“Your calm is a weapon. Your health is a weapon. Your boring…unglamorous…un-dramatic endurance is the one thing he cannot tax…cannot out-yell…and cannot outlive.”
Linn...that's kind of you...but I'll let you in on the secret: it's not instinct.
It's that I'm sitting in the SAME boat...feeling the same thing...on the same nights. I'm not reading your mind. I'm just writing down what I need to hear, too...and it turns out we're NOT as alone in this as it feels at 2 a.m.
We have 2 bottles of exquisite champagne sitting in our spare fridge for that day. We shall toast to every patriot who stood up, every writer who told us to keep the faith (that's where you come in, Jack!), every organizer, every "leaker", every activist, every law firm who fought the anti-voting attempts, every staffer who answered the phones. In the meantime, we'll have a drink tonight and toast Robbie Kaplan, her team, and above all her client, E. Jean Carroll. Cheers!
Roberta...and look at who's on it: organizers,...staffers...phone-answerers...people whose names will never trend.
That's EXACTLY the point I was reaching for...and YOU said it better; the country isn't one man on a stage. It's the STUBBORN people who ...got up the next day and DID the work ANYWAY. It always was.
Humbled to be anywhere on that list.
Enjoy tonight's drink...and keep those two on ice.
You bet I'm ready! I've got a bottle of sparkling mead on ice, waiting on the news. And to paraphrase the Greatful Dead, "there will come a day I will dance on your grave and unable to dance I will crawl, crawl, crawl!"
Linda..."Grounded in reality" is the part I care MOST about...thank you for noticing it.
That was the whole idea: this isn't a pep talk or wishful thinking. It's the historical RECORD. Every tyrant made the same bet...and the ledger is 100% AGAINST them.
He can't BUY that number. He can't yell it into existence. He gave it up years ago...and he's NEVER getting it back. You just have to KEEP doing the boring thing...every night ...while he keeps doing the LOUD... thing at 3 a.m.
PJ, I feel pretty lucky to have scores like that consistently, with 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Although I will admit, I have had a few political dreams but never a nightmare with the Orange Menace in those dreams. LOL if that happens, I'll consider it a sign I'm losing the battle, whatever that is. 🙄
Okay, older than dirt. BUT, I eat right . . . mostly, get almost enough exercise, listen to music, try to avoid headlines before bed, get supreme satisfaction from thinking up one more adjective for the dumb fuck in the white house, enjoy my kitties, post irreverent comments on Substack, and remain bolstered by my fellow travelers. Sleep still a bit of an issue. But is that a start?
Jan...that's not a start; that's the WHOLE program.
Kitties...music...no headlines before bed...AND...a running list of adjectives. You're doing it! The sleep...will follow the rest of it. It usually does...once the OTHER pieces are in place.
Oh Jack, believe me when I say that I plan to outlast him…and then dance in the street! Our kids used to tell us how boring we were, now they’re “boring” too! We live a quiet, sweet life…and I exercise every day to keep my body flexible and strong…there’s so much more of life I want to enjoy, along with the day I get to dance in the street!! Excellent plan for ALL of us, no matter our age!! As always, thank you Jack!
Beverly...I hear the exhaustion...and it's EARNED.
BUT...here's the honest answer: nobody has one master plan to swap the pieces overnight...and thank God for that. A country that depends on a single savior...with a single plan...is just a tyranny waiting for its NEXT tyrant.
The replacement plan was written more than two centuries ago. It's called constitutional succession...and it doesn't wait for anyone's permission.
When a seat empties...the machinery fills it...the line of succession...the NEXT election.. the courts...and the clerks and county officials and career people who show up...whether or not their names ever trend. It's unglamorous. It's slow. And...it has outlasted EVERY strongman who ever sneered at it.
The board doesn't need one grandmaster. It needs to keep STANDING...and that's US.
Sky Blue...Scarcasm. That's a hell of a word...and I know exactly the house it comes from...because I grew up fluent in it too.
You've got it right: knowing how doesn't mean HAVING to. The tool stays in the drawer most days. But...I'd be lying if I said I never take it out when some anonymous account wanders into a thread swinging hate. And...I'd be lying...TWICE... if I said I regretted it.
I live well, love well, and eat well. I help those victimized by his hideously cruel policies, I care for my flowers and plants, I sing at the top my lungs to my favorite songs, and laugh heartily. When that heartless, amoral, shitty human being is dead and buried...I'll still be here going about my life.
