Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

The Pervasive Creep Of Their Misogyny

I believe it is pretty safe to say that the majority of us have been left open mouthed on more than one occasion by the staggeringly brazen behaviors and statements made by the GOP ticket and their supporters.  Some even leave us speechless.

The desire to keep wimmin barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen is their wet dream.  Relieving us of our right to vote?  Ability to obtain contraception?  Have any control over our bodies?  They practically salivate at the thoughts.  One can easily imagine that Project 2025 is as much a masturbatory aid for Simple Jack Vance as is a dogeared copy of Playboy and a couch cushion. 

It is no shock to any of us that knew with the advent of Kamala Harris as the top of the ticket, things were going to get ugly.  Ugly, rude, raw, racist, and that the misogyny was going to flood forth.  We were not wrong.

With every utterance, JD Vance makes it clear he has no use for women who don't do their duty and procreate.  "Childless cat ladies."  That was mild.  He then took it to the level that women without children should not be able to vote, not being invested in the country's future and all.  He was then heard to have said that teachers without children "disturb" him.  

But then JD asked himself to "Hold my beer" as yet another tape has come out where he completely derides women who choose to not have children as on “a path to misery” because "they have no skin in the game."

Unearthed video: JD Vance said childless elites make the U.S. “dangerous.” It was too much for a Newsmax interviewer. https://t.co/6GmXLpudot pic.twitter.com/T32IBHl5VX

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 3, 2024

Any adult in this country who lives and breathes has skin in the game.  The very act of staying alive, pursuing a career, going to school, even being homeless and trying to find a safe place to sleep - means SKIN IN THE GAME.  This whole obsession he has is with women, not men.  Men are never derided in his world for being childless, being absent from the lives of children they create, or being lawmakers who are neither married or have children (waving at you, Lindsey Graham).

In his view, our worth stems directly from the productivity of our ovaries and our willingness to spit out some progeny.  God help those women who struggle to conceive - no skin in the game, ladies.  May as well hang it up.  It is the extension of the long running double standard where women are accused of being bad mothers or wanting to have it all should we dare to want to continue pursuing a life outside our children.  It is never a thought process weaponized against men.  Men can spread their seed, be absentee fathers, climb the corporate ladder, never bake a single cupcake for a class party, and are praised for their accomplishments.  Women are neglectful shrews.  And now they are barren shrews who hold no meaningful place in their own country.

Trump has always been a festering pile of fecal matter in the misogyny stakes.  Women are fodder, they are to be ogled, grabbed without consent, used, raped, cheated on, and laughed about.  They are to be paid for their silence, forgotten, pushed aside.  In the past week, he has ratcheted up the misogyny in his posts on Truth Social.  Reposting things that should be campaign ending, but sadly only endear him further to his rabid base of "real men" and "trad wives".

Last week he reposted a meme of a photo of Hillary and Kamala together.  The caption?  “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”   And earlier in August he reshared a video by the Dilley Meme Team (rightwing content creators) backed by a soundtrack of a parody of the Alanis Morrisette song Ironic that contained the lines, “She spent her whole damn life down on her knees”, as an image of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appeared behind a picture of the Kamala and her husband, Doug Emhoff.

It's vile.  And while it's predictable, it does not make it forgivable or something that should be given a pass.  Misogyny, by definition, is the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.  We make up a full 51+% of the US population, yet here we are, still faced with sexist attacks on our characters, ugly sexual innuendo, and a political party openly touting an adjudicated rapist as their ideal candidate.

Blatant misogyny from the top is seen as a permission slip by those below.  Men, it is why you literally do not know one woman in your orbit who has not been in fear of a man at some point in her life; who has not crossed a street to avoid one; who has not held her keys between her fingers as a weapon; who has not faked a phone call in the back of an Uber or made sure to provide her location to a friend;  who has not been told to smile, baby; or who has not been raped.  It is why we choose the bear.  No one will blame us or ask what we were wearing if we are attacked by a bear.

As I said at the top of this piece, we have found ourselves metaphorically speechless repeatedly because of the MAGA party.  Because they do not view us as equals, just as broodmares.  As property.  But today I ran across a story out of France that literally left my mouth hanging open and me staring into space for a very long period before finding my way to the keyboard.

This is Gisèle Pelicot, 72 years old.   On Monday, her husband of forty years began trial for his unimaginable exploitation of her.  For a decade, he drugged Gisèle and allowed men to rape her while she lay unconscious.  Reports suggest 92 rapes were committed by 83 men, and 51 have been tracked down and are heading to trial as well.  So far.

According to police investigators, her husband, Dominique, has admitted to putting ground sleeping pills into Gisèle's food and drink, before inviting the men to rape her after looking for them online.  Dominique would sometimes film the assaults - police found more than 20,000 videos and photographs amid their investigation, with the timeline dating back to 2011.

Even while I type this, I am nauseous.

Per the UK publication, The Times: Prior to realizing the abuse had taken place, Gisèle had been suffering from memory loss and physical symptoms, but she only became aware of the assaults once police told her, the outlet reported. Officers had raided the family's Mazan home amid accusations that Dominique had been filming up three women's skirts in a supermarket.

Firefighters, masons, gardeners, prison guards, soldiers and journalists, now between the ages of 26 and 73 years old - all raped this woman at the invitation and behest of her husband who she once called "caring and considerate."

I am deeply sad for this woman.  I am flabbergasted at the vileness of the acts.  Not just the rapes.  And every single one of these "men" should have their dicks removed with a rusty blade.  But the abuse of trust, the violation of love, the complete and relentless use of his wife as some sort of sex toy.  What should be done to him - I am afraid to type out loud.  But it would not be over quickly.  And he would not be given the benefit of being drugged and unconscious.

THIS.  This is what misogyny is.  It is brutal.  It disregards the humanity of a woman.  It ignores our right to choose, to feel safe, to be safe.  It reduces us to property, something to be used, shared, discarded, destroyed if that is what the man desires.  It devours our self esteem.  It digests our free will.  It enslaves.  It endangers.  And it ruins life after life after life after life after life.  

Yes, I feel this deeply because I have been raped.  Once.  And once is enough to know that someone viewed me as theirs for the taking, as a thing, a toy.  Not a human being with feelings who deserved respect, not violation.  And now I will never escape that day.  It is chained to me.  So no, I cannot fathom finding out I had been violated nearly 100 times.

For her part, Gisèle is simply astonishing in her bravery, her fortitude.  She is not hiding.  According to one of her lawyers, "She wants to raise awareness, as widely as possible, of what happened to her so that events like these never happen again."

Men - think about this. Look at your wife or daughter or sister or mother or friend and think about this.  Think about even ONE rape.  Now let your mind wander up to 92.  Can you stomach the thought of your daughter being so brutally violated FOR A DECADE?  For your mother to be repeatedly drugged by your father and passed around like a blowup doll?  No?  Well, this is where the slippery slope comes in.

Every time you participate in resharing a meme that demeans a woman - you are part of the problem.  Every time you sit at a bar with friends and laugh as one of your buddies makes vile and crass remarks as women walk past - you are part of the problem.  Every time you catcall, wolf whistle, tell us to smile more, or get angry when we refuse your advances - you are part of the problem. Everytime you give any attention to Andrew Tate or Tim Poole or Elon Musk or <insert any heinous misogynist prick with a platform>  - you are part of the problem.  And every time you laugh off the rhetoric of Trump and Vance and the entire MAGA party - you are part of the problem.

The problem of making it acceptable, not so bad to do.  The problem of your sons seeing what you and your friends do and thinking "this is the way."  The problem of making your wife, your girlfriend, your sister, your mother, your female friends feel small, in danger, lesser than. The problem of normalizing it. 

And do not do the "But, Linda, not all men..." crap.  If it's not YOU, I guarantee you know or have known someone through the years that you have covered for, laughed off, or not taken seriously in their treatment and view of women.  My own husband has, and while he has cut off contact with the guy, it was not until I shared with him something his longtime friend had done to me, despite knowing for years he was a philandering, misogynistic piece of shit.

The creep of misogyny is pervasive.  And it only ratchets up each time it is not called out, struck down.  Like the frog in the pot of water, women are slowly being boiled to death in a brew of disdain, flat out hatred, and odious chauvinism.  And those who support that repugnant party?  You are helping turn up the heat.  They are saying the quiet parts out loud.  And you are laughing along with them.  While your daughters are listening.  While your wives are watching.  While your mothers and sisters are recoiling at what you support.

You all owe women so much better.  The MAGA party owes women so much better.  The world owes women so much better.  Decency.  Respect.  Safety.  Women should be able to walk down a street with you keeping your thoughts firmly behind your teeth.  We should be able to go out, refuse your advances and not angrily be called "a c*nt".  We should not be subject to your unwillingness to police yourself and your pals.  And we should never have to entertain a scenario like Gisele's in which you view us as a commodity to be used as you wish.

Too much to ask?  Well, try this.  Turn it around in your mind and see how you feel.  How about we drug you for a decade and sit back while we invite a string of strangers to assrape you into oblivion.  Not so funny, huh?

No.  No it's not.  And it never was.

Watch Where You Step - There's Spaghetti All Over The Floor

With each passing day, hell, each passing utterance from the festering fascist, it has become more than obvious our once venerable institutions in the Fourth Estate have given up being nonpartisan.  Frankly, they have given up reporting the news, straight, no chaser or twist.

We watched as one less-than-stellar debate performance by President Biden begat a relentless torrent of articles, opinion pieces, doomsdaying, and naysaying from every side of the news gathering/disseminating industry.  Everything from his age to his pallor was dissected and used against him.  The onslaught was so complete that party leaders had no choice but to respond and force the contrived issue with the President.  In the end, he chose to pass the top of the ticket to his VP, country over party.

