Let me get this off my chest right now. This week, there on national television live from Cleveland, Ohio, we are about to experience the rolling thunder review of human rights disasters played out with speeches and ending with balloons. In short, the Republican National Convention. There we will find it all: homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, bigotry, vagina-fearing and gun-lust.
You can stop reading right here, or we can go on. Honestly, given global and domestic events since this Mars station direct, I would prefer to not even write about this.
In fact, given what is going on around the planet and our country right now I would be much happier writing out the recipe for stewed shoes. But I know I cannot ignore it. I completely understand if you would prefer not to watch.
Me? I will check in five minutes per day wearing a gas mask with my finger on the remote’s “mute” button in case it gets really crazy.
Even while reluctant, I feel compelled to check in. It’s like placing a dipstick into a muck-infested pool to test whether the slime has begun to dissipate. I want to see what that ghostly moaning underneath the cellar stairs is. I want to see if there is any semblance of heart remaining in the zombie GOP.
I say zombie, because it seems as though whatever life-consciousness that was in the Republican Party has been slowly drained out by the GOP’s wan acceptance of the extremist Tea Publicans that are the party’s base, and their candidates: Mr. Donald “Deport-the-Mexicans-and-Torture-Terrorist’s-Families” Trump, and his running mate, Mike “Christ-is-Lord-and-Bring-Your-Rapist’s-Baby-to-Term” Pence. They are now the party of the dead.
Whatever remained of sane conservatives have flown the coop, refused to run, were voted out by the Tea Party faction in their state, or went on to work as lobbyists on K Street in Washington. We won’t even see former Republican presidential candidates Senator John McCain or Mitt Romney. That breed of GOP elephant is an extinct species. What remains is the obstructionist wing of the party willing to crater the world to get their way.
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Everything I’ve said so far is nothing I haven’t said before. Both Democratic and Republican conventions are week-long infomercials on steroids. What we’ll witness this week will be the presentation of policies by politicians based on the sullen ignorance we’ve witnessed with dismay over the last eight years. Starting today the themes covered will be under the banners of “Make America Safe Again”, “Make America First Again”, “Make America One Again”, and “Make America Work Again.”
I think a great many of us here are very over the message the Republican Party has to offer. So over it that I think even some Republicans are through with the party as it is. The one thing this week-long visit to the mind and heart of American darkness provides is that it is a way to wrap up any doubts we may have had about holding onto the past: the principles that the Republicans have been desperately trying to hold onto since Barack Obama took office.
But it’s 2016. Mars, Uranus and Eris are in motion and we need to get ready for the future. Changes are going to come. We need to be ready to meet them intelligently, compassionately. It’s time to glance back — albeit briefly — over our shoulders to the shit show on national TV this week and focus ourselves forward in response to it.
It’s as Eric always says: make art, music, sex and noise. Do it as much as you can now. Do it as a response to what you see and hear, and fight the lies that hold us down and back. We’ve got to keep scratching, pulling and pounding on the door this week that some so desperately want to keep closed. The future waits behind it. Let’s go there.
I want to see the You Tube of THIS:
Stephen Colbert Takes control of mic at the RNC.
Your wish is my command, Ms Bongolan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diaCHYO7haY
He is so my HERO!!
Well said, love. This may signify an all-time low in political television, so it’s worth tuning in from time to time to take the pulse and see if there’s any ‘there’ there! Be brave — we’ll depend on you.
Thanks, I think, Ms. Gayle!
As an added bonus, Roger Ailes has been fired by Murdoch’s family at Fox News.
The world turns as the wheels of the bus go round and round…
Women Stage Nude Protest outside the RNC:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/news-blog/video/2016/jul/18/women-nude-republican-national-convention-spencer-tunick-video
Wonderful stuff. It makes me realise what a dull, dull affair the Brexit referendum was.
Geoff:
It means Americans during this election year are near if not at certifiably nuts.
And so you should be. 🙂
The world’s depending on a sensible outcome.
I don’t receive any U.S. TV channels, so I’m counting on my online sources, including the Planet Waves crew & friends. Thank-you!
Geoff, I too wish for a sensible outcome, but it’s hard to imagine one, given the limitations & divisions. But I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised – or even just a bit relieved?
Just peeked in to see how it’s going. Joni Ernst (heartland heroine who campaigned for her senate seat with a gun in her hand, touting her pig-castration skills) is chewing over the ‘we need to be frightened, ISIS this and that, Hillary untrustworthy, failure, unfit, Benghazi, wah-wah-wah’ talking points. Lot’s of ‘drama queen’ stuff going on, which appeals to the lower senses. This fits with the info I read earlier that the Donald has selected the Nixon “law and order” message that capitalizes on the fears of the moment. The meme of the night is “make America safe again.” One of the pundits said — checking the tweets — that the amount of vitriol is, at this point, making people uneasy. I just find it exhausting. Day 1 — check.
Don’t blame you Fe, but I have no qualms missing any of the convention. In fact my nerves seem to have calmed a great deal since I copped some breathing space for myself from the political scene. Did watch Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart do a great skit on the Pub Convention tonight which I gather they will be doing all week. Now that’s entertainment. In fact all the late night-early morning comedians will be having a field day every day this week.
After all, transiting Neptune is in the 3rd house of TV and writers so we can expect the greatest Reality Show of all times. Given a lemon one makes lemonade and there’ll be lots of ’em from what I’ve gleaned from my brief exposure to the goings on in Cleveland. Lots of pratfalls too and pie-in-the-face moments to test the wits of our world-famous writers of comedy. We all know that the U.S. Neptune in the 9th house of the Sibly chart is the highest planet under the big top and we are famous for our entertainment; it’s expected of us.
So when you are able to stomach it and want to share with us what you have witnessed, I’m sure it will come with a few dozen laughs. Consider it a kind of offering up. You should be able to find the humor in this clown show, for that’s all it is – just a lot of make-believe.
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Day 1 off the books and the news cycle today is about how Melania Trump plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech from the 2008 DNC.
This video is Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, trying to stave off directly answering CNN’s morning anchor about Melania ripping off Michelle’s words:
http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2397686
Comedy gold.
I watched the pundits discuss this right at the end of the event (CNN) — they caught it immediately — and everyone was very sympathetic to Melania, targeting an anonymous speech writer, even though Melania had said she wrote the whole thing herself. Just another (fe)male duped by the Donald? Dunno what that was about, but Van Jones called them on it, said if it was a Dem she would be pilloried post haste! Aside from the obvious issue, I’m impressed that there is a good deal more truth-telling going on now than there was … say … a year ago. We seem to have gotten the message!
OK, so now there’s a norovirus outbreak at the RNC among staff. 11 members of the California delegation are showing symptoms.
https://www.statnews.com/2016/07/19/norovirus-republican-convention-cleveland/?s_campaign=tw&utm_content=buffer7c7b5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Amidst boos, Ted Cruz refuses to endorse Trump in his speech at the RNC:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/ted-cruz-republican-convention-moment/