Like so many others I spent time these past weeks following the coverage of the Zimmerman trial, coverage of the goings-on in Texas, with Scott Walker and his campaign of bs, with ‘developments’ in my home state, our ‘governor’ speaking of the abuse she suffered as a child while working to make different abuse systemic in state government ...
I have something of a rep here for being fairly level-headed, and yet, none of you heard my anger at these developments, my frustration. Why should it be so &$^&$‘ing hard when our party is supposed to be in power?! How can there be so many defeats and setbacks?! Such NASTY ones?!
More below! But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
|
It’s the nature of it, of course. It is easy to forget the intensity of the frustrations Democrats experienced during Clinton’s terms, for example. But they were there. Disappointments, frustrations, distractions ... there is never a time when they’re not present, on any side, and there never will be. Every victory is hard-fought.
I have a special friend who has seemingly ‘dropped out’ of the hurly-burly these days. I know that is an impression only, that this friend is fighting with every bit of strength s/he (intentionally gender-obscure) possesses to make a difference, to make changes that will count, to fight the big fights.
That’s what tonight’s diary is about. Not honoring my friend for the hard work s/he is doing, but honoring the importance of the focus s/he has with that work. Not letting the frustrations and the anger incapacitate, not letting them undermine her/his effectiveness, not taking the hostile energy to invest in relatively unimportant fights, not taking the frustrations out on people on OUR side.
I experience the anger and frustrations as clearly as anyone, but like my friend, I choose to use it to motivate, to challenge, to focus. There are important battles to be fought. We need to do what almost never happens in the mid-terms - take back the house. We need to start taking back the statehouses from whence so many of these insidious conservative counter-attacks originate.
So ... when you find the frustrations crashing over your head like vicious waves, don’t hold them in. Let them out. Use any language you want. Do it in a kosmail to me. I’ll validate those frustrations and happily give you a venue for venting them. Please don’t take the anger into the comment threads in diaries around the sites, looking for an outlet. There is no challenge in finding those, but the energy spent in those fights doesn’t help us, and it doesn’t help you.
Kosmail me. I will APPLAUD your great passion, which fuels, in a constructive way, every fight we make. And then hopefully you can relax, and focus, and take the fight to them as my friend is doing, as many of our friends are doing, every day. Because that’s where the lasting difference is made. The power is in our hands. And if it means I get some red-hot kosmails, so be it. I see your hearts even in the anger. As I see mine.
Best to you and yours tonight, and on to the comments! Graciously collected and formatted by brillig!
Brillig here: You can kosmail me, too. Or direct message me via twitter. Or email me. Or find me on Facebook if we're friends (or kosmail me to ask for my FB info and THEN chat me there :-)). But yeah... Ben's right. Ben... that goes for you too... you need someone, kosmail me :)
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Dave in Northridge:
GoGoGoEverton flagged an excellent comment by kulta1 about the jury charge in the Zimmerman case in his own diary about how
Meteor Blades's diary about the odious Geraldo Rivera had several gem comments, but Kombema provided the best subject line (flagged by Mannie) and the best comment of the lot.confused he was and still is by the results of the trial.
From brillig:
In Hunter's report that Michele Bachmann said something, Mr MadAsHell says what we all were really thinking.
From BeninSC:
I liked this comment from Don midwest! Forget Facebook! Embrace Daily Kos!
Flagged by Aji and ZenTrainer, this comment by kimoconnor is a winner!
Flagged by David54, this comment from One Pissed Off Liberal shows the frustrations many of us have with Harry Reid.
Flagged by Kristina40, this comment by marzook addresses some of the preconceptions we see in racial profiling.
Top Mojo for yesterday July 14th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Clearly the ceiling by Vita Brevis — 176
2) My sister, who is in law enforcement by MadRuth — 166
3) Perhaps if the boy had just by TexanJane — 125
4) Financial terrorism by NBBooks — 122
5) If he was afriad he should have stayed the hell by CTMET — 121
6) the minute... by tung sol — 113
7) Hooded Justice by JekyllnHyde — 101
8) This is an excellent diary. by SottoVoce — 93
9) Thanks. Wish I didn't have to write it by BoiseBlue — 91
10) This shit is fucking unbelievable. by leftykook — 87
11) Well, if I were in Zimmerman's shoes by Radiowalla — 82
12) My guess: His father the Judge played a big role by CitizenOfEarth — 80
13) Well... by Trix — 79
14) "pretty aggressive interpretations of the law" by Laurence Lewis — 79
15) The problem is by rambler american — 76
16) Its hard to not be despairing over this... by FrankCornish — 75
17) Regardless of whether anyone threatened Zimmerman by CatM — 75
18) Your irony detector must be busted. by nailbender — 74
19) Sorry, you're a woman... by detroitmechworks — 73
20) Sending prayers. by Denise Oliver Velez — 73
21) WTF????? by jpmassar — 73
22) "Born suspect" by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker — 70
23) I just read the full article about Mr. Dooley by Ian Reifowitz — 69
24) Harming national security is not necessarily by k9disc — 67
25) Its a fine diary , imho . by indycam — 67
26) bull pucky by quill — 66
27) A very valuable perspective that we at by translatorpro — 66
28) If you give a man a gun by spiritplumber — 66
29) This is not over by rambler american — 65
30) as opposed by Laurence Lewis — 65
Top Pictures for yesterday, July 14th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter for the image magic!