I found this Cracked post that one of my friends shared today a little reassuring: [link] Still pissed/saddened/shocked/what-have-you, but feeling mildly reassured.

Has anyone worked with SURJ? I started looking into some kind of working group on race early this year but couldn't find anything that I felt ready to go with.

Coincidentally I just posted this today to another board I'm on:

I'm going to ask something I'm scared to ask. I'm asking it here even though the type of politics it is is not writing reps. I'm asking it here because my feed is too small for the Q to reach anyone. I know that I struggle with the racism I've taken in just from growing up in a country of institutionalized racism. I'm one of those people who "means well" but likely has tons of blind spots as well as prejudices that have grown as a result of having bad experiences with individuals that get generalized to whatever group they're a member of when those experiences rack up. I have been making an effort but I want to do better. And I don't think a working group composed entirely of white liberals is going to cut it. Yet I also know that people of color and other marginalized groups are sick to death of feeling like they have to educate. But I really feel a need to have dialogue. To listen and be listened to and to try to improve myself. Is there any interest in participating in such a group if it existed here on _________? Or is this a nuts idea and I should just keep working on stuff on my own...

Thanks for that, Kat. That's good to read.

I just did another nextdoor wine night and it confirmed once again. Lots of hugs, new people old and young to the hood. And lots of how do we fix this? This ain't right, how do we reach out?

6000 people at the protest in downtown Oakland. They sent us home early, which I was fine with, since I couldn't concentrate and I have more than 1 coworker who voted for Trump. When you're an environmentalist working inside what is basically a military organization, you have to accept that you're going to be out of sync with many of your coworkers politically. But this is beyond that.

On a personal level, I'm worried because Trump is such a fucking unknown nobody has any idea what's going to happen in the executive branch. Will there be a budget? What will he fund? Or will he just sign whatever Congress gives him? I have said good-bye to any raises we can expect (and we haven't gotten more than 1% since Obama took office).

But I'm also worried about shit like: will Congress fund enforcement of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and the like? Or will they just toss them overboard? Some of Trump's supporters certainly think that privatizing the public lands would be awesome. What about treaties with the Tribes, will their sovereign status be respected?

And then there's the Constitution: Trump appears to feel that the rule of law doesn't apply to him. He's been in violation of the National Labor Relations Act for one of his hotels in Las Vegas for something like a year. They voted in a union, and Trump refuses to negotiate a contract with them, which you're not allowed to do. He has already shown he doesn't understand or believe in the First Amendment, or the Eighth, or the Fifth. Or the Fourteenth, god help us. He wants to be the boss and tell people what to do, and make money off of it.

He has innumerable business deals around the world, which he will not be required to step away from or disclose. So you can be sure that many of his international decision-making will be based more on how he stands to benefit personally than on what is best for the world or even the nation.

Obamacare will be harder to dump in its entirety because the GOP would need a filibuster-proof majority to revoke it. But they can pass, by straight majority, a budget authorization that would strip federal funding from it. So all the sections that rely on Medicare support would die, and we would be left with some of the exchanges, the previous condition rule, and keeping kids on their parents' insurance until 26.

There are a ton of executive orders passed by Obama and earlier presidents that Trump could, in fact, revoke on the first day. The rules about gender, orientation, or religious discrimination by federal contractors, the rules about considering environmental justice in decision-making, the rules about sustainable planning, climate change, religious freedom -- all of those could be revoked immediately.

Arpaio is out in Arizona but is apparently being considered for some DOJ post. The proposed cabinet includes Christie or Giuliani for DOJ, an OIL executive for Interior, a climate-change denier for EPA, Ben Carson for HHS... the mind reels.

And ALL of this is less important to some of my coworkers than the idea that Black Lives Matter made them feel bad. FUCK THEM. It's going to be really hard to go back to work next week.

Connie- I am now watching my recording of the PBS program on cats.

I started rewatching Firefly, which is streaming on Hulu, but even that's too stressful. So I'm rereading The Goblin Emperor, which is a very soothing novel about a transfer of power to a kind and sweet young man.

Oh yes- The Goblin Emperor is quite good.

sj, you asked for suggestions... The NoDAPL protest is ongoing and even before the election was decided, DAPL announced they were planning on pressing ahead and crossing the river within 2 weeks. I'm sure the tribes protesting there would appreciate a donation for their legal fund if donating was the kind of suggestion you were looking for.

Otherwise I suggest people make sure they don't forget self-care. One can't take care of others if one isn't taking care of one's self.

A few more thoughts...

Last night two things got to me more than anything else. One was that someone within a block or so of here set off fireworks around the time it was clear Trump was going to win barring a miracle, and then again when PA was called. The first one I thought was a gunshot, and worried someone had committed suicide over the results, because it was a BOOM that reminded me of a deer rifle in the woods rather than the musket POP of a firecracker. Once I realized what it really was, it was all I could do not to storm out on the deck and scream, "Whoever you are, get the FUCK out of my city." Because I tend to assume, falsely, that we're all on the same side here. Very blue != all blue. And I had to talk Annabel down a bit, since one of the ways I'd been reassuring them was to say that most people here are on our side and were just as upset as we were.

But in general today, it felt like people were being quietly kind to each other. Like, even driving extra politely. And ordinarily we're a bit introverted and standoffish as a city, but today felt like being back on the East Coast or in the South, like we all wanted to make an actual connection with that person in the elevator or in line at the deli.

And speaking of the South, for some reason the moment that broke me last night was seeing video from an Auburn Twitter account showing some students rolling the oaks at Toomer's Corner in celebration of Trump's election (normally something done for big sports victories). It felt like a betrayal, which isn't logical because A) I'm not even an Auburn alum--several people in my family are, and it's my sports-rooting school because my actual alma mater isn't exactly a football powerhouse, and B) I know damn well Auburn is a very conservative school in a very red state. But somehow it just symbolized to me that the world I grew up in rejects me. Hates my politics. Hates my child. My family has going on two centuries of roots in Alabama red clay. I'm Southern in ways I'll never be Northwestern if I live in Seattle another 50 years, and my home HATES ME. I'm blood of their blood, and those kids rolling the Toomer Oaks would HATE ME if they knew I existed.

So today I replaced my Auburn badge lanyard with my Doctor Who one at work. Changed my desktop background from an Auburn football theme to the "Do justly now" Talmud quote. Tore down the schedule where I'd been tracking the W-L record when just yesterday I'd been speculating on whether a 2-loss SEC champion could make the playoffs. Shoved my Auburn hoodie into the back of the closet and dug out my Mariners one. Am in the market for a new license plate frame. Texted Dylan to say I'm thinking of becoming a Pac-12 fan, and is their room on his alma mater's bandwagon (Colorado). (He said good seats were still available, and finances permitting if they make the Rose Bowl it's a date.)

Maybe I'll change my mind once my grief rage has blown off...but it looks like I'm breaking up with AUBURN. With SEC football. That's an identity thing to me, and had kinda become a symbol of my Southernness while living on the far side of the country. But when it feels like something you love doesn't WANT your love...