Resist

Recently my husband and I talked about what the next four years will bring, and the threat of nuclear annihilation—you know, lighthearted stuff. Like everyone else, the crappy place we’ve found ourselves in takes up a lot of my brain space. As Donald Trump’s presidency continues, I have a ways to go to put things in perspective, but I’ve managed to make sense of a few things so far.

While Trump is unprecedented in terms of mental instability and moral bankruptcy, living under a president I find disappointing is nothing new. The problem is that eight years of a rational actor has spoiled me, and going back to the old way feels like being plucked from a healthy, supportive family and placed with a group of serial abusers.

The first presidential election I was old enough to understand involved the re-election of Ronald Reagan, who, at that point, had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. After that was a series of Bush administrations, with the exception of a decent Clinton interlude marred by Bill’s bad behavior.

These past eight years under President Barack Obama made us complacent, which can’t happen again.

Surviving this means being kind to one another and supporting groups and institutions that will make a difference.

With that in mind, subscribe to media sources that fact check their news. Journalism is expensive, and ensuring smart people can focus their time and energy on the truth right now is invaluable.

Or, if you’re looking for other ways to spend your money wisely, donate to the likes of Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union—they all need your help.

Also, be sure to Google things before you share them online, being careful not to reinforce your biases. I’m still seeing so much “news” being shared that is either questionable or just blatantly false. I know it feels good but it’s also dividing us. We have such a beautiful and easy research tool at our disposal. Use it.

If it all feels overwhelming then think about this: On NPR the other day, I heard someone say the Democrats have a head wound while the GOP has a terminal disease. I believe this. Young people are increasingly liberal, and, as this horror show progresses, the GOP is putting itself in a box that they may well not climb out of.

As the next four years unfold, calling your elected representatives, volunteering and engaging in our system of government will be vital and will (excluding nuclear annihilation) make us stronger in the long run.

Unfortunately, it is my belief that Americans on the whole don’t want to be bothered. Though we’ve suffered and will continue to suffer through myriad social and economic challenges, we haven’t had a draft since the 1970s. If the Donald really pushes and jeopardizes American safety, however, the shit will hit the fan.

Speaking of the big D, I wonder how long before Americans start tuning out his personality? We need to watch what he does—not what he says, no matter how shocking. Not only do Americans not want their safety threatened, they also don’t have the attention span to focus on anyone for four years. There’s no such thing as being consistently outrageous, I don’t care who you are, Donald Trump included.

To my politico friends: I would love someone to weigh in on what happens when a president tweets whatever the fuck he wants whenever he wants. Our system of government is only effective to the degree that it works. When the president says whatever, whenever and politicians have to react, then what? Even the past GOP administrations were led by statesmen experienced enough to not run their mouths and start conflict before they even took office.

Finally, on a related note, even though I’m not taking my own advice, a social media diet is in order. Especially before bed.

I also don’t recommend watching A Boy and His Dog at any point in the next four years, no matter who recommends it to you.

by Ngaio Bealum

For those of us with progressive ideals and radical leanings, life under President Donald Trump is going to be a demonic, frothy and endless stream of stress-inducing policies, tweets and (dis)appointments.

It will also be a time of protests, organizing, and general grassroots badassery. Fortunately, in 2016, the smart citizens of the great state of Nevada saw fit to legalize cannabis—proving once again that the universe has a weird sense of humor.

In other words we’re probably going to need all the weed Nevada can grow in order to be able to stare fascism in the eye and say, “This oppression will not stand, man.”

With that in mind, here are five ways to use cannabis to keep your spirit strong and your mind calm:

1. The usual methods: Smoke a joint, toke a bowl, do a dab, have a cookie. Whatever your usual method of consumption is, have at it. I recommend an indica-dominant hybrid like Lavender, or even a heavier pure indica like Romulan or Bubblegum. Sit on your couch. Breathe. Relax.

2. Take a bath: A good, long soak in a hot tub does wonders for the body and spirit. Sit-ins and protest marches can wreak havoc on the feet and the posterior. Carrying protest signs is hard on the triceps. Get a cannabis-infused bath bomb or some bath salts, put on some Mariah Carey or maybe some Zap Mama, and let all your worries float away. Soak it in. Smoke another joint. Plan the resistance. You could even make your own bath salts if you’re crafty like that. Check out tips via www.cannabischeri.com/lifestyle/diy/how-to-make-marijuana-bath-salts.

3. Get a massage: Cannabis-infused oils to the rescue! Healing touches are just the thing to help you decompress.

4. Smoke with friends: Friends are awesome! Invite your friends over to smoke a doobie and make a cannabis-infused meal. Cooking with cannabis is easy. Making cannabis-infused butters and oils is a simple task, and a good meal with good friends is a time-honored way to relieve stress, increase joy, and plot subversive actions aimed at overthrowing the patriarchy.

by Raheem F. Hosseini • raheemh@newsreview.com

At least the music will be good.

That’s the shoulder-shrugging sentiment that always gets dispensed during punishingly hard times.

It’s a faded silver lining, to be sure: “Hey, cops are beating black people in the streets and we’re barreling into an avoidable conflict that will slaughter hundreds of thousands and empower a paranoid autocrat who’s obsessed with his image into fueling the Cold War, but did you hear that Dylan went electric? So worth it.”

