She did it again… and again

If we lose in November, we have people like Digby to thank.

Two times today, she posted about what she imagines to be the typical Trump voter. Naturally, racism played heavily into this image. I’m not linking to them. To be fair, she’s not the only one who does this. Paul Krugman and many, many others do it too.

I’m not going to deny that there are certain Trump supporters who are definitely racists. But she is completely missing the point. Or is she reinforcing it?

Whatever it is she and other lefties think they’re doing, I would advise them to STOP. DOING. IT.

I will spell it out: There are many people on the left and right who are very unhappy with the way government has been run since the financial crisis hit in 2008. But as soon as they open their mouths to lodge a protest or complaint, the left rolls out this meme that they MUST be racists.

That makes people who are already angry even angrier. Because what if their complaints are legitimate? You are giving them no where to complain and making them feel like they can’t get their point across.

That’s why they are turning to people like Trump. He’s promising to not shush them up. He’s going to give them a voice. And the thing that Fox News has been pounding into its viewers’ heads is that political correctness is wrong. That doesn’t mean racism isn’t wrong. What is wrong is for one group of people to use race as a tool to stifle dissenting voices.

I don’t happen to agree with Fox News that it’s Ok to be a racist ignoramus but it is certainly more than ok to make your grievances known without having to feel like you’ve become an instant bigot overnight when you celebrated the Civil Rights movement in your youth.

This is what the talking points arm of the Democratic party has been doing. They are turning a lot of people into instant bigots. It’s guilt by association. It’s not going to work. In fact, it is going to make the typical Trump supporter even more determined to shove it up your ass. Not all of Trump’s supporters are going to the rallies for the policies. They’re going for the empowerment. They’re going because it confounds and pisses off liberals. The more you lose your shit over them going and pointing out the racism, the more pumped they get about their candidate because the goal is to make you angry and it is working.

No, it is not rational, but it is very human.

Now, there are a lot more women in this country than there are african americans or hispanic people or any other group you can name. Women are NOT a minority and they shouldn’t be a “special interest” group. They are the majority of citizens in this country and the fact that so many of us are underpaid compared to men and that our issues and concerns are so downplayed on Op/Ed pages and in Congress should be a cause for general alarm. Because when the majority of people in our country are treated like second class citizens, that means it holds down all of the people who are dependent on them. Sexism is definitely a huge problem. But if the left keeps accusing everyone on the other side of the aisle as racists, then that means that they in turn will accuse everyone on our side of using a <fill in the blank> card whenever we want to shut down debate.

It will backfire on Hillary Clinton.

The typical Trump supporter is not as insecure as the typical lefty about being called names. We’ve been calling them stupid, uneducated, low-information, hicks and bigots for a long time. And some of that is definitely true. But they have Fox in their corner where typical Clintonistas have, well, absolutely nobody in the media. It’s a very lopsided situation. If you go after the typical Trump guy, he won’t give a shit. His cheering section will just keep going.

On the other hand, if even one little thing Trump says has even a tenth of a nanoparticle of credibility with respect to Hillary and her supporters, the New York Times is going to be all over it. She has no cheering section. That is no exaggeration. We’re it. Well, us, a few other blogs and some very determined people on Twitter.

Ok, nevermind. Just do it your way. The jini’s already out of the bottle. Keep it up. Force them to turn the card business around on us.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

 

Beltane

Today is the first day of summer according to the Celtic calendar. I’m not sure you could call this a religious holiday in the Christian sense of the word. It’s more like reconnecting our modern life with the natural order of the world, acknowledging the change in the seasons and the life of the earth to ourselves.

The Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland attempts to recreate the celebrations of fertility and nature that out ancestors participated in for millennia, even after the introduction of Christianity. It’s bright and colorful yet slightly dark and mysterious. Such is nature in all its forms.

This video is from a previous fire festival and follows the procession of the May Queen to meet her consort, the Green Man. Together, they light the purifying bonfire and revel in the wonders and delights of the season.