The "news" machine won.  Or so they thought.  The overlords at the top purveyors - Washington Post, New York Times, etc - owned and slanted by GOP donors and billionaires - stand to make far more with the Trump shitshow reinstated to the Oval.  Not just in the personal of tax breaks for their wallets, but in profits for their holdings and shareholders.  With Joe Biden out of the way, they thought the path to endle$$ riches was guaranteed.

But then along came a wave they did not see coming.  A level of enthusiasm, true patriotism, and deep gra$$root pockets to fund Kamala Harris.  The joyful uprising on the left has left the press scrambling as she and her VP running mate have all but told legacy media to get stuffed.  What they have been left with is running severe and obvious interference for a decrepit felon, adjudicated rapist, and staggeringly stupid conman with rapidly diminishing mental capacity.

Age?  That factor so hugely important when Joe Biden was in the running?  Poof.  Mental sharpness?  So important in the President that his every utterance was given an autopsy?  Gone.  Physical steadiness and health?  President Biden's every step was subjected to rumor - Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and on and on.  Trump and his magically regenerating ear?  Pfft.

So on we have gone.  Daily more people are turning away from legacy media, dropping subscriptions, and turning towards independent sources for news.  There is a reason Harris/Walz gave credentials to over 200 digital content creators for the DNC.  Aside from connecting to the youth vote, more news came forth that was not scripted by a corporate billionaire.  I personally did not give MSNBC my eyeballs during the DNC, choosing instead to tune into MeidasTouch on their Youtube channel.  (Sorry, but save Rachel, Lawrence and Nicole, MSNBC has lost me.  And DGMS on Ari.  I cannot with his constant cringefest of trying to be cool by cramming rap references into his every sentence.)

It has been comical and somewhat satisfying to watch Trump and his clown car of advisors scramble to figure out how to combat what they are seeing on the left. 

They see Harris and Walz have both stopped speaking at rallies to point out someone in the crowd who needs aid, so Trump attempted to show concern and tried it.  Once.  It was like watching Vance attempt to converse with the donut shop employees, which was like watching a robot attempt to follow a program labeled "human interaction and connection."  There was nothing sincere in either effort, and it only served to highlight how poor both men are at relating, even on a minimal level, to regular people.

"Press conferences."  Couched in quotes because what Trump does is ramble, not thoughtfully and articulately, answer questions.  The first one held at Mar-a-Lago was Festivus held in dumpster fire.  Just an airing of his grievances, his fever dreams, and his mania.  The "press" - again couched in quotes - because let's be real...  All were handpicked and invited the day before.  Chosen specifically because they would not ask anything hard hitting much less follow up. 

He railed and rambled and talked out his ass for an hour.  Creating "facts" out of thin air.  Making sweeping generalizations, lying outright, knowing no one would press him on any of it.  

And they didn't.  

His rallies are hilarious.  Any transcript of his meandering mental choo choo constantly jumping the tracks reveals there is no there there.  How anyone can sit and listen to him and follow along is beyond me.  Try this one on for size.  Pop a few aspirin first.

“The fake news will say, ‘Oh, he goes from subject to subject.’ No, you have to be very smart to do that. You got to be very smart. You know what it is? It’s called spot-checking. You’re thinking about something when you’re talking about something else, and then you get back to the original. And they go, ‘Holy shit. Did you see what he did?’ It’s called intelligence.”

No, it's called the batshit incoherence of an ageing bigot with the intelligence of a fifth grader.

Yet the mainstream media let it slide.  His interviews are prerecorded and shaped to cut out the worst of his stupidity and inability to address any topic.  He calls into friendly outlets like FOX and Newsmax where anchors steer the conversations in the hope they can lasso his free flowing verbal largesse before he goes completely off the rails.

And now, with the PR stunt and literal law breaking at Arlington, which is not disappearing despite his and his campaign's deepest wishes it would, he is now desperately spouting anything, ANYTHING to appeal to voters.  As my husband put it, there's spaghetti all over the floor as he flings it against the wall in the hopes something, anything will stick.

In the space of 24 hours last week he addressed the proposed amendment in his home state of Florida that would expand access to abortion from the current 6 weeks up to 24 weeks.  He said in an NBC interview, “So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it.”

“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

That sound you heard was the entire GOP, evangelicals, and MAGA one-issue cultists gasping.  Wait, what?!?!?! Like Trump's bullshit pretend religion and his sudden conversion to conservative politics, his stance on abortion has been one of political convenience, not belief.  The hew and cry went up across the internet and within a day, he was changing his tune.  Again.

"All of that stuff is unacceptable so I will be voting no for that reason."

Spaghetti meet floor.

He talked about IVF - which all but two Senate Republicans voted against when the Right To IVF Act came up in June - now he is saying the government will pay for it or make insurance companies pay for it, whichever, whatever.  Fling that pasta!

And then there was this:

Not a single member of the media will make him address this further. It’s insane. But they’ll likely just let it slide. https://t.co/VVI7k2PD0L

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 2, 2024

Nowhere has this ever happened.  Nowhere is this ever happening.  Yet there he is pulling the most farfetched, ridiculous, easily disproved bullshit from his facial rectum and it goes unchallenged.  Parents, your children are not going to school, disappearing for days, being subjected to gender reassignment surgeries, and then showing up at home.  It's just more of his tactic to say the most outlandish shit possible, knowing his cultists will believe anything.  Look, stay stupid if that's your choice.  But do not weaponize your stupidity against subjects and people you do not understand and that do not, in any way, affect your life.  Like the bullshit talking point of abortions after birth, this one is also pure fantasy.

The reality is this.  His position is he has no true positions.  On anything.  Except him being Supreme Leader and staying out of prison.  And with Labor Day now upon us and the election coming into the homestretch, he is the John Cusack of candidates - he will say anything he thinks will sway a few votes more his direction.  

Social Security?  Medicare?  Safe and safe!  Even though Project 2025 clearly spells out their eradication. 

You know, once upon a time, campaign verbiage like "A chicken in every pot!" was headline making.  But it was also basically benign.  Nowadays, the things being campaigned on have much more dire consequences for the electorate.  And words matter.  Or they should.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Trump, the media has zero desire to even point out the floor covered in spaghetti, let alone make him own his mess.  He is flailing and falling apart in front of our eyes and the media simply will no longer do their job.  It's up to us to pay attention, stay the course, and adhere to the biggest assignment we have:  All gas, no brakes.  

And no spaghetti.

Mind Your Own Damn Business

I have three children from my heterosexual marriage.  I shall now pause to allow JD Vance to applaud my achievements, hand me additional ballots for my efforts, and offer me a teaching position.

One of my children is transgender.  I shall now pause while JD Vance rips all of those things right back out of my hands and passes judgement on my parenting, my patriotism, and my child.

For those who have followed this blog and my sharing of my family's life for any period of time, you are aware that our youngest came out to me when he was 18.  I have detailed much of our journey on the sister blog to DGMS, Transparent Trans Parent (link on left).

I shared his/our story with his full permission as we all hoped to bring the subject into better focus, put a much needed human angle on the word 'transgender', and to let other parents/children know they are not alone. 

He is now 28 years old.  So a decade since he found the courage to share his deepest truth with me, our family, and a year later, the world.  In that time we have watched as more and more adults and children have come forward with their own truth to their parents, their friends, their coworkers.  We have also watched as the GOP has waged a systematic attack on the transgender community, their access to medical care, their very right to exist.

State after state have seen bills cruelly written and signed into law that target, restrict, and demonize anyone who is transgender or who may be parenting someone who is.  Bathroom bills prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender.  Sports related bills introduced to prohibit transgender kids from playing on teams of their gender.  Access to care bills that force government into the most personal of parenting challenges and decision making.

That last one should not be a surprise, after all the GOP loves inserting themselves everywhere they should not be - bedrooms, contraception, abortion, marriage.

I currently live in Florida.  Last year, a bill was advanced that would severely restrict the ability to receive gender affirming care in this state - for both minors and adults.  Not surprisingly, America's most pathetic governor - Ron DeSantis - signed it into law.  In June of 2023, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle blocked certain sections citing concerns over its constitutionality and potential discrimination.  

Monday saw the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit lift those blocks.  The results will be catastrophic.  

That is not hyperbole.  I'm the parent of a transgender human being.  I know what I am talking about.  While family and community support is so crucial to the well being of someone who steps into the light and fully claims their identity, access to care is just as paramount.  This law (and so many like it across the country) jeopardizes the very lives of those in this state who are transgender.

In terms of minors, this law prohibits any form of gender affirming care, with only two exceptions:

~ Patients with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sexual development.

~ Patients who were already receiving such treatment before May 17, 2023.

For the uneducated, puberty blockers provide a desperately needed stop gap for children who are transgender.  Being able to suppress the hormones that will begin to make their body betray who they know themselves to be is huge in the care of their mental health.  I say stop gap because, as opposed to the lies routinely told by the GOP, minors are not having body parts cut off or reconstructed.  That assertion is just as egregious as their other favorite lie, that abortions are performed after birth.

We were lucky.  Our son was an adult when he came out.  Yet even with his age not being an issue, it was a full year of therapy before he was referred for HRT.  Because the journey is not a capricious one.  GOPers would have the public believe that parents just willy nilly walk their kid into CVS and buy some hormone treatments off the shelf and begin injecting.  IT. DOES. NOT. WORK. THAT. WAY.

As a parent with a transgender child, the revelation, the search for care, the journey is deeply personal, deeply profound, deeply private.  There is no place in this area of parenting for government to step in and deign to know the child better than the parent.  I can tell you that when our son came out to me, in an instant everything crystallized.  Every puzzle piece of my child slammed into place and it all made sense.

BECAUSE HE IS MY CHILD AND I KNOW HIM.

He is not a bill.  He is not a law.  He is not some scary talking point in what the GOP considers a juicy wedge issue in election years.  He is a human being, and like every human being, he is complex, multifaceted, and knows who he is.  

That last part is huge.  Just as you wake up each day knowing who you are, so does he. 

