Is This Awful Movie Over Yet?

Seriously. I feel like I'm in a vaguely remembered old Star Trek episode about a mirror image of the world where the Nazis won. I'm saying that only half tongue-in-cheek, because every day there's a fresh onslaught of news nobody could have believed possible a year ago, and yet we are somehow still less than two weeks away from installing that whatever-it-is as "president" because there is no explicit legal means to stop it without a drawn-out court battle which won't happen because the Republicans have control of everything, and have taken off their masks. Our Founding Fathers, smart guys that they were, were honorable men who distrusted OTHER governments more than our own people. Whoopsie.

It's all just so crazy. I do sort of feel sorry for the rubes who voted for Trump and are now saying, "Oh, they can't really take away our health care and Social Security! (tiny voice): Can they?" Yeah, actually, they can. They said they would, and now they can, and you voted for this because you what, somehow didn't really believe they would? Seiously? They have no shame and no conscience. They fucking held an unannounced secret vote in the middle of the night to limit the scope of ethics investigations. They want to open up federally protected land for commercial use. "The Grand Canyon, brought to you by (insert Russian bank name here)!" is not just possible, but looking likely. Seriously? This is why I say I can't write fiction, because if someone had submitted that as a plot in a novel about a fascist takeover of our government, it would have been rejected as cheesy and crazy. They would never be that shameless. Yet, here we are.

Am I feeling hopeless? No. Disgusted and angry, yes, but hopeless, no. A flood of phone calls shut down the ethics committee stunt. The scary part of course is that some of our national media actually credited Twitler for shutting this down with a tweet, when the members of Congress themselves reported being absolutely bombarded with angry phone calls from constituents before His Orangeness saw the trend and tweeted about it. TWEETED about it. JESUS. Bossy Little Dogs has a Twitter account. I use it to read Twitter now and then. Politically, it's a freaking sewer. I have another rant in my head about the need to navigate social media to know what's going on without losing your mind, but I haven't quite figured it all out yet.

I did follow my shiny new Congresscritter's page. She's a young Democrat with a background in national security, so I'm hopeful that she will be ballsy enough to stand up to this. We'll see. I have her number, and I will be calling to express my concerns as needed. (And the fact that this young Democrat managed to unseat a deeply, deeply entrenched Republican Congressional fixture in this district, while FL somehow went for Trump is another one of those "things that make you go, hmmm" issues, but I digress.) It will be exhausting to keep up with all the shit about to break loose, but honestly, it's the only option we have. At least for now, the voices of the people can still break through. I would suggest that if you haven't already you should do the same. They work for us, and more than ever in our history it appears we will have to be looking over their shoulders at every waking moment.

So, on a more personal level: I've "done yoga" off and on (more off than on) for most of my adult life. I think this may be the first time in my 58 years that I've done it daily, consistently, and in an organized, thoughtful program of planned sessions. Damn. I am already getting some Michelle Obama worthy guns (though mine are pale, freckled, and a tad wrinkly in bright sunlight). I'm sleeping better, breathing better, walking taller, and loving it.

Not that I want to create the image that I'm suddenly in amazing shape; I am not. Day 7 was all about balance and core work, and as I've mentioned, I have issues with one legged poses. My tree pose had a very low-hanging limb, around my knee, not up at the top of the thigh, and even then I'm in danger of falling out of it. I wobble like I'm failing a roadside sobriety test. If a tree falls in the living room, can the dog call 911? I'm very cautious and not afraid to adapt these poses, but today I did hold tree pose longer than I had in years, since before the brain thing, because I really was working on focus.

The future is going to require a lot of focus.