Category Archives: Politics

7 Quick Takes: Let’s Get Jen Posting Again

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Let’s do an old-fashioned 7 Quick Takes post to see if I can pull together the ability to post again.

Uno

Don’t take medical advice from a disgraced attorney and a conman. I was going to dedicate a post to the idiocy that was the announcement of the alleged link between autism and Tylenol by Donald Trump and RFK Jr. The problem: I don’t have the spoons to go into why those two losers are the last people who should be giving medical advice. I mean… Donald Trump can’t even pronounce “acetaminophen”.

You can find videos from people with credentials on the subject here, here, here, here, and here. Studies are here and here.

Dos

Cancel culture and my local health system. The day after Dumb and Dumber held their autism press conference, I was at my local Urgent Care getting my right hand examined because I had irritated it while crocheting. (I stress-crochet.) There isn’t a good way to brace it with commercially-available braces, so the doctor had the nurse MacGuyver something for me with an ACE bandage. I also got a lab slip for them to run a bunch of rheumatology tests in case this has a connection there. (They did x-ray it, and my hand is not broken.)

While I was waiting for someone to take my blood, I heard one of the lab techs talking loudly about the Charlie Kirk memorial, the autism press conference, and a bunch of fallacies about how “it *MUST* be Tylenol because we didn’t have autism in the 60’s and 70’s until we got Tylenol.” (Yeah, no. Autism has been a known condition since 1911, Aspberger was doing experiments on autistic kids in the 1930’s, and Tylenol wasn’t marketed to the public until the 50’s.) I corrected her when I got in the room, told her how damaging her spread of misinformation was for autistic people like me and Daniel, and told her sternly to get her politics out of her job. She glared at me, and I reported her to Patient Safety because there is the risk of a patient hearing her and doing something ill-advised like taking ibuprofen during pregnancy. My health system doesn’t screw around, and I received word that she was repremanded. Still, she shouldn’t be even giving patients medical advice.

Seriously...

Tres

Charlie Kirk. Let me be be abundantly clear on this…

NOBODY. DESERVES. TO. BE. KILLED. FOR. THEIR. POLITICAL. BELIEFS. NO. MATTER, HOW. ABHORENT. THEY. ARE.

Kirk was a horrible human being on many levels, and his words did lots of damage to this country. That does not excuse his assassination.

Quatro

This is incredibly inappropriate. This raid on a Chicago apartment building is over-the-top in terms of how egregious it was. They dragged children out, some without clothing, and shoved them into U-Haul trucks, they poured out people’s food and medication (which could cost thousands to replace), and they detained people indiscriminately. This was a black neighborhood, and it was absolutely meant to trigger fear.

I cannot even understand how people are justifying this behavior. Seriously. This is Nazi Germany level atrocity

Cinco

Funeral with a pr0n troll. No, I am not making this up. The patriarch of a local farm family died, and he was a member of my parish. We had a full sanctuary with extra seats in the back, and there were an extra 100 chairs in the parish hall with a rented big-screen TV. I was trying to troubleshoot a sound issue in the parish hall when a video of someone performing a sex act popped up on Zoom. Everyone watching from home on Zoom saw it, and it appeared on the big-screen TV. Cue me and my partner on the sound board doing everything imaginable to kick them out. Another funeral guest finally came upstairs, and helped us adjust some settings to keep them out. I was already fighting severe depression and hadn’t slept the night before, so this hit me and my perfectionism really hard. The priest doing the funeral brought me pie the next day as an apology, and my partner got prayed over on Sunday, which I missed because I was home with a puking kid. I needed that laying on of hands badly, so they did it for me the following Sunday. I also got to spend 8 hours going through Zoom’s knowledge base with a fine-toothed comb to lock down the public Zoom meetings we use for worship and Bible study.

Seis

Purple Revolution. There’s apparently a bunch of MAGA folks who are feeling the consequences of voting for Donald Trump, and they’re trying to call for everyone to come together in a “purple revolution” to fix this. They are hitting a wall when it comes to Democrats because WE. FREAKING. TOLD. YOU. ALL. OF. THIS. WOULD. HAPPEN. AND. YOU. VOTED. FOR. THE. JERK. ANYWAY. Apparently, we’re supposed to trust them now? You idiots laughed about “owning the libs” and you’re complaining about your families refusing to talk to you, losing your health care, and tariffs screwing you over? Not our problem.

Siete

Prayers needed. Please pray for Lane Claudia, the oldest daughter of Jen Fulwiler, the creator of the 7 Quick Takes. Lane just had serious brain surgery on Monday, is facing a long recovery, and they’re still waiting for pathology reports on the lime-sized tumor they removed. Jen is asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Champion as well as any Blesseds that need some work to do.