So, you are cis het.  Sorry, big words - straight macho male - better?  You wear jeans and boots and a flannel shirt and like looking at naked women.  Fine.  I'm just supposed to accept that?  Based on what?  Because you said so?  No, sorry, Zeke.  I think you are actually a woman.  So excuse me while I chloroform your bigoted ass and while you are out have some implants shoved into your chest and your penis surgically turned inside out to form a vagina.  Don't worry, we'll make sure you have a nice, flowy wig, and we'll get Bobbi Brown to personally do your make-up.

Hi Zelda!  Nice to see you waking up.  Don't panic, you look great.  Here, let me help you over to the mirror.  Oh, come on now, don't be like that.  You look amazing.  No, Zelda, I believe you are a woman and that is what matters here.  

OK, fine - crass and hyperbolic to make a point (and the image is clearly AI - see manglewopped hand), but the point is valid.  I don't get to tell you who you are.  I don't know you.  I don't know your history, your life, your struggles.  I don't know your essential truth.  Only you do.  Which is my point to every politician - you don't know my son, not even remotely.  But that has not stopped you from creating some scary, monstrous, perverted image of him for your constituents.  

I have some questions.  What I would ask the politicians and the people who have no real clue yet choose to believe the garbage:

~ How has your life been affected since my son came out to our family?

~ How has your life been changed since he began HRT?

~ How has your sleep been altered since he had top surgery?

~ How does his existence make your life a struggle from day to day?

The answers are simple.  HIs existence, his journey, his life has had zero impact on yours.  None.  Zilch.  Nada.  But you?  You have an impact on him every single fucking day.

In every bill you script that targets his ability to use a bathroom in a public space.  In every glance you give him as he walks past while shopping.  In every interaction he has with you as he simply tries to live his life from sun up to sundown without incident.  I have said this for a decade now - he is not a danger to you, at all, not remotely.  But YOU?  You are a danger to him.  Because society is fucked, and he has no idea who is an ally and who is an asshole.

You know that question from last month that made the rounds - Man or Bear?  Who would a woman rather come upon in the woods?  Poor insecure menfolk everywhere were outraged that the majority of women said bear.  Well, using the same logic, who would I rather encounter in the bathroom?  You - man or woman, no matter, or a transgender woman.  I will take a transgender woman 8 days a week.  Because they are in there under duress.  I promise you they held off having to enter the bathroom as long as they could and all they want is to get in, use the toilet, wash their hands, and get out without danger.

Trans men and trans women are not lying in wait in the Target bathrooms to get you. 

But back to the Florida law.  The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, reports that 54% of transgender and nonbinary youth in Florida have seriously considered suicide in the past year.  54%.  Let that sink in.  If you are a parent - look at your child, and imagine that percentage touching your life.  And here's the kicker:  Kasey Suffredini, the organization’s vice president of advocacy, emphasized that although these young people do not have a predisposition to suicide risk, the stigma and mistreatment they experience in society are what drive them to such despair.

That is what keeps me up at night a decade into our journey with our son.  He is great.  He is forward facing.  He has friends, family that loves him to the point of irritation (sorry, T), a job, talent, pets.  But society is fucked to the point that all of that could be wiped away.  And you do not have the right to endanger my child.

This Florida law extends to adults as well, inserting hurdles that make accessing care so much more difficult.  From Transvitae:

The restrictions extend beyond minors to affect transgender adults as well. Under the new law, only licensed physicians are permitted to prescribe, administer, or perform gender-affirming care, effectively banning telehealth services and reducing the availability of care providers. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and other healthcare providers are no longer allowed to offer these services, leading to increased barriers to access and higher potential costs for patients.

The penalties for healthcare providers who violate this law are severe. Providing gender-affirming care to minors is now classified as a third-degree felony, while non-compliance with the new regulations for adult care is considered a first-degree misdemeanor. Furthermore, the law allows anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to sue their healthcare provider for up to 20 years after the treatment, with no limitations on punitive damages.

I miss my kids everyday, but I am so glad our son does not live in a backass state like this.  As of July, half of the states in our country have enacted laws regarding care for trans youth and adults.  Based on what, I ask you?  Gender affirming care is backed by major organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization.  It is widely acknowledged that puberty blockers and hormone therapies are imperative treatments for easing the distress associated with gender dysphoria.

And again, IT DOES NOT AFFECT YOUR LIFE.  My son receiving testosterone injections does not make your cornflakes taste different.  Him having scars from top surgery does not impact your enjoyment of the big game.  A parent being able to access puberty blockers for the child they know inside and out does not imperil your child's gender.

I am always stymied at the mental gymnastics done to justify what is acceptable medical practice and what violates some personal or religious strictures.  I am long past pretending to tolerate the "God's will" bullshit so many hide behind.  Where is God's will when your dick stops working and you beg a doctor for a prescription for Cialis?  Where is God's will when you and your spouse cannot procreate yet run around God to beg a doctor to use IVF?  Where is God's will when you are found to have breast cancer and you beat a path to the surgeon's door?  Where is God's will when your child is diagnosed with a brain tumor yet you cannot get to specialist for removal fast enough?  Hell, where is God's will when your hair begins to thin and you reach for Rogaine?

You have no problem usurping God's will when it serves your selfish purposes, when it gets you what you want, when you know better than your "god".  

If there is a god - and let's be clear - there are currently over 6,000 of them out there floating around - if any of them have a problem with my parenting?  I will take the afterlife bullet.  Bring on the divine consequences.  My job here on Earth, in this life, is to love and protect and care for my people to the very best of my ability.  And that means knowing who they are, believing them when they talk to me, and helping them be the best, truest versions of themselves.

It also seems to be dealing with your bullshit all day, every day.  I get it.  Not every life will be touched by this particular place on the spectrum.  But that does not mean you can't educate yourself and get a bigger, better understanding - including grasping that you do not have any right to hurt other people who just don't happen to be exactly like you.

These laws are abhorrent.  And they are making their way up to the highest court - The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a similar ban in Tennessee, which could have far-reaching implications for the legal status of gender-affirming care nationwide. The outcome of that case, expected to be argued in the upcoming term, will likely influence the future of transgender healthcare laws across the country.

If you are an ally, I beg that you help and make your voices heard.  And if you are not?  I ask that if you won't help, then don't go out of your way to hurt.  From the deepest part of my heart, the heart that beats because my son's beats, I echo Tim Walz - Mind your own damn business.

Take It To The Grave

Arlington National Cemetery is a gathering place.  Foremost for those who have served and offered their country the highest of sacrifice.  It is a gathering place for their families and friends to mourn them, to remember them, to walk among the fallen as they find the strength to continue standing.  For most of us, we are lucky to only know of Arlington through the media, most notably each year on Memorial Day as there is an official ceremony, and a speech and laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, typically done by the current President.    

It is done with the utmost honor, seriousness, and thanks on behalf of a grateful nation.

What Arlington is not, is a photo op for desperate politicians.

Until yesterday.

Cue one D (for desperate) J (for massive jerk) Trump.  As his campaign continues to flail and fling all manner of political poo at their opponents, the brain trust that makes up his staff decided to use Arlington National Cemetery for a photo op.  I again highlight the word DESPERATE here as they are desperate to drown out the book tour interviews of Trump's former national security advisor, General H.R. McMaster, in which he offers blistering accounts of his time in the center of Trump's sycophancy.

McMaster's comments and book excerpts have also brought back into focus the myriad derisive comments draft dodger Trump has made about our military members.  "Losers" and "suckers"  - those slurs were uttered during a trip to France in which Cinderfella refused to go to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery to honor American dead for fear the rain would undo his 'do.  According to four people on that trip he said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”  And as reported in the Atlantic, In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

His comments deriding John McCain for having been a POW - "I like people who weren’t captured.”

And of course, showing up at Arlington will surely obscure the memory of his five draft deferments - once for imaginary bone spurs, four others because of college.  And while it was certainly not uncommon for the sons of wealthy families to find ways to avoid the draft back in the day, you would think someone like Trump would keep his trap shut and simply honor those who have served.

But hey, Trump is Trump.  A blowhard, self aggrandizing narcissist who cannot help himself.  That is how we have heard him spout gems like comparing his sexual escapades to Vietnam during an interview with Howard Stern.  And stating that attending a military school  afforded him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

Again, STFU.

Yesterday's stunt took his mocking of our troops to a new low.  While Memorial Day is obviously the one we are all familiar with in terms of laying the wreath, it can be done throughout the year, daily even.

A group may honor U.S. veterans and members of the armed forces by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Public wreath ceremonies are limited to one per group per day, with a maximum of four participants in the ceremony. The wreath for the ceremony is provided by the participants.  

What happened beyond the wreath - supposedly to honor the 13 soldiers whose lives were lost during the Afghanistan withdrawal (and politicize their deaths against the Biden/Harris administration) - is where things took a serious turn for the worst in Trump's behavior towards our fallen and the hallowed ground of Arlington.  (Not “hollowed” as Trump lackey and mouthpiece Chris LaCivita wrote. Idiot.)

In a news piece from NPR yesterday afternoon, it was revealed that campaign staffers had actually gotten physical with Arlington staff as they tried to make the Trump people adhere to the rules of the Cemetery regarding Area 60 - one of the most solemn of places, where the most recent of fallen soldiers are buried, and referred to as "the saddest acre in America."

“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” the statement said, adding that “a report was filed” over the incident.

“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants,” the statement said.

His staff were verbally abusive and shoved their way past the staffer who tried in vain to do their job.  But let's be honest.  What do you expect from the likes of Corey Lewandowski and the boys?  

Photos then poured forth from Trump's campaign of him standing AT graves with families, giving his ridiculous and offensive thumbs up.  A thumbs up, at a grave site.  I just can't...

What is the translation here?  "Hey, way to go to this sucker and loser we are standing over!"

By evening the photos and video had been made into a Tik Tok by his campaign staff.  I'm not kidding.

