One Independence Day weekend years ago, the guys in the Mormon Elders' Quorum I attended with my dad sang "God Save the King" as a joke. My dad didn't sing. After they finished, he said, "Was that for Obama?" Nobody laughed. I asked him later why he didn't sing, and he said, "Because we don't have a king, and I don't want one." So now I wonder how he feels about the guy he voted for thrice doing this.

Maybe he's pissed. Maybe he's horrified. Maybe he doesn't give a shit, just like he told me it's never okay to lie and then didn't give a shit when his church was caught lying about its stockpile of wealth so members would keep giving it money. I'm not curious enough to want to talk to him.

Maybe this trash I got in the mail this week was meant for him. I don't know why I would have gotten it when I haven't said or done anything in the last decade to signal support for the orange taint. These jackasses shouldn't even have my address, but oh wait, I guess the unelected South African Nazi billionaire has everyone's addresses. Now I'm mortified that my landlord might think I'm a MAGAt. Hopefully the stuff I get from the ACLU cancels that out.

THIS. IS. A. FUCKING. CULT. But do I understand that this coin is the first in a series with different inspirational quotes? Let me know when the "Grab 'em by the pussy" coin comes out, and I'll think about it.

​Trump is a cult leader, despite having less charisma than a wet sock, but he is not a king. He's made a huge miscalculation. His first month of "shock and awe" was supposed to cover up how weak his regime is and steamroll the American people into submission. Instead, it just pissed us off. The protests and the lawsuits are only beginning. He's pissed off Canada and pretty much every country that isn't Russia, too. Do you realize how badly you have to fuck up to piss off Canada? I stand with Canadians as they boycott our products, end our economic contracts, and boo our national anthem. I will not stand with my country when it's in the wrong. ​

I found another fun little way to resist this weekend, too, after the unelected South African Nazi billionaire illegally demanded that all the government employees his tech bros haven't fired yet justify their existence to him.

I sent a nice email to [email protected] and also tried some other fun things.

LMAOOOOO

​On February 17, 50501 sponsored "Not My President's Day" protests at state Capitols across the nation. Due to some confusion, I missed the one in Utah and only made it to the previously scheduled Druids for Change protest that happened right after. Disappointing, but whatever. I got a picture of my favorite slogan this time.

I also got a picture of this random poster because it was unattended and I didn't need to ask permission. This is a parody that compares Governor Cox, who started his tenure as a moderate and slightly reasonable Republican and then devolved into a MAGAt ass-kisser, to the most hated cartoon character since Scrappy-Doo.

During the march, someone named Michael J. Christensen punched a woman in a wheelchair, then punched a guy dressed as Captain America and pepper-sprayed four people when they confronted him. I didn't witness that, but I was close enough to hear the yelling, and then I followed him for a minute, and he yelled at me too. (I was trying to film him, but I forgot to switch to video and just got a picture of the sidewalk. Embarrassing.) I'm not sure this was politically motivated because he's several fries short of a combo even by MAGAt standards. He basically just woke up that morning and decided to get arrested. He already had two outstanding warrants. Now it's reported that he exposed himself and peed on the floor when they booked him into jail. Don't worry, Trump will pardon him.

Druids for Change is also doing this really cool thing that I wouldn't miss for the world. I don't believe in witchcraft, but a. it's worth a try, and b. at a minimum, it will have scientifically proven psychological benefits for the participants.

Trump voters getting what they deserve is one of the things that keeps me going. Some of them have already had their lives ruined by the things he said he was going to do before they voted for him, and they're distraught because they voted for him thinking he would only ruin other people's lives. They thought they were special. They thought the universe revolved around them. For example:

"You were only supposed to fire all the other government employees, not me. There must be some mistake." And this self-absorbed moron (whose name I wouldn't have censored if I had gotten the screenshot myself) continuing to kiss Trump's ass and think he gives a shit about them is one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. Wah, wah, wah, go pull yourself up by your bootstraps, numb nuts. I haven't felt less sorry for someone since that CEO got shot.

Speaking of political stupidity, a couple of people told me the other day that I'm part of the problem for failing to recognize that both sides are equally bad. Those people won't read this, but I want to set the record straight for my own satisfaction. I'm not a Democrat. I defy you to find a single instance of me gushing about how great the Democrat Party is. It's not even left-wing by the standards of everywhere else in the world. Nonetheless, it is light-years better than the party that embraces literal fucking Nazis and does everything in its power to make life worse for everyone who's not a billionaire. The Republicunt Party is in its own special league of awful. It's a cancer. Even the Democrats' stance on Gaza, a major stain on their record that dissuaded some left-wingers from voting for Harris, is light-years better than Trump's final solution. Both sides are bad, but thinking that they're equally bad is delusional. 

Speaking of bad people, this is literally me.

