Thursday Thoughts - neon sign on the horizon rubbing elbows with the moon

1. Ohh back to school back to school to prove to dad that I'm not a fool. 2018's Blue Sky Day Designer planner fits in my purse as does the Poppin notebook I use along with it. That is my life organization system.

2. I love having talented friends who make things especially when those things are so me. Thanks Staci! I had to snag one of these for my kitchen towel updates.

3. Who out there is hoarding unopened trial sizes of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, body wash, mouthwash, toothpaste, etc., that you're never going to use? I will pay shipping or pick up locally if you want to get rid of them without throwing them out.

4. Not only have I purchased two Christmas gifts, but I have also booked my work Christmas party. Ho ho ho motherfuckers.

5. Guys, I'm really trying to talk about other things but not a goddamn thing is normal right now and it's hard for everything else to not feel inconsequential. There's a large part of the population that does not seem alarmed by a slide into authoritarianism. How many times can I say the insane attacks on the free press are Authoritarianism 101? Why do people think it's normal for a president to vociferously attack the free press but waffle on white supremacists? None of this is normal and since something fucked up happens literally every day it's hard to not let it become normal. Don't let it become normal.

6. I'm especially amped up this week because last night I learned of a local church one of our family members is affiliated with being targeted for a sign that says Resist White Supremacy outside of it. They're being harassed and photographed by a white supremacist group and homophobic slurs are being left on their church facebook page. And last Saturday, this was the scene at my elementary school. I could not be angrier if it was painted on my own front door. That same day I also learned of the death of my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Axler, who I have kept in touch with all these years. She was a truly wonderful woman, a voracious reader, and a cancer patient advocacy warrior. Two strikes for the hallowed halls of my childhood last weekend. Children arrived to play soccer to these messages on a Saturday morning. This is not normal.

7. Also not normal: people being more concerned about statues than other humans. People who pulled down a confederate statue were arrested very quickly. Five men on video beating Deandre Harris (one man) on the ground in Charlottesville who have been identified, names given to police, and in the ensuing 12 days have not been arrested and no one gives a fucking shit. Let's talk about the fucking statues and how they do not represent history. They were erected between the 1890s and the 1950s - when Jim Crow segregation was in place and glorify leaders of the confederacy and confederate ideals of owning people. Likewise the Confederate battle flag experienced a comeback in the 1950s and 1960s as a way to remind black people involved in the Civil Rights Movement that they were once owned and in many ways still oppressed by the state. It's a flag that flies in defiance of the federal government and against racial equality. Do you know how Germany observes the darkest part of their history on their streets? They fucking don't. There are no public monuments to Hitler or any Nazi leader and they are absolutely not flying the Nazi flag. You can be arrested in Germany for flying that flag or giving the Nazi salute. Nazis are dealt with in museums and books. They're not memorialized in public because they tore the country apart and committed unspeakable acts and treated humans worse than animals and don't deserve recognition of any sort. Just like people who fought to keep slavery alive. I'm surprised at how many white people not from the south are so invested in keeping confederate statues up. I know. I shouldn't be surprised. Especially given the graffiti above. As in every situation, it's always been that way or why do you care now are not good reasons to keep doing anything. Huge props to the anti-Nazi Boston crowd for showing up last weekend. That's how this stops - with a vocal backlash. Not by ignoring it. Not by staying silent. This is not normal.

8. For reasons above, I identified with Giving Thanks for the Bridges I've Burned This Year by John Pavlovitz. I'm not comfortable in a lot of places with a lot of people I used to be comfortable with.

I don't want to get to a place where I am so full of WTF that I can't get words out but the truth is most weeks I hover right around there. Since there were Nazis in the streets and I've watched people I know defend that or focus instead on fucking statues over people and I have just folded in on myself. Injustice sets my blood on fire. Every week on Thursday I think what is the sense of even pointing it out - I'm either preaching to the choir or I'm talking to trump cult members who I'll never reach. Another part of me whispers but if you just reach one person...whatever, something in me will not be silent even when my eye starts twitching thinking about writing anything. Links for your consideration:

•  Please follow Amy Siskind on Facebook and Twitter - she is the best source for seeing how the president is setting up an authoritarian totalitarian regime. She also puts out a weekly list of things subtly changing around us. This is August 19th's - links to past weeks are at the bottom. Resisting authoritarianism requires participation of citizens who identify as democrats, republicans, and independents - it requires all of us. Absolutely everyone is welcome at any time to fight against a fascist regime. I don't care who you voted for and I don't care why, I just care that you choose America over sticking with a man who is not good for anyone in this country in any way. Speaking the truth is not divisive but your president is. This is not normal. Resist.
• Get insight into why you are hearing sanitized versions of white supremacist messages from your GOP reps in government: The White Flight of Derek Black. This is not normal. 
• James Clapper's take on trump's disastrous Phoenix speech and people sharing fake crowd photos (propaganda, anyone?) of the Phoenix rally. Who the fuck holds election rallies with an election 3.5 years away? Fuhrers. This is not normal.
• About that Phoenix rally - people were outside exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble while trump was inside attacking the First Amendment right to a free press. Police used chemical agents against a peaceful crowd, turning a nonviolent gathering into one that harmed many and failing to provide protection for First Amendment assembly. This is very serious and a direct attack on the Bill of Rights. This is not normal. 
• Someone who goes on and on about fake news and fake press is fucking insane and unfit to lead a country that has a Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of the press. What's even scarier to me is when I see people I *know* saying on social media that things are fake news - things that have happened and are on video. This is not normal.
• Shaun King's series on the NYPD's 42nd precinct & Bronx DA's office - part one and part two of five are out now. This should not be normal. 
• The Secret Service has spent $60,000 on golf cart rentals alone this year to protect trump...at his own golf courses. The POTUS is charging his protective detail - who are there solely because he is - for golf cart use at his own clubs. Taxpayer money, going right into his pocket. Conflict of interest. No one gives a shit. This is not normal. 

9. Reminder

10. E-card of the week: I'm hoping this is me this weekend. I need to disengage for 48 hours.

Happy happy birthday to my friend Jill - did you guys know she's selling LipSense now? She is, if you're in the market. And she is about to embark on a glorious trip and since we are on the same cruise crew I wish we were going but alas we are not. Happy birthday my friend!