America won't heal in my lifetime (though it's super important we start the long journey of repairing it for future generations). But I am tickled to live to see Texas have a chance to change for the first time in a long time.
Having school aged kids is really weird right now.
The most positive thing in the proverbial toolbox is a, "look, we're starting something now don't fuck it up" vibe.
That and common glass bottle pressure ratings.
For no reason whatsoever/just in case.
Nov 4, 2026, 1:48 PM@phpete
Honestly? That's exactly what we were told here in germany back in 1945, according to my late grandparents. One of the teachings was: "Never again!"
And 80 years later it's almost entirely gone... 😩
@hacks4pancakes
Nov 4, 2026, 12:53 PM@hacks4pancakes Now we need to find a way to flip the #5thCircuitCoutOfAppeals and take away one of the fascist's pet courts
@hacks4pancakes i was actually stationed in texas the year they turned red. we USAF trainees got to leave base for a “thanksgiving with a local family” program, and i remember how heated that dinner table conversation got …
the texans i dined with did indeed see how grim a future they were facing. timelines of twenty or thirty years were discussed.
wild to see it happen.
@hacks4pancakes And honestly: let's not just repair America. Let's repair all states that are featuring more and more authoritarianism/fascism, that degrade peoples rights (esp. minorities, but also females)...
If we start now with humanitarian stuff in politics in America, the world might follow (hopefully Germany very soon!). And then there will be
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
If it's not too late (middle East, climate, pollution, extinction, ...). 😔
@hacks4pancakes REMEMBER THE ANN RICHARDS
Nov 4, 2026, 1:12 PM@hacks4pancakes I am glad to see a lot of change here in Texas and am hopeful for the first time in a long time.
Then I look at my counties returns and see I am still a blue dot in a sea of red but the totals of contested races are closer.
Nov 4, 2026, 1:20 PM@ButchH11 @hacks4pancakes Same here, small blue dot in a deep red Texas county. Even the surrounding counties leaned blue. But I was happy to hear some of my republican neighbors voted dem for governor and senator, so there’s that 🤷
@hacks4pancakes Having a Black woman from Atlanta as govenor of Georgia and a Native women in a seat in New Mexico, feel like those are especially important moments for the times we find ourselves in here in the heart of darkness, the USA.
@atraidez @hacks4pancakes many women coming into power. I'm loving it. I wish Dolly was around to see this.
@CarmenSD11235 @hacks4pancakes I hope this is the beginning of making the USA a matriarchy. This place is one if not the most diverse country. Diversity is a strength for innovation and should be a center of tolerance with cutting edge science. I do not believe we have avoided dark times ahead for the planet, but if we the people stay together against authoritarianism, whether its red, blue, green, or whatever color a political party associates with.
I was born in the 1980s, I have never known a real democracy, and what I have lived through fuels a lot of that Gen-X disenfranchisement. Hope and cynisim are fighting inside me like the magic battle between Egg Shen and David Lopan in Big Trouble in Little China.
@atraidez @hacks4pancakes same same. I'm notorious for building teams that are super diverse. Each person gets told on day 1 that I expect each and every one of them to speak up and provide their thoughts and decisions. I don't know everything even though I have a pretty high status and I'm a SME. I don't care how many years of experience they have. They earned a seat at the table when I hired them. I don't need bobble heads. I also expect them to call me out when I'm wrong. My earlier teams used to think it was funny because I would put something absurdly wrong in my charts for the noob to see how comfortable they were to call me out on something. Find a problem? Tell me how we can work to fix it.
Nov 4, 2026, 1:46 PM@hacks4pancakes
It's so sad to see how quickly damage can be done, but how long it then takes to fix.
Nov 4, 2026, 1:53 PM@hacks4pancakes I'm trying really hard to just enjoy the results today, and let tomorrow's problems be tomorrow's problems.
Hard not to look at the Democratic party and not reflexively start thinking about how they're going to pivot to "We need to reach across the aisle" and other messages. Schumer and Jeffries don't fill me with any confidence.
@hacks4pancakes I hope we can save what natural resources we can and reverse some of the atrocities going on.
@hacks4pancakes And the damage the hyper partisan politics with their weapons grade psychological warfare propaganda campaigns have done to other countries - those shitweasels absolutely had a role in Jacinda Ardern stepping down here in Aotearoa. America must have its influence curbed, and absolutely no more foreign military misadventures!
Nov 6, 2026, 5:38 PMI have accepted that my role is to build the precursors from which others can build the foundations upon which something that isn't a hellscape might one day stand.
That's the rest of my story, right there.