Slava Ukraini!

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I can’t stand Mike Pence or many of his positions. He is, however, a man with a spine as he demonstrated on January 6, 2021 when he refused to bow to Donald Trump’s order not to certify the election.

He posted this on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mike Pence standing up for Ukraine.

I bring this up because of the utter dumpster fire of a meeting that happened in the Oval Office today. Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their minions expected Volodymyr Zelenskyy to grovel and thank them for the Russia-centric peace deal Trump “negotiated”. They had a rude awakening when Zelenskyy actually advocated for his country and refused to engage in their screaming match. Both Trump and Vance looked utterly foolish and they berated him. I think the most telling thing was Vance scolding him for not saying “thank you” once during the meeting for the mediocre deal they thought he should accept.

Zelenskyy is, like Trump and Vance, not a career politician. He had an entertainment career before becoming the leader of Ukraine, much like Trump did. However, he has stepped up and put his country first consistently over the last three years. Trump has never served anyone other than himself and his own interests. Zelenskyy has more support in his country than Trump will ever hope to enjoy in this country because Zelenskyy truly puts the Ukrainian people first instead of bowing to dictators like the ones Trump counts as friends.

Let me make my position clear.

Slava Ukraini!

Catching Up: Bleh Edition

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I was hoping to post more often this year, but January was “one of those months”.

[+] Sick. I got a sinus infection early in the month, and then Daniel very politely shared his virus with me, which has been causing bad asthma exacerbation. What is even more fun is that they can’t do a lot for me because I can’t have oral steroids like Prednisone or Decadron. I’ve had to reschedule doctor’s appointments, miss the People’s March, and basically put my life on hold while I bond with my inhaler and nebulizer.

[+] The Felon of the United States (FOTUS). I expected Trump’s annexation of the Oval Office to be an utter dumpster fire, and I have not been disappointed. Thankfully, our former Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is now the governor, spent last year with his staff going over every part of Project 2025 and have filings drafted for every contingency. His successor as Attorney General, Nick Brown, has scored a point against the Trump administration on his first filing, which was the lawsuit that caused a federal judge in Seattle to put a moratorium on ending birthright citizenship. Judge Coughener (who is a Reagan appointee, by the way, in case anyone wants to complain about liberal judges) was pretty irritated that he had to rule on something so clear cut. Here’s hoping for more victories against Trump and his minions!

Catching Up: New Year’s Eve 2024 Edition

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Hello to everyone except the IDIOTS to re-elect Donald Trump and the 20 million people who decided not to vote.

Yes… I just said that.

I’m astonished at the stupidity of our country in electing someone who cannot speak in complete sentences, who claimed that people were eating dogs and cats in Springfield even after THE FREAKING MAYOR OF SPRINGFIELD AND GOVERNOR OF OHIO TOLD HIM TO CUT THAT ISH OUT AND THE PROUD BOYS SHOWED UP, who claims that he’ll raise money for things by imposing tariffs on China… despite the fact that THE IMPORTER IS THE THE ONE PAYING THE TARIFF AND PASSING IT ONTO THE CONSUMER INSTEAD OF THE COUNTRY IN QUESTION (was I the only one paying attention in Economics in high school???), who is imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico despite us getting a lot of our imports of food and other things from them, who doesn’t know the origin of the word “grocery” (Google is free, y’all!), who is claiming that there will be mass deportations even though he doesn’t actually have any clue of how to do that or how much he is going to hamstring agriculture or building in this country by doing that (because migrant workers are the ones who actually *DO* those jobs), who incited an insurrection which killed several people, and who, along with his derpy followers, has no idea how basic things in the economy work. His Cabinet choices are the dumbest people imaginable for each position (like they were in his first administration) to the point that even his followers are objecting to them. (Seriously? Matt Gaetz for Attorney General? Well, he is a pedophile like Trump…)

I’m positively dreading the next four years as a member of a church with members who could possibly deported because our immigration system is effed up in so many ways, I’m a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, someone who is neurodivergent with chronic conditions, and someone who had a pregnancy condition. I’m struggling to keep my head up already, and the Orange Idiot taking offices means that I’m going to have to fight twice as hard to keep things working for me and Daniel when I barely have the mental and emotionally energy to get out of bed.

And yes, you can absolutely unfollow me if you’re offended by anything that I’ve just said. I’ve never forced anyone to read this blog.

