Cabinet of Curiosities

We are about to enter another dimension

What a century this last week has been.

Just calculating that Donald Trump, the person I least want to know anything about, has now oozed his sludge into my psyche for nine years, going on thirteen?

Just putting this here for no reason.

Here is a timeline.

Post election, at first, I was kind of level, unsurprised, maybe a bit comatose. After an exercise class (in which I thought I was having an asthma attack but then realized that no, this is just how it feels to BREATHE OXYGEN after not doing it for three days) emotion peeked in there. OOPS, tamped it down. Still stable. Feeling angry, of course, but also kind of British about it? Like, keep calm, carry on, all that.

I am a board member at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, and we held a weekend retreat to get down to some strategic planning - very necessary - and that felt great, actually. It felt like we were GETTING TO WORK, which is good.

(BTW I am in Rhode Island TONIGHT at their Champions event if you are nearby and interested!!)

And then the nominations started rolling in. At first, they were kind of silly. Lil Marco…haha, OK. 

Then horrid, but expected: Tom Homan, Mr. Family Separation, back in business.

Joanna Coles and I recorded a The Daily Beast Podcast episode (dropping today) when it all still felt loopy and wild, and it was moderately amusing to imagine Elon Musk swanning around Mar-A-Lago in a loose fitting terry cloth robe. The guest who has overstayed his welcome. Me putting all my faith in Suzie Wiles to be the mommy DJT so deeply pines for?

Then Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense?? Say what???

THIS GUY with the nuclear codes??? THE WEEKEND GUY????

Tulsi Gabbard, enthusiastic embracer of conspiracy theories and God knows what else, gatekeeping National Intelligence. 

And now Matt Gaetz as AG… If you don't understand why this nomination, in particular, caused instant paralysis in everyone who received the news alert, Google: "Matt Gaetz ethics probe," "Matt Gaetz DOJ investigation,"Matt Gaetz sex trafficking minors"...no need to copy/paste, these results will actually auto-populate. Anyway, he's now been selected to oversee these types of investigations. I will have more to say about this all at a later date once I can stabilize my blood pressure and clear my eyes of blood.

Things are about to get fucking WILD.

The worst things we could imagine are all about to come true.

And I have spent some time reflecting on the circular firing squad of the democratic party, and my attendant disgust at this. I am sooooo tired of the canard that people were innocently pushed to the right because progressive ideas are terrible and bad. And sure, fine. I get how tiring it can be to get corrected when you said homeless that one time instead of unhoused. I do it all the time. Progress is hard, I know. And literally nobody is perfect.

But it is not the fault of smart progressive people with good ideas about change that OTHER PEOPLE took those good ideas, mutated them, spent hundreds of millions of dollars making them seem insane - then spit them back out to a covid addled, radicalized population addicted to their phones.

This truly was the election of utterly unchallenged disinformation on social media, and it makes me ill. 

And yes people wanted CHANGE, and the democrats woefully underestimated people’s appetite for change. It is always the economy, isn’t it? Unfortunately the economy Trump is selling works best if you are a billionaire, but I guess we will all find out.

For sure, if you’ve got nothing left to lose, then why wouldn’t you toss the whole deck of cards into the air? I get that. 

But MEN and BOYS and ALL PEOPLE are being radicalized to believe lies at unprecedented levels, from their radio shows, from the teevee box, and on the social media they consume. And the people in charge of fixing that are…now the people it serves. 

Anyhoo.

The only things, and I mean the ONLY things, currently getting me through this week are:

1. My episode of Choice Words with the hilarious Heather McMahan, which gave me LIFE. I promise this conversation will uplift you. I laughed so much my face hurt.

2. The audiobook of Ina Garten’s memoir. Frankly, I am scared because I’m almost finished with it. May slow it down to half speed. May slow it down to QUARTER speed and listen to it all over again in a monster voice, bake myself into a pyramid of coconut cupcakes, and spend the next four years eating my way out.

That’s it for now

Xo

Sam