Should someone who voted for Trump in 2016 be reading this you may wish to stop. You more than likely have not read anything except anti Hillary Facebook posts shared from The Federalist Papers, Townhall, Reddit, Breitbart, crazy right wing emails, Tweets and billboards in who knows how long. You most likely have disdain for any news other than Fox. You may claim that you vary your news sources and consider yourself well informed but think...are you? You know that you can't even think about CNN without cringing. It is difficult to understand why when you are faced with facts you discount them. You live in an echo chamber and you are to blame for what could be the end of our democratic system. Are you a bigot? Are you ignorant? Are you a fool? Are you a hypocrite? What are you? If you are a woman are you absolutely out of your mind? Do you have a secret desire to have your pussy grabbed by a man? What is it? I have tried to understand but I cannot. If you have had it rough because of the economy do you really think that this maniacal, autocratic madman is going to care about you. He has bilked millions, to use his hyperbole, of people like you. He sees you as nothing more than a vote. Don't belief it? You will. Four Goldman Sachs henchmen who contributed to the economic collapse and may have been responsible for your misfortune and they will be in this President's cabinet making policy. Do you own stock? Look at the stocks that are going up...big Pharma, banking, energy, any industry that will benefit from deregulation. Think that's a good thing?
This is an outcome that is not like any other. It is not a mandate for Trump, he did not win the popular vote even though he has inferred that he has. His electoral margin is the most narrow since 1976.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Weary of recipies, kitties, & babies...
The handwriting was on the wall but I did not see it. During the last week of the 2016 election the signs (literally & figuratively) were there but I was just puzzled by them and walked into Tuesday with complete surety that a woman was going to be President. You see, I had been weaned on the Hofstadter/Schlesinger view of our past, honed by the views of Doris Kearns Goodwin, Halberstam, Theodore White, Robert Caro and validated by Woodward-Bernstein, Dan Rather, David Broder, Seymore Hersh, and Charles Kuralt. The commonality was that the United States was on a trajectory of progressive reform. There would be roadblocks along the way but the movement would recover and continue toward political, economic, and social equity. My idealism crashed November 8, 2016 around 6:00 PM when MSNBC began reporting exit poll results...white women with college degrees were voting for Trump! The End. What? Brick wall
This journey to 2016 for me really started on the freezing cold, bright, beautiful day in January 2009 when Barak Hussein Obama was inaugurated President of the United States. My husband and I stood close to the podium to witness the first Black President take the Oath filled with hope. We were sure our country was going to move in a direction that would bring healthcare reform, rules that would correct the abuses of financial institutions, progressive Supreme Court appointments, i.e, reasonable progressive changes. The over the top partisan bickering would subside. We did not know that just down the street a meeting of the Republican leadership was taking place. They were laying out an agenda to thwart anything and everything that the new President would attempt. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-republicans-plan-for-the-new-president/ and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama. There are numerous sources regarding this meeting. You can search for yourself if you do not like these). For eight years the plan to obstruct was implemented. After the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress it was relentless. The uber conservatives who came to Washington especially after their dramatic gains in 2010, were reactionary and outrageous; no compromise, inciting racial fears, stoking the evangelical pro birth fervor, advancing their anti gay, anti intellectual social agenda. Obama's attempt to bring about healthcare reform was ravaged by the Republicans and resulted in flawed legislation with unintended consequences. Economic reforms were weakened and ignored. Judicial appointments left in the lurch. The "Republican Sound Machine" magnified the message with innuendo, falsehood, hate, fear. Even the death of Osama bin Laden was played down, marginalized, and doubted by the purveyors of the message from the Right. The myth of the liberal media was magnified to the point that any information coming from any outlet other than Fox, Limbaugh and company, or Breitbart was rejected. Memes and fabricated "news" became the truth. Actual news, real political and historical knowledge was rejected. Mad as hell
Amid the conservative hubris why were Congressional Democrats not forcefully standing their ground? Frustration with the Party of FDR, JFK, and LBJ grew and added to the 2014 failure to hold on to Senate seats (North Carolina for example with the defeat of Kay Hagan) and make gains in the House. It just got worse and out of the abyss came Donald Trump
By the 2012 Election I was hardened by the egregious behavior of not only the right wing politicians but from the sideline as Donald Trump was hawking the absurd claim that the President of the United States was not born in the United States and was not an American. This smacked of racism but was recognized as truth by a large number of Americans. I saw this as nothing other than naked bigotry and was puzzled by Trump's foray into the political arena.
