The End of The World (as I knew It)
I meant to post this to substack last week, but found it in my drafts folder. Just as well; folding my 1/20 response to the unleashing of TRUMPOCALYPSE TWO into the batter is creating an early a.m. opportunity for me to think, strategize and FEEL DEEPLY.
BOY O BOY, has our Manipulator In Chief show us what we can expect, moving forwards! Kiss the ring or BE CRUSHED.
My draft from 1/17 parts are written "straight". New 1/20 and beyond actions and observations italicized.
Some observations, as we head into the 2nd TRUMPOCALYPSE.
"The US constitution mandates very little about the inauguration of a new president – just the date and time of the ceremony – midday ET on 20 January – and the short, 35-word oath of office." "Trump boycotted that event; this time, he is not sparing on ceremony, having complained about a White House order that Capitol flags should fly at half mast for 30 days after the death of Jimmy Carter. They will be temporarily raised for the duration of the inauguration."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/17/watch-trump-inauguration-time
TIK TOK (and the ban was upheld by SCOTUS, on 1/17):
"The US supreme court will hear (JUST HEARD) arguments on Friday from TikTok and its China-based owner ByteDance, which is seeking to block a law signed by Joe Biden that will ban the short-form video app beginning on 19 January unless it is divested from ByteDance. TikTok has said divestment is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” and requested an injunction to pause the ban during the legal process.
More than 170 million Americans use TikTok."
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/17/politics/tiktok-ban-supreme-court/index.html
Things got ugly when we were still days away. I’d already begun my personal exodus from TikTok (leaving 50K “followers” behind), when I woke to this on 1/18:
Screenshot_20250119_024904_TikTok.jpg
And then THIS about 12 hours later
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1haT0cCjcEfnqIsxNBjAYshlk4kFdjOCx/view
Manipulator in Chief motivates by fear, intimidation, and the yanking of perceived choke collars.
Then, there’s “the image”—
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/TrumpPortrait.jpg
"The president-elect’s pose says: here’s a man you can’t get rid of easily. The new vice-president’s says: ‘Can you believe this?’...
While Trump’s official portrait might be captioned something like “Fight, fight, fight”, Vance’s portrait caption would be more along the lines of “Woohoo! I can’t believe I managed to pull this off!
"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VancePortrait.jpg#/media/File:VancePortrait.jpg
...Vance isn’t putting on a menacing tough guy look. He’s doing a more traditional cross-armed, smile-to-the-camera pose, but he also looks unbelievably smug. It looks like he wants to turn to the photographer and say: “Can you believe this? Can you believe the guy who wrote Hillbilly Elegy climbed to such meteoric political heights so quickly?”
Side by side, the two pictures tell a remarkable comeback story. For any other politician, that booking photo, taken after Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged in an alleged scheme to undermine the results of the 2020 election, would have been a career-ender...Trump, with his unmatched brazenness and knack for self-mythologizing, turned the mugshot of inmate No P01135809 into a badge of honour and a marketing opportunity – slapping the mugshot on an array of merchandise. That picture also became a symbol of defiance to his supporters.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1218507/a-trump-mug-shot-for-history/
“This is the photo that will win the 2024 Presidential election,” Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted at the time...here’s a man you can’t get rid of easily, it seems to say. You can’t imprison him; you can’t assassinate him. You knock him down and he’ll get right back up again.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/16/donald-trump-jd-vance-official-portrait
Where’s the FEMINIST/WOMANIST Resistance?
We could learn from South and Central American women.
"This history of mass protests and occupations strengthened the potential of women’s organizing in the 2019-2020 estadillo social (social uprising) in Chile. Different women’s protest groups and feminists movements have unified in recent years, and the now internationally famous feminist performance art that surfaced during the estadillo, Un Violador en tu Camino (A Rapist in your Path), repoliticized the issue of violence against women and unified the feminist movement."
