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Does anyone else sit with an almost subconscious belief that yes, this nightmare will end—and then, for years to come, information will be uncovered about what was happening in and around this administration for over a decade and it will be more horrifying and unhinged than anything we can imagine?

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group of people in red cap and blue jacket
Photo by David Todd McCarty on Unsplash

Ignorance is not a compelling argument at this point.

We’ve all heard the theories for the last ten years: people still supporting Donald Trump are unwitting victims of the partisan media and Evangelical alternate reality that they’ve been raised in and are still captives of. They’re continually surrounded
by fake news and endless conspiracy, and so they aren’t bad people; they just aren’t seeing what we are seeing, and we need all to be more understanding.

We’re a decade into this madness. This just isn’t acceptable anymore.

There isn’t a sufficient excuse for being an adult so sheltered from facts and so truth-deprived that you can’t see Trump’s complete sociopathy and you can’t discern the existential threat he and his party are to this nation.

His supporters aren’t being asked to dig beneath some complex, brilliantly crafted ruse perpetrated by Conservative media and religious conglomerates working in concert. If you can read Trump’s own social media feed or listen to the bile he spews in front of the cameras at female reporters and political opponents, and not be fully disgusted to the point of vomiting, you aren’t a reasonable human being. Either that, or you are willingly choosing to engage in wild intellectual and theological gymnastics to avoid a reality that makes you uncomfortable, intentionally avoiding some really vile stuff that he and his collaborators aren’t even attempting to conceal anymore.

I’m fully convinced that nearly everyone still supporting Donald Trump knows he is a reprehensible human being and guilty of high crimes against this nation, but they simply can’t admit to themselves or anyone else they made a mistake, and so they are doubling down again and again.

They’re not stupid; they’re just willing to let America die on the altar of their pride, which may be far worse.

Being an adult means being responsible for ferreting out what is real and what isn’t, and for making good decisions with the available information. This is what we demand from our children, isn’t it? We only let their ignorance be an excuse for so long, and then we remove that option because we expect them to be smarter than that at some point. And if we realize that they are smart enough to know better, then it becomes an indictment of their character.

If grown men and women aren’t willing or able to sift information and choose wisely because of their media choices or their circle of friends or their mental effort, the
net result is the same: they are enabling and protecting reprehensible behavior that places people in great danger.

If Fox News creates your reality, you’re going to be hateful toward lots of people. You’re going to be afraid of Muslims, LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of color, refugees—and on and on and on. And if you’ve been on the planet for a few decades, you should have developed the critical thinking not to allow a network that brokers in fantasy and fiction to be your baseline for truth. That’s a youproblem.

If The Religious Right defines for you what it means to be a Christian, your Christianity is going to look nothing like the actual teachings of Christ. It’s going to be an angry, violent thing devoid of compassion and gentleness. That isn’t your preacher’s fault, and it isn’t Franklin Graham’s fault, and it isn’t the Devil’s fault. As a thinking Christian who supposedly reads the words of Jesus and reflects on them regularly—you should see through this sham in a hot minute and soundly reject it.

If the brazen, unapologetic racism and xenophobia and misogyny on display right now is too subtle for your sensibilities, and if Nazis marching through town squares, supremacist politicians, and election interference fall beneath your radar, you either intentionally have your head in the sand or it isn’t on straight to begin with—and either is a problem.

Many of my white Evangelical friends supporting Trump aren’t as much stupid or unaware as they are cowardly. They held their noses in 2016, voted in anger or haste or error, and then quickly got out of the politics business, choosing to escape the consequences of their decision on other people. So Newsmax and the Conservative Christian Church have become convenient places of sanctuary for people with privilege wanting to hide from the results of their vote.

Again, they aren’t ignorant of reality; they just are opting out of it altogether. If it is stupidity, the affliction is highly selective, extremely localized, and very convenient. And if that’s the case, are we supposed to expect in year eleven or twelve they’re going finally have a magical epiphany and part with him?

It’s time we stopped giving adult human beings the benefit of the doubt, simply because we think they’re not smart enough not to be fooled by religious shysters, fake news peddlers, and political snake oil salesmen. If that is true, then they’re also not smart or mentally available enough to be presented with objective data or compelling arguments and to filter them responsibly. They are, practically speaking, unreachable with rational measures.

I’m tired of having to treat people like children when they aren’t capable or willing to see what even a child can see, what my children can see. They know hatred and bullying without needing to read a think piece or do online research or unpack layers of religion and history.

I’m over justifying bigotry and racism and the horrible stuff happening in the country, and giving people who perpetuate it a pass because they supposedly don’t realize they’re supporting a monster—when most of the watching world seems to get it.