Obama won
After the 2012 election It became clear that Hillary Clinton was most likely going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2016. To prepare, the Republican leadership began an unrelenting campaign to discredit Clinton on every front. By the time the 2016 campaign materialized the Right had convinced a large number of Americans that she was a criminal. The groundwork was laid to defeat her. Worried
Out of the underbelly of society emerged a vile and angry man known to most as a reality TV star famous for demeaning people. The purveyor of the birther myth. A "playboy", twice divorced, an adulterer with a lurid past who grotesquely flaunted his dubious wealth. Donald Trump was dismissed by the mainstream press, liberals, many establishment conservatives, and me. He was seen as an outlier by the Republican Party leadership and they felt safe with their growing list of pasty white, pro birth, Christian, basically boring men. Meanwhile the White middle class in the Rust Belt was really pissed off, a mass of fake stories were making the rounds on social media, but few on the left noticed. Me either
A free press is essential to a free society PERIOD Somehow the "press" in this country became more entertainment than information. I cannot recall any significant QUESTIONING of anyone being interviewed to explain what they meant when outrageous claims were made about the President. How exactly is he violating, destroying, ignoring the Constitution? Never asked, never answered. This continued as Hillary Clinton became a criminal who should be thrown in jail...what specifically should she be put in jail for would have been a good question. Frustrated
I have always thought I had a pretty good handle on the political mood of the country. I was sure Trump would go nowhere. There was no way sane people would support him. The Republican Party would certainly reject such an upstart. But the groundwork had been laid for the 2016 upheaval going back to the post WWII period when the national Democratic Party began to show signs of questioning segregation. By 1964 and certainly 1968 and into the 1970's Republicans especially Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater (an excellent article is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) perfected the Southern Strategy and into the Republican Party came the southern Democrats who refused to acknowledge the end of the Civil War. By the 1990's the Democrats were rid of this element, they had wrapped themselves in the Republican Party. The evangelicals had jumped on board in 1980 when they were convinced that the GOP was going to rid the country of abortion, bring prayer back into schools, make sure marriage remained sacred (except when they wanted a divorce).
Televangelists, the moral majority, talk radio, the systematic organization of the Republican Party (from the school board to the town board, to county commissioner, to state legislator), repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, Fox News, the Internet, the percolating John Birch Society, the Tea Party, all coalesced on social media to render the status quo defunct by 2014. It was ignored by those who assumed they understood.
The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party was fired up, mad and ready for the "corporate" types to step aside by 2014, and out of this came Bernie Sanders. This movement was attractive but I felt it was not realistic. I had always felt Bernie was interesting but President? Maybe not. I still do not think he would have defeated Trump but the left wing is locked and loaded. 2018 will be exciting if we are still here.
The pundits who were sure you could not win without the ground game now look stupid, those of us who were sure the American public could not be ignorant enough to vote for a lying, genital grabbing, windbag now look naive. Many find that they cannot accept the outcome of 2016 but no one is doing anything.
