Seize the Day, Seize the Good News/Carpe diem, Carpe bonam

Orwell had a fear of totalitarian
Communism in mind, but his dystopia
applies as well to totalitarianism
on the extreme right. It's the message
that resonates. 

The news coming out of the Twitter-in-Chief, as a fellow resister calls him, and the "alternative facts" spewing forth from his ugly surrogates, were affecting my mood. Coming off the high of the Women's March in Washington, so full of hope, exuberant, I found myself stewing, feeling blue. I went to bed full of anger and continuing disbelief at the Orwellian world in which we find ourselves. Damn, how will we survive this nightmare?

That's why I was surprised that I actually spent the night with my unconscious self having a good dream, a happy dream. Where did that come from?

I woke up mulling this over, remembering it, going over the details so as not to forget it. It wasn't my usual anxiety dream. I was with my family of origin and we were having a wonderful time being together. We were at my sister's house on a lake, and I jumped into the clear blue water spontaneously and splashed around with gay abandon, smiling and waving. I wouldn't normally do that.

As I was congratulating myself on the power of positive thinking, another thought immediately came to me:  You need to avoid the bad news. Seize the day. Seize the good news coming out in reputable media outlets, and ignore the rest. We need hope. We need what my dearest brother Loren called "lifelines" to keep us going, to keep us strong, to keep us resisting.

I made coffee and sat at the computer to glance at the news.  Yep, I only glance.  I turn my head kind of sideways to my screen to get the gist of what's coming out there, the horrible, no-good news of the day, about censorship, shutting down agencies, building a wall, having $12 billion for the wall but nothing for social safety nets, leaving the UN, resuming waterboarding, taking credit when it is not due, saying hateful things, lying, outright lying. If I happen to alight on a photo of tRump, kellylyingannspicer, McConnell, Ryan or Pence, my stomach turns, and I quickly look away.

I just need to stay informed, I tell myself, not immersed.  Informed enough to contact my Senators, Sherrod Brown (D, OH) and Rob Portman (alt-right R funded by the Koch brothers), and my representative in the House, Marcy Kaptur (D, Toledo, OH), a quiet but stalwart fighter on whom we can count.

Klima (climate change) image by Szelsokozep.com

So, mornin' joe in hand, my dream made conscious, I saw the bad news out of the corner of my eye.  Then just as fast I spotted the good news, on which I lingered. "U.S. government scientists go 'rogue' in defiance of trump" 
(Steven Gorman, Reuters, January 26, 2017). Yes!  "Employees from more than a dozen U.S. government agencies have established a network of unofficial "rogue" Twitter feeds in defiance of what they see as attempts by President Donald Trump to muzzle federal climate change research and other science./ Seizing on Trump's favorite mode of discourse, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and other bureaus have privately launched Twitter accounts - borrowing names and logos of their agencies - to protest restrictions they view as censorship and provide unfettered platforms for information the new administration has curtailed. "Can't wait for President Trump to call us FAKE NEWS," one anonymous National Park Service employee posted on the newly opened Twitter account @AltNatParkService. "You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!""

I also spotted this good news.  The Hill reported that "Scientists are planning their own March on Washington" (http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/316023-scientists-are-planning-their-own-march-on-washington).  More protests.  More honesty.  Especially uplifting to learn that federal employees will not be stifled and silenced without a fight.  That is fabulous news, because I'm sure more will follow. I'm sure resistance will rise inside as well as outside of the government.  Maybe I'll have to go back to Washington to march!

Since I'm especially interested in knowing more about tRump's conflicts of interest and Russian ties, and those of his billionaire oil, gas, and corporate cronies who will make up his cabinet, I savor any news about ongoing and new lawsuits and investigations. An article about the ACLU filing suit to get information about tRump's conflicts of interest under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) made my day.

So did the news that the House Intelligence Committee will investigate these issues and the question of interference in our election, and that it will call on the six intelligence agencies that are doing the same thing to provide information and report to the Committee.  The Twitter-in Chief won't be able to escape the truth, won't be able to twist the facts.  Not for long.  Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Ranking member Adam Schiff (D, CA), in a joint statement, promised a full investigation, "no matter where the facts lead, including, among other things, allegations of collusion."  (http://shareblue.com/
breaking-house-intel-committee-will-investigate-trump-camps-russia-ties/ by Tommy Christopher, 25 January 2017)

We absolutely need this kind of news to keep us going. Forget the bad news about what the White House and Congress are doing.  It will all implode in time. Forget the propaganda, the stupifying self-aggrandizement, the self-promoting twitters, the "alternative facts" that are simply another name for lies. Seize the day. Seize the real news, news of protest and resistance, news that questions the false narratives spun by the White House propagandists and their Congressional alt-right allies, the "fake" news and lies from fake outlets like Breitbart. Carpe diem, Carpe bonam.