Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    <scribbled by seanan Mon 18 Nov 24 11:09>
  

    
Honestly, not as much as I’d like. 

Now entering the “my friends are getting death threats” part of the
nonbinary trans experience in this new world. Makes a change from
physical and verbal micro-aggressions. 

I’ll stay in schools until the feds ban me on the grounds that my
presence is an implicit illicit education.

Being as helpful as possible in the disability, LGBTQ+, otherwise
Othered, trauma-related, and educational arenas, plus all the
mindful self-care offerings I can offer… That goes to activists, as
well. Many people are simply exhausted from years of struggle. 

All of that will have to slow somewhat whilst I re-re-reinvent
myself in a new field of income-generation and explore the possible
necessity of moving someplace where dying is not so likely an
immediate and unavoidable option. 

The crisis line work may continue. The mindful self-care work surely
will. Other work may have to be more subtly done. It will unfold. 

Thank you for this space. It has been good to read. 

Be safe and joyful in your world — you and all you love. 
  

    <scribbled by lperson Mon 18 Nov 24 11:25>
  

    
seanan, I'm so sorry you and your friends are dealing with this.

I'm focused on state and local elections coming up in 2025, many of
which are winnable.
  

    
One thing I'm considering how to do is help people build communities
online and possibly network those communities. Drive-by social media
won't cut it. We need ways to sustain authentic relationships online
and offline. The online part is what I know something about.

I think it'll be easier to understand what to do as we move forward
into the next four years. It's hard to know what the challenges will
be. The people who were elected said a lot of things about what
they'd do, but they're not known to be truthful, and they're not
known to have a clear understanding of what's actually doable.
  

    
I've been reaching out to electeds encouraging a principled
resistance. I recently asked the Jay Inslee and Tina Kotek accounts
to form an alliance with Gavin Newsom to coordinate strategies for
thwarting the incoming maladministration. A united west coast front
could prove influential, and there's actually quite a lot that
states can do to defy the federal government when it careens into
the ditch. I'm sure they'll get right on that. ;-)

Still weighing our GTFO backup strategy. Costa Rica has been our
Plan B for decades, but a lot has changed since COVID. We're
planning to go down in January to set up a soft landing, if needed,
although most likely we will continue to try to carve out a
congenial life in the deep blue bubble of the PNW. But we're five
minutes from the airport if we face a last flight to Lisbon
situation. Go bags and passports at the ready.

I'd like to suppose that the black bag security apparatus that works
out of those windowless buildings at Ft. Meade has some sort of
intervention strategy for this sort of thing. Those guys are all OG
Cold Warriors, and are not beguiled by the mango menace.

There's a photo of Bluto, BlutoJr, Musk, BobbyJr, and Mike Johnson
eating McDs on a plane. I can't help but think that an aviation
mishap could be the best possible thing that might happen. Surely
I'm not the only one.

In the meantime, I expect Eugene will remain a pretty durable
refuge. I don't foresee nazi swine marching in our streets, and if
they try, I expect they will meet an overwhelming
counterdemonstration. Eugene is where Antifa goes for R&R. 

My wheelhouse is songwriting, and I already have a number of
political songs in my oeuvre, but I expect to write more. It's not
much of a flex, but music hath charms. I've mostly written what I
call "12th step songs"; music about and supportive of recovery, and
I know it has reached people because they tell me so. You never know
when a lyric will turn someone around. As a nation, we're paralyzed
by an addiction to material comfort, which is driving a rapacious
ecocide and informing much of the rabid revanchism of the atavist
right. So I'll be writing more pointed critiques of the rentier
class and how it has swindled the disappointed dull normals into
inviting their own doom. The world has enough breakup songs; now we
need more meetup songs.
  

    
Like <only>, a renewed commitment to community online. But most of
my time continues to be focused on changing the local agendas -
housing as a priority here in MA, for starters. Also working on my
spiritual practice to stay grounded, and continued work with two
local-issue-focused social justice coalitions. Keeps me more honest
if I'm listening to the neighbors and trying to persuade them to be
more engaged, as opposed to folks in states far away, about whom I
know less.
  

    
Working to provide information and resources for people who need to
feel the country asap, for their own lives or their children’s. 
  

    
Sorry, FLEE the country. Nobody needs to feel the damn thunder g
right now. 
  

    
I give up. My keyboard hates me. 
  

    
My keyboard substituted <only> for <jonl>, so I feel your pain.
  

    
Like most of you I will continue to donate time and money where I
can. I do feel that hubby and I are in a fairly safe situation so my
main attention will be on maintaining my communities and my friends,
who are scattered around the country and around the world. Many of
them are likely to be in much more danger than I am, and I want to
stay aware and stay helpful.

As I've said, I've been an organizer most of my life, but
politically I feel much is going to depend on exactly =how= the shit
hits the fan. What damage is aimed at who, what resources are
available, what responses seem best...I will be in strategic
assessment and response for the next four years, assuming I live
that long.
  

    
I will also continue to help get out the vote and help via
<https://www.headcount.org>

I have also joined the leadership group after completing the basic
online courses with:
 <https://www.climaterealityproject.org/>
 and have joined to local hometown chapter.  
I'm looking forward to contributing locally on what can be done to
help curb the Green House effect, aka Global warming, aka, Climate
Change.
  

    
I may be in touch, Elizabeth. Beware my typos. 
  

    
Today is the last day of the conversation, according to Inkwell
formality. As always, participants are welcome to continue adding to
the discussion of they have more to say. Meanwhile thanks to all who
participated, and to <coiro> for leading the discussion. And kudos
to my co-host <emilyg> for putting this together.
  