This journey to 2016 for me really started on the freezing cold, bright, beautiful day in January 2009 when Barak Hussein Obama was inaugurated President of the United States. My husband and I stood close to the podium to witness the first Black President take the Oath filled with hope. We were sure our country was going to move in a direction that would bring healthcare reform, rules that would correct the abuses of financial institutions, progressive Supreme Court appointments, i.e, reasonable progressive changes. The over the top partisan bickering would subside. We did not know that just down the street a meeting of the Republican leadership was taking place. They were laying out an agenda to thwart anything and everything that the new President would attempt. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-republicans-plan-for-the-new-president/ and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama. There are numerous sources regarding this meeting. You can search for yourself if you do not like these). For eight years the plan to obstruct was implemented. After the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress it was relentless. The uber conservatives who came to Washington especially after their dramatic gains in 2010, were reactionary and outrageous; no compromise, inciting racial fears, stoking the evangelical pro birth fervor, advancing their anti gay, anti intellectual social agenda. Obama's attempt to bring about healthcare reform was ravaged by the Republicans and resulted in flawed legislation with unintended consequences. Economic reforms were weakened and ignored. Judicial appointments left in the lurch. The "Republican Sound Machine" magnified the message with innuendo, falsehood, hate, fear. Even the death of Osama bin Laden was played down, marginalized, and doubted by the purveyors of the message from the Right. The myth of the liberal media was magnified to the point that any information coming from any outlet other than Fox, Limbaugh and company, or Breitbart was rejected. Memes and fabricated "news" became the truth. Actual news, real political and historical knowledge was rejected. Mad as hell
Amid the conservative hubris why were Congressional Democrats not forcefully standing their ground? Frustration with the Party of FDR, JFK, and LBJ grew and added to the 2014 failure to hold on to Senate seats (North Carolina for example with the defeat of Kay Hagan) and make gains in the House. It just got worse and out of the abyss came Donald Trump
By the 2012 Election I was hardened by the egregious behavior of not only the right wing politicians but from the sideline as Donald Trump was hawking the absurd claim that the President of the United States was not born in the United States and was not an American. This smacked of racism but was recognized as truth by a large number of Americans. I saw this as nothing other than naked bigotry and was puzzled by Trump's foray into the political arena.
Obama won
After the 2012 election It became clear that Hillary Clinton was most likely going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2016. To prepare, the Republican leadership began an unrelenting campaign to discredit Clinton on every front. By the time the 2016 campaign materialized the Right had convinced a large number of Americans that she was a criminal. The groundwork was laid to defeat her. Worried
Out of the underbelly of society emerged a vile and angry man known to most as a reality TV star famous for demeaning people. The purveyor of the birther myth. A "playboy", twice divorced, an adulterer with a lurid past who grotesquely flaunted his dubious wealth. Donald Trump was dismissed by the mainstream press, liberals, many establishment conservatives, and me. He was seen as an outlier by the Republican Party leadership and they felt safe with their growing list of pasty white, pro birth, Christian, basically boring men. Meanwhile the White middle class in the Rust Belt was really pissed off, a mass of fake stories were making the rounds on social media, but few on the left noticed. Me either
A free press is essential to a free society PERIOD Somehow the "press" in this country became more entertainment than information. I cannot recall any significant QUESTIONING of anyone being interviewed to explain what they meant when outrageous claims were made about the President. How exactly is he violating, destroying, ignoring the Constitution? Never asked, never answered. This continued as Hillary Clinton became a criminal who should be thrown in jail...what specifically should she be put in jail for would have been a good question. Frustrated
I have always thought I had a pretty good handle on the political mood of the country. I was sure Trump would go nowhere. There was no way sane people would support him. The Republican Party would certainly reject such an upstart. But the groundwork had been laid for the 2016 upheaval going back to the post WWII period when the national Democratic Party began to show signs of questioning segregation. By 1964 and certainly 1968 and into the 1970's Republicans especially Richard Nixon and Lee Atwater (an excellent article is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy) perfected the Southern Strategy and into the Republican Party came the southern Democrats who refused to acknowledge the end of the Civil War. By the 1990's the Democrats were rid of this element, they had wrapped themselves in the Republican Party. The evangelicals had jumped on board in 1980 when they were convinced that the GOP was going to rid the country of abortion, bring prayer back into schools, make sure marriage remained sacred (except when they wanted a divorce).
Televangelists, the moral majority, talk radio, the systematic organization of the Republican Party (from the school board to the town board, to county commissioner, to state legislator), repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, Fox News, the Internet, the percolating John Birch Society, the Tea Party, all coalesced on social media to render the status quo defunct by 2014. It was ignored by those who assumed they understood.
The Progressive wing of the Democratic Party was fired up, mad and ready for the "corporate" types to step aside by 2014, and out of this came Bernie Sanders. This movement was attractive but I felt it was not realistic. I had always felt Bernie was interesting but President? Maybe not. I still do not think he would have defeated Trump but the left wing is locked and loaded. 2018 will be exciting if we are still here.
