About Last Night

The long night view

Another sleepless night. By midnight I was suffering from a giant cuppycake craving. Naturally, with my perpetual diet, there were none in the house. Worse yet, bakeries aren’t open in the middle of the night either.

What is this – the bloody dark ages!?

Given the recent tax scam vote, it's clear that’s where the Republicans are steering our ship of state.

This latest grotesquerie, nothing more than an obscenely vile sop to their extremely wealthy greedheaded patrons, “would raise taxes on most individuals, especially in the middle and working classes, and add around 13 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured, all to pay for big cuts in corporate taxes."

One thing is clear, however: One way or another, the bill would hurt most Americans. The only big winners would be the wealthy — especially those who mainly collect income from their assets rather than working for a living — plus tax lawyers and accountants who would have a field day exploiting the many loopholes the legislation creates. (source)

Go to the links, all of ‘em – a real, honest to Bast economist explains this shit.

Will I lose my healthcare? I kinda need that shit, ya know. The monstrous sellouts of the “right” are headed for Social Security and Medicare cutting/killing next all to please their rapacious overlords. What about us – the people these fuckers were elected to serve? Clearly we’re just easily replaceable cogs in their machine. Our pain, our deaths mean fuck-all to them (oh but "thoughts and prayers" – they can say those meaningless words real good). Can we vote enough of these bastards out next year to make a difference? Will it be too late by then?

Fear, by the by, is a real good way to kill any hope of waltzing with Morpheus.

I finally gave up, turned on the light and read. Oni just loaned me Gary Gibson’s Stealing Light. It reminds me a bit of Scalzi’s Old Man's War series. Then Coco came to bed, wanting to play and snuggle. Good book, fab cat...the only thing missing was a carrot cuppycake (insert frowny face HERE!).

Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.
~ Isabel Allende, The Sum of Our Days: A Memoir

Damn straight Issy! Too bad I can’t just give in to the fear and hide out. I could curl up in my cozy corner, pet Coco, read escapist sci fi novels and eat solace giving cuppycakes. While I'm ignoring life, the world would resolve itself cleanly, beautifully and in my favor without me having to do a damn thing. Ah, such a sweet fantasy.

Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.
― Emma Donoghue, Room

This explains to me why friends and acquaintances have lauded my "bravery." I've never thought of myself as brave AT ALL. More, I'm a total chickenshit who has microscopic tolerance levels for assholes and no patience with my own frailties.

I get knocked down, but I get up again

You are never gonna keep me down

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
~ Marie Curie

I like that attitude. I still fear but learning more, coming to understand what it is that I'm afraid of, parsing the motherfucker down does dearly calm my storms.

Laughter is poison to fear.
~ George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

That and it's a raincoat. Laughter doesn't stop the storm but I'm protected from, mebbe, the worst of the deluge.

I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.
~ Woody Allen

And, finally, something that can be done, action suggested by a friend:

Keep resisting!

The Senate and House versions of the tax bill have significant differences: they have to reconcile those differences and both chambers have to vote again. If 11 GOP House reps change their votes, the bill can be defeated.

Here is the list of HR1-yes-voting reps most susceptible to pressure (because they're in Dem-leaning districts). If you're a voter in any of these districts, call, write, visit their offices, ring their doorbells, give them no peace because this thing is corruption incarnate.:
CA-4: McClintock
CA-10: Denham
CA-21: Valadao
CA-25: Knight
CA-39: Royce
CA-45: Walters
CO-06: Coffman
FL-26: Curbelo
FL-27: Ros-Lehtinen
IA-01: Blum
NY-22: Tenney
NY-24: Katko
OH-10: Turner
OH-14: Joyce
PA-06: Costello
PA-08: Fitzpatrick
PA-15: Dent
TX-23: Hurd
VA-10: Comstock
WA-03: Buetler
WA-08: Reichert