I guess I should go look on BestBuy.Com for a new laptop before the Mango Mussolini hostilely takes over the Oval Office again and prices jump 25% because he is incapable of understanding the purpose of tariffs…

Oh yeah, my saint for 2025 is St. Gianna and the word of the year is “hello”.

I’ll be putting my new bullet journal together if you need me…

Turning Down the Heat

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From the blog of my Episcopal priest Fr. Paul:

I just cranked the heat up in my office today. Outside it’s in the low 50’s and I was chilly. Then I signed into my computer and checked the news. All of a sudden, the room felt hot.

This is the last week before the election, and polls show a wildly varied scenario of potential outcomes. Everybody is anxious. This is par for the course. This time around, however, there is a real threat of violence. There are people who believe that if their candidate does not win the election, violence to put them in the White House by force would be justified. Vulnerable people will be targeted. I am opening up my church as a sanctuary.

My Christian faith teaches me that the world is saved by dying, not by fighting, by serving, not by forcing, by giving rather than taking, and by loving rather than hating.

Dear fellow human beings, it’s high time to turn down the heat!

Catching Up: Busy Girl Edition

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So what have I been up to? Well…

Crocheting. My happy thing these days is to crochet while watching YouTube in the evening. So far this year, I’ve finished prayer shawls, 2 NICU blankets (including one with the frogged yarn from another blanket), and I’m almost done with another prayer shawl.

Health. I’ve been dealing with serious fatigue, which my psych nurse thinks is the depressive phase of bipolar 2. Oh freaking joy… Daniel has also been adding stress to my life, so that isn’t helping.

Politics. I’ve been writing postcards for my local Democrats and Activate America to help get out the vote in Ohio, Arizona, Montana, and here in Washington. It doesn’t feel like a lot, but it’s something that needs to be done and I have a lot of spare time.

Catching Up: My Party’s Convention Was Cooler than Your Party’s Convention Edition

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I said what I said. :p

[+] But seriously… The RNC’s roll call was orderly and parliamentary. The DNC had a dance party for theirs complete with a DJ and turntable. 🙂 The whole thing is below, but you can skip around the video if you want to see how they pulled it off.

[+] Best speeches. Not gonna lie… Michelle was better than Barack… and that takes some doing!

[+] Republicans at the DNC. I’m sharing this video not to gloat, but because they have good things to say.

[+] Geeking out over Pete Buttegieg. If you watched Pete Buttegieg’s speech, you know that he joked about how some people might know him from FOX News, and that’s because he goes on there somewhat frequently to bring his message to a group of people who might normally not hear it. People act like he’s stupid, but he very calmly explains why the commentators are incorrect and does so in such a way that said commentators don’t realize that he is calling them “stupid” until the end. Dude is a Harvard grad, a Rhodes scholar, a polyglot, and a veteran. He can talk policy like nobody’s business, and I’m really hoping he has a prominent place in Kamala’s administration.

[+] J.D. Vance. Dude cannot talk to regular people. Like seriously, his donut shop video (which is below) is embarrassing. He was nice to the woman who didn’t want to be on camera, but it’s apparent that he doesn’t talk to working class people regularly. I mean, how about GOOGLING the place where you’re going to be visiting? I’m pretty sure his staff could have done that!

Then, there’s the gaffe at Pat’s Steaks where he tried to mock John Kerry (and just sounded awkward)

He has also attacked the head of the American Federation of Teachers for not having kids and claims she is trying to brainwash kids. Like, seriously? When asked about the remarks, Vance tried to deflect and made a stupid remark alleging that she is trying to put pr0n in school libraries. Dude, my kiddo has been in public school all of his life, and I can tell you that mask mandates are there to protect kids, the “woke stuff” is teachers teaching a history that hasn’t been whitewashed, and there isn’t any pr0n in school libraries.

He, like the person at the top of the ticket, insults people, and doesn’t talk about policy at all. He comes off as an incredibly unpleasant person, and I am biting my thumb at the Ohioans who put this troglodyte in the Senate.

[+] The feel of both campaigns. As I said before, Trump insults people, does not talk policy at all, which is not good because we need to be able to vote based on policy decisions, not personalities. Ditto with Vance. Kamala’s campaign is best described by something Michelle Obama said in her DNC speech: “The contagious power of hope”. She is running a fairly positive campaign, and there is this air of hope and joy. Her choice of Tim Walz as a running mate was excellent because he can actually talk to people and he has actually accomplished things in Minnesota to which he can point when people start asking about his fitness to be vice-president. I actually *LIKE* listening to him talking, and he gives off the air of caring about people’s needs rather than the Trump/Vance power grab.

OK… back to working on my prayer shawl.