The degree to which this campaign is tone deaf and so not self aware is staggering.  And that their equally dim cult lap it up?  I'm sorry, but if you shit in a bowl and then cover it with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry, IT'S NOT A SUNDAE.  It's still a bowl of shit.

Speaking of which...

In addition to Trump's disrespect yesterday, his running mate with the Simple Jack haircut was heard on yet another tape speaking ill about those with no children.  This time teachers.

In it he states that teachers without biological children, "disorient and really disturb" him.

 

Unearthed audio: JD Vance says teachers who do not have biological children “disorient and really disturb” him: “She should have some of her own [children]” pic.twitter.com/Rqx2PLfjT5

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 27, 2024

I'm sorry, WHAT?  This fixation on anyone without children, especially biological, is just creepy.  He was, not surprisingly, speaking at a Christian conference.  “So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children. And that really disorients me, and it really disturbs me,” the then-Ohio Senate candidate lamented. “Randi Weingarten, who’s the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country, she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

For the record, Weingarten is a parent by marriage, as are many in this world.  But think about that.  Poor Simple Jack is disturbed and disoriented by those teaching who don't have progeny.  I thought back over all my years in school and honestly cannot remember any teacher who I knew had children, save one.  A high school sub, and even then I only knew because I briefly dated one of her sons.

Given how we pay and treat teachers in this country, we are lucky young people still come out of college ready to take on the job.  Should they not be allowed into the ranks until they have married (cis het, obviously) and brought forth life?  Just stop.  Having a child come out of your body is not some magical qualifier, although Vance seems to think it should be one to vote, to participate in democracy, and now to teach.

Adding to the shit parfait that is the Trump campaign is the newly acquired leech of Robert Kennedy, Jr.  Having been spurned by the Harris campaign, he turned his attention to the easier target of Trump, suspending his campaign, and throwing his endorsement behind the tangerine twatwaffle.  His aspirations?  To be Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Yes, this antivaxxing, whale head chopping, bear dumping, brain worm addled, saddlebag looking mfer wants to be in charge of our health.  (The worm could not be reached for comment.)

Simple Jack, Trump, and RFK - if ever a picture was more apt...

It's only Wednesday and the cherry is already on top of the mess that is the MAGAsphere.  Trump ended the day yesterday with Jack Smith's superceding indictment against him, obtained from yet another grand jury.  Which was perfect timing for Trump's latest grift:  new NFT trading cards.  I'm not kidding.  Watch and laugh.

The pretend "cards" are $99 a piece - images of an imaginary buff Trump dancing, holding Bitcoin, etc.  But wait!  If you order 15 or more ($1485+) you will receive a physical card with - are you ready? - a piece of the clownsuit he wore to his debate with President Biden.  NOT KIDDING.

“We’ll cut up the knock-out suit, and you’re going to get a piece of it and we’ll be randomly autographing five of them, a true collector’s item, this is something to give your family, your kids, your grandchildren.”

I can just imagine that thing being removed from a safe deposit box after the reading of a will.  The only thing I would want my granddaughter to use it for would be to wipe her ass.

BUT WAIT!

If you buy 75 digital cards, at a cost $7,425, you will get to attend a gala dinner with Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.

To use one of his favorite words:  SAD.  Sad that his grift of the rubes is so relentless, but then those legal bills won't pay themselves.  Sadder still that his cult will happily pony up that much cash - all the while complaining about the price of eggs - and think they have something special, something to leave the grandkids.

This campaign cannot be over soon enough.  69 days till we send a blue wave so thunderous and sweeping that it washes him and his batshit supporters back into their hidey holes.  69 days until this charlatan, who thought so little of flouting the rules and defiling Arlington while his staffers assaulted a worker, is shown to the dustbin of history.  69 days until JOY kills Trumpism, Project 2025, and the threat of fascism taking over this country.

Take it to the grave, Donold.  Just leave our soldiers out of it.

It's 70 Days, Do You Know Where Your Voter Registration Is?

It's 10pm.  Do you know where your children are?

That line, traced back to a news broadcast in the 60's and carried forward for decades, is familiar to those of us of a certain age.  As you can see in the video below, it was uttered by anchors, guests, celebrities like Carroll O'Connor - all in a PSA attempt to remind parents that not much good could come of their children wandering around after dark.

And that's true, although when you are a kid, having your fun after dark time squashed by your parents is not cool.  Again, those of us of a certain age well remember the universal "get your ass home now" signal of the porch light coming on and having to dip out of a heated cul-de-sac game of Kick The Can.

Then you become a parent and realize the truth.  Fun you may have had, be damned.  Not knowing where something as precious as your child is, for even a millisecond, is simply not tolerable.  It sends a short circuit through the emotional electric system of the body.  Even if you are not a parent, but a decent person, you also understand that the potential for trouble increases sharply after dark when young ones are left to their own devices.

So parents were encouraged each evening to check.  OK, sure, maybe it felt like admonishment if you, in fact, did not know.  But again, precious things need to be monitored for safe keeping.

Which brings this allegory to its point.  Right now, 70 days out from the most important election of our lives, the question must be asked, and asked again about your most precious November belonging and its status:  Do you know where your voter registration is?

It's not a question to be waved away.  It does not matter if you have voted in every election since you turned of age.  It does not matter where you live, the color of your skin, who your state is run by - the march is on throughout this nation to disenfranchise voters, wholesale wipe out millions from existing voter rolls, and do it all under cover of darkness so it is too late when you post up to vote and are found to be missing from the registered voter lists.

Just yesterday it was announced that Texas has purged ONE MILLION people from the rolls.  Now, purging is not unusual and does have its place.  My father, father-in-law, and mother-in-law?  Dead, and obviously should not be listed as eligible.  But purging also sweeps away actual voters who may not have participated in an election in a couple of cycles.  Very much alive, very much citizens, but suddenly wiped out.

And time is of the essence.  In Texas, you only have until October 7 to register to vote in this election.  

In March Indiana passed a law that targets naturalized citizens. The law requires election officials to use DMV records to identify non-citizens – and has no safeguards to protect against removal of people who have since become naturalized citizens.  Texas pulled this shit in 2019 and tens of thousands of naturalized citizens were thrown on the rolls.

In North Carolina, state legislators passed S.B. 747 in 2023, another bill targeting non-citizen voting. Using lists of people excused from jury service because of self-identification as a non-citizen, the new North Carolina law triggers a removal process that lacks adequate matching criteria to ensure the correct person is being removed.

Another important one from the Voting Rights Lab: A 2021 Georgia law opened the door to frivolous mass challenges to voter registrations. Unfounded challenges inundated understaffed election offices in 2022. Out of nearly 100,000 challenges, 89% were submitted by just six individuals. This November will be the first test of this new policy in a presidential election year, where the number of voters – and potential challenges – will be much greater. Given how close voting margins in Georgia tend to be, wrongful removals or inactivations of voter status could have outcome-altering effects. In the 2022 midterms, 1.4% of active voter registrations were challenged – and the last presidential election was determined by a margin of just 0.26%. As of publication, a bill clarifying the scope of this law, but doing nothing to mitigate its impact is currently sitting on the governor’s desk.

Republicans efforts to purge and disenfranchise voters is rampant across the country.  So what happens if you walk in to vote and suddenly you are persona non grata?  First, hope you live in one of the 28 states that allow for same day registration.  Does your state?  Check Here.

If you are registered, do you know for sure all is well?  Daily, people are sharing their stories of checking their registrations only to find out they are inactive or cannot be found.  I am new to Florida and registered when I got my driver license.  I am literally checking every. single. day.

Encouraging you to do the same is not being hyperbolic.  It's being smart.  In every election we hear about swing states over and over.  How Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina will decide it all.  And yes, from an electoral college standpoint they are the pivotal pieces of the puzzle.  But that does not mean your vote is not important.  We must turn out in such large numbers, in a wave of blue so irrefutable, that none of the certification subterfuge can get a foothold.  There are positive indicators out there...

The Harris Effect - in the 13 states that have updated voter files since July 21st, we are seeing incredible surges in voter registration relative to the same time period in 2024, driven by women, voters of color, and young voters. pic.twitter.com/x6AGViJdjm

— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) August 27, 2024

But that subterfuge is out there as well. 

I know all our lives are busy and it is easy to confine ourselves and our information gathering to places we consider safe.  I see it daily in the various Facebook groups that sprang up overnight when Kamala got the nod to lead the ticket.  And safe spaces are great for camaraderie, especially when you live somewhere deep red and isolating.  But I also see that not enough people are staying abreast of news outside their groups.  And that's where bad games of telephone spring up, and there's often as much misinformation and fear being fomented in those groups as in comment boards on Red State.

I would encourage people to add some sources to their daily walk through the internet.  A big one would be Democracy Docket.

Marc Elias, one of this country's top election lawyers, and his team are daily fighting back in court against right wing efforts to subvert this election through voter suppression tactics.  And they are winning.  In fact, it does a body good to keep abreast and see their results playing out each week.  Marc has also been brought on as legal counsel by the Harris-Walz team for the expected fight after the ballot boxes. 

Again, why your vote needs safeguarded and counted.  We simply cannot afford Trump any "Find me 11,780 votes" wiggle room.  

Getting out and learning more can happen even in what feels like a heinous space, namely Twitter (again, fuck Musk and calling it X).  Yes, I am one who set up a place on Threads when it came to be, but I also stayed on Twitter because so many important voices are still fighting the good fight there.  It is possible to curate your list of "following" there and keep up to date with everything from court cases to the latest bullshit conspiracy theories, misinformation and flat out lies you should know about so you can counter them when you encounter them, to independent sources providing facts (add Meidas Touch to your Youtube channels) as opposed to legacy media that has been largely bought out by GOP billionaires.

I think it is great seeing how many people are turning out to volunteer; how many are placing signs in their yards, painting flamingos and fingernails blue, etc; how many young people are burning up Tik Tok virtually stomping for Harris and Walz.  We need all of that.  And the polls coming out look better each day, hell, Florida is coming into the margin of error.  But it is worth remembering how confident we all were about Hillary and her numbers back in 2016.  