 

Be back later, talk amongst yourselves.

Yes, Digby, he does know something

Digby asks why The Donald seems to be doubling down on the Woman Card with respect to Hillary Clinton.

Here’s my theory: Digby and her buddies have been playing up racism, ie the Race Card, for 8 long years now. If anyone wasn’t enchanted with Obama because they preferred the more experienced candidate, they were called racists.

Same with everything else.

Didn’t like the way the bankers got off? You’re a racist

Think the administration’s response to long term unemployment was inadequate? You’re a racist.

Think Obamacare is too expensive and the deductibles require too much skin in the game while the control on costs was laughably absent? You’re a racist.

Oooo, here’s a good one:

If you are a conservative who approves of the Republicans blocking Merrick Garland’s appointment to the Supreme Court, you’re a racist who doesn’t like Obama as president. This last one went too far. The Republicans can legitmately deny that accusation because they approved Kagan and Sotomayor. The problem isn’t racism or Obama. The problem is Republicans want to retain their one seat advantage. They’d block any candidate who isn’t a strict, federalist conservative. It has nothing to do with Obama’s race. He could be red with yellow polka dots. The fact that he’s really a moderate conservative at heart is not good enough for McConnell et al. They can come up with dozens of silly and unconstitutional excuses to not approve Garland. They don’t need to be racists.

Frankly, Digby, the race card has been played wickedly well by Democrats and the media and voters are fed up with it. It has been used as a bludgeon to silence anyone who dares to criticize Obama and his policies.  I’m a liberal and I just voted for John Fetterman for Senate in PA. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not conservative or racist. But I have had to put up with 8 long years of this racism accusation shit and I’m tired of it. Obama has done a lot of things that aren’t even close to being liberal enough for me. If my head hadn’t dictated my choices, I could very easily see myself voting for Bernie. His supporters seem to be the only ones who are legitimately able to criticize Obama without being called racists.

Everyone knows he is not Jesus but we didn’t allow ourselves to apply any corrective action for eight long years.

Yeah, there are racists out there. But mostly, people are just pissed off that they can’t get heard and when they object to anything, they’re the equivalent of the KKK according to Digby and all the pro-Obama journalists (David Plotz admits they were totally in the tank for Obama).

So, here comes a legitimate, honest to god, hard working, well respected, smart, life-long public servant, who will be our nominee who is also a woman.  WE all know she’s good but she is also not Jesus.

This is Trump’s way of nipping it in the bud.

He is defanging us.

She may be historic but if you think his voters are going to let themselves get rolled again, you’re crazy.

Please, Digby, stop helping.

But Wait! There’s more!

Trump must have noticed how disgracefully Hillary was treated by her own party. Do I have to play the Bitch video again? In fact, it was Trump who said that Hillary had gotten “Schlonged”. Yeah, nice guy is our Donald.

I remember the Obots calling it very rough political hardball, as if that was supposed to make it better that women in general were treated to the dark archetypes of the male Democrats’ psyches. I can’t be the only one to notice that women in general lost some authority and respect after that primary. It was brutal.

In order to defend against Trump, Democrats and journalists are going to have to rally around Hillary. That means the Democrats who were the most vociferous assholes in 2008 are going to have to start walking it back. Not only walking it back but vigorously defending her. I won’t hold my breath.

As for journalists, they are magpies. They’re fascinated by Trump and his pink marble grotesques. And they hate Hillary. No, it’s not rational. For all we know, the feeling is mutual. They should never have gone rifling through her real estate deals, law firm billing records or cookie recipes. There’s a great deal of mutual animosity. Don’t expect them to come to her rescue. Expect them to watch this all play out like they would watch an approaching asteroid. It’s great for ratings, people will be thrilled to the very last minute, and there will be plenty to report when the Second Great Extinction happens.

Donald isn’t presidential. Not in the least. But he knows how to fight dirty and he will drag us all down into the gutter with him.

