Published February 21, 2025
Apologies for how disjointed this update is. Last night I had the most terrifying nightmare I can ever remember happening. That was a few hours after a horrific incident that set back my already rapidly declining health. After working on this post for three days, I am publishing it in as-is condition. Three days ago it felt super important to tell you these things. Now they feel like half a thimbleful of liquid tossed into a stormy sea.
Rebecca Traister came to Portland in October 2018 to read from her latest book. She signed my copy of “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.”
I posted about that night on social media. I probably fangirled a bit too much about it in the weeks and years since. It was a special night.
She’s high on my list of favorite writers. She and Rebecca Solnit are the top two named Rebecca. I fangirl about them often.
I’ve never met Rebecca Solnit, but she thanked me on Facebook years ago, and I walked around with a goofy smile on my face for days.
Rebecca Traister? Well, I was pretty giddy after meeting her in 2018.
The end of this post explains what she wrote to me. That can wait. Right now you should read her story, “Woke Is Not to Blame for Trump.” Its subhead says: “How a misdiagnosis of the 2024 election has calcified into self-defeating conventional wisdom.”
I could not have written it. I would not have written it the way she did. As a transgender woman and not a cisgender woman, i come at this from a different perspective. No one is going to have a snapshot of 2024 that tells it all, but because of the misdiagnosis she cites, she’s saying things that need to be heard.
Especially this:
The walk backs of a party scared of its own woke shadow create silence that the right is happy to fill with grotesque fairy tales: schools that “trans” kids without informing parents; career women dooming the nation by failing to reproduce at a fast enough pace; immigrants eating cats and dogs. Republicans’ ghoulishly persuasive passion for identity politics, left unchallenged by Democrats, surely greased the slide of young and minority voters to the right over immigration and crime and transphobic fictions.
There’s no perfect explanation for where we find ourselves in February 2025. The reasons are many. But her story is a must-read.
I still believed in a future in 2018
I’d been “out” as trans for a year and a week when I met Rebecca Traister. I’d just gotten my ears pierced. I missed the original airing of the final episode of the fourth season of “Better Call Saul” to attend the book reading. That’s how big a deal it was to me.
Powell’s is the most amazing bookstore I’ve ever seen. If you come to Portland, go. You won’t be disappointed.
The reading was great. I’d listened to podcasts and interviews with her during her book tour, and the night at Powell’s tied it all together. The book and audiobook are treasures.
I stood in line to get my copy of the book personalized and to give her a bookmark I’d had made for the occasion.
As always, there’s a story about this.
About a month earlier, I’d seen a tweet of hers and quote-tweeted it with a comment.
She gave it a “like.” That pleased me, and I hatched my plan to turn that into a bookmark. After I gave it to her (keeping an identical one for myself), she signed my book with what will always remind me of the tweet.
And of course, I fangirled again that night when she followed me on Twitter.
It’s fun to remember that night. We didn’t know, but the worst was yet to come.
A bit of an update
I’m still on leave, still in bad shape. My health, mental and physical, keeps getting worse. Last night a thing happened that I will tell you about only once it’s resolved, if it ever is. Monday will be a critical day.
There’s too much going on, but if you have time, you should read this story about the USPS. And this one:
trump wants to be able to tell the USPS not to deliver ballots to blue states www.washingtonpost.com/business/202…
— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) February 20, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I try not to sound preachy about it, but a lot of people I know have a fundamental misunderstanding of racism and racists. (They are the people most likely to think there’s such a thing as “reverse racism.”) It’s worth noting that the USPS is one of the largest employers of Black women in the country. It’s worth noting how many cuts and layoffs across all aspects of government benefit white people and harm everyone else.
I suspect there’s a lot of willful ignorance and denial about it all.
Black women keep trying to save the country, but we don’t do our part.
Jasmine Crockett is shredding this solo. But it’s past time for the rhythm section to enter this song already.
— realKyleKeegan (@realkylekeegan.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Meanwhile …
The FIRST thing Kluwe says against MAGA is that they are trying to erase trans people from existence.
Did you doubt me when I said our community could lead America back from the brink by serving as a symbol of all the freedoms Americans are losing every day?
This is exactly what I meant.
— Evan Urquhart (@evanurquhart.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Chris Kluwe is my new favorite former Minnesota Vikings player.
Just gonna drop this here
Books designed to be read only by human eyes are different from books designed to be read by machines, which is why Google will tell you that the phrase “shake my booty” can be found in an 1863 English translation of Don Quixote.
— Q. Pheevr (@q.pheevr.ca) March 24, 2024 at 2:27 PM
Drop this here
Carville: USAID spent $41 billion the federal budget is 6 trillion. Actually comes to something like .014%. So take that and put it against the 6 trillion and see what you have done when your president is responsible for more federal debt than any president in the history of the United States.
And drop this here
Steve Bannon, after calling for Trump to be President for life, did a Nazi salute on stage at CPAC.
The few remaining conservatives have a choice: either leave the party and obstruct it—or choose to be complicit.
— Nick Hennen (@newsman.bsky.social) February 21, 2025 at 12:25 AM
We’re in big trouble. Pick a fight and get to work if at all possible.
Sending love.
♥
If you appreciate what you find here and feel generous, you can check out the Tip Jar. Thank you for reading. Here’s a butterfly for you.
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Featured photo by algobonito98 via Shutterstock.
Note: This story is a rambling mess, but it’s the best I can do. I spent three days on it. I don’t have sustainable energy. If I can turn the corner, I’ll do better.