COVID19: Sketchy Bernie

By now, y'all have all seen the photo of Bernie Sanders at the Biden-Harris inauguration. He was bundled up in a Burton parka (made in Vermont), hand-knit gloves gifted to him by a school teacher, a disposable blue mask, and regular-looking trousers. 

When he first walked down the steps from inside the Capitol, he carried a large manila envelope, like he had stopped by the office to grab his mail for a look-see while waiting for the big event to get underway. I feel that to my bones because it's exactly the kind of thing I'd do during the pre-game for a wintry hoedown and needed to keep mind off how freaking cold my ears are getting.

I use the word delightful a bit much, but it most accurately expresses how I felt the first time I saw #comfyBernie was trending on Twitter along with the photo.

For the sake of history and to practice my figure sketching a bit, I added this quick doodle to my little green sketchbook of current/events politics. I decided I needed a separate book for things that might distract or detract from the chill vibe of my regular sketchbook.

COVID19: One Week In and All is Well

Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday of last week, January 20th, and I feel so much better.

This is a bad sentence because it is vague - better than what? the English teacher writes in the margin, and I raggedly sigh, because the last four years have left me in a better place than where I was before. I  can't be more specific than that at the moment. 

I'm sure I'll get back around to some thoughts'y-feelings'y stuff as I unpack the constant anxiety, dread, and anger I've shouldered since late 2016, and for now, I'm happy to sleep at night knowing that the President of the United States isn't championing taking away my ability to buy health insurance through the marketplace or viewing me as an "enemy combatant" for my strongly-feminist social justice advocacy or willing to use the nuclear codes to settle a score or bomb a hurricane.

Knowing that adults who have experience managing the complexities of our government are managing the complexities of our government goes a long way toward a good night's sleep around here. 

COVID19: Greetings from Tuesday Morning

The election is over. Joe Biden is the President-elect, and the first good bit to bubble to the surface was  relief.

Relief.

Pennsylvania called the result just before 10:30 on Saturday morning. We hadn't been up for long, and when I logged onto Facebook, my friend Jeffry had just posted the wonderful news. He's a stickler for facts, so I knew he was telling the real deal. Jack came in from walking Josie to find me with happy tears streaming down my face. 

Later in the morning, Nevada called the race for Biden. Georgia is also showing blue. There's no way for Trump to make up the difference in the votes, but he's raising a big stink about it. I'm not worried at this point. The election is a done thing, so I'm just going to sit here in the corner and wait for everybody to get over the sting of butthurt. 

Facebook is awash with stinging comments from Trump supporters who feel that the election is being stolen, and some are planning a mass exodus to a competing platform which promises no censorship, no fact-checking, and no liberal bias. Good riddance, I say. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. 

A friend sent me a message earlier and asked if I wasn't going to take at least one victory lap around Facebook about the result of the election, and I told him that I just don't have it in me this time around. I'm posting pictures of the beautiful trees in the woods behind us and a bunch of different pies I've baked. What's more American than apple pie? and each one shouts USA!! in its own special language. I've made a post or two about how generally grateful I feel these days. 

Trump has damaged so much, including relationships between people, and as glad as I am about the result, celebration seem out of place with the pandemic spreading like wildfire and many Tennesseans, including our governor, unwilling to accept the result of the election. 

Governor Lee questions whether or not God would put a Democrat in charge after all the wonderful work Donald Trump has done over the last four years. In my daily call to his office tomorrow, I'm going to remind him that the will of the voters of the United States determines the outcome of the election. He has managed to be a successful businessman, but he certainly doesn't have a good set of leadership skills for governing a state. He seems hesitant to make any move that hasn't been seeded by Trump Republicans at the national level. 

Ben Carson has COVID now. That was in the news today. He was at the election night gathering at the White House along with members of the administration who have tested positive and others, like Betsy deVos, who deserve to test positive. He has sold out his brothers and sisters and disavowed the suffering of his own people. If he pulls a Herman Cain and dies, there will almost be poetic justice in his passing. 

Speaking of poetic justice, I nominate Justice Clarence Thomas for the Black Republican COVID19 Death trifecta but only if he dies after 1/20/2021. That's inauguration day (and a palindrome, like taco cat and god dog) Joe Biden will get to replace him. With Merrick Garland. Or Barack Obama. 

I get chills just thinking about it.