 

Colbert’s Comedy Gold on Super Tuesday 4

Stephen Colbert recaps the Acela primaries and whispers a prayer to God to keep Trump off of small planes until November.

 

I can’t wait to see how he covers the Cruz-Fiorina disaster.

The only think that is crazier than the great unravelling of the right is that people are actually planning to vote for Trump this fall and may completely miss just how good Hillary is compared to everyone else this year. That’s truly insane. It’s insane that after all her experience, preparation, knowledge, commitment, leadership ability and energy, she has to face this guy who can’t adjust his self-tanner who thinks he can sail into the White House by putting down everyone’s mothers, sisters and daughters.

Stranger things have happened, I guess. Susan Sarandon is probably secretly a Republican. But sometimes I wonder if Donald Trump is secretly a Clintonista.

What *is* the color of the sky in a Trump voter’s world?

The Acela Primary: Morning After

Short takes from the morning after:

1.) We won 4/5 primaries last night. I’m really excited now. Wait, I’m a Hillary supporter. Am I even *allowed* to be excited?? How can it be that a non-young, uncool, “uneducated” person can be enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton? Doesn’t that violate the laws of nature or something? The “journalists” will get all confused. They’ll have to start complaining and write grudging news stories about something else they don’t like about her.

Anyway, I have 6 months to train and do the stair climber for canvassing in October and November in Pittsburgh. She wore me out this past weekend.

2.) People I don’t want to see on the TV anymore: David Axelrod. I really loathe this guy. I hate the way he mansplains to Hillary, as if she needs any advice from him, and he looks like a rat.

S. E. Cupp. Enough said.

3.) Just a plea to everyone here to let the Bernie supporters alone. Srsly. We know that some have been assholes but no one I met canvassing was anything less than nice and earnest. There are still primaries to go. Everyone should vote for who they want. I think Hillary understands what her own supporters went through in 2008 and doesn’t want Bernie’s people to be treated like that. So, let’s exercise some self-discipline and not pile on. There’s nothing weird about the primaries this year, the votes are not being manipulated, no one is cheating. It’s a clean primary.

4.) Some Bernie bloggers should knock it off with the “olds” vs “youngs” narrative. No one I met this week who supported Bernie was younger than 30. Also, the middles, such as myself, got royally screwed by this recession, and lack of vigorous response, too. Our needs are no less critical. What’s really insane is that even the activist left is forcing different factions to fight against each other for the shrinking piece of pie that the hoarders of great wealth have left us. This is stupid. We should be working with each other, not figuring out which one of us has to be tossed from the lifeboat.

Just stop.

5.) Hillary the Hawk is another stupid mantra. That would imply that you are either a Hawk or a Dove. If you are a dove, you are goodness and light and peace personified. If you are a hawk, you are a warmongering, torturing tool of the military industrial complex. No, no, don’t deny what it is you are really saying.

Here’s a fact that you can’t deny: The continents are not moving any time soon. Humans have been fighting over the same places on earth since we took to the sea in ships. Look at all of the potential flash points on the map. They’re the same ones we fought over in World War II. That’s why China is building up islands in the South China Sea. It’s why the middle east is such a sensitive area around the Suez canal and Libya. It’s why we have NATO, fergawdssakes. Hitler realized that if he controlled the North Atlantic, he could bring Europe to its knees. And he almost succeeded.

Hillary didn’t single handedly start the war in Iraq. She didn’t precipitously pull troops out, destabilizing Iraq to give ISIS a fighting chance. But she’s not the kind of person who’s going to sit back and do nothing either. She’s no Dick Cheney and she’s not the Dalai Lama.

The left used to be better at shades of gray. Now, it’s just looking like it has its own Walking Dead faction.

Running out of time. Gotta jump in the shower. Well, not literally jump…

I voted!

i got to my polling place at about 4:45pm, before the after work crowds. So, no line.