In a time when information is available at our fingertips and when conversation and study and exploration are limitless, I’m through excusing supposed adults for not being able to make a decision that is based in reality, simply because they’re in some hateful, self-righteous, nationalistic bubble. That’s their fault, not ours.

I don’t hate these people, but I’m also not going to coddle them and encourage their ignorance anymore because lots of people are damaged when that happens.

Sooner or later we adults all have to own our supposed stupidity–and choose to be wiser

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Afternoon Ambient

Loscil – Endless Falls (2009)

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Nice

For Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Gillespie, the Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury⁠ would design a French Norman Revival-influenced cottage with a striking resemblance to their earlier commission for interior designer George S. Hunt. Both homes have similar floor plans, with the Gillespie residence having an additional first floor bedroom and slightly larger service quarters. ⁠
⁠
As always, I’m a big fan of the home’s tall, impossibly pitched roof bookended by two chimneys, and it’s clean-lined exterior, which lends the romance of the Norman countryside to sunny Pasadena.⁠
⁠
Project: Residence of Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Gillespie, 1927⁠
Architect: Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury⁠
Location: Pasadena, California⁠
Source: House Beautiful⁠

[source]

It does need a publicly-accessible half bath for guests. I would also punch through from the Kitchen to the Living Room to facilitate better circulation during gatherings. I would put French doors from the Dining Room to the outside where a beautiful lattice-roofed stone terrace could be built. Same goes for the Sun Room that would make a beautiful Office leading outside to a side terrace.

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So Many Possibilities…

I would’ve put a huge skylight over that central area, but that’s just me…

Minimalist design. 13×13 House by ARKRAFT 
287 m² San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, Mexico
Photograph Hector Pineda.

Casa 13×13 is a single-family home located in San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, that explores how a clear geometric organization and an introspective spatial strategy can generate a rich domestic experience within a compact scale.
The house is structured around a central open-air void that functions as a courtyard, allowing natural light and ventilation, as well as establishing visual connections between the different levels. This void acts as the main spatial organizer, connecting the circulation areas, social spaces, and private areas.The architecture is defined by a restrained material palette and a precise spatial sequence that prioritizes clarity and continuity between spaces. Instead of relying on large openings to the exterior, the house is oriented inwards, using the courtyard as a controlled space for daily use and environmental connection.
Casa 13×13 proposes an alternative for contemporary urban housing, demonstrating how a rigorous spatial organization can lead to a serene and consistent domestic architecture.

[source]

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So. Much. Pearl. Clutching.

on Sunday, Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff delivered a barn-burner of a speech, in which he ripped Preznit Fuckwit several new ones, for being the incompetent imbecile who lied our country into an unwinnable war against Iran, and for being the callous toad who is ignoring the plight of the five thousand sailors trapped aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

but all that was lost on the MAGAverse, because there were three words toward the end of Ossoff’s speech that caused every Republican to immediately shit a massive, white-hot brick and explode into paroxysms of performative outrage.

“he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

that’s right, Jon Ossoff went there. he brought up the weird stalker-slash-diaper-nurse who is now Dear Leader’s constant companion.

once those three words — ‘travel with Natalie’ — escaped Ossoff’s lips, the entire Donnyverse clutched their pearls and collapsed onto their fainting couches.

oh my good, how dare Jon Ossoff say such a mean thing!

I’m looking straight at you, Tim Murtaugh.

Jon @ossoff subjects an innocent female staffer, a bone cancer survivor who credits President Trump’s Right to Try legislation for saving her life, to the oldest and most vulgar innuendo there is, simply because she’s at work seemingly all the time. Ossoff should apologize.

oh dear, can someone get in here and see if they can revive Tim?

what on earth is Tim Murtaugh talking about? what ‘vulgar innuendo’? all Ossoff did was to accurately describe the situation. Diaper Nurse Natalie travels with Dear Leader. not a day goes by that the two of them aren’t photographed together. to point that out is not ‘innuendo.’

who even knew that Ari Fleischer was still a thing?

I never really knew what to think about Ossoff. He seemed a backbencher who played it safe. Now I see he’s a bottom feeder. Who does this and holds their head high? Who accuses women of behaving like that because he doesn’t like their boss. This guy should be ashamed.

whoa, whoa, slow the fuck down there, Ari. show us on the doll where Ossoff accused Natalie of ‘behaving like that’.

like what?

it’s pretty weird how every Republican immediately interpreted ‘travel together’ to mean that Donny and Nattie are getting it on, isn’t it? this sounds like another one of those ‘every accusation is a confession’ things again, doesn’t it? 

that’s because it is. Republicans have eyes. they can see what’s going on.

they know how bad this looks, President Pussygrabber swanning around with some blonde half his age, while his Slovenian green-card rent-a-wife is nowhere to be seen.

look, it’s not Jon Ossoff’s fault that Donny immediately falls for any woman who reminds him of the daughter he want to quote-unquote ‘date,’ if that’s what we’re charitably going to call it. this shit happens over and over. remember the Presidential Pants Steamer, Hope Hicks, who was right by his side throughout his first term?

his own handlers have been trying to minimize Natty’s contact with Dear Leader since forever. here’s what the NY Times reported almost two years ago.