    
I will continue to use my Spanish speaking skills to assist asylum
applicants to fill out forms in English, and to teach ESL to
Hispanic members of my community. I will do my best to facilitate
sanctuary housing for people threatened by ICE. 

I will also make political donations as much as I can

I will follow <echodog>s advise re affinity groups, and already have
a couple of mutual aid arrangements with a few high-profile at-risk
people I know, in case of armed confrontation with Proud Boy
Pigfuckers.

I currently feel like I will probably die pretty soon due to the
physiological ill-effects of anger, fear, and hatred of this evil
shithole of a country, but I hope that may attenuate at some point.
  

    
Folks may want to follow Insivisible's lead as they took up for the
coming effort.  This is a recording of their event to release their
new guide and plan.

~~~
Worth Fighting For: Indivisible’s Strategy for Fighting Trump 2.0

Our movement began as a means to stop the Trump agenda. We succeeded
and we will do it again.

Democracy is in grave peril but not lost. This election is
catastrophic, but democracy does not get decided in one election.
Had we won, democracy would not have been saved. After losing,
democracy isn’t gone.

We will come together. We will fight back. We will forge a path
forward.

<https://www.youtube.com/live/db-Pvqa5SQE?feature=shared>
  

    
Here's me, so far:

- As a journalist, I currently contribute to climate-centric
coverage of disinformation, the ad & PR industry, dark money
networks and more, as a contributing editor at DeSmog. Maybe I get
to continue doing this kind of work. (Can't make any assumptions
amid the overall collapse of the news industry.)

- OTOH, I am keeping my eyes open for some other form of employment
where my skills and experience could have impact in a different way.

- I am making a point of subscribing to several extremely varied
independent publications, to tangibly support free expression and
diverse voices in the media.

- I continue to volunteer with Women Do News, an org I co-founded
that aims to create and improve biographies of women journalists on
Wikipedia. 

- After a lifetime of seldom being a joiner, I've decided that I
need to find things to do locally that strengthen the community, and
my local community ties.

- I'm going to get outside more.
  

    

Speaking as an Inkwell co-host:

Please join me in thanking Angie Coiro for her superb leadership of
the conversation. Angie, I'm grateful you agreed to do this! 

When I first came up with the idea for an Inkwell election pop-up,
my assumptions were that it would take at least as long to call the
presidential election as in 2020, and the public sphere would be
really angry, frightening and frustrating during that time. 

What I proposed to Jon and David was to create an online venue where
we could break out of isolation, spend time with our invisible
friends  - even fraught friends - analyze news and events, and both
get and give support amid the stress and uncertainty.

Neither of the latter two things happened. Yet all of the rest did -
I think so, at least. Thank you all for participating. See you on
the WELL!
  

    
I will be joining an Indivisible group once I find one that suits me and
doibng whatever is deemed impiortant to do. Staying connected with Movement
Voter Project as well, and donating to what I can when I can.Will up the
letter writing priasing congresspeople and governers and such who try to
combat the evil.
  

    
I'm delving into Indivisible and Waging Non-Violence,looking for
opportunities to be an asset to the resistance. 

I may increase my local volunteerism, perhaps taking on a second
food bank shift, maybe just through the colder months when my other
activities are reduced.

I'll continue to direct my philanthropy to organizations that
reflect my values. I'll support candidates for national office that
I can get behind, but I think I'm coming to the point where
obsessing over what goes on in DC isn't healthy for me. I need to
find the balance point between awareness/engagement and debilitating
anxiety. That's a matter of self-care. It's right there with
attending to my health and fitness.
  

    
I will be there and advocate for my friends and others who are in
the target area. I will be ready to stand for the innocent. I will
continue to be openly liberal, and openly gay in an area that is 80
percent Trumplandia. 

I will not commiserate as much with my family who, Trump supporters
all, cannot see how their positions are hurtful -- and stick with
associating with my chosen family. 

I will try to stay polite when dealing with folks I do not agree
with -- but will call them to task. 

I will not anymore financially help my brother when he is hurt by
Trump policies, or makes one of his dumbfuck spending decisions. He
is into me for about 6000 already anyway, and I will never see it.

I will not obey in advance. 
  

    
And, thank you Angie and all who contributed. I was going to
scribble my small contributions here, but decide naw.... bring it if
anyone I know sees them.
  

    
Grateful to you, Dan, and to everyone who's been part of the
conversation. I'm especially happy to see all the plans to move
forward. 

Thanks, all, including the superb Inkwell team.
  

    
I'm doubling down on functioning at the local level.

Firearms and related safety training: I have NRA certifications for
firearms training, but I'm also getting certified by the Liberal Gun
Club (LGC) and looking at USCCA (corporate) training.  Also getting
the LLC and insurance needed to teach at private, member's only gun
clubs.  Starting the week before the election many of us started
getting similar email/calls that we did in 2016 -- I'm buying a
firearm and need some basic instruction.

Local educational efforts: I belong to a makerspace in a not-so-great
part of town and I can afford the financial hit of making 1/3 an hour
of my consulting rate if the payoff is helping people learn skills to
get jobs or start companies.  Our site is also working with teenagers
who want to learn the basics of things like digital fabrication tools
or running CNC embroidery machines.

The most interesting bit is discovering how many local business owners
of places where I shop or eat are very, very anti-Trump / anti-MAGA.
Makes me feel at least a little better when I shop there or tip my
server.  We'e also figured out which ones openly or not so openly
support the guy we didn't vote for and have stopped shopping there.

Thanks again to everyone who hosted and participated in this new style
topic.