Yeah, that was the ’60s I was referring to, but you know what they say: Everything old is new and terrible again. The next four years are going to suck for anyone who isn’t already (a) rich, (b) white and/or (c) male, as Trump assembles his cabinet from Dick Tracy’s rogues gallery, continues to lick the boots of international tyrants, appears increasingly unhinged in person and on social media, and plagiarizes his domestic agenda from every James Bond villain ever. (More nukes! Kill sick people! Cook planet!)

And since we’ve already decided to remix the worst of the past century into a poison cocktail of unimaginable consequence, there’s no reason we shouldn’t also recycle the soundtrack.

All the songs below were written during different eras and aimed at different crooks, conflicts and social upheavals. But that’s the cool thing about true art—it cuts across space, time and context to speak truth to power in every moment.

At the very least, this playlist provides something to hum during the resistance.

1. “Windowsill,” Arcade Fire (2007): Arcade Fire’s entire second album, Neon Bible, is drenched in an emerging generation’s realization that our fathers mucked everything up. Toggling between despair and resolve, the galvanizing “Windowsill” builds like a scream in weather: “I don’t wanna fight in the holy war / I don’t want the salesmen knocking at my door / I don’t wanna live in America no more.” I can relate.

2. “Hostile Gospel Pt. 1 (Deliver Us),” Talib Kweli (2007): Kweli’s blistering call to consciousness at the tail-end of the Bush era covers a lot of ground—mistreated veterans, mishandled natural disasters, discriminatory sentencing—but we’ll pluck just one passage that resonates even more today: “We living in these times of love and cholera / Synonymous with the apocalypse, look up the clouds is ominous / We got maybe 10 years left say meteorologists, shit / We still waitin’ for the Congress to acknowledge this!”

3. “Changing of the Guards,” Patti Smith (2007): Smith’s shimmering take on the mythic Dylan song-poem bridges the Bush-Obama years by warning, “Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination / Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.” We listened once. We can again.

4. “My Favorite Mutiny,” The Coup (2006): So many gems in this bumping challenge to get back on our feet, from, “The governments of the world is shark infested / They heavy on weaponry like Charlton Heston,” to, “If we waiting for the time to fight, these is thems / Tellin’ us to relax while they ease it in. We gettin’ greased again.” In other words, what the hell are we waiting for?

5. “One Beat,” Sleater-Kinney (2002): From their essential post-9/11 album, SK’s three furies unleash this atomic title track, which bemoans a world of “bloody arms and oil fields” and challenges the energy-dependent death spiral our politicians have locked us into: “If I’m to run the future / You’ve got to let the old world go.” We haven’t been able to yet.

6. “The National Anthem,” Radiohead (2000): It usually takes years for the rest of us to catch up to the band’s ever-evolving sound, anyway. Listen to this frantic psychodrama from the underrated Kid A and tell me Thom Yorke & Co. didn’t anticipate our post-9/11 anxiety one whole year before the towers fell.

7. “He Got Game,” Public Enemy (1998): Chuck D fuses an ingenious sample of a ’60s protest anthems with his sober rhymes. Chuck D knows all.

8. “White, Discussion,” Live (1994): More than two decades ago, these forgotten alt-rockers imagined the polarization that fed the ugly nihilism and masked impotence of the racist alt right: “I talk of freedom / You talk of the flag / I talk of revolution / You’d much rather brag … All this discussion though politically correct / Is dead beyond destruction / Though it leaves me quite erect.” The song culminates in an angry crash of punching guitar riffs, semi-auto drum-pops and indecipherable howls. So 2017.

9. “Hallowed Ground,” The Violent Femmes (1984): As in the first place the bombs land. Ripped from Ronald Reagan’s first term, this one feels like an ode to Aleppo.

10. “Life During Wartime,” Talking Heads (1979): A bouncy art-house fever dream from inside the resistance, hinting at vague domestic crises—“Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? / Heard about Pittsburgh, Pa.?”—and letting the enemy know we could be anyone—“We dress like students, we dress like housewives / Or in a suit and a tie.” It’s like David Byrne is reading my emails.

11. “White Man (In Hammersmith Palais),” The Clash (1978): A great example of art transcending its context. This slow-bobbing punk classic is a call for musical diversity in Thatcher-era England, but actually feels more prescient today. Dig these lines that could have been written about all those who voted for Trump because he was a celebrity and/or they just wanted to watch our political system crumble: “All over people are changing their votes / Along with their overcoats / If Adolf Hitler flew in today / They’d send a limousine anyway.” Actually, I believe it was a private jet.

12. “Heroes,” David Bowie (1977): After Bowie performed this live in front of the Berlin Wall in 1987, he famously remembered being able to hear the East Germans on the other side singing along defiantly to lines about two lovers at the wall, guns shooting overhead, “And we kissed, as though nothing could fall.” When Trump tries to build his gated community along the Mexican border, let’s play this one loud as we participate in one epic makeout session protest.

13. “The Time Has Come,” The Melodians (1972): Injecting some much-needed love into these proceedings, the Melodians remind us of the best reason to hit the streets and march is each other.

14. “Powerman,” The Kinks (1970): Exposing that up-by-the-bootstraps nonsense and showing the blue collar what happens when they elevate the rich and thankless, thinking they’ll leave anything behind.

15. “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Otis Redding (1965): Redding’s agonizing take on the Sam Cooke classic weeps for us all, and then tells us to keep moving. Will do, Otis Blue.