The country is alright.

[cilla4progress]

After a rare cross-country trip including several flights and transfers, I can happily report that everything was secure; people were kind and polite to one another regardless of skin tone; and no surliness was observed.

I think we are going to make it, folks, once our national nightmare is over! You know, the orange one.

[lapfog_1]

1. let me rain on your parade just a bit

I was in a rest area lounge watching some election results last night.

Guy shows up with the remote (you can "rent" the remote at the cashier) and flips the TV to Faux.

Immediately he starts cursing "f-ing this and f-ing that"... every time Hannity says "Hillary should be in jail" and "Comey was a Democrat plant in the FBI" and a bunch of other garbage... this guy was nothing but only barely repressed rage against any and all "libtards" and "Dim-rats" and whatever else he was calling people. I exited as quickly as possible.

But his rage was real... I swear if I had said something like "you know that Spygate was a complete lie... even Gowdy says so" he would have attacked me physically. The most hate / rage filled person I've ever seen...

Anyway... there are many of them still out there.

[cynatnite]

2. I drove cross country twice this year already with no problems...

other than the occasional bout of rain. Everything went fine. Everyone was nice to me and to each other.

No, the country is not alright and it will take a hell of a lot longer than tRump's temporary reign for it to be alright ever again.

[DFW]

3. I give us a half full, half empty grade for now, seen from over here

People over here ask me all the time how we cope. I tell them that as much as McTurtle and Trump's other puppetmasters are trying to destroy our ability to function, the USA is largely on autopilot at the moment. The way Obama left it to us is pretty much the was things are on a global scale. The meanness and the ugliness that were always lurking are now feeling empowered to display their disease in a more public manner, that's all.

But if our plane-of-state, so to speak should hit some serious turbulence, in need of true leadership to steer us through rough spots so we don't crash, well......THAT is when we will be in danger of crashing. It's bad enough that the clown claiming to be the pilot parachuted out over some golf course in New Jersey.

I can't wait until we again have a CIA and NSA more concerned with planting destructive bugs in Russia's "Internet Research Agency (also known as the V.V. Putin Fuck America Agency)" than with separating Mexican children from their moms in Laredo and Brownsville.

[Hortensis]

4. Great to read. Just going for a walk makes me feel that way.

These daytime cable shows are toxic in their negativism and notably slanted against Democrats, never more obvious on these "bad-news" days when our continued successes are ignored AMAP and spun away verbally, but not actually talked out of existence.

I liked this last week regarding Republican rejection of Kim Davis, that religious registrar in Kentucky who refused to marry gay couples. She lost her primary last week by a big margin. Republicans in that district didn't like her culture wars. "Some Republicans signaled Tuesday they wouldn’t vote for Davis in the fall. Jacqueline Smith, 72, said many in the community didn’t like the attention Davis garnered in 2015. “I don’t think sexual orientation should have anything to do with it,” she said. “This is America.”

[rownesheck]

5. where i live

you aren't sure how people vote, but based on the map, we are red. It's a very diverse area, but still, plenty of dumbass whites. At least there aren't many confederate flags flying like there are in east, southeast Texas!

[BannonsLiver]

6. Yeah we're screwed seven ways to Sunday.