Category Archives: Politics

7 Quick Takes: Politics, Millenials, and Olympics

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

All in favor of requiring those seeking election to federal or state government to pass a test on basic government concepts, say “aye”. AYE!!!! This image does a better job of explaining Trump’s latest idiocy than anything else I’ve seen. Honestly, I never cease to be amazed at some of the crap people believe because of what politicians promised to them!

Why Trump is a moron... at least this time.

— 2 —

*snort* The day that Trump’s 2nd Amendment comments hit the press, my friend Neil was making comments like, “Where are my 19th Amendment people? You know what to do!” “21st Amendment people, rock on!”

So… where my 19th Amendment and 26th Amendment people??? Do your thing!

— 3 —

Let’s clear this up. Do you think that voting Republican is going stop abortion? Think again. This is why.

— 4 —

Don’t criticize what you can’t understand. I thought this list of 11 brutal truths every baby boomer needs to hear was fabulous. I’m smack on the border between being a Gen X’er and a Millenial so I could pretty much side with everythng that was said.

— 5 —

Olympics Take #1. While I think it’s certainly questionable as to whether or not Yulia Efimova should be swimming in these Olympics with the doping issue she has, I think Lilly King was being a brat about it. Wagging her finger was one thing; but refusing to shake Efimova’s hand afterwards and making catty remarks is quite another. Her reaction is inviting some serious schadenfreude if she ever slips up in any way in her life