Reading your list of 10 tyrants, brought to memory, in 2009, Trump rented Gaddafi property to pitch his tents in New York. This subhuman has adored dictators forever.
The tent's REAL...and the punchline is better than the setup: Gaddafi never got to sleep in it. The town shut it down over a PERMIT...and Trump spent years bragging that he'd pocketed the money and stiffed him. That's a documented fact.
That's the ENTIRE tell. Not a fan of strongmen...a LANDLORD to them.
“Your calm is a weapon. Your health is a weapon. Your boring…unglamorous…un-dramatic endurance is the one thing he cannot tax…cannot out-yell…and cannot outlive.”
Tick tock, tick tock. We will outlast him.
#HoldFast
CC...tick tock is right. That's not anxiety you're hearing...that's arithmetic.
Thank you for reading...and...for saying it back better than I did. Sleep well tonight! That's the assignment.
#HoldFast
-Jack
#HoldFast #Outlast
I love your analysis …
and… your assignment.
Sleep well… all.
CJ...very kind of you to say.
YES...sleep well, indeed.
-Jack
Thanks for the reminder @Jack Hopkins
It's almost better than listening to the Parliament of Owls. #HoldFast #HoldSteady #HoldStrong
Excellent plan
Excellent advice
Much appreciated
Lillian...thank you.
I'm glad you like it. Truly.
-Jack
Jack, your cal is a balm to my soul. Thank you
Sylvia...I so glad. That was the intended outcome!
-Jack
Calm
You have incredible instincts to know exactly what we need to hear and when we need to hear it!
Linn...that's kind of you...but I'll let you in on the secret: it's not instinct.
It's that I'm sitting in the SAME boat...feeling the same thing...on the same nights. I'm not reading your mind. I'm just writing down what I need to hear, too...and it turns out we're NOT as alone in this as it feels at 2 a.m.
Thank you for reading. Truly!
-Jack
I find that eccentricity pretty cosmic Linn!
We have 2 bottles of exquisite champagne sitting in our spare fridge for that day. We shall toast to every patriot who stood up, every writer who told us to keep the faith (that's where you come in, Jack!), every organizer, every "leaker", every activist, every law firm who fought the anti-voting attempts, every staffer who answered the phones. In the meantime, we'll have a drink tonight and toast Robbie Kaplan, her team, and above all her client, E. Jean Carroll. Cheers!
Roberta...and look at who's on it: organizers,...staffers...phone-answerers...people whose names will never trend.
That's EXACTLY the point I was reaching for...and YOU said it better; the country isn't one man on a stage. It's the STUBBORN people who ...got up the next day and DID the work ANYWAY. It always was.
Humbled to be anywhere on that list.
Enjoy tonight's drink...and keep those two on ice.
AND...YES...to E. Jean and Robbie!
Cheers...and #HoldFast.
-Jack
Will do, thanks to your encouragement!
: "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine"
They do, Rod....they really do...BOTH.
-Jack
You bet I'm ready! I've got a bottle of sparkling mead on ice, waiting on the news. And to paraphrase the Greatful Dead, "there will come a day I will dance on your grave and unable to dance I will crawl, crawl, crawl!"
#HoldFast
Remember, we are NOT the crazy ones!
Peace out.
Robert...sparkling mead on ice is the most optimistic thing I've heard ALL week...and I love you for it.
Here's your one assignment between now and then: take care of yourself well ENOUGH ...that when the cork pops...you're dancing...not crawling haha.
Sleep, move, keep your fire lit. That's the WHOLE strategy.
And...no...we are NOT the crazy ones. Noticing the obvious...NEVER made anybody crazy.
#HoldFast...see you at the toast!
-Jack
A great winning strategy, grounded in reality and a much needed timely piece.
Linda..."Grounded in reality" is the part I care MOST about...thank you for noticing it.
That was the whole idea: this isn't a pep talk or wishful thinking. It's the historical RECORD. Every tyrant made the same bet...and the ledger is 100% AGAINST them.
Hope is optional here. The math...isn't.
Thank you for reading!
-Jack
My goal, outlast this SOB if it’s the last thing I do. My sleep score last night was 96, I think I’ll be okay.
Bill...a 96 is a scoreboard...and you're WINNING.
He can't BUY that number. He can't yell it into existence. He gave it up years ago...and he's NEVER getting it back. You just have to KEEP doing the boring thing...every night ...while he keeps doing the LOUD... thing at 3 a.m.
You'll be okay. That's the point!
-Jack
Me, tooooo...Bill Corbett!