And how gutted we were that night when the votes started coming in.

That simply cannot be repeated.  Even if you sit in a demographic where Project 2025 won't rock your boat, you know someone who will be tossed overboard and drowned.  Everything from reproductive rights to bodily autonomy to my son's right to simply exist as a trans person; from gutting Medicare and Social Security and raising taxes; from tracking a miscarriage and denying parents the right to assist their children on their LGBTQIA journeys; from baby formula never being held to standards again and the Department of Education being eradicated; from books being banned and burned and ONE religion being shoved into every classroom. 

It's all there waiting on the other side of voter apathy.  On the other side of protest voting.  On the other side of not being registered to vote.  On the other side of thinking it won't be that bad.

It will.  The biggest mistake they made was showing their asses and Project 2025 coming to light in time for us to read it, vomit, and begin spreading the word.  Trumpism and the MAGA cult must be yanked out by the roots, and the ground salted so it may never take hold again.

So I will again harken back to the 60s when that question began being asked each night and paraphrase it for our times today and the darkness we must vanquish.  

It's 70 days.  Do you know where your voter registration is?

To Bey Or Not To Bey? In A Night of Roaring Exuberance, That Question Ultimately Did Not Matter

(Be gentle when you see MAGAts today.  That brown around their mouths indicates the sadness of eating shit all night.)

Last night's final DNC gathering was a tour de force, as opposed to the RNC's tour de farce.  Long before the balloons and confetti rained down, the night was filled with rousing speeches, heartbreaking stories from survivors of mass shootings and the parents who lost children to them, vocal performances by two of the biggest acts going - P!NK and The Chicks, a Republican speaking daggers directly into the hearts of Republican'ts, and confident deliveries from young candidates in important swing states.

Watching each evening this past week, it is mindboggling to think how everything about this convention was rejiggered, reformatted, and brought together in just about four weeks time.  The cohesiveness of message was there throughout.  The excitement and palpable joy was apparent.  And the rhythm of it all - not the music, although that has been a testament to which side the artistic community believes in - but the flow.

The flow has been steady, strong, and increasing with each passing night.  Last night saw the tsunami realized.  If emotions were water, Chicago would have been at the bottom of the Exuberance Sea.

Admittedly, some of the build-up yesterday and into the night had to do with what has proven to have been erroneous information.  It was early afternoon when typically reliable sources began sharing information that there was a block of time in the schedule that was for a mystery guest, then a mystery musical guest.  It was not helped that White House political director tweeted a single bee emoji - think Beyhive for Beyonce.  (She later updated that her child had taken her phone.)

The natural and excited assumption was Beyonce'.  After all, she has given the campaign permission to use her rousing anthem Freedom, and is a staunch supporter of Kamala.  Additional speculation this week has been Taylor Swift - who long ago went on the record about her feelings for the Orange Beast.  Lord knows that between those two iconic women, they could bring forth voting numbers as yet unseen, and deliver the final blow to what has been a laughable campaign on the right.

As the night wore on, the speculation grew into near certainty as those inside the arena began tweeting that "Beyonce was now in the United Center."  And let's be honest, we could all imagine how it would play out.  The opening strains of Freedom, Beyonce' hits the stage and performs as the perfect introduction for Kamala Harris to begin speaking.  That we still held out hope she would be accompanied by Taylor Swift?  Well, excitement does what it does - it allows our imaginations to carry us away.

And that's not a bad thing.  If anything it kept us riveted to our TVs throughout the night.

Through Elizabeth Warren receiving such a sustained welcome from the crowd that she visibly teared up.  It was beautiful.

Through Reverend Al Sharpton's direct words and his welcoming to the stage four of the members of the Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five.  It was a powerful rebuke of the racist demagogue on the right who took out a full page, $85,000 ad in the New York Times in 1989 calling for their deaths when they were just teens.  They served a combined total of 41 years in prison before DNA evidence in 2002 exonerated them all.

Through fellow prosecutors and attorneys who know Kamala, who know her strengths in and out of the courtroom.

Through the impressive speech by the youngest member of the House, Maxwell Frost of Florida.  He is going places.  As are Colin Allred of Texas and Ruben Gallego of Arizona.  I was so happy to see the DNC elevate them nationally as they take on Ted Cruz and Kari Lake respectively.

Through the beautiful acapella version of the National Anthem by the Chicks - the original victims of Republican cancel culture for having called out George W Bush's war.

Through the tear inducing words of Abbey Clements, a Sandy Hook teacher, Kim Rubio, a bereft mother of a slain Uvalde daughter, Melody McFadden, the daughter of a mother shot to death by a live in boyfriend when she was 17, and the aunt of another young woman shot to death on a beach vacation, and a young man - Edgar Vilchez - who witnessed the drive by shooting of a classmate.  I cannot imagine the memories they must contend with each day, each second of each day.  And their message was clear - we can stop it.  We must stop it.  There is simply no way to go about life thinking it could never happen to you or someone you love.

Through Gabby Giffords - my God, that woman - aphasia from her shooting may have hobbled her - but it has not stopped her.  She was firm, resolute, determined, and ALL IN.

Through P!NK touching our hearts with an acoustic version of What About Us.  Just her backup singers, her amazing daughter Willow, a single guitar, and her soaring vocals.  She may fly through the air in her concerts, but her voice needs no cables to soar and take us up with her.

Through Leon Panetta, former US Secretary of Defense, delivering body blow after body blow against a Trump administration wholly unqualified, uneducated, and unable to secure our safety through isolationism, let alone represent on the world stage.  He lauded Harris's record on foreign policy, security, her reputation around the world, and her steadfast alliance with our military.  It was one of the strongest speeches of the night.

Through Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer who could one day lead this party just as strongly as Kamala.  She is a powerhouse of a politician, speaker, human.  That emotion you men like to deride in females as a way of putting us down, negating our ability to lead?  Well, unlike you, we have had to fight for everything we have, every right, every advance, our own credit cards and bank accounts, names on leases.  We push human beings out of our bodies, lads.  And we put up with your patriarchal bullshit.  We are stronger than you, and the reality is you know it.  Which is why people like Whitmer scare the bejesus out of you.  Whitmer embodies all of it.

Through Adam Kinzinger, Republican and former Illinois rep in the House.  He spoke directly to Republicans about putting country first, and made it very clear that:  The Democrats are as patriotic as us. They love this country just as much as we do. And they are as eager to defend American values at home and abroad as we conservatives have ever been. 

He went after Trump, calling him "a weak man." (He is.)  And then delivered these very important words to the party he once called home.  As a conservative and a veteran, I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It’s in protecting your family. It’s in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That—that is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican. But Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party. His fundamental weakness has coursed through my party like an illness, sapping our strength, softening our spine, whipping us into a fever that has untethered us from our values.

Through it all, I kept reviewing the schedule of speakers and knew we were within two of Kamala taking the stage.  Which surely meant we were within two of being serenaded by one, if not two, of the biggest musical stars in the world.  Maya Harris, Kamala's sister, spoke eloquently of their mother, her strength, their upbringing.  And then Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina took the stage to speak in glowing terms of the woman he calls friend, colleague, champion for the people.  It was a rousing speech that led to the moving film about Kamala Harris.

And it was moving.  It introduced facets of her you may not have been aware of.  Spoke of her upbringing, her background, her tenacity, her resilience, her climb - and no, MAGAts, not on her knees as you like to crassly accuse, but on her merit.

As the film ended and she was welcomed to the stage, Freedom played.  Anyone else thinking that surely Beyonce was just offstage singing live and would be revealed?  Whatever, I got lost in the cheering, the swelling in my chest, the tears forming in my eyes at the sight of yet another woman at the top of our ticket.  It should have been Hillary in 2016 - seriously, think of how different our country, the world would be today.  How many of our fellow citizens would still be above ground, not dead at the hands of a completely inept, greedy, unprepared administration as COVID took hold.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

As the crowd finally quieted down, she began to speak.  And it was an uplifting, powerful, wide ranging, barnburner of a speech.

(At this point, we were thinking, hmmm, ok, it would make sense for Beyonce' to finish the evening AFTER this speech.)

Harris prosecuted Trump as the unserious man he is.  As the felon, the adjudicated rapist, the instigator of January 6th.  She spoke of his plans should he snake his way back in, especially in light of the Supreme Court ruling in his favor about immunity.  And she dropped this very chilling, but very true line:  Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.

As she spoke of Project 2025 and what would be eradicated by it, she banged this refrain, echoed back by the crowd:  We are not going back.  We are not going back. We are not going back.

She drove home the intrusive policies that have already taken hold in states eradicating bodily autonomy from so many women, Trump's pride in being the one to overturn Roe v Wade.  This is what's happening in our country because of Donald Trump. And understand he is not done. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. And get this. Get this. He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions.

That last part is accurate.  As if anyone has any right to intrude upon the excruciating emotional pain that is a miscarriage, or any business being anywhere near the decision making and reasons for someone else's abortion. 

And then, in a speech full of incredible lines, she delivered one of the most pointed.

Simply put, they are out of their minds.

She talked about border control and the need to overhaul our immigration programs;  of NATO, our alliances; of the dangers of people like Putin and Kim Jung Un and why they want a weak, easily manipulated man like Trump back in office.  And then she spoke very clearly, plainly, forcefully about Israel and Palestinians, Hamas and Gaza.

Let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on October 7th. 

Including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival. At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for
safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity. Security. Freedom. And self-determination.

And while I am well aware that protesters will poke holes all over it, and people who still do not have an interest in educating themselves about the hurdles our political system put in place decades ago in terms of Israel - choosing horror porn instead - this was a statement of determination and dedication to see a resolution to it all.

As she wound things up, she, as did her sister, spoke of her mother.  Of one of the most important lessons she taught her daughters:

Our opponents in this race are out there, every day, denigrating America. Talking about how terrible everything is. Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach. Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.

