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barbtries

barbtries's Journal
barbtries's Journal
January 26, 2025

Election Attorney Reveals TRUTH About 2024 Election PoliticsGirl

?si=FlqbBnFW0q0375Ul

Marc Elias is the guest. Good discussion.

Elias is the lawyer who won all those cases after the 2020 election. He's my North star as we lean into the next several years.
He's active on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/marcelias.bsky.social

His website puts out a newsletter and accepts subscriptions as well as small dollar donations. https://www.democracydocket.com/
January 22, 2025

Resisting Dictatorship: Ways to Fight Back

https://olgalautman.substack.com/p/resisting-dictatorship-ways-to-fight?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=33s8c&triedRedirect=true

This is pretty comprehensive. It covers a lot, including self-care.

After spending yesterday honoring MLK and spending time with loved ones, I woke up and the news - well, it's the worst I've felt since waking up on 06Nov2024. Not surprising exactly, but as always seems true with TCFSF, worse than I had imagined it would be.

I've been working with my son all day, took a walk by the ocean, etc. I've not been reading DU but am assuming that many here know exactly how I feel because they feel the same.
January 18, 2025

Alternative media

I have a new post up at my recently created substack:
https://open.substack.com/pub/barbtries/p/alternative-media?r=33s8c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Many of us are pretty much entirely over the “news” as we have known it for decades. We are sick of the both-sides bullshit. We are sick of the sane-washing of what is transparently and objectively (at least to us; the brainwashed multitudes is a whole other subject) insane and destructive lies and propaganda.

When I moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina in 2007, I left cable TV behind. Although we do have a Roku TV in the living room, truth is all the media I get comes to me via a computer. I have an office computer, a bedroom computer (typing on that one now), and a downstairs computer. So, even if I do have the TV on, I’m still, almost always, consuming the same media that I do on a computer.

I believe that whether you term it mainstream, corporate, legacy, or something else, the media of which I speak is an affront to the First Amendment. I am hopeful that some day, a discussion can be had about this Amendment, that the press is supposed to be “free” - i.e., not driven by profit - and also that the right to free speech was never meant to be the right to spread destructive propaganda.

With TCFSF (note: the convicted felon sick FUCK) assuming office just 3 short days from now, this is a wistful wish at best. In this moment, propaganda and, well, the bad guys, are winning.

It is also my firm belief that we must not and cannot simply acquiesce. I’ve been an American for far too long, believing in its values as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, to be stoic about this turn of events.

Still, many Americans are still glued to their TVs, watching cable news and their local news, and that is all they consume in the way of news. I still remember when the local news began to really get on my nerves: it was probably in the 80s or 90s, and it was a local broadcaster in LA, Christine Lund.

Christine Lund had these eyebrows, and she raised them, up, down, up, down, as she delivered the news, expressing clearly with her eyebrows how we should feel about the news she was conveying. It got to where, when I watched the news, I couldn’t take my eyes off of those fucking eyebrows. She was probably saying things like, “A horrific crash on the 110 today left 7 people dead,” but that news was secondary to her fucking eyebrows!

Over time, I also came to find the adjectives objectionable. I would look at the TV, and yell, “Just tell me the news! I don’t need to know how to feel about it!”

Just yesterday, a story from yahoo news mentioned the “shocking” murder of a CEO. The context was fraud and corruption in the health insurance industry. The story was not about whats-his-name getting killed in NYC. It was more precisely about the reason he was killed. Nonetheless, whoever wrote or edited that story wanted their readers to be shocked at his death. They told us to be with their choice of words.

Fuck that. People, we have options, great, important, democracy-loving options. Here are links to many of the people who are part of the vibrant and growing alternative media world (we need to find a new name for them - they are certainly my first and primary go-to’s for the news these days):

Democracy Docket, Marc Elias. All other links are not in any particular order, but Marc Elias is my number One

Meidas Touch

Brooklyn Dad Defiant

Can't go a day without some of my Daily Beans

Andy Borowitz - humor and more

My great nephew Politiscape

Mary Trump media

Heather Cox Richardson

Jack Hopkins

Scott Dworkin - the Dworkin Report

Al Franken

Ruminato - Charles Bastille

Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse

Krugman Wonks Out - Paul Krugman

Harry Litman - Talking Feds

The Krassenstein Twins

Ann Telnaes

Mueller She Wrote - Allison Gill

Five Minute News - Anthony Davis

The Bulwark I watch for George Conway

Okay. That’s 20. There are more, plus there are legacy publications I still subscribe to, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker. But, with my income as limited as it is, I will definitely be unsubscribing to at least one of those in order to get paid subscriptions to some of these people. I wish I had the money to financially support each and every one, but I truly don’t.

So far, I’ve paid-subscribed to one. Andy Borowitz. It was a small enough price to make it okay, or so I told myself.

Anyhow. If there is someone you really think I should know about, please comment and link to it.

December 31, 2024

Are any DUers taking gabapentin?

I have a range of issues like Type 2 diabetes, obesity, high BP, all of which have improved over the past couple years, primarily due to Ozempic.

I have neuropathy in my feet. My doctor prescribed gabapentin for me well over a year ago and I haven't touched it yet. I worry about side effects. This does not affect my ability to walk but it's not going away either.

So I'm considering starting the gabapentin and hopefully some DUers have experience with it. My doctor say go ahead and take it. My dog Chase took it for years for pain control and was fine, it helped extend his life I'm sure.