Me, too! EVERY TYRANT DIES!!
Sky Blue...Every. Damn. One. Of. Them.
-Jack
My thoughts exactly.
Damn, I’ve never seen 96, and I’m jealous, Bill!
PJ, I feel pretty lucky to have scores like that consistently, with 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Although I will admit, I have had a few political dreams but never a nightmare with the Orange Menace in those dreams. LOL if that happens, I'll consider it a sign I'm losing the battle, whatever that is. 🙄
No. Just rewrite,the ending.
Okay, older than dirt. BUT, I eat right . . . mostly, get almost enough exercise, listen to music, try to avoid headlines before bed, get supreme satisfaction from thinking up one more adjective for the dumb fuck in the white house, enjoy my kitties, post irreverent comments on Substack, and remain bolstered by my fellow travelers. Sleep still a bit of an issue. But is that a start?
Jan...that's not a start; that's the WHOLE program.
Kitties...music...no headlines before bed...AND...a running list of adjectives. You're doing it! The sleep...will follow the rest of it. It usually does...once the OTHER pieces are in place.
Keep going!
-Jack
Thanks, Jack. I needed this today! #HoldFast
Robyn Campbell...YOU...are welcome.
So glad it arrived at a good time for you!
#HoldFast
-Jack
NICE! I LOVE your "family tree with dementia hanging off the branches!"
Thank you. It creates quite an image, eh?
-Jack
Oh Jack, believe me when I say that I plan to outlast him…and then dance in the street! Our kids used to tell us how boring we were, now they’re “boring” too! We live a quiet, sweet life…and I exercise every day to keep my body flexible and strong…there’s so much more of life I want to enjoy, along with the day I get to dance in the street!! Excellent plan for ALL of us, no matter our age!! As always, thank you Jack!
Christie
"There's so much more of life I want to enjoy. Christie, that's the REAL engine. The dancing...is just the BONUS.
And your kids turning boring...might be the HIGHEST compliment you'll ever get. It means it worked!
Thank you for being here. Seriously.
-Jack
Thanks for the reminder, Jack.
Very timely.
D J P...you're most welcome. It was my pleasure!
-Jack
But, WHO has the plan in place, to replace the chess board pieces immediately? Sincerely, sick of this shit. Beverly
Beverly...I hear the exhaustion...and it's EARNED.
BUT...here's the honest answer: nobody has one master plan to swap the pieces overnight...and thank God for that. A country that depends on a single savior...with a single plan...is just a tyranny waiting for its NEXT tyrant.
The replacement plan was written more than two centuries ago. It's called constitutional succession...and it doesn't wait for anyone's permission.
When a seat empties...the machinery fills it...the line of succession...the NEXT election.. the courts...and the clerks and county officials and career people who show up...whether or not their names ever trend. It's unglamorous. It's slow. And...it has outlasted EVERY strongman who ever sneered at it.
The board doesn't need one grandmaster. It needs to keep STANDING...and that's US.
Keep your fire, Beverly! We're going to need it.
-Jack
Gallows Humor?
In MY childhood home...
we called it SCARCASM.
Sarcasm that left wounds.
I learned young, how to quickly devastate with words.
Because I know HOW TO, doesn't mean that I HAVE TO use that tool.
But it's there .. nonetheless.
Sky Blue...Scarcasm. That's a hell of a word...and I know exactly the house it comes from...because I grew up fluent in it too.
You've got it right: knowing how doesn't mean HAVING to. The tool stays in the drawer most days. But...I'd be lying if I said I never take it out when some anonymous account wanders into a thread swinging hate. And...I'd be lying...TWICE... if I said I regretted it.
It's there. That's enough.
-Jack
I live well, love well, and eat well. I help those victimized by his hideously cruel policies, I care for my flowers and plants, I sing at the top my lungs to my favorite songs, and laugh heartily. When that heartless, amoral, shitty human being is dead and buried...I'll still be here going about my life.
Reading your list of 10 tyrants, brought to memory, in 2009, Trump rented Gaddafi property to pitch his tents in New York. This subhuman has adored dictators forever.
The tent's REAL...and the punchline is better than the setup: Gaddafi never got to sleep in it. The town shut it down over a PERMIT...and Trump spent years bragging that he'd pocketed the money and stiffed him. That's a documented fact.
That's the ENTIRE tell. Not a fan of strongmen...a LANDLORD to them.
-Jack
I forgot the whole story. Thank you for the reminder.
-Becky
I had forgotten the whole story. Thanks for the reminder.
-Becky