The pundits who were sure you could not win without the ground game now look stupid, those of us who were sure the American public could not be ignorant enough to vote for a lying, genital grabbing, windbag now look naive. Many find that they cannot accept the outcome of 2016 but no one is doing anything.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Mother Didn't Drive a Car
What? You say...yes, my Mother never drove. When I think about this I shake my head and sigh. I do not know why and never really questioned it growing up. Her parents never owned a car as far as I know, and they lived "downtown" in Richmond so perhaps they never saw the need.
By the time I was six there were three children and my Dad was stationed in Okinawa for a year leaving us in Richmond. Now I ask you, can you imagine having three small children, your husband away and not driving an automobile? My grandfather (Papa) would pick us up and take us to the store, but otherwise we were trapped. My mind cannot comprehend not being able to get in the car and go...go anywhere, by yourself, or just taking the kids to the park, or mall, or to see animals, whatever.
I have assumed my Dad never wanted her to drive; he seemed to always be glad to take us where we needed to be. Perhaps he feared his cars would be damaged. It was always pandemonium when one or all of us missed the school bus. My Dad would already have gone to work and would have to come home, get us and take us to school. You would think that would happen once and to the DMV my Mom would go. Nope, never. Was there conversation about this? Don't know.
When I think about my own life, there is no way I can imagine not driving. It will always be one of the mysteries of my childhood as to why my Mom did not jump into that mist green Buick Riviera and drive into the modern era.
By the time I was six there were three children and my Dad was stationed in Okinawa for a year leaving us in Richmond. Now I ask you, can you imagine having three small children, your husband away and not driving an automobile? My grandfather (Papa) would pick us up and take us to the store, but otherwise we were trapped. My mind cannot comprehend not being able to get in the car and go...go anywhere, by yourself, or just taking the kids to the park, or mall, or to see animals, whatever.
I have assumed my Dad never wanted her to drive; he seemed to always be glad to take us where we needed to be. Perhaps he feared his cars would be damaged. It was always pandemonium when one or all of us missed the school bus. My Dad would already have gone to work and would have to come home, get us and take us to school. You would think that would happen once and to the DMV my Mom would go. Nope, never. Was there conversation about this? Don't know.
When I think about my own life, there is no way I can imagine not driving. It will always be one of the mysteries of my childhood as to why my Mom did not jump into that mist green Buick Riviera and drive into the modern era.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Yes Elizabeth, the blog is back.
When I was asked at a party on the 4th of July if I still posted on my Blog, I was a bit surprised that anyone even remembered that I wrote a blog. So yet again I have decided to resume "Life in the Pitt". Katrina has gotten so lazy and has informed me that she will appear on occasion and only when there is something really important to say, but I will pontificate on anything from the mundane to the all important ACC basketball news.
As with all the other resumptions of LITP, an update is in order. December 2012 seems like an eternity ago and much has happened here on the edge of the Triangle. The recession seems to have ended and Pittsboro is the talk of the economic world here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. A group of investors has been given the go ahead to build a 900 acre live/work community adjacent to our little city. Chatham Park will change the flavor of this corner of the Triangle. There are many who fear Pittsboro will loose it's quirkiness and small town atmosphere; we will just have to see how it all plays out. There is development galore on the 15/501 and traffic actually exists.
Politics has become pretty grim here in the old North State since 2012 with the most oppressive voter restrictions in the country, an outright war on public education, and somewhere in Raleigh Galt's Gulch has been created. Our neighbor Randy Voller is no longer the mayor but has become the head of the NC Democratic Party. The Party has been in chaos since he took the helm and there is much apprehension about November 2014. LITP will have much to say about that.
The Chatham County Courthouse has been rebuilt and is beautiful, but there are still a few unsightly buildings and dwellings that should be condemned.
So...The Pitt is back.
As with all the other resumptions of LITP, an update is in order. December 2012 seems like an eternity ago and much has happened here on the edge of the Triangle. The recession seems to have ended and Pittsboro is the talk of the economic world here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. A group of investors has been given the go ahead to build a 900 acre live/work community adjacent to our little city. Chatham Park will change the flavor of this corner of the Triangle. There are many who fear Pittsboro will loose it's quirkiness and small town atmosphere; we will just have to see how it all plays out. There is development galore on the 15/501 and traffic actually exists.
