I think all of the hatred and vitriol in this country right now is making me physically sick.

[redstatebluegirl]

Yesterday someone defaced the Oklahoma Democratic Party headquarters, antisemitic, racists misogynistic horrible things. Clearly written by a Nazi or someone who sympathizes with that crowd. It was horrible. I went to work this morning and one of the guys who works in the shop was laughing as he was walking down the hall looking at his phone. I asked him what was so funny, he said "somebody sent a message to those libs in OKC". I was dumbfounded, I didn't know what to say but he could see he made a mistake. I told him those types of incidents were going to destroy our country, he said no, just the libs.

I went back to my office, i was light headed, did not feel well at all. Checked my blood pressure as I am supposed to do and it was through the ceiling. I called my doctor and she told me to take the meds she gave me in case it went over 150 over 90 which it had. I am not sure if it is all of the nasty stuff. Watching 45 laugh in the faces of good Americans just because they don't agree with him, hoping that he will not destroy us and get elected for another 4.

There are days when I find myself getting angry in ways I have never gotten angry before. I don't like being angry, negative energy does nothing good for you.

We have a new boss who is from the oil business, he is a real piece of work, trying to destroy the man he replaced by smearing his name. It just makes me want to cry.

I am taking a break from most news, I still come here, but I may need a break from DU as well. I don't want to hate republicans, my brother is one, some of my friends are as well. I don't follow many of them and don't answer emails from some. I don't really want to hate anyone, but my feelings for 45 and his supporters is exactly that, hatred that they want to destroy our country just because they hate some of the cultural changes taking place. I know it is the final gasps of white privilege but I wish it would just hurry up and get it over with. Divided we fall, as a party and as a country.

Just a short edit, no need to worry about me, I am fine, I've survived worse than this, I just need to figure out how to do it in the 24/7 news world we live in.

[still_one]

1. For the most part i have done that for sometime, at least in regard to the national news outlets

Newsapers i read though

[beachbum bob]

2. I don't watch any national news shows or any political based shows going on over 2 years, and

will only read articles/stories/reports of interest. The media tendency to overinflated and the rampant hyperbole of it all forced to stop. Gotta say its all good, but do miss the Sunday morning shows. Will not watch any until democrats retake govt 100%.


my blood pressure never better

[Chin music]

3. I'm sorry. It's OUR country too.

I love you. There's more of us than them. We just don't laugh out loud about evil, so we aren't as obvious.
We are here. We are here. We are here. (Horton Hears a Who.)

[UniteFightBack]

4. I know when you have these experiences face to face it is quite disheartening. My co-worker takes

the same pleasure as yours. And so does my family.... It's sad really.

This is how I deal with it. In the online world I may say I hate a Republican do all sorts of hyperbole..whatever.
But in real life I don't 'hate' them. That would be crazy. That would make me exactly what I supposedly don't want to be.

I use humor to stab back at them and it's done with a smile. When they say they 'pissed off a lib' or 'owned a lib' my standard response is yes that is the Republican Party platform and nothing else.

I have no problems conversing w/ R's or Deplorables in real life but it always ends the same....they can't handle real talk and real facts and they get all pissy and shut it down. So all the bullshit about reaching out....we are the ones who do it...they don't.

[Chin music]

10. That's a fact. And they know, and count on it.

And the belief that at the end of the day, those "libs", will fix what they broke. We continue to fix stuff bc of the older folks next door, or your siblings, or your parents, but, most of all, bc we appreciate what we have. And we realize like anything that grows, it needs to be tended to lovingly. America.

[cilla4progress]

5. Well, Babs Bush said

it helped to kill her!

[SWBTATTReg]

6. As the great Michelle Obama said 'when others go low, we go high' (I'm paraphrasing/recalling...

exact words with my feeble memory). One of the greatest sayings I think ever.

[Ohiogal]

7. I know exactly how you feel.

All this ugliness affects me in much the same way.

I seem to find solace in reading DU posts because it reaffirms to me that there are many others out there who feel as I do.

