Humor?

I'm struggling to buoy my, usually rather muscular, sense of humor. First I lost my beloved Amazing Bob and then the orange shitstain is elected (by the electoral college NOT the popular vote!) president? AND the House and the Senate are in rapacious Republican hands?

How much fucking horror can a person take? Hells bells, even Ripley found a way to have fun despite being reincarnated as half human/half alien. If she can do it, so can I. Dammit. Maybe I should take up basketball?

Josh Billinson’s is the creator of the brilliant, much needed Biden memes. They're making me smile as we stand on the precipice of disaster. Thank you Josh!

Not funny but def helpful is the column by Masha Gessen in The New York Review of Books – Autocracy: Rules for Survival.
She addresses the absolute, stone fucking bullshit of the claim that we owe Trump&Co. an open mind, as though he was just another new prez who we might not fully agree with on all issues.

It was as though Donald Trump had not, in the course of his campaign, promised to deport US citizens, promised to create a system of surveillance targeted specifically at Muslim Americans, promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico, advocated war crimes, endorsed torture, and repeatedly threatened to jail Hillary Clinton herself. It was as though those statements and many more could be written off as so much campaign hyperbole and now that the campaign was over, Trump would be eager to become a regular, rule-abiding politician of the pre-Trump era.

Yup. There’s no reason on this good green earth, that we should do anything else but take him at his word. Pence and Ryan too.

Before the rules she explains that she has:

…lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now:

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says….
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.…
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you….

It took Putin a year to take over the Russian media and four years to dismantle its electoral system; the judiciary collapsed unnoticed. 

Rule #4: Be outraged…

If you follow Rule #1 and believe what the autocrat-elect is saying, you will not be surprised. But in the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room. Prepare yourself.

Rule #5: Don’t make compromises…
Rule #6: Remember the future….

Go read the whole column. It’s helpful – hard and desperately sad but helpful.

The New York Times has a piece up by Beppe Severgnini, What a Trump America Can Learn from a Berlusconi Italy

…we Italians are always eager to help our friends, and our experience with Mr. Berlusconi can indeed offer guidance. Because, after all, there are striking similarities between the two men, as Mr. Berlusconi admitted in an interview last Sunday.

Severgnini says "we survived Berlisconi, you'll survive Trump.” No, not all of us will. He sees them as similar BUT, with a GOP controlled house and senate, there's nothing to stop Trump and Pence’s fascist plans. Also too, Trump has access to nukes, Berlusconi did not.

Can I battle disaster with humor? That can’t be my only weapon but I gotta remember that mocking badinage is a major player in my arsenal of tricks.

Also too, here at the link are more Dems to watch, courtesy of transAtlantic mag. I need some motherfucking heroes AND more of Josh Billinson’s memes. NOW, dammit!