America, let us show each other—and the world—who we are. And what we stand for. Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Fairness. And endless possibilities.

We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and grandchildren, and all  those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what  generations before us have done. Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love.

To fight for the ideals we cherish. And to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth. The privilege and pride of being an American.

So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it.
Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it.
And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Thank you. God bless you. May God bless the United States of America.

The cheers rolled like happy thunder.  I cannot imagine what it must have sounded like, felt like, to be inside that arena.  Confetti began to swirl, friends and family rushed up on the stage, balloons cascaded down.  It was momentous.  It was balm on the aching heart of a nation so beleaguered from the years of Trump, of MAGA cultishness, of extremism, of white nationalism.  It was ROARING EXUBERANCE.

And through my tears, the smile that was so wide my face ached, I realized there was not going to be a Beyonce'.  And there did not need to bey.  There are still 74 days for the Swifties and the Beyhive to see their heroines step forward.  But last night?  Last night beylonged to all of us.  We are the ones we have been waiting for all along.

(Footnote for MAGAts:  Yes, we all saw you eating shit online during and after last night's DNC event.  We saw your naked emperor endlessly, mindlessly, ALL CAPS posting on Truth Social.  We heard him call into FOX and Newsmax where the talking heads cut him off as he was rambling, fumbling with the buttons on his phone, WAY out of it.  We see your postings this morning deriding the DNC, speakers, Kinzinger for daring to call you out.  You are spinning wildly because while you may not be the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree (and Kamala will still allow you to say Merry Christmas), even you are smart enough to know what you are seeing.  You are seeing your aging, meandering, mindless, mealy mouthed candidate and his incredibly inept VP candidate continually step in their own shit.  You can see the writing on the wall.  

I would encourage you to come on over.  Get right with your god, your conscious, your patriotism and vote for a future that is inclusive, not just of LGBTQIA people, people of all colors, religions, no religions, but of you.  Yes, you.  Despite your abhorrent behavior the past decade, this party will be working to protect your rights, your social security, your healthcare, your future.  

Come on over.  Not just because we have the most relevant, popular music acts, or the top people in TV, film and theater.  Although there is a reason they are part of our party - because our party looks like them - all colors, creeds, genders, orientations.  Come over because our ideas don't all orbit around hurting other people.  Including you.  Be part of something real, not part of something really heinous.

The door is open.  The right side of history is waiting for you to do the right thing.  Just wipe your mouths before you come in.) 

In MAGAland There Is No Bottom

There is nothing revelatory in that title.  Nothing earth shattering or history making.  We have seen over and over and over again that just when we think they can go no lower with their lies, their rhetoric, their actions, they find a bigger backhoe and keep digging.

If, in fact, they do have a bottom, it must be deeply hidden in the Mariana Trench.

What causes recoil in decent human beings, is embraced by them.  They worship a felon, an adjudicated rapist, an adulterer, a cheat, a bankrupt, a rapacious conman.  From the moment he slithered down his escalator, they have flocked to his increasingly vile, bigoted rhetoric. 

Referring to all Mexicans as rapists. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best ... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." 

Openly mocking a disabled reporter.

His deeply callow remarks about John McCain: "He's not a war hero, he's a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured, okay? I hate to tell you."

Any of those would have been immediately disqualifying for any politician prior to Trump.  We know that.  But in Trump they found themselves.  Not smart.  Afraid of everything.  Racist.  And simmering with a hatred that he brought to a full boil.

"Grab 'em by the pussy."

What we again thought was the bottom, a leaked recording of him, one that should have spelled the end?  It wasn't.  I am still stymied that his cult, especially the women, went all in, downplaying it as simply "locker room talk" and then creating t-shirts begging the candidate to do the same to them.

Watching as children were ripped from their parents at the border and instead of being repulsed; instead of being able to look at their own children and imagine the horror; instead of calling for it to end immediately - THEY.  CHEERED.  THEY. JEERED.  Making it so apparent that the bottom still had not been reached, and that they truly see brown people as not people.

Then COVID hit.  I still find myself thinking of what could have been, how it could have been handled, even in the hands of Trump.  Over a million people died because his entire approach was to first stick his fingers in his earwax holes and ignore the experts, thus allowing it to begin its sinister spread.  Then, instead of encouraging mask wearing - the absolute bare minimum of what we could do for one another - he openly mocked the practice, which in turn made his cultists mock the practice.

Small aside:  I think about that one piece a lot.  If he had made mask wearing "patriotic", hell, cool, I wouldn't have cared if he sold Trump logoed masks by the gross.  His mouth breathing horde would have embraced them, worn them, and attacked anyone not wearing them.  Instead, they threw public tantrums, they attacked, and continue to attack anyone who does wear one.  Are you aware that Nassau County in New York recently passed The Mask Transparency Act?  It makes it illegal to wear any face covering in public.  $1000 fine.  The allowances it does contain are thus: “shall not apply to facial coverings worn to protect the health or safety of the wearer, for religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which the wearing of masks or facial coverings are customarily worn”.  I put that one part in bold because if you choose to wear one to protect the public, such as when being around someone in public with compromised immunity or trying to prevent others catching a cold or flu from the mask-wearer, you are not allowed.  So my wearing one around my sister while she was going through chemo?  That would have been punishable by a fine.  My choice to wear one in airports and on planes because I care about the health of other people?  Nope, against their law.  A law that, not shockingly, was designed and implemented by Republicans.  This is the kind of fallout that continues because Trump is an uneducated blowhard.  And do not get me started on his impact on vaccines...

But I digress...

We have watched as fellow citizens have been killed because of his rhetoric.  As streets have filled with Nazis, Proudboys, white supremacists.  As Christianity has been hijacked by him - a walking morality famine.

January 6th was a new low.  The attacks on the Capitol, the police, the lawmakers; the destruction of property, the smearing of shit on the walls of Congress; the hordes brandishing Trump flags as they attacked the halls of democracy.  All the while he sat on his diapered ass watching it all in glee, unwilling to even release a tweet telling them to stop.

BOTTOM.

There are so many examples of his, and their, mendacity, but last night proved once again that they just cannot help themselves.  They must dig deeper.

Last night at the DNC, VP candidate Tim Walz took the stage to speak to the assembled crowd and viewers at home.  It was beautiful.  That man is real.  He is down to earth.  His enthusiasm radiates.  Calling him "America's Dad" is not hyperbole - it is his whole, genuine vibe.  As he touched the crowd, speaking from the heart about their struggles to have children, the cameras cut to his family - Gwen, son Gus, daughter Hope.  Gus was crying, smiling, and then moved by the sincerest and purest of emotions, he stood, and shouted through tears, "That's my Dad!"  (If you missed it, watch below.)

Tim Walz’s son just ripped my heart RIGHT OUT OF MY CHEST GEEZUS 😭 pic.twitter.com/dqP7I5MtN9

— Renee 🪷 (@PettyLupone) August 22, 2024

It was a singular moment.  And again I will stress the word pure.  Which is exactly what triggered the vile creatures of MAGAland to begin attacking a 17 year old, neurodivergent boy who has ADHD, anxiety, and a nonverbal learning disorder.

Gus is a remarkable young man.  And like many children - on the left and the right - he faces challenges.  Part of his particular set of circumstances come with difficulty regulating emotions in social settings.  Emotions that we all saw build up and overflow last night, expressed in the most touching, heartfelt way - "That's my Dad!"  We should all be so blessed.

The attacks on him by MAGAts - from mocking, to name calling, to venomous, venal descriptions - all speak to there again being no bottom.  Because even when called out and informed about Gus's challenges, they do not apologize, they double down and dig deeper.  I have lost count of the number of people on Twitter (fuck Elon, I will not call it X) who have thrown the word "retarded" at him, have called for him to be "put down", have called Gwen and Tim "failures".  (I feel it deeply because all of those things have been thrown at me about my son being transgender.  That his life is lesser than, that my parenting and supporting him is a failure on my part.)

Again, I will use the word stymied.  As with abortion, where they act as if no one in their ranks has had one, has paid for one, they act as if no one on their side has a child who is autistic, has a processing disorder, is neurodivergent in any way.  I feel so deeply sorry for any child caught in the web of parents like this.  I used to say I wished a gay child or trans child on these people so they would learn.  But the reality is twofold:  I don't wish parents like that on a gay or trans child, and those people won't ever learn.  They don't want to.  They think they can beat homosexuality out of a kid.  Beat excessive emotional outbursts out of them.

What was on display last night was love.  Pure, unconditional, accepting, transcendent love.  That family is an example of what parenting can be when done right, when done from the deepest part of the heart.  It is what I fervently hope our son feels from us.  That we are his forever.  That we are his safe space in this world that is often cruel and dangerous.  That he is not embarrassing to us; we are inordinately proud of him.  That nothing could bring me to my knees faster than him hollering through tears, "That's my Mom!"

Tim shared this photo last night with the words, "Hope, Gus, Gwen — You are my whole world. I love you all so much."

MAGAland simply has no grace.  They seek to find fault everywhere.  They experience joy by mocking others.  This sociopathic behavior is rampant in their ranks.  As the saying goes, it's a feature, not a bug.  One that they emulate from watching their terracotta twat in action.  Trump's every utterance is filled with name calling, mocking, belittling.  

But let me ask you this.  That genuine emotion for his father displayed by Gus, displayed by Hope - could you ever in a million years imagine one of Trump's progeny displaying anything remotely close?  Rhetorical question.  We all know the answer.  Of course not.  There is never any honest emotion on display.  Those adult children simply stay in his orbit because that is where they draw their livelihoods.  And for him, they are simply a means to an end, props to be used and eventually discarded.  Everything with Trump is transactional.

Everything with the Walz family is real.  Let the MAGA trolls keep digging their grave.  The Walz family is so very far above them, MAGAts cannot even see the soles of their shoes.