This protest didn’t much “stick” here in the U.S. where we ACTUALLY have a "violator in chief"
"El patriarcado es un juez
Que nos juzga por nacer Y nuestro castigo Es la violencia que no ves El patriarcado es un juez Que nos juzga por nacer Y nuestro castigo Es la violencia que ya ves
Pre-Coro] Es femicidio Impunidad para mi asesino Es la desaparición Es la violación [Coro] Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba, ni cómo vestía Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba, ni cómo vestía Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba, ni cómo vestía Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba, ni cómo vestía [Pos-Coro] El violador eras tú El violador eres tú [Pre-Coro] Son los pacos Los jueces El Estado El Presidente [Coro] El Estado opresor es un macho violador El Estado opresor es un macho violador
[Pos-Coro] El violador eras tú (Paco culiao) El violador eres tú (Paco culiao) [Verso 2] Duerme tranquila, niña inocente Sin preocuparte del bandolero Que por tu sueños dulce y sonriente Vela tu amante carabinero [Pos-Coro] El violador eres tú (Paco culiao) El violador eres tú (Paco culiao) El violador eres tú (Paco culiao) El violador eres tú (Paco culiao)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
The patriarchy is a judge Who judges us for being born And our punishment Is the violence you don't see The patriarchy is a judge Who judges us for being born And our punishment Is the violence that you see
[Pre-Chorus] It is femicide Impunity for my murderer It's disappearance It's rape
Chorus] And the fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed And the fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed And the fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed And the fault was not minе, nor where I was, nor how I was dressеd [Post-Chorus] The rapist was you The rapist is you [Pre-Chorus] It's the cops The judges The State The President [Chorus] The oppressive State is a male rapist The oppressive State is a male rapist [Post-Chorus] The rapist was you (Fucking cop) The rapist is you (Fucking cop) [Verse 2] Sleep peacefully, innocent little girl Without worrying about the bandit As through your sweet and smiling dreams Your loving policeman watches over you
[Post-Chorus] The rapist is you (Fucking cop) The rapist is you (Fucking cop) The rapist is you (Fucking cop) The rapist is you (Fucking cop)
All that said, I intend to ROAR MY OUTRAGE in the company of a Few Good Women at noon Monday, my evolution of our very own 2016 Cassandra:
And, regarding any potential, disturbing the peace or noise complaints?
THEY STORMED THE CAPITOL!!!
Added observations from 1/20 OPEYEMI'S AVENGERS EVENT IN BRATTLEBORO:
So Trump went off the deep end on Day One:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/tump-executive-orders-list
Just as he promised. Yesterday, I pretty much sorted out my neurotic fears from my intuition; I embraced my Inner Child and met the moment:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qpvZD2yPYNi2ipF-6t2cigivcUSysLso/view
In the language of Julia Cameron, what a GREAT ARTIST DATE! In the video, that gesticulating through the window was me responding to a blonde, minimally melanated woman who stepped outside to see what the racket was. Her "KARENESQUE" policing ( "you were BELLOWING!") rolled off my back like the powdery snow that left my Jack Skellington PJs dry after "snow angel-ing". I waved, shrugged my shoulders, brushed off the snow and bellowed back at her, "ALL DONE!"
A sign to me that SPIRIT has got my back on this one.
Since THREE EVENTS CONVERGED this past weekend (my 68th birthday/MLK Day/and, the End of My World as I know it), I rented a motel room that had spa services available for Sunday and Monday. Oh--the women's reproductive rights information, the hot tubbing, the singing and the DANCING we had available, we who convened
That’s a snow angel that I made, after standing in the snow and HOWLING at the top of my lungs for 30 sec. as The End of my World officially begun at noon January 20.
I’ll try to attach a photo…
There were FOUR snow angels, because three good friends got wild n' crazy with me!
I think this is going to be a long four years. I'm aiming on ex-patting my 68 year old ass ELSEWHERE by age 70. By my calculations (and, this initial 24 hours of KKKraziness part 2), AmeriKKKa may have seen its last election for a while.