I am not usually phobic about meds by the way. It's just this one I am really on the fence about.

thank you in advance for your input!

ETA: Thank you for everyone and your responses and sharing your experience with this drug. I love DU and the people here!

Happy New Year y'all, #BeTheOpposition

it's gonna be a ride.

December 1, 2024

up in the middle of the night.

I was sleeping just fine then I had a dream of my son. We were on the phone and he said, "I have bad news," and I immediately opened my eyes with that dread in my stomach feeling - that was 3 hours ago. still up.

last night it was my grandson on the phone and he said, "Can I come in?" and I realized he was standing at my door and I woke up torn whether to welcome him or not.

The grandson is the fear. He's living rough, has an addiction disease, and is not living near any of us. Constant worry that while I'm awake, I avoid thinking about a lot of the time in order to remain functional and not be hounded by my helplessness to help him.

sometimes writing it helps to alleviate the fear and clear the way for a restful sleep.

sorry if this is the wrong forum.

November 23, 2024

a quote from John Collins on BlueSky

https://bsky.app/profile/logicallyjc.bsky.social/post/3lbmgmshq7k26]

well I can't figure out how to display the post, but it's by John Collins:

I’m trying to strike a healthy balance between being informed and being oblivious.


this describes me to a T right now.
November 21, 2024

An outlet in the kitchen was sparking

and it killed the microwave (fortunately temporarily). So I went on to my local town reddit and searched for an electrician recommendation. Two companies popped up. I contacted one and asked them to come out today.

Then i got to thinking. I don't know these people. What can I find out about them. So I went to the about page, got the guy's name, and looked him up on fb. His own posts were neutral, but his friends were magats and I do not want to do business with magats.

So I did the same with the second electrician. I found his fb page, and this is what he posted on 06N0v2024:

It's a great day if you're a white male disconnected from women, queer or trans individuals, BIPOC communities, undocumented workers, minimum wage earners, unhoused persons, Muslim or Jewish individuals, non-Christian or agnostic or atheist citizens, un-unionized workers, anarchists, socialists or communists. So yeah, not a great day for most people I know.


the second company was out by noon today, did a great job at a good price, and we had a wonderful visit at the same time.

I will make this a habit going forward i think. I resent every penny I give supporting people who are poised to destroy my country and hurt and/or kill untold numbers of people as they do so.

I only took down all my Kamala signs while they were working in my kitchen. I wouldn't trust a maga electrician past my front door, not to sabotage my job, not to rip me off for money, nothing at all. Then i see a tik tok this evening with a guy saying don't give your money to these people! and so it helped me believe that I am not so extreme after all.

I don't see the American people the way I did prior to the election. I just don't. Something broke in me that day. They don't get to do that again if I can help it.
November 17, 2024

a silver lining.

I haven't seen a clip of TCFSF talking, lying, hating, propagandizing wildly, since 04Nov2024.

jeez I nearly didn't notice it. was too busy fretting about all the damage about to happen. (and taking care of necessary personal business)

Just think if he'd lost he'd already be out there throwing rallies. so there's that.

November 6, 2024

Andy Borowitz not being funny about it

https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/about-last-night?r=33s8c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Dear reader,

I have plenty to say about last night’s dumpster fire but today I want to take a break from jokes. Many of you are in pain and I don’t want to make light of that.

You shouldn’t misinterpret my pause, however, as acquiescence or resignation. We all deserve a moment to curl up in the fetal position. But when that moment is over, I want to do what I can to make life better for my children and grandchildren (not to mention people I don’t happen to be related to). I hope you’ll feel that way, too.

Remaining silent and surrendering to despair is exactly what fascists want us to do. So let’s not.

Thanks, as always, for supporting my work. You’re why I do what I do—and why I’ll continue doing it.

Stay tuned.

All my love,

Andy


I thought this was worth sharing as I am spending today figuratively curled up in a fetal position.

hugs to everyone on DU and all across the country and the world feeling this same pain.
November 6, 2024

I'm not sure it would be possible

to overstate the level of racism, misogyny, and all purpose bigotry that exists gleefully and hatefully in this fucked up country, which is about to fuck up the world and the planet it inhabits.

or to overstate the deleterious effects of incessant right wing propaganda fouling our discourse for decades.

or to overstate the failure of the "free" press and the current SCOTUS.

we are a nation betrayed. we could not keep it, Mr Franklin.

I'll probably be dead by the time the abject poverty and overt acts performed to destroy us have borne fruition. Or maybe not. I thought I was so lucky to have lived long enough to see the first Black president AND the first woman president, but no. Apparently I lived long enough to be there when it all went to hell. But it's the next generations who will be living in that hell.

It's early the next morning. I find I cannot even express the level of devastation I am trying to process. I am not well. My country is not well. I have family members who are celebrating this as I grieve.

I worked the election yesterday and had an epiphany. It dawned on me profoundly that so many of the people who voted for this destruction of democracy and the erasure of the middle class and the expansion of the destitute population really didn't apprehend the full consequences of their vote. They think life will go on as normal. They think we'll have elections that are meaningful going forward. They don't think, essentially: they don't think. They are so comforted by being part of the hating class, of thinking they're better than others based on nothing but their color and station in life. They hate liberals just because.

I just really believed that there were more of us.

Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: CA
Home country: USA
Current location: NC
Member since: Wed Aug 17, 2005, 01:29 AM
Number of posts: 30,152

About barbtries

I stand on the sand, and I'm rocking grief to sleep in my arms.
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