What it's About--

 

Walz: Hope, Gus, and Gwen you are my entire world. And I love you. pic.twitter.com/tf2ByA9RIs

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 22, 2024

That. That right there. That's what it's about.

UPDATE: I considered linking to some of what went around among MAGA social media addressing this moment but thought the better of it. Typical people were typical. 

My Nostalgia Is Acting Up

Eminem defies NFL and kneels in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick during Super Bowl halftime show https://t.co/XDI07ULqDk

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 14, 2022

They told Slim Shady to please stand up, but Slim Shady said God sent him to piss the world off.

There was a lot of commentary on Twitter about how this half-time show was about my generation, and frankly, we never did say we were going to die before we got old. We said don't you forget about me. And we are getting old, and I wish more of us were getting wise. 

The fucking kids aren't all right. Charlie Kirk thinks the half-time show was full of sexual anarchy. This dumb man-baby must have been peeing in his diapers through the Janet Jackson and Prince half-time shows. He literally comes off like John Lithgow's character in Footloose.  That's two Footloose references I've made this month. I may be getting old. I repeat myself. Matt Walsh, middle aged but younger than me, doesn't know "woke" means aware, and Marshall Mathers is aware he's a white guy who owes a fuckton to Black music and Black people. That he's supposedly making amends for anything else is Walsh's own bullshit. 

I'm glad the convoy asshats didn't come to LA to fuck with the Super Bowl despite what loons like Wendy Rogers and Senator Rand Paul wanted. That would have been a shitshow--all those Confederate flags in LA. I don't think those two remember how things could go, because they forget that urban America is also real America. They think it would scare the shit out of people who live in the cities that right-wing dumbasses think have been burned down by BLM. They forget riots that have happened not even thirty years ago. 

I don't, The truckers don't, either, and they probably know that unlike Ottawa or Windsor, if you go to LA or NY or Philadelphia, you might meet with an entirely different atmosphere that isn't going to wait for police action because nope. Residents will find a way. People have turned out en masse for deceased kids they didn't even know, and some jackasses want to disrupt the shelves at Acme and whether our own kids get fed--are you for real? 

The Ghost of Hillary Clinton

I think a review of What Happened for me is kind of personal, because I feel like Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote this one for me (me being someone who has loved her since I even knew what a Hillary Rodham Clinton even was). Maybe other people don't want to hear her voice right now, or ever again, or about this election, or about anything. Maybe they think that after you lose a presidential election, you should just go away, and never be heard from again--become a ghost.

Jimmy Carter didn't become a ghost after the 1980 election. Al Gore didn't become a ghost after the 2000 election. They went on to do the things that mattered to them, and spoke about the things they cared about--you can't expect anything less from Hillary Clinton. She has spent her entire life in service to other people in many ways. Here's something I have gathered about everything I have seen regarding her--she doesn't ghost. She isn't going away--and I would never want her to. She has experienced life as an activist, a student, a politician, and a diplomat. Her experience is deep and real. And I love her voice in this memoir.

It's probably true that she had help with this book, because public figures have busy lives and often do have people who smooth out the rough edges of what can be a personal narrative. But I heard this book as I read in her voice--a voice very familiar to me, and not a voice I ever considered shrill or unpleasant. This book isn't about distributing blame--she owns her failures. But she has insights about a broken system that has been exploited by extreme partisan voices as well as cynical fake-news distributors. She is open in her estimation of her opponent, Donald Trump's, shortcomings, and her fears about what he stirs up as a divisive and rancorous demagogue.

She lays out a great timeline regarding her understanding of the Russian interference in this election, that tracks with my own observations and things that have later come to light. She is not deflecting the blame from herself--but acknowledging a political reality we do not yet have a system in place to adequately confront. But as I reviewed her marshalling of the facts, I saw what a legal mind was at work--she was laying a case.

She discusses misogyny and racism. I am glad she did. She speaks about drawing inspiration from the Mothers of the Movement, and acknowledges the reality of women experiencing harassment for daring to speak up. She speaks with great affection of her staff during this and the 2008 election, and about food! and about her family--Bill and Chelsea and her grandbabies. She complains (who doesn't?) about clothes and makeup and appearances. Through it all, this was the reflection of a person who isn't maybe the greatest politician ever, but a person so qualified for a job who cared so greatly about how things happened, who lost to a person so greatly not qualified and who so genuinely could not begin to admit how things happened.