Politics has become pretty grim here in the old North State since 2012 with the most oppressive voter restrictions in the country, an outright war on public education, and somewhere in Raleigh Galt's Gulch has been created. Our neighbor Randy Voller is no longer the mayor but has become the head of the NC Democratic Party. The Party has been in chaos since he took the helm and there is much apprehension about November 2014. LITP will have much to say about that.
The Chatham County Courthouse has been rebuilt and is beautiful, but there are still a few unsightly buildings and dwellings that should be condemned.
So...The Pitt is back.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Perhaps it is 1968 backwards!
We have come through a very strange and complicated election, one that will be seen as a watershed much like 1968. In 1968 the Democrats had moved so far to the left and Americans rejected the over the top rhetoric and behavior that called for bombing Wall Street and outright revolution. Nixon's contention that the "Silent Majority" would prevail prevailed, and the political pendulum began its swing to the right. The last four years have witnessed a right wing version of 1968. The "lunatic fringe" (gotta love Hofstadter) of the Republican Party has moved into the driver's seat and driven the party right off the proverbial cliff. This does not mean that the GOP will be willing to embrace Obama's agenda so do not get excited. After Humphrey's defeat in '68 the Dems continued to embrace a very liberal platform...remember McGovern (may he rest in peace), Dukakis, and Mondale, all outside of mainstream. So do not expect the wingnuts to go away. The pendulum will begin its slow swing to the left and finally the rabid rhetoric of the radical right will recede (how do you like that alliteration?).
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Well, Mamie was furious! And so was IKE!
This election brought out the worst in our society; hate, racism, ignorance, xenophobia to name just a few. Yes, Mamie is disgusted and Ike cannot believe what the Grand Old Party has become...more later.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Woof!
You have got to be kidding me! In order to be First Lady you have to look like Ann Romney? Mamie Eisenhower how do you like that?!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Yikes, I have spent my day on the deck.
You ask why? Do you live under a rock? The ACC Tournament! Carolina was playing the "Semiholes " for the championship and Jane was about to bust a gut. I mean really. She is ridiculous. The Heels lost but Jane's attitude changed a bit when they got a number 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament...phew, I could not take anymore ranting. But, Murray State is a 9 seed and that did set off a bit of a tirade. I hope they lose in the first round just for my sanity. Now I have to listen to all the rambling while she fills out her bracket...she has already determined that Harvard will beat Vanderbilt. Oh well, what can I say, here we go again...she does this every year.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Jane made me post this
http://gawker.com/5891366/whitest-family-on-earth-sings-about-rick-santorum-bringing-justice-for-the-unborn
First of all Thomas Jefferson gave us the Bill of Rights. Jefferson was a Deist and did not advocate organized religion. He also is the person most responsible for SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE! God may have liked the B of R's, but he didn't write them.
Conservatives need to actually read something about Ronald Reagan....the real Ronald Reagan, not the mythical creature that lurks in their mind. Did not go to church; was a terrible family man...didn't speak to several of his children, didn't see a couple of his grandchildren until they were 3 years old; ran up the highest deficit in history; conducted an illegal war in Nicaragua violating numerous laws and defying the will of Congress; pulled out of Lebanon when 241 American troops were killed when their barracks were bombed; slept through Cabinet meetings; didn't even know that his Secretary of the Treasury and his Chief of Staff had changed jobs.
Love the earrings on the left girl.
First of all Thomas Jefferson gave us the Bill of Rights. Jefferson was a Deist and did not advocate organized religion. He also is the person most responsible for SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE! God may have liked the B of R's, but he didn't write them.
Conservatives need to actually read something about Ronald Reagan....the real Ronald Reagan, not the mythical creature that lurks in their mind. Did not go to church; was a terrible family man...didn't speak to several of his children, didn't see a couple of his grandchildren until they were 3 years old; ran up the highest deficit in history; conducted an illegal war in Nicaragua violating numerous laws and defying the will of Congress; pulled out of Lebanon when 241 American troops were killed when their barracks were bombed; slept through Cabinet meetings; didn't even know that his Secretary of the Treasury and his Chief of Staff had changed jobs.
Love the earrings on the left girl.
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