Hang in there. We need you.

It's a shitty time. Depression falls from the sky more easily than the rain lately.

Please remember that your family needs you, your friends need you, your pets need you. The world needs you (even if you don't realize it). Depression can and will grab at you. Try hard not to let it eat you up whole. Get up out of bed in the morning, walk your dog, shower, brush your teeth, no matter what. Survive and try to even thrive, so that you can help others through this time.

Please don't fall into the trap of thinking the world just became bad now. I don't mean excuse Trump for all his shit. He's human garbage and responsible for so many bad things. I'll never forget that and neither will you. But what I mean that you need to remember that there were bad people doing bad things before Trump too, and you were maybe just luckier that those bad things personally impacted you less. Black people were getting shot by police when Obama was president, too. And remember how quickly we've stopped talking about W's war crimes. I DO NOT mean that this evens everything out, that we shouldn't be mad, that we shouldn't work to improve our country and our world. We should. We must. I'm not saying accept the current state of affairs. But don't become immobilized over what just happened NOW. Survive it so that you can help others survive it. This is important!

And please don't get sucked into doom scrolling. It drives anxiety. Be aware of the news. Keep up with the news. Don't consume it non-stop. Don't consume only the news. It uses up time that you could be spending helping others.

Use the news to inform how you can help. If you can't directly help those affected by the bad shit in the news, look closer to home. In your city/state/neighborhood, there are people that need help. Help them. Volunteer. Deliver. Donate. It can help you feel better and isn't it worth trying to fill your insides with feeling good about helping, to take away from the space being used for the anxiety you're suffering through because of that shitty state of the world.

I know that not everybody has the same ability to survive and/or thrive. Do what you can and keep yourself as powered up as you are able to, so you can help others.

Help somebody today. It'll make two people feel good, you and the person you're helping. That improves the world.

It's poorly written, and I'm sure it doesn't work for everyone, but that's my take.

Please wear a mask

Please. Wear a mask when you are outdoors and around others.

Yes, wearing masks helps. Here's why. Maria Godoy, Minnesota Public Radio, June 21, 2020.

More.

Even more: 

• Face masks work. They need to be mandatory.
• Do cloth face masks really work? We tested them in the lab.
• Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus. 
• Face masks don’t even have to work especially well to be effective. 

No, face masks don't lower oxygen intake or put you at risk of carbon dioxide poisoning.

Updated: July 20, 2020.

But what of antifa?

What IS antifa? I don't know much about them, and I suspect you don't either, so maybe start with Wikipeda. Jezebel's Harron Walker has a good and quick take for you as well. See "Area Fascist Still Doesn't Know What Antifa Is." (Jezebel, May 31, 2020.)

Beyond that, a greater understanding of "what is antifa" is too much for me to tackle. Instead, I'm just taking a few notes here based on my concern around the president labeling antifa a terrorist group. I decided to do a bit of googling and reading around the news to try to answer one question for myself: Is "antifa" actually behind all the rioting and looting going on in the US these past days? If so, maybe some level of outrage is warranted. If not, it's fair to question what's actually going on here.

Black Lives Matter

Other people can explain this better than I can, so I'm going to quote and link quite a bit here.

Black Lives Matter. Doesn't "All Lives Matter" mean the same thing / mean a good thing, too?

No. German Lopez from VOX explains  Why you should stop saying “all lives matter,” explained in 9 different ways . (July 11, 2016.)

It’s a common conversation these days: One person says, “Black lives matter.” Then another responds, “No, all lives matter.”

It’s also a complete misunderstanding of what the phrase “black lives matter” means. The person on the receiving end interprets the phrase as “black lives matter more than any other lives.”

But the point of Black Lives Matter isn't to suggest that black lives should be or are more important than all other lives. Instead, it’s simply pointing out that black people's lives are relatively undervalued in the US — and more likely to be ended by police — and the country needs to recognize that inequity to bring an end to it.

My Coronavirus Notes & FAQ

Here I'm pulling together a few different bits of information on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that I believe to be correct. I've linked to sources and included publication dates to help with identification and trust.

Starting with: Should you wear a mask when out and about?

Yes. See this post from Daring Fireball's John Gruber. "We’re waiting for peer-reviewed studies. In the meantime, early studies and anecdotal evidence from countries with established mask-wearing social norms suggest quite strongly that mask wearing is effective." (May 21, 2020.)
See also "HAMSTER RESEARCH SHOWS MASKS EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING COVID-19 TRANSMISSION" linked to and summarized by John Gruber. (May 21, 2020.)

John's not some conspiracy theorist. He's a respected tech blogger linking to various respectable sources of information.

On the subject of voting

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"