Thinking of Barcelona, Cambrils, and Turku

This has been a week where, as a US blogger, I have been wrapped up in the confrontation in Charlottesville this past weekend and apprehensive of the coming events this coming weekend, to have addressed the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, and also in Finland.  However often such events occur, they are always senseless, and say nothing of politics or religion so much as the desperate and violent nature of the wretched people who carried them out. And I have always been amazed at the ability of communities to come together in strength and love, lean on one another, and rise above the terror and shock. 

My regards to these places and my condemnation of such violence are my only offering. Sympathy for the stricken and condemnation of violence being, I think, the least and most basic human position for such terrors. Anything more, perhaps, is too much, and unnecessary. I mourn with you and us all, in a world where terror and stupidity are like currency, but actual lives are spent.

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

There's something that struck me as very poignant in the image of the empty frames lining the walls of the West Wing (well done, David Nakamura/WP). The "ghostly" quality of the empty frames prompts the mind to refill them with memory. It is hard to say "goodbye" to an exceptional president and his exceptional family. It will never be hard to recall them.

(Damn everyone seems so young there. Those little girls became young women before our eyes.)

The trust and affection of the Obama/Biden partnership always seemed unforced, natural, a real "friendship goals" situation.

I Swear Barack Obama Gave one of His Best Speeches

All I know is that in this second term, a lot of what President Obama has been saying plays on the themes of Stonewall, Selma and Seneca Falls. He returns to the essential idea that freedom and justice alike are woven into the multicolored tapestry of our history as a nation, forged in the steely ink of our founding documents, tested again and again whenever Americans have faced trials and struggles. He weaves once again this great notion of a strong nation, made more perfect by the work of many hands, in offering support to someone who can take up the banner and go forward with it.

It was an encouragement that the successes (which are very real) of his administration have a chance to continue under great, Democratic leadership. It's an exhortation to participate in our democracy to keep it strong. It was a paean to our diversity and the many ways it gives us strength, and should not be feared. It was uplifting, and a rebuke to people who don't grasp what the essential greatness of our country is--its potential, and the portability and timeless nature of our values and dreams, that are transmissible and easily the greatest export, the finest product we can ever peddle and which are free to any man, woman, being that wants to become a part.

It was about patriotism, and more--it transcended ideas about "left" and "right" labeling, explicitly revealing how individual freedom and progress was up to everyone as a part of our civic heritage.

I know I am going to miss the hell out of President Obama--although I am looking forward to seeing what a still-young man might do in his post-presidency. But he also made me look forward to what Hillary Clinton might accomplish in office. It was the highlight of the evening. A jewel.

(I know I skipped over mentioning VP Joe Biden and VP-to-be Tim Kaine's speeches--and it's a shame, because I think these are actually two of the most compassionate, sincerely nice and decent people in politics today and they both did excellent--it's just, seriously? Barack Obama's speech took my damn breath away.)

Angels in Orlando

The Westboro Baptist asshats were turned away by decent folks in Orlando, who decked themselves out as angels to block the anti-gay protesters from disturbing the peace of mind of the grieving. This was done before, at the funeral of Matthew Shepard.

I wonder, sometimes, what the cognitive dissonance must be like--being a WBC protestor screaming and carrying signs condemning people for who they love, but coming across decent, loving, empathetic communities who are feeling true, compassionate emotion--not seeking to create ugly drama.

Do they ever pause to consider that parasitically harassing people has built up over time a kind of "immune response" to their hate that only reinforces, ironically, the command "Love one another"? Are they trying to be the sand in the oyster that makes a pearl of wisdom?

Or are they just rabid horrorshows? Because in Orlando--we saw angels. And WBC protesters watched, and perceived them not at all. Their total and complete loss. But our reassurance that life and love and memory and the sanctity of our shared humanity go on. We have angels--they just have dumbass signs.

Back From Vacation

It's nice to spend a week away from the Internet and my various current preoccupations, what with the religious freedom issue, the race relations, the whole Confederate Flag stuff and the business about immigration and migration of populations. So, I spent the last week in and around Harpers Ferry, WV, where John Brown made his stand, and where a patch of territory changed hands between Union and Confederacy a handful of times, and also visited the Antietam battlefield, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

Well, on the upside, I did get unplugged from Twitter and all television news programs. So my immersion in history was kind of pure, in the sense that I wasn't engaging with the news cycles. So I missed things like Rick Perry's withdrawal from the 2016 contest (I had a bit of thought he'd do better this time around, not being looped up on pain killers from the back surgery, but no. Once bitten, I guess supporters are twice shy.)

