Kennedy to retire.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

oh fuck...I honestly didn't remember that.

I don't know what to do now.

"We'll survive this."
Citation?

[LittleRaven]

I don't know what to do now.

Same thing we do every time. Plan for the next battle. It happens on November 6th. Mark your calendar.

Citation?

Jesus Christ man. There was time in this country, not so very long ago, when it was legal to own people. Even after we got rid of that, people literally wrote songs about the number of corpses left hanging from trees. We had children of 4 working in factories, fires racing through locked up garment factories, legal sterilization of undesirables. We've had elected officials so drunk they could barely walk into their offices, so corrupt that they've had to flee the country, and so wicked that they literally castrated men they took a disliking too. We've had Presidents that got elected without even being on the ballot in 10 states!

We had volcanoes, earthquakes, famines and floods. We're still here. Do you really think one little Supreme Court justice is going to sink us?

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Some of us aren't.
Remember Reagan?
Have you seen the gay men's chorus group photo, where the original members are dressed in white, and they are lost in a sea of black representing every original member who died during the AIDS epidemic that the government allowed and encouraged?

I understand your zeitgeist man but...I don't have that much hope in my heart. I can see decades, generations, of suffering ahead. I can see every inch of hard-won progress and ground gained being eradicated.

I am very, very, very scared.

[LittleRaven]

Have you seen the gay men's chorus group photo, where the original members are dressed in white, and they are lost in a sea of black representing every original member who died during the AIDS epidemic that the government allowed and encouraged?

Yes Fuzzy. The path to progress is build on a mountain of bones. Some die heroically, others tragically, many unnecessarily. But progress is made. 50 years ago, gay men had to fight for the right to simply not have the police crack their heads open for meeting in secret clubs. Now? They can walk into a statehouse and get married anywhere in the union. Politics is full of setbacks and defeats, but even so, we advance.

I can see decades, generations, of suffering ahead.

This is inevitable, no matter what happens politically. Without putting too fine a point on it, life is struggle. Has been since we were kicked out of the garden. Will be until we smash our way back in. As the philosophers have been noting for several thousand years now, suffering is built into the human condition. It cannot be avoided, only endured.

But progress will not end. Frankly, I doubt it will even slow down all that much. The system driving it is vast, much larger than any President or Court. Much though some people want to, there is no going back.

I am very, very, very scared.

Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
Face your fear.
Let it pass over you and through you.
And when the fear has gone,
There shall be nothing.
Only you will remain.

Then brace yourself for November. The battle never ends.

[Yukaphile]

And Trump is going to throw women's rights under the bus again. Bah! I hope he does. We were very clear about this to all the dumb, ignorant brats who thought Sanders was cheated out of the primaries and so stamped their feet and threw a temper tantrum. We warned them. We tried to tell them they were being the new Nader supporters. And they didn't listen. I want this to happen. For us to be honest about what we are. Let there be no doubt that we have problems with women as a country, as men, as a people, and as human beings.

[Admiral X]

I think you guys are freaking out over nothing. You're like the people who were utterly convinced Obama was going to bring in Sharia law and come take all our guns. They drove up the prices on even old military surplus, too. Bastards.

[Yukaphile]

This is different. Hasn't Trump actually said a condition he wants for the Justice he names to succeed Kennedy is that he (never a she, of course) must be open to overturning Roe v. Wade. Yeah, it's 2018, and despite media sensationalism and predictions of doom, we're still here. But nevertheless, I do see us going backward at lightning speed, our reputation around the world will tank, and all our social progress over the last 70 years will at least be partially undone by 2020. It's what the fanatic fringe of the GOP wants. Take us back to the 1950s.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Yes, LittleRaven, we can get married, now, if we aren't disabled.

But I can see that evaporating. I frankly don't think I have enough stability in my already shaky life to get married before somebody snatches half my options away from me.

For what it's worth, I'm doing my part. I'm going to vote in November and taking steps to make sure I don't forget like I did during the primary. I'm calling my senators a few times every week. I'm going to a rally this weekend.

But as much action as I can take, I am very, very tired of this fight, and it doesn't make me feel less alone or afraid.

[Robovski]

Sure is a shame the Democratic Party can't get it's shit together and be a proper opposition.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Democrats could be better, but for me the big shame is Republicans gaining a majority control that they don't really represent through gerrymanders and electoral college nonsense.