“Your silence will not protect you.”
– Audre Lorde

So. To recap this week. The Johnson Amendment might be on the chopping block next, we’ve hung up the phone on Australia because the president was tired and grumpy and apparently no one put him down for a nap before he talked to the head of another nation, the Mexico situation is ongoing, we’re firing lawyers who disagree with presidential orders (that haven’t been legally vetted in the first instance), we’re purposefully choosing not to mention Jews in the official statement on Holocaust Remembrance day (to which, how?), and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is less necessary at regular meetings of our security council than the president’s special adviser.

Meanwhile violence in the Ukraine is heating up (something I don’t think there’s been enough reporting on in the US, especially given that the Treasury has now has eased a sanction against trading with the FSB, also known as the descendant organization to the KGB), tensions with Iran are ticking up, the administration apparently decided on a military action in Yemen over dinner with dreadful results, the president used a prayer breakfast to needle a celebrity about TV ratings, a spokeswoman seems to have invented a massacre out of whole cloth to defend the administration’s immigration ban, and the president AND his press secretary don’t seem to be entirely sure who Frederick Douglas is or that he’s been dead for a minute.

We are so far past ridiculous now that I’m not even sure what term needs to be used.

Here are you links, kittens, and share anything worth signal boosting, political or petty, in the comments!

Angry people in large groups putting money where their mouths are. Excellent.

Something to look forward to!

Something else to look forward to!

If you had never read this before, now would be the time.

David Brooks is a conservative commentator that I don’t always agree with, but almost always enjoy reading. His op ed on the fact that this is “not a Republican administration” and conservatives should fear the Faustian bargain they have made, though I am cheering from the rooftops.

Speaking of, I’ve been making it a point to read and share conservative POVs this week, as part of sense checking myself and avoid my personal instinct (panic. All the time. No breaks). This piece, from The National Review is a more measured read as to why Mr. Bannon’s style may have served the president well campaigning, but poorly in governing.

Goodness. Well, let us all hope and pray for the arrival of Mr. Trumps fourth wife, in that case…

Fellow expat and adopted Londoner Amanda has some great thoughts and info on getting and staying involved.

A brief reminder of who is actually killing and terrorizing US citizens within our own borders of late.

Dear Utah, you done good on this one, peeps.

A nice moment of teacher appreciation here.

Bless Beyonce.

This piece from The Guardian was an interesting read and argues (as an earlier writer did) that we’ve all been worried about an Orwellian future, when we should have been worried about a Huxley-ian one.

If you’re looking for some pretty right now, this artist has appeared a ton of places and her work is a fab take on pop art. I’m thinking of buying a couple pieces eventually!

Album of the week: Lines, by Charlie Cunningham