And as for Gus?  This saying came right to mind:

We see your rainbow, Gus.  And we thank you for sharing it and your Dad with us all.

The Obamas Bring The Pleasure & The Pain

The DNC has been electric and it's only been two nights.  Compared to the RNC (whose fundraising numbers just came out for July - - only $31 million, with $33.5 going back out)?  It's on life support and the DNC has put up a pinebox for it to crawl into and be done.  

Bringing the hammer and nails last night?  Well, it started with a raucous and jubilant roll call complete with a DJ.  DJ Cassidy (currently engaged in a Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood) rocked out a playlist that was curated for each state and territory as the delegates awarded their votes to Harris and Walz.  From obvious choices like Sweet Home Alabama for Alabama and Carry On My Wayward Son for Kansas by Kansas to a surprise reveal as Lil Jon hyped the crowd with Turn Down For What as Georgia cast their votes.  State by state by territory, song after song took what is usually a meh portion of the events and turned the DNC into a party.

Seriously, the powers-that-be running the Harris/Walz campaign are so on point and prepared, the playlist hit Spotify within 15 minutes of the roll call being completed.

In a night full of highlights, we got a surprise as Kamala and Tim, 90 miles away in a packed arena in Milwaukee, were livestreamed into the DNC just after the roll call.  Two arenas filled to capacity connected as much by joy as by technology.  The crowd response was thunderous.  And the smile that I had plastered on my face from the music, stayed there.  (I had just boarded a flight and my goofy ass grin was covered by my mask, but my crinkled up eyes surely gave away my happiness.)

We then got the beautiful oration of Doug Emhoff as he paid tribute to his talented, learned, experienced wife, Kamala.  It is always heartwarming when a significant other waxes rhapsodic, but this speech also served to highlight something that exists on this side of the aisle that is a famine on the other:  Secure male personalities.  

No bullshit machismo.  No pandering to the little ladies.  No talking down to or for them.  No puffed up chests hiding the diminished capacity below.  We have men at the top of this campaign who openly revere their wives with no hesitation or fear that their man card will be pulled.  They love them, hug them, kiss them, speak of them with highest regard.  They support them.  They are in awe of them.  And they know how damned lucky they are to simply exist in the orbits of these remarkable women.

Take note, MAGAts - those are the true measures of a man.  There is nothing manly about keeping a woman down, consigning her to the kitchen, making decisions for her.  Your bluster and bravado?  As fake and phony as the bull testicles you attach to your trucks to convey your ... manhood?  There's a reason you seek out timid women, trad wives; why you push to enact laws that demean us, control us, take our voices away.  You are scared little boys.  Here's the truth:  it takes confidence to stand next to your partner.  It takes being secure in yourself to stand behind them.  To cheerlead them.  To cede the spotlight, to be the support system.  To feel, in every fiber of your being, pure joy when they succeed, unsullied by jealousy or insecurity.

We see it in Doug.  We see it in Joe.  We see it in Barack.  Men comfortable in their own skin.  Men who lift up their wives.  Men who are not intimidated by the women they married.  Men who radiate pride in their partners.

More of you need to take note and do better.

Which brings me to the better part of the evening.  Actually, the best part.  I landed just in time to stream Michelle Obama's speech.

This woman is a force.  Composed, calm, educated, informed, and ready to do battle.  While her words from the past, "When they go low, we go high" still ring in our ears, last night saw her finally say "Hold my earrings" and bring the fire against the man and the cult that have for nearly two decades threatened her family.  Her words rang out, strong, true, pointed.  She spoke of her recently passed mother, her grief, and her determination to honor her and all our mothers and grandmothers and on and on who have fought, struggled, lived and died in the pursuit of making better lives for all of us.

She spoke of Kamala, and took Trump to the woodshed, without ever saying his name:

She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt the business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules, so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something. 

Skewered his tiny heart and roasted it whole.

When she did utter his name, it was utter perfection:

For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.

Wait, I want to know: Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those “Black jobs”?

Then she did something that needed to be done, she brought out a mirror for this party to look into.  Dems have a long history of flinching.  Of not fighting back.  Of getting scared off.  And this time we simply cannot afford to be cowed by anything the right throws.

So no matter how good we feel tonight or tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle. So folks, we cannot be our own worst enemies. No. See, because the minute something goes wrong, the minute a lie takes hold, folks, we cannot start wringing our hands. We cannot get a Goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right. And we cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected. 

Small aside:  I truly believe that part of why this movement has been embraced so strongly is that we are finally seeing a campaign stand up and strike back.  The sharp, immediate, snark laden press releases.  The calling out of the weird obsessions the right has with genitals and bodily autonomy.  The meandering, mindless, sundowning Trump's "speeches" display.  This campaign is cutting them down to size, calling bullshit as it leaves the orifice, and doing it all with a smile, with a laugh.  At their expense.

That last part is why the Trump campaign and the MAGA cult are unraveling.  Why they cannot fill a single arena, let alone two in one night.  Why their coffers are running dry.  Why they are throwing anything and everything at the wall, but cannot make anything stick.  They are constantly being pushed onto the ropes by a younger, smarter, agile, tech savvy opponent.  An opponent who knows the Achilles heel of that narcissist is his ego.  And laughing at him is death by a thousand guffaws.  He is a small man, he has always been a small man.  And now everyone is seeing it.

To borrow from When Harry Met Sally - I'll have what she's having.

Michelle's speech was pure fire.  That woman is a gifted orator, a brilliant mind, a brave warrior.  And she left the crowd and the tuned in nation/world uplifted, challenged, resolute about our assignment.

The night could have ended on the high she delivered.  But no, there was more to come.  Following her would have been impossible for anyone else, I mean who on this planet could even hope to step up to the mic after all that?

President Barack Obama, that's who.  Although even he acknowledged the difficulty in having to speak after her.  I am feeling ready to go even if I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama. 

Michelle had opened her speech by speaking about the heaviness we have all felt for far too many years.  A heaviness we all knew was there, but could not fully define.  A cloud constantly hovering over everything.  And that is why feeling joy, feeling hope is akin to finally breathing deeply again.  Hope is making a comeback.

Seeing Obama, listening to Obama, my God, how I have missed that man's ability to speak, to calm, to center a frightened nation.

To use the repetend of the moment, he understood the assignment.

He began by honoring the efforts and achievements of President Biden.  Bragging on himself only to say this: And looking back, I can say, without question, that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best. And that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as Vice President.

He spoke of Joe's empathy and decency and resilience.  His compassion, his steady hand, and most notabley, his selflessness.  That last one is how we got here.  Media onslaught be damned; party insider pressure that can piss right off; President Biden ultimately decided to step aside and pass the torch to his VP, who is now making an unprecedented, historic run to the Oval. By doing so he breathed new life into the party, the process.

Country over party.  Imagine Trump doing that.  You can't.  It's simply not in his DNA.  Self regard?  Absolutely.  Selflessness?  Not a chance.  

His words were strong and rang true.  And then he brought the pain.  I can only imagine the ketchup covering the walls of Mar-a-Lago.

He lambasted Trump for his incessant whining and endless grievance stream (think a one man Festivus), and then lampooned him.  He did not aim for the jugular.  Rather, his target was lower.  Yes, that's right, Barack Obama made a dick joke at Trump's expense.  It was glorious.  And it was everything that overbearing, self centered, hubris laden Hefty bag deserved.  The emperor has no clothes, and look!  He has a small penis!  (And to the media and mouthpieces on the right who are pearl clutching over this?  Pound sand.  You support a name calling, adjudicated rapist and felon.  Take all the seats.)

Referring to Trump as an incessant leafblower outside your window, he broke it down for America:

He doesn’t seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedom, since it won’t affect his life. And most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided: between us and them, between the real Americans who—of course—support him and the outsiders who don’t. And he wants you to think that you’ll be richer and safer if you will just give him the power to put those other people back in their place. It is one of the oldest tricks in politics, from a guy whose act has—let’s face it—gotten pretty stale.

We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. 

(Think Jaws 3-D or Sex & The City 2.  Especially the latter - oy.)

Then he did what he needed to do, and although I don't completely agree, I get it.  He reached across the aisle in an attempt to open the door to those in MAGAland who may be wavering.  He spoke of what unites us.  He spoke of understanding different points of view.  Again, I get the reasoning, but I personally cannot extend it to racists and Nazis and bigots.  I do not have any desire to understand a point of view that threatens my son's life.  That's not a difference in politics, that's a difference in humanity.  

By all means, if more of that sorry lot have their eyes opened by what they are seeing in their own party and now ours, GREAT.  At no point in time has the contrast been so obvious, the feelings so dark on one side, so hopeful on the other.  And make no mistake, joy is contagious.  It's the kind of infectious that's good to spread around.  But also, make no mistake - that party is roiling with hate and rage.  They see the happy faces at the DNC and it makes them angry.  They see the party atmosphere and openly mock what they simply don't understand.  And they hear the uplifting words and only ratchet up their own vile rhetoric.

That is why Trump's every rambling "speech" is based in one thing:  FEAR.  That's all he has left.  Lies and scary declarative statements about communism, Marxism, and the end of this country.  It's why JD Vance simply echos what Trump bleats.  He cannot go off message - and that message is keep them scared, keep them believing that the only answer to not being raped as they go to buy bread is TRUMP.

But back to Obama.

He continued to highlight the differences between the oppressiveness of the cult and the forward looking mindset of the the Dems.

Well, we have a broader idea of freedom. We believe in the freedom to provide for your family if you’re willing to work hard. The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and send your kids to school without worrying if they’ll come home. We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life, how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry. And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours. That’s okay. 

I completely agree.  I do not care where you go to church, how or what you believe.  Just leave me out of it.  I don't care if you love pickleball - I don't get it.  And I don't have to.  It is not up to me who you marry, if you marry, if you have kids, how you have kids.  Just as it's none of your business that I have sex for recreation not procreation, or that my son is transgender, or that my daughter is happily married and wants no kids, or that my other daughter is happily married and only wants one child.  As Tim Walz says, Mind your own damned business.