But, anyway,

here’s a hug.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. The news may be 24/7, but I am not.

Huge major reason we turned the tvs off, and eventually got rid of them.
Now I have to pro-actively search for any news, on line, via DU and Twitter and a few preferred bloggers.
It's a good feeling being in control of what I let into my head, much more relaxing.
Reading news stories is much more serene than hearing people on the tube yell at me.
It also takes way less time to get the info.

If you spend a few minutes just analyzing a news show, you will notice how hyped up it is, a wall of sound, a screen full of images, all designed to grab your attention, and of course that will raise your BP. Then the commercials come on and really raise the volume.

I'm old school, from when tv news was 30 minutes at night of someone like Cronkite reading the news into the camera, no background sounds, no blaring music, just his quite voice reporting details. If you wanted more info, you did what you still can do now, read about the story, in a news paper, or in our case now, online.
But we controlled who we let into our heads, and in what manner.

[llmart]

13. You articulated it in a very good way.

I was going to respond something similar, but yours is so much better. I don't have cable and I don't watch the regular, over the air news programs either. That's the beauty of the internet. I can or cannot go search for the news IF and WHEN I want it. I, too, am of the era where you got 30 minutes (actually less minus the ads) of national news once in the evening. I make the choice of what goes into my mind/body, not someone else. I stopped subscribing to a newspaper years ago.

I would never allow all that negativity into my life at this point. I value my health and well-being too much to allow anyone else to control it. Face it, it's all about money making anyway. The news outlets are always ginning up controversy to keep you watching.

Anyway, great post.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. This is how I handle it.

First I don't engage with them unless it can't be avoided.


Second I am always polite and kind. It is.hard for them to call me one of those awful liberals when they are just nice people who are kind to you


I ignore them if they get nasty. I never start a fight. And I never let them know I am getting upset.

[Chin music]

11. +1

[Laffy Kat]

12. You are not alone, redstatatebluegirl.

I think I'm about to cut the cord to my DISH because everything bothers me, even the shows satirizing the GOP. It is hard to be out in the world today. I've been trying to force myself to walk and exercise and spend more time with my dogs. If it wasn't for my pets and my job, I would spend all day in bed watching youtube and Netflix.

[Hekate]

14. OKC? My first thought was the Murrah Building bombing & all those dead toddlers. That showed ...

...those libs, didn't it? When that happened I just wept and wept. I'm choking up now just at the memory.

I know you can't engage with *holes at work and it's too late anyway to answer back, but really -- I wonder if the *holes can even connect the dots.

I'm so sorry about your health. You are not alone. You are sure to get some helpful hints in this thread, so here's mine: I started listening to my favorite music again.

My husband works from home and has always insisted on silence, but you know what? This new house has really solid interior doors, so I just closed the door to his study and turned on my iPod. I have quite a large musical library, and decided to run the entire Celtic section, which runs to hundreds and hundreds of folk songs. Within the first day I found myself getting out of my chair and sorting out several boxes of stuff left over from the move (and there are many more--we lived in our old home for 35 years), so the back room now has much more space. The garage is horrible and intimidating as hell, but I now know how I can manage it: with music.

My body moved. My mind cleared. I felt a lot less numb. After I run out of Celtic music, I may start in on Bach. Or maybe American country music. Whatever -- I just need to do it. I wish I had never given it up because my husband complained.

You are still working, so your time and space are structured differently. Still, try to get in a chunk of music every day. Studies have shown that it raises endorphins, changes the brain waves, helps people with Parkinson's move better -- anyway, give it a shot. Replace tv news with music, limit time on DU, and all the best on cleansing the cultural toxicity from your being.

[notdarkyet]

28. I have tons of music which I am listening to again. Last night listened to the temptations and

Danced. Rand b is easy to dance to.

[mahina]

37. Lovely to read this.

I hope you can have a listen to the music I posted downthread. I’ll check out Celtic music too.

Keeping the vibrations high. Aloha.