Instead of absorbing news and blogs and the 24/7 noise, I did a lot of walking around Harpers Ferry, Loudon Co,. VA and Jefferson Co., WV, and took in the historical offerings of the National Park Service, which has painstakingly kept history in this region alive. It is a hilly region, and everything, though in walking distance, was uphill both ways. I want to give a shout-out to The Light Horse, which is a brilliant area B&B and an excellent place to stay if you ever get the chance. It's very well situated and pleasantly appointed with tasteful and well-kept antique furnishings--and you get a damn good breakfast there. It happens to be walking distance (if you are a tolerable walker) to both the Bolivar Battlefield site and the Historic Harpers Ferry area. (There is also a liquor store like a block away, and a pizzeria two blocks past it). Also, out of six nights, we ate at the very good Canal House Café three times. They don't have a liquor license, but are BYOB. What kept us coming back? Brilliant food. "The General" is a generous slice of meatloaf with a delicious red sauce--very recommended. I also had the "Blue Ridge" and "Triple Crown"--very tasty variations on the ham and cheese and the BLT sandwiches, respectively. Their farm-to-table concept focuses on fresh ingredients and concentrates on the food being of great quality--and they deliver. For openers, be sure to have one of their soups (you can't miss) and order a side of bread. Even if you aren't a big bread fan, the bread is awesome, with honey and salt-added natural butter. It's just damn decadent. We ate indoors, but outdoor dining is also available. They have organic teas and some nice microbrewed sodas on offer.

Selma's America is America for Barack Obama, and Me

The great poet Langston Hughes wrote "America was never America to me" in a poem about what America could be. The promise of America was a dream deferred or delayed or outright denied, but which laid before the pioneer, the slave, the rebel, the migrant, all, as a possible better world a-borning, a place where the love of that dream overcomes the adversity of every present moment to be remade new--a "more perfect union".

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

Langston Hughes' America--newly-made, is what John Lewis and Martin Luther King and so many more marched for.  That "more perfect" and always infinitely perfectable union, is what President Obama has been talking about since he ever talked. This ability to get better, do better, be more and expect more, has been the very nature of our American exceptionalism. The revolutionaries that separated from their King, the fight that separated slave from master, and made them equals, that lifted woman from helpmeet to citizen--has been the best of America. We face adversity--and still we rise.

Lessons Not Learned--Handel's Hallelujah Chorus

I wanted to review some comments of one Karen Handel, the wingnut warrior alleged to be the driver of the bus she was eventually thrown under in the whole Susan G. Komen dumping Planned Parenthood debacle. She recently had a friendly interview with CBN, that got picked-up by somewhat less-friendly Rawstory.

Here's stuff she actually said:

“And lets remember Komen is a breast cancer organization,” Handel continued. “We’re not involved in politics or this type of guerrilla grassroots campaigning that Planned Parenthood unleashed on us. All for, not the sake of women’s health, but for the sake of politics and their political agenda, which should make all of us very, very concerned. 

“This was nothing sort of a shake down,” she said. “To watch what played out, and somehow an organization like Planned Parenthood to be held up as sort of the face of the women’s movement was stunning to me. There is clearly a real bias around this, that somehow the right to an abortion equals women’s rights, and I reject that. It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous. 

Handel ran in the Republican primary for Georgia governor in 2010, but lost in a tightly contested runoff to Nathan Deal. Part of her political platform was ensuring no taxpayer funds were used by Planned Parenthood.

So, politics wasn't involved until Handel got involved, with a previous agenda to defund Planned Parenthood,  and once Komen announced that the partnership was ended, a grassroots effort (which means, a "bottom-up" effort--not orchestrated by PP, even if they put up a petition or donation widget on their site--like dur, who wouldn't? But no--they did not orchestrate the response nor did they attack or politicize--)

Actually, the Komen decision politicized breast care eligibility by judging the women who sought exams or referrals from PP as "less-than" because PP services low-income people and also offers abortion services in the first place. Planned Parenthood was one avenue for low income women to get early detection--which could lead to early necessary cancer care. Breast cancer survivors are intimately cognizant of the importance of early detection and treatment. They often do know of someone whose cancer was not diagnosed early enough due to poor access, and they have every reason to be pissed without any influence from PP.

I appreciate that Karen Handel wants creative control over the songs that are sung for her in Wingnut Valhalla, but it is still too soon--we still know what her role was and how Komen failed as a result of her urging.

She disrupted, badly.