This has generated concern among other aides who feel she has been far too willing to serve as a funnel for conspiratorial information at a moment when Mr. Trump appears more contemptuous than ever of attempts to manage or control him.

but Donny keeps overruling them.

Mr. Trump has dismissed concerns about Ms. Harp, whom he calls “sweetie” and treats like a daughter, according to people close to him.

and we all know how Donny treats his daughter.

but somehow, this is all Jon Ossoff’s fault — and so the entire wingnut outrage-industrial complex has risen up as one to demand that Ossoff apologize.

Yes @ossoff should apologize and he should get beaten in November. He’s a ridiculous caricature of a senator and far too left wing for Georgia. And a mean-spirited jerk who traffics in slander as well.

oh, please. Jon Ossoff ‘traffics in slander’?

has Hugh Hewitt ever met the current president of the United States? has he met the president’s Director of Communications?

Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country. It’s because he’s a radical, extremist Dumocrat.

who even talks like this? I swear, everyone in the Donnyverse operates on the emotional level of a 14-year-old boy.

all this performative outrage over something Jon Ossoff never actually said is just a distraction — just more red meat for the cultists, to make them forget for a day that Donny has made their lives measurably worse in every way.

Jon Ossoff apologize? piss straight up a rope, pal. it’s Donny who should apologize, for fucking America straight into the shitter.

it’s Donny who should apologize for destroying Joe Biden’s strong economy.

it’s Donny who should apologize for enriching himself while in office.

it’s Donny who should apologize for pardoning the January 6th insurrectionists. 

it’s Donny who should apologize for inflicting his stupid face and name onto money, passports and half the buildings in Washington, DC.

it’s Donny who should apologize for allowing the Space Nazi’s merry band of pimply DOG incels to fire entire agencies, to the point where government is now broken.

it’s Donny who should apologize for allowing racists to set immigration policy, crackpots to set healthcare policy, and fossil-fuel flunkies to set environmental policy.

it’s Donny who should apologize for alienating all of our allies and snuggling up to the world’s worst despots.

it’s Donny who should apologize for turning American cities into war zones, where masked government thugs are allowed to gun down anyone who looks at them funny.

it’s Donny who should apologize for blundering into an winnable war that’s depleted our weapons stockpile and jacked up the price of every fucking thing.

it’s Donny who should apologize for throwing a 250th birthday party that was such a rinky-dink piece of shit that even his own cultists refused to show up for it.

it’s Donny who should apologize for destroying the Oval Office, the East Wing, the South Lawn, the Rose Garden and the Reflecting Pool.

and it’s Donny who should apologize to CNN’s Kristen Holmes, the latest woman reporter to get an undeserved earful from this misogynistic prick.

“quiet. quiet. quiet. you’re very disrespectful in front of this young man. okay? don’t you find her disrespectful? quiet. who are you with?”

Holmes: “CNN.”

“fake news. you’re fake news. you’re a loud— you’re a loud, boisterous person. you’re fake news. be quiet. BE QUIET. BE QUIET. you’re a fake reporter, and you report fake news.”

shut the fuck up, Piggy.

oh, excuse us if Kristen Holmes takes her job as a reporter seriously, instead of slavishly following Dear Leader around, and braying like a hyena at everything he says, like some people we know.

do you know what Kristen Holmes had been asking Donny about, that made him lose his fucking mind? the diaper nurse, of course. she wanted to know if Donny had any comment on what Ossoff had said about thew two of them traveling together.

oh, and good for CNN. they actually stood up and defended Holmes.

Kristen Holmes is one of the most respected and accomplished journalists covering the White House. This afternoon, she did her job and asked the President of the United States a tough, relevant, and newsworthy question on behalf of the American people. Public officials are free to challenge reporting they disagree with, but personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press. We stand firmly behind Kristen and reject these attacks in the strongest possible terms.

worthless scribblers of the corporate-controlled media, are you paying attention? this is how it’s done — though if I had been a member of the press pool in the Oval Bordello yesterday, I would have immediately won my own What The Fuck Is Wrong With You Challenge™, which is now in its 2,331st day.

honestly, I don’t give a shit what Donny and Natty get up to, as long as it’s consenting. that’s their own business.

I do give a shit what Donny and his Republican enablers are doing to our country.

oh, and while we’re at it, release the full, unedited Epstein Files, you fucking fucks.

this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.

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