[Initech]

15. Politics is making everyone fucking crazy right now.

Sometimes it's best to turn everything off and go outside for a while. The fresh air is good for you.

[mahina]

38. this

[redstatebluegirl]

16. Thanks everyone, just needed to vent I guess.

Pressure back down to normal as of a few minutes ago.

[csziggy]

17. Go hang out in the DU Lounge

It's a very relaxing place, with humor and lots of cat and dog videos. You can still check in to see what the main headlines are in the other DU sections, but you don't have to read them or even think about them!

[Aristus]

18. We're in the middle of another of our periodic nation-convulsing changes.

In the 1860's, the South and their wanna-be feudal overlords lost their free workforce, for which they've never forgiven the good guys.

In the 1870's, these same people reacted with extreme violence against their former slaves being equal citizens with voting rights.

In the 1960's, another major upheaval occurred when minorities, technically granted civil rights but treated as de facto second-class citizens, began standing up for the enforcement and recognition of their rights as equal citizens.

Now, the erstwhile white power structure, which has held its fevered, greedy, single-minded power now for nearly four hundred years, is seeing itself falling into the minority. They won't go down without a lot of bloody violence first.

[redstatebluegirl]

19. This is what my husband says.

[roamer65]

20. 2020 will be the key.

What happens that November will decide the fate of the republic itself.

[nini]

21. I'm a lot more anxious in general than I used to be

too much ALL the time

[OldBaldy1701E]

22. Sad to say, humans are gonna be humans...

Ask any Roman. The social delusion is that we are something we are not, and the problems inherent with that delusion is that there seems to be little reality when the topic of human beings comes up. I would prefer that we start working on creating a better society as a whole instead of creating a fiction where humans are supposed to be some kind of angelic creatures who are 'beyond' base emotions and those who cannot control their social interactions are 'abberations'. One of my favorite sayings was in response to a statement that we as society should be warned about serious threats to our very lives, because a person is smart and can handle it. The response was: "A 'person' is smart, 'people' are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it!". Is it that we will always end up in a version of 'Lord of the Flies'? I wish I knew, but so far we always seem like we do.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

23. K&R. Few are willing to look at our evolutionary history....

and accept that it lives within each and every one of us....the good, the bad and the ugly.

When, as an amateur observer, I finally realized that we all hold millions of years of history in our genetics, I gained some peace with human behavior.

............

[KY_EnviroGuy]

24. Sometimes an old saying is appropriate....

When someone is obviously trying to antagonize, I try to never take the bait and just say "sorry you feel that way".

Brings on instant deflation of ego with little effort......

[Boomerproud]

25. There is some good advice in the replies.

I am having the same health problems as you and I know it's from 45 being more insufferable by the hour. I don't have anyone to vent my pain to so please rely on your husband and do what you have to do to be well.

[tetedur]

26. If Trump succeeds in making us hate, dividing the country against itself, he wins.

Hatred makes us weaker and when our rage over what he is doing to hurt people boils up we must find a way to get a grip on ourselves and steer that energy into something positive.

I blame those who voted for this con man for what is happening so I hate them for it. I have not had any confrontations but I avoid contact like the plague.

I can't do much about it. I can vote. I can write my representatives in Congress but like you I live in a red state and my reps are hopeless.

But just lately I've tried to forgive his supporters for my own sake. I take more walks, try to exercise and avoid the news when I can.

His supporters are deluded, ignorant and sadomasochists. I thank God I'm not one of them. He isn't going to ruin the time I left on this earth by making me wallow in hate or anger.

He's quite pathetic and so are his followers. The truth will come out. Time is a revelator.

[DontBooVote]

27. "There are days when I find myself getting angry in ways I have never gotten angry before." Whatever

you do, don't express your anger here. You will be ruthlessly insulted and derided.

[Karadeniz]

29. PTSD...President Trump Stress Disorder. I have had it forever.

[Beartracks]

30. "no, just the libs" - Stupid belief of rightwingers re. dismantling of democratic norms

[locks]

31. In my whole long life I never thought of giving up

on my country and the many good people who have spent their lives trying to make our world a better place for our children. But these last three years have been so shameful and sad I see little hope for saving our planet from destruction.

