Hello again! It's time to vent

I have been struggling lately, and by “lately” I mean since January 20, 2017.  It seems like there is something new, appalling, despicable and, well, deplorable, coming out of Washington, D.C. every single day since this orange nightmare has washed over the United States.  I have watched as the country I love gets systematically dismantled and the Congressional leaders do nothing to maintain the checks and balances put into place by her Founders.  They have given unchecked power to a man who has the moral and intellectual capacity of a slug (which is, I realize, extremely offensive to slugs the world over). He is a corrupt con man who is financially benefiting from his position of power.  It would all be funny if only it wasn’t so tragic. 

I haven’t written much since this jackass took office because, in all honesty, I haven’t had words for it all. Each time I sit down to write, my brain goes into overdrive, smoke starts coming out of my ears, my anxiety level goes through the roof and nothing intelligible makes it to the page. It looks more like *&)*&*(^@^%$%$##!))(*#&$@^*&^!%!!!!!!!, than substance.  To make matters worse, each day he does something new to make me scream to the heavens, “Dear god, what the fuck is wrong with him?!”  Maybe my real quandary is how can I possibly keep up with the new bullshit he does on a daily basis? 

Throughout his presidential campaign, especially after the Access Hollywood tape was released, I had to stop watching coverage of his campaign, and in some instances stop watching the news altogether.  I have grown up watching the news. I have grown up with this inherent need to know what is going on in the world.  My cell phone has more news apps (Washington Post, NPR, CNN, ABC News, Huffington Post, and a few others) on it than any other app.  For me to forego watching or reading the news goes against everything in my DNA.  When the Access Hollywood tape was released, however, his statements started triggering flashbacks to being raped and sexually harassed and started triggering PTSD episodes. Never in my wildest dreams did I think watching coverage of a political campaign would do that to me.  When it became apparent that election night was not going to go our way, I began to shake and sob uncontrollably.  I realized that the next four years were going to be a free for all attack on women’s rights, especially the right to determine our own reproductive decisions.  Then I did something I have never done; I went to bed before a presidential election was called.  I couldn’t watch it anymore.  I felt scared, sick and completely dejected. If nothing else, this last year and a half has proven that I had valid reasons to feel this way. 

The Pussy Grabber-in-Chief has just nominated a second Supreme Court Justice.  He is trying to stack the deck not only with people who are interested in overturning Roe v. Wade, but with people who will side with him should the question of whether he can pardon himself ever come before the Court. These things terrify me.  I thought I knew what I would do if I was in the situation I found myself in 6 years ago – pregnant as a result of rape.  I never thought that I would be able to go through with it.  I always thought I would exercise my right to get an abortion.  Actually being in that situation, though, was a whole different ball game.  While I had decided to carry my pregnancy to term and keep my son, knowing that abortion was an option made the panic a bit easier to take.  It is certainly not something that I would want some backward thinking, male politician to decide for me, simply because abortion goes against his beliefs.  When I miscarried, adding to the pain of it all was the massive conflict I had ripping through my core beliefs.  I had to come to terms with the understanding that, while I don’t believe life begins at conception and logically I was mourning a collection of cells, on an emotional level I was mourning the possibilities of Gabriel.  I was mourning what could have been.  I was mourning the loss of motherhood, which was something I always thought I wanted, and on some level still want, just not in the same way.  No government should dictate how a woman cares for her own body.  No government should legislate a women’s reproductive health and rights.  If a woman gets pregnant, especially through rape or incest, the option to terminate that pregnancy should be on the table.  If you disagree with abortion, it is your right now to have one. However, please think about this question:  Would force your daughter, sister, niece, or granddaughter to go through with a pregnancy if she had been raped?  Would you force the woman in your life to deal with the trauma of rape every single day while she has to watch her body change in ways that she did not consent to allowing?  Trump has made no mistake about declaring his intentions to stack the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.  If that happens, what’s next, declaring the birth control pill illegal?

These last few months have been heartbreaking, as we have all witnessed, thanks to the nightly news, children in cages after they were ripped away from their parents, whose crime was seeking asylum.  We have witnessed the President of the United States stand next to Vladimir Putin, turn on the United States and our intelligence community, all while heaping praise on the brutal Russian dictator.  We have seen him threaten nuclear war with North Korea and, most recently, Iran through his late night/early morning tweets.  He attacks our most basic freedoms, free speech and the free press, simply because the media dares to tell the truth about him.  We have witnessed him explode like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum because his fragile ego can’t stand even the slightest bit of criticism.  Our only saving grace is that the media is fighting back.  They are calling him out on his lies and his motives for the lies. 

The Orange Nightmare is becoming more and more erratic and unhinged.  He needs to understand that we will not remain silent as he tries to dismantle this country.  We will stand up for our Constitutional rights.  We will show him that he is not a king.  He cannot bully us, nor the rest of the world.  We will not put up with being threatened, nor be beaten into submission.  We will not sit by as he tries to lay the groundwork for explaining away a Blue Wave in the November mid-terms elections, by shouting on Twitter that Russia is now working for the Democrats.  We know that this is only him trying to chum up the waters in case he gets trounced in the mid-terms, so he can make an erroneous case for decertifying the elections.  We will not stand by and let him do this.  We will take our democracy back!  Our best course of action to do this is to vote. The mid-term elections in November are crucial.  Everyone who is eligible to do so must get out to vote!  It takes a few minutes of your time. We cannot continue on this path without major course correction. Voting out the Republican Congressional majority in November and voting out Trump/Pence in November 2020 is the only true way to “Make American Great Again”.