I love people. Because I love people, I don't love people who hate people. It's not complicated. It's not hypocritical. There's no contradiction between me simultaneously preaching love and encouraging transphobes to kill themselves. The obsessive and senseless persecution of transgender people is a huge reason why the Republicunt Party is light-years worse than the Democrat Party, by the way. And get this, the last transphobe I told to jump in front of a truck (about an hour ago) was a bisexual woman who inexplicably thinks that her alternative lifestyle is entitled to respect while she bullies other people for being different than her. The Republicunts will eventually come for her too. No great loss, but I hope things don't get to that point.

There's another series of nationwide protests tomorrow, Not My President's Day, sponsored by a group called Refuse Fascism. See their website for more information and show up if you can. This group has the slogan, "In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America." It's one of the least catchy slogans i've ever heard, but I don't disagree with it. My proximity to the Capitol and my self-determined work schedule make attending protests very convenient. I believe now that this is why the universe put me here. It's very important to protest and not just hunker down and accept the stream of shit coming out of Washington. This regime isn't nearly as strong as it's trying to make you think. It will break, hopefully before it destroys civilization.

​The other day I saw my brother-in-law on Instagram gloating about the richest man in the world illegally cutting off funds for millions of people in poverty. That was the moment I realized I officially hate most of my family. The cherry on top, of course, is that today he went to church and pretended to worship Jesus. I'm glad my church doesn't make sociopaths feel comfortable. This realization hurt like hell, but I got high and got over it by the next day. It's not like I had real relationships with most of my family in the first place. I currently feel closer to the great-grandmother I saw for a couple of hours every other year before she died in 2010 than I ever have to my parents. And it's not like I'm the first person who's experienced this. The civil war tore lots of families apart. I know my dad would have supported the confederacy because he's obsessed with states' rights and doesn't let marginalized people's suffering bother him.

On a more positive note, this past week I got to participate in two protests against everything most of my family stands for. Thanks to my self-determined work schedule and proximity to the Capitol, I can go to protests whenever I want. Here I am on Wednesday with my "White Dudes for Harris" cap. I had to get more use out of it somehow.

There was some unfortunate division after the protest had officially ended and most people had left. A transgender person got up and complained about all the American flags they'd seen, and they said they thought the only reason to bring American flags to a protest was to burn them, and they said we shouldn't be proud to be Americans, and they said the US has committed genocide against transgender people, and they chanted "FUCK AMERICA!" Two girls with American flags were still there, standing in the back, and they looked at each other awkwardly and soon left. I regret not talking to them to assuage any embarrassment they may have felt, and I hope they haven't been alienated from activism for good. I won't say the speaker was wrong to feel the way they did about the US. I understand. My faith in its fundamental goodness died on November 5. But my feeling is that this country exists, it will probably continue to exist for the foreseeable future in one form or another, and it will either get better or worse. Chanting "FUCK AMERICA!" won't make it better but will alienate people who would otherwise love to help make it better. Countries suck, all right? That's just how they are.

Oh yeah, and this picture went kind of viral. In case anyone is wondering, it's chalk, and it got washed off. As soon as it was discovered, the event organizer chewed us all out and said that vandalism is unacceptable and makes us look bad. It made for a badass picture, though. And the Venn diagram of people who will be outraged by this and people who think the January 6 rioters did nothing wrong is almost a perfect circle.

As I left the Capitol, I passed by like five counterprotestors, two of whom were filming us. I'm sure the footage of me and others flipping them off is now on Twitter with the caption "sO mUcH fOr ThE tOlErAnT lEfT." I don't care. They're owning themselves by showing the size of the anti-Trump movement in one of the reddest states in the US. I also knew as I marched that there was a non-zero chance of a MAGAt plowing his truck into us. That didn't happen, but at one point I saw someone drive really close and heard a thunk and a "That's what you get." I thought the driver had run over someone's foot, but apparently what actually happened is that someone punched his mirror off.

My old college friend Cece was there too. I hadn't seen her in... ten years? I don't remember.

Many of us returned to the Capitol afterward. I got a picture of my second-favorite sign. My first, which I regrettably didn't get, was "Super Callous Fragile Racist Sexist Nazi POTUS."

So yeah, that was pretty great. Solidarity is how we'll survive the foreseeable future. (I want to say "the next four years," but that may be too optimistic.) We won't obey in advance. We won't be silenced. Nothing short of death will stop me from proesting again on March 1. Also, to get there and back, I rode the city train for the first time, and that was fun. I feel blessed to be able to ride a train.

On an unrelated note, this piece of shit came at me on Facebook the other day with "Democrats don't even know what a woman is" etc. etc. I contacted his fianceé and his employer. This is North Carolina, so probably neither of them care, but fingers crossed.