[Tumbulu]

32. I am feeling the same way

I am giving up.

[Tumbulu]

33. I feel sickened as well.

And I listen to classical music, avoid all news and think about my work. Which I have aplenty.

I think about how this has been set up for over 30 years of the hate media beginning with Rush Limbaugh.

My only consolation is that maybe the millennials will begin to vote.

[poladydi]

34. Poladydi

You did need to vent as do many people, even I do. It helps somewhat to have someone listen and really know how you feel. Lately I have been feeling the hatred too and feeling my blood pressure go up at the same time. I rarely listen to news because I have to mute his voice , or change the station as head pervert-in-chief appears. I read the news more as to avoid looking or hearing him. Good luck with surviving however much longer this travesty of a president continues. Even when he's gone, his fascist party will still be here and they are bent on destroying democracy just as much.

[Aussie105]

35. Frustration

gets your blood pressure up every time.

There are people who aren't very bright out there, who feel 'liberals' are the new enemy holding them back from the American Dream.
They enjoy what Trump does, because cutting health spending, messing about with the tax system, cutting education, etc, sticks it to them 'liberals'.

But the penny must drop soonish, surely? Trump's attack on the American standard of living affects everybody. Are the MAGAts so dumb that they don't see they are affected too?

Don't try to talk them into being sensible, your blood pressure won't like it.

[mahina]

36. Take heart. Zoom out sometimes and remember we are all stardust. 💫

Here’s something beautiful:

And from close to home:

We are being intentionally divided against each other by cynical individuals for their benefit. Those men are not the victors, they are fools. I feel sorry for them. I’d be affronted and tempted to engage too but - We go high.

Protect your beautiful heart with music, art, literature, friends. I’ll be yours.

[Hekate]

42. These are spectacular selections.That's definitely going to be my next set when I'm done with Celts

I don't have nearly as many Hawaiian albums as Celts, but I have Slack Key Guitar Masters, Iz of course, and a lot of older albums. Ulili E is one of my favorites.

One thing I seem to have lost was my link to a wonderful one-song musical video set in many locations around Hawai'i. Hell if I can remember the name now, but I loved it so much I wrote to the creators and asked if there was a way to buy a copy of the vid. They said no -- apparently it was not exactly a commercial release. I'll have to go into You Tube and see if it made it into my list.

Pau for now. Me ke aloha.

[mahina]

43. Hawai'i aloha!

Oli e, oli e...Mai na ahe ahe makani e pa mai nei, mau ke aloha no Hawai’i

Aloha no dear Hekate

[Hekate]

44. Sistah, you just made me cry all ovah my iPad screen. This is a later version of exactly that song..

I will try to not lose it again.

Ack. Still crying. Thank you.

[Hekate]

45. Wait wait wait: just found Kaulana Na Pua from Project Kuleana again...

Do you know that one? Lots of countryside. Originally a mele of opposition to annexation 1893.

When I said "earlier version" that was weird, because it's not the same song at all, just the same era of composition.

[mahina]

46. Oh my God, I love that mele.

It makes me tear up too. Aloha sis.
‘Ai pohaku indeed, home and across Amelika.

[mahina]

47. Oh Palani ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Quite a choir wherever they went, Gabby, Uncle Moe, Palani, Nedward, Skippy, Iz 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼

[themaguffin]

39. I feel you. I take breaks too. I only watch small portions of news these days. More watching does no

good and provides little more insight.

[RVN VET71]

40. I can't turn away from any of it.

I am fascinated, albeit morbidly, watching the collapse of everything America once pretended to stand for. Something like Woody Harrleson watching the end of everything at the end of the movie "2012" but with "triste", rather than "joie de vie".

[spanone]

41. I think the country is collectively 'sick' these days.

the daily crap from this 'president' wears on everyone, every minute of every day.