I think the neighborhood doesn’t have many Republicans because when the poll worker, who looked like a bouncer, asked me “you are a Democrat?”, I wasn’t sure it was actually a question.

(Would my machine have worked less well if I’d answered no?)

Anyway, I did the thing for Hillary. And all nine (!) of her delegates. Then I did a little victory jump and shouted, “It’s going to be soooo GOOD!!”

This year, my vote will count. Tom Wolf is not a former Goldman-Sachs guy who’s going to give it away before the end of a legitimate first ballot floor vote.

I will count for voting for the first woman nominee for president of the United States of America.

Its going to be soooo GOOD!

Update: Woot! We won Pennsylvania!

Guess all that hill and stair climbing paid off.

Pennsylvania Primary

Today’s the day in PA, CT, DE, MD and RI! I hope all that hard work paid off.

My vote for the Democratic candidate for President is Hillary Clinton.

This is an easy case to make. She is far and away the most qualified and prepared candidate on either side of the aisle to become president. And although my heart was with Sanders, my head tells me that Hillary knows who to call to get things done. These are the reasons I voted for her in the NJ primary eight years ago and they haven’t changed.

The fact that she is a woman is secondary to me but it is the icing on the cake. It’s more historic than Obama and probably has greater implications down the road. There have been studies that show that the more women you have in government, the better off everyone is. Will one more woman be enough? I don’t know. But she may be able to bring more downticket women with her.That’s my hope.

So, good luck to all of us but may luck favor the prepared mind- Hillary Clinton.

For Senate, to replace Toomey, I’ve been supporting John Fetterman. He’s the mayor of Braddock, just down the road a piece from me. He’s definitely an iconoclast, and who says we couldn’t use more of them in the Senate? He has a passion for urban renewal. So, good luck, John!

And here’s a little shout out to Love and Kindness from Pittsburgh, the TV hometown of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. He was actually from Latrobe but the first public broadcasting station in the country, WQED, is in Pittsburgh:

Northeast Corridor

It’s primary week in PA, CT, MD and RI. Holy Hemiola! It’s starting to get exciting now. Some short takes coming up:

1.) I’m starting to notice some gloating amongst the Clintonistas on Twitter towards the Bernie people. Just wanted to say that I’ve run into some really nice Bernie supporters in the past couple of days while I’ve been canvassing. They want to be heard and they need space to decide how best to make this election season count. I’d hate to see us driving them away by telling them they have nowhere else to go because that’s not true. They can always stay home in November. I doubt that Hillary will take any vote for granted because you never know what could happen in the days ahead. It’s dangerous to look too far into the future. So, if you feel like taunting a Bernie person, show some discipline and don’t.

2.) Did you see Hillary’s quick and deadly strike against Charles Koch yesterday when he said it almost might be better to vote for Hillary than whoever the Republican nominee is? Here it is:

Follow

Hillary ClintonVerified account‏@HillaryClinton

Hillary Clinton Retweeted This Week

Not interested in endorsements from people who deny climate science and try to make it harder for people to vote.

All righty then. Things don’t necessarily go better with Koch.

I’d say that was pretty unambiguous, in case there was anyone out there stupid enough to believe she’d sell us out for Koch money.

3.) Nick Kristof wrote a tepid column yesterday about how Hillary was not dishonest… probably. (Note to self: never ask Nick Kristof for a recommendation) He also admits that the media gloms onto narratives and it can’t seem to let go of them. This has been unfair to Clinton. Then he immediately pivots into the newest narrative- she’s infuriating:

It’s true, of course, that Clinton is calculating — all politicians are, but she more than some. She has adjusted her positions on trade and the minimum wage to scrounge for votes, just as Sanders adjusted his position on guns.

Sanders’s positions seem less focus-group tested than Clinton’s, and she can be infuriatingly evasive. Partly that’s because she’s more hawkish than some Democrats, and partly that’s because she realizes she’s likely to face general election voters in November and is preserving wiggle room so she can veer back to the center then.

