the only one who remembers the info we were given by the Admins, once they repaired the damage and got the site back online. Yes, they went to the police. Yes, they went to the FBI. Yes, they have a lawyer. No, there is no more information forthcoming, on legal advice.

...you are going to spend a portion of every day cussing them out on posts online?

Yeah, that’ll help us Dems.

59% Biden to 36% Mad King —> Now you’re talking.

Men: be there or be square.

I have hardly dared hope.

...at all? You think the monks of the Spanish Inquisition paused while heating the instruments of torture?

The men who wrote the Constitution in the 18th century knew their European history: the entire continent (and offshore islands like Britain) was soaked in the blood of martyrs and supposed heretics.

They did not want a theocracy here.

Yet our other founding story does involve theocracy: the Pilgrims and Puritans explicitly came to found a new world based on the Bible. And this other founding story has never gone away.

He has hackers meddling in all 50 states. He has US Senators & Congressmen in his pocket. He has the POTUS, for the love of God. He knows our electronic voting systems. He knows our national electronic infrastructure.

At this point, missiles are for amateurs — they’re very expensive & they leave a mess.

I don’t think he necessarily wants our US territory as such. What he wants is to destabilize Western democracies into bickering little countries that can’t unite to oppose him.He wants the US weakened and irrelevant. He wants NATO gone. He wants the USSR back, under a modern name.

Trump is the most useful idiot in the entire history of useful idiots, but the groundwork was laid by men like Mitch McConnell long before he showed up in DC.

Well, it’s 2am here, so I think I better put the tablet away and try to sleep, having already had my nightmare, so to speak.