Obama extended some grace towards the backwards proclivities of the MAGAsphere when he said this:

We recognize that the world is moving fast, that they need time and maybe a little encouragement to catch up. 

Sure, to a point.  Racists have had forever to "catch  up" and they don't want to.  Bigots need more than encouragement to educate themselves.  There are rancid, dangerous, vile groups of people in our world and they do not deserve grace or time or patience.  They deserve to be firmly pushed back into their swamps, to have society cast them so far out that they are once again afraid to espouse their venom.

Do I believe there are people who simply need to see the proof in the pudding, as it were?  Of course.  Who need to finally grasp that my son is not a danger to their son or daughter?  That Pete's and Chasten's marriage does not take away from theirs?  That drag is an art form not a deviant pursuit?  That abortion is sometimes an absolutely necessary medical procedure, and even when it is simply a choice, it is not a choice that has any bearing on their life or is any of their fucking business?  Yes, yes, yes and yes.  But how much time, how much patience must we expend on them?  When does patience turn into placating the petulant and willfully belligerent?  Marginalized people do not have the luxury of endless time and patience.  There is truth to let go or be dragged.

And I believe Obama fully knows that.  He just also knows that when the spotlight is on him and the time calls for olive branching, that is what a statesman must do, what he must encourage.

He ended his speech by reminding everyone that the world is watching.  And it is.  The Trump years may have dulled the light, but we are still a beacon with the chance to once again shine brightly, lead the world out of the darkness.  His final words were concise and to the point.  We have roughly two months left until this thing is decided.  So let’s get to work.

Volunteer.  Register to vote.  And set it on your calendar to check and recheck your registration as we get closer to the date.  Encourage others to vote and be unabashed in telling them why they need to.  We must come out so strong, in such vast numbers that all the Republican subterfuge just won't matter.  Swing states must swing our way.  And we can do that.  

Spread the joy, the hope, the laughter and the light.  As MLK said, Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

We love this country.  We love one another.  We love the vision this party has for the future, a future that includes everyone.  Let's shine our light so brightly that it completely and forever fades that orange stain until it cannot be seen anymore.

Calling All Republicans

Last night in a suburb of Phoenix something pretty amazing took place.  Glendale, where my parents lived for decades, and where my mother still resides, was home to a campaign event for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the Desert Diamond Arena.  Capacity at that venue is 20,000.  The campaign received 25,000 requests for tickets.

As video and photos streamed forth online, hours before the event was to begin, it became readily apparent that another massive gathering was happening.  Lines of people waited patiently in the 105 degree desert heat, shielded from the sun by cover provided by the campaign.  Once inside, patient crowds enjoyed concessions and upbeat music and camaraderie.

Again, what was missing?  Ridiculously large flags with the candidate's face on them, Nazis, and Grab My Pussy t-shirts.  You have to wonder, can you even call it a rally without some GMP shirts?  Seriously.

As people posted from inside, they relayed the "vibes", the energy, the smiles.  Again, such a stark contrast to a Trump rally where everyone is scared, talking shit, and waving their stupid arsenal of Trump gladiator porn.  Before the first speaker even hit the stage, the hashtag #KamalaBringsUsJoy was trending.

I will state again that joy and hope - those two very elusive feelings for so long - have been unleashed by this campaign.  In a complete inverse to Trump releasing all manner of bigotry, racism, and hate, Harris and Walz have broke open the floodgates of happy and people are pouring through.  For far too many years we have watched as this virulent strain of MAGAtry has co-opted the Republican party, stripped bare the carefully concealed hatred and humanity famine of friends and family members, and watched as the American flag turned into a symbol of hatriotism, not patriotism.  

That last part is so sad.  But tell me you haven't seen trucks and cars and boats with flags attached and recoiled because you just knew where the driver's allegiance was to be found.  We all have.  As for the lost friends and family members?  I still say good riddance.  Once upon a time, politics were something we could disagree about based on policy, fiscal views, true issues.  That's simply not the case anymore.  What Trump exposed is not just a difference in politics, it's a difference in humanity. 

And humanity was out in full force last night.  It was beautiful to watch, and I can only imagine the feeling to be inside, to be a part of what certainly can be described by the Hamilton line, "it's not a moment, it's the movement."

I watched them all speak, enjoyed the crowd responding and cheering, even admired how VP Harris again spoke back to protesters who interrupted her stump speech.  The subject was the same - Gaza/Israel.  And the subject is valid. We woke again to news that Israel bombed a school that was serving as a refuge for the displaced.  While Israel defends its actions by saying they, "precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the Al-Taba'een school" it does not magically erase the fact that 90 innocent people were killed.  Add that number to the already dead 39,720 and 92,002 injured and you can see the validity of the outcry.  Whether you agree with the timing and placement of the protest, the protest is not going away.

She spoke forcefully, acknowledging them, and stating clearly that now is the time for a ceasefire, promising that she and President Joe Biden are working around the clock to make it happen.  That last part bears repeating because we get frustrated by what we don't see, believing it means nothing is taking place.  And then suddenly, all that silence and nothing is replaced by something like Americans jailed in Russia being released and arriving back on American soil.  Diplomacy and all the machinations it takes to achieve anything in this world go largely unseen.  Until the result.  

But there needs to be a result soon in Gaza.  And yes, I realize it is all compounded and twisted by long standing US-Israel relations and decades old agreements, and the fact that Hamas has spent years and years digging tunnels and literally embedding itself in the citizenry, making any strike against them rife with the deaths of innocent men, women, and children.  BUT, those deaths cannot simply continue to be considered collateral damage, an inconvenience.  Their lives matter just as much as anyone across the dividing line, as much as yours, as much as mine.

OK, back from my tangent...

Everyone, from Congressman Ruben Gallego to Senator Mark Kelly to Gabby Giffords (her constant woohooing caught by the mic was so endearing) to Walz and Harris fired up the crowd, energized the crowd, spoke truth to Trump's impotence, and drove home the theme of "We're not going back."  It was all wonderful.  However, for me, the most salient words of the night came not from a Harris stalwart or long standing Dem.  They came from a lifetime Republican.

That's right.  In the midst of that beautiful sea of blue, of harmony, of hope, stood an unlikely ally.

John Giles, current mayor of Mesa, Arizona, and again, a lifetime Republican, took to the podium and clearly stated this:

""I do not recognize my party.  I have something to say to those of us who are in the middle: You don’t owe a damn thing to that party. You don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and hell-bent on taking us backward. And by all means, you owe no loyalty to a candidate who is morally and ethically bankrupt ... in the spirit of the great Senator John McCain, please join me in putting country over party and stopping Donald Trump.”

His full remarks here:

“You don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and hell-bent on taking us backward…In the spirit of the great Senator John McCain, please join me in putting country over party and stopping Donald Trump.” We need more people like Mayor Giles.pic.twitter.com/B7UdzFU17i

— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) August 10, 2024

That is a stunning rebuke in a climate where even hinting you are no longer on the Trump train earns you immediate death threats from the MAGAtry.  (Looking at you Kyle Rittenhouse, Joe Rogan, Tim Poole - all three found out how quickly the rubes turn against you, resulting in an about face to save face and the dollars they, too, bilk from the base.)

Again powerful words.  And a clear, brave call to any Republican who has gritted their teeth, clung to their partisanship, and had trouble looking in the mirror for almost ten years now.  Because there is no Republican party anymore.  It was cannibalized by Donald Trump and an insatiable horde of power seekers, bloodlusters, and white nationalists.  Holding your nose to vote for the "stupidest person who has ever won a nomination for president" (thank you, Lawrence O'Donnell); a man who personifies greed and narcissism and avarice; the easily manipulated dullard who promises to bring Project 2025 to life - you don't have to do it.

You can finally accept the realities of who he is, what your party has become, what they promise to unfurl on the public.  AND YOU CAN REJECT IT ALL.  Listen to what this side wants.  It's not scary.  It's not Marxism.  It's not Communism.  It's not <insert every other scary word your party uses but cannot define>. 

We want protections for everyone.  We want personal liberty, bodily autonomy.  We actually advocate the "small government' you profess to believe in but do not practice.  We don't want to be in your medical decision making.  We don't want to intrude on your parental rights when faced with a child who does not fall neatly on your acceptable narrow spectrum.  We want solutions to the border, not some Crusades level bloodletting of human beings who happen to be a different color and desperate.  We want healthy people.  We want college students not burdened for life by predatory loans.  We want to feed students.  We want to keep religion where it belongs - in the churches, mosques, temples, in your homes - which in turn does protect your chosen beliefs by not setting up a system in which your child MUST be subjected to another religion.  Ten Commandments?  Great!  But not on a classroom wall unless you want the teachings of Allah, passages from the Torah, and enlightenment from Buddha taught alongside.

You can choose country over party.  And yes, that will involve accepting and taking the "L" this time, and probably for the foreseeable future.  But in return, you get a future.  We get a future.  A future that actually hews to the documents you claim to hold dear, but do not understand at all.  We the people...  all of us.  Not we the people in charge and those we find acceptable.

Mayor Giles put out the call last night.  He knows he is not alone.  And now you know you are not alone.  Voting for Harris and Walz does not mean you become a Democrat or agree with everything.  It just means you agree on the most important, again, most salient point:  You don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and hell-bent on taking us backward.

Calling all Republicans.  There is still time for you to do the right thing.  Even if it's the left thing.

 

Amazing What Joy and Hope Can Do

This is Arizona.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz do not arrive for another couple hours yet the place is already packed to the rafters.  People are tired of the doom and gloom and threats of Trump and his minions.  It's time to smile again. #WeAreNotGoingBack

Another view - have to remind myself isn’t a concert. It’s a political rally. So freaking amazing. pic.twitter.com/vETf0ozx0O

— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) August 9, 2024