Does that make her scheming and unprincipled? Perhaps, but synonyms might be “pragmatic” and “electable.” That’s what presidential candidates do.

Then there’s the question of Clinton raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from speeches to Goldman Sachs and other companies. For a person planning to run for president, this was nuts. It also created potential conflicts of interest, but there’s no sign of any quid pro quo (in a broader sense, companies write checks to buy access and influence, but if that’s corrupt then so is our entire campaign finance system). Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and other prominent figures were speaking for high fees, so she probably thought she could get away with it as well.

It goes on from there.

Nevermind that Obama took oodles of money from Wall Street in 2007-2008 and had some very cosy meetings with the bankers who proceeded to flood his campaign coffers in February 2008 right after Super Tuesday, which he did not win, by the way. But why take my word for some of this? Check out this page on Frontline about Obama’s friendship with Wall Street and how he appeared to protect them from punishment.

Can we see his transcripts??

By the way, remember the telecom immunity bill that Clinton voted against in 2008? Of course we don’t. The Big Orange Satan told us that she voted against that in order to make Obama look bad for voting for it. {{rolling eyes}} And she also snuck some Banker squirming amendments into the bailout bill.

But I digress.

What I found really amusing about Nick Kristof’s column was that John Dickerson and Emily Bazelon used almost the exact same words to describe Hillary in the latest edition of Political Gabfest. Yeah, go listen. I was stunned when I was reading Kristof’s piece because it was like I had already heard it. So, this is the new narrative. Hillary is infuriating. Oooo, let’s let her get under our skin for being a human being who does and says things that are less than perfect and for not catering specifically to us.

My question is, where were they all together when they heard these words, absorbed them, and decided to disseminate them as if on cue?

Plus, listen to Emily, John and David go on and on about how the regular Northeast Corridor Amtrak train doesn’t have the same smell as the Acela. The regular train smells like students and academics and regular people. No special reason for bringing it up, they just noticed it. I’ve taken both trains but perhaps my sense of smell is not so refined. I never noticed a difference in cleaning products aromas.

Do they have any idea how they sound??

‘gits.

4.) Finally, the sixth season of Game of Thrones began last night and it looks like the women have had enough and aren’t going to take it anymore. Don’t get on the wrong side of a Sand Snake. In one of the best scenes from last night, Brienne of Tarth rides to the rescue of Sansa Stark, who is probably starting to realize she needs to learn how to use a sword like her sister Arya. Looks like the women of Westeros are deciding they have to look after themselves. Will Sansa start acting like a Lord of the North? Time will tell. Nine more episodes to go.

 

Valar Dohaeris

Hi all, I’m canvassing again today. This time I got the Squirrel Hill territory. This is one of the loveliest parts of Pittsburgh. It doesn’t have the spectacular views of the Troy Hill/Spring Gardens area I was canvassing yesterday. But the streets are wide and relatively flat and for that I am grateful after yesterday’s ups and downs.

It’s another perfect day weather wise.  I’m wearing my Wendy Davis filibuster sneakers.

The title of this post refers to the beginning of Game of Thrones, season 6 tonight. Valar Dohaeris means “all men must serve”.  This is also my way of encouraging anyone in the Northeast corridor states with a primary on Tuesday to volunteer for your preferred national, state and local candidates.

A few hours of phone banking or walking door-to-door can make all the difference. And if you really believe in your candidate, it’s a good way to serve.

So that they can eventually serve you .

😎

 

 

Canvassing today

North side of Pittsburgh. Honk if you see me. Forgot my water bottle. Dying of thirst.

I have a widely spread out canvass area. It has seen better days. But this neighborhood is in a great location. So it’s only a matter of time before the hipsters move in.

The wilderness seems to be reclaiming its own like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. No Trump signs here so  guessing the zombies have moved on. 😉

Hold the fort and don’t have any wild parties without me.