Right when I had started to do okay financially for the first time in my life - I say "okay," not "well," because I still had no chance of ever owning a home or retiring - the cost of everything in my country is about to skyrocket because the undocumented immigrants who pick our food are scared to go to work and the orange taint has put tariffs on our biggest trade partners. I take a lot of comfort in knowing that the morons who voted for this because they thought the orange taint would only hurt other people are going to suffer as much as I am, sometimes more. I have no patience or empathy left for them. If someone sets fire to the neighborhood to get warm, I'm not going to cry when her house burns down.

But here's something totally random and apolitical to lighten the mood. Sometimes I make movies in my head to entertain myself instead of interacting with people. They're not very effective because I'm not a very visual thinker, but if I live long enough, I'll be able to make them real with AI. Then I'll have to keep them to myself so I don't get sued for a bunch of stuff, but I'm not in it for the money anyway. I bring this up because I was clearing out my Downloads folder in a probably vain attempt to make my computer less crappy, and I found these pictures I made with AI to go with my favorite movie idea, and I decided to share because they're random and apolitical. I don't use image generators much anymore because they're bad for the environment. I hope that gets resolved by the time movie generators are a thing.

Synopsis (also partially AI-generated because I was lazy):

The movie is set in the eighties because everyone loves eighties nostalgia, and it's set in California because all eighties movies are set in California. It's a celebration of metal music and a satire of the Satanic panic that takes some inspiration from the eighties cult classics "Trick or Treat" and "The Gate." Emma Forbes (Kiernan Shipka) is a shy, nerdy, clumsy high school girl with a passion for anime and metal. She hides her true self and tries to act "normal." The movie opens with her performing "Cum On Feel the Noize" at a crowded concert. For some reason, I've long thought that would be a perfect movie opening. The screen is black, she yells "Baby baby baaaby!" Then the guitar kicks in as the studio logos appear, and then the opening credits play over the crowd rocking out. Perfection. Of course, it's just a dream, and her alarm wakes her up, and she's late for school. Womp womp.

She has a crush on Jake Rodriguez (Noah Centineo), but she's too shy to talk to him. Principal Victoria Harding (Sandra Bullock), a strong believer in discipline and order, rules the school with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Tiffany Wong (Chloe Bennet) is the school's reigning queen bee whose sharp tongue and icy stare could freeze the sun in its tracks. She wields her popularity like a weapon, using it to maintain her social dominance and strike fear into the hearts of those who dare to oppose her, particularly the "unconventional" Emma. Her entourage consists of two equally vindictive sidekicks who are as devoted to Tiffany's cruel cause as they are to their matching pink backpacks and designer sneakers. Brittany Hart (Sydney Sweeney) is the sly strategist, always whispering sweet nothings of spite into Tiffany's ear, while Hailey Castellanos (Madison Beer) is the brash enforcer, never one to shy away from a confrontation.

One day, following the strains of Black Sabbath, Emma enters an abandoned house and finds a demon named Azazel (voiced by John Mulaney), sort of an evil version of Robin Williams' genie, who promises to give her power to fulfill her dreams. With his help, Emma starts gaining confidence and standing up for herself. She gets into an escalating prank war with Tiffany. She starts a metal band with some other students. When Principal Harding hears them practicing, she comes out of the closet as a metalhead and asks them to perform at the Halloween dance. They're thrilled, but Azazel grows more powerful the more Emma plays, and her personality starts to change.

Tiffany goes to the dance with Jake just to make Emma jealous, but Jake secretly overhears her telling her friends that she's using him and doesn't care about him. Now, eager to get revenge for Emma's pranks, she's attempting to sabotage the band's performance out of spite. She sneaks backstage with Brittany and Hailey, trying to mess with their equipment. Emma, discovering Tiffany's meddling, confronts her. The tension rises as they argue, their conflict as jarring as the discordant strains of metal music that Emma adores.

Azazel takes over Emma completely. In a surprising twist, Emma drags Tiffany on stage by the ear and exposes her attempted sabotage to everyone. The crowd, initially shocked, starts to cheer for Emma. Brittany, ever the strategist, attempts to sweet talk her way out of trouble, offering to help Emma and become her new best friend. But Emma sees through her deceit, recognizing the venom behind the smile. With a flick of her hand, she sends a burst of demonic energy that knocks Brittany off her feet, her perfectly curled hair now a mess of tangles. Panicking, Hailey charges at Emma, but her brashness is no match for the supernatural forces at play. Emma catches her in mid-air and slams her to the ground.
​
Then Azazel does some bad stuff, and everyone, including Tiffany because I want everyone to have a happy ending, has to team up to defeat him in the final showdown, but I haven't figured that part out yet. And of course there will be lots of eighties metal and hard rock music in the soundtrack. "Living After Midnight," "Crazy Train," "It's Inevitable," "Heart of Steel," etc.

These are the pictures that I actually wanted to share. I don't know why, but Kiernan Shipka looks perfect as both a cute nerd and a hardcore guitarist. It's a crime against humanity that this movie doesn't exist.

Yes, she has to take her glasses off to go from nerd to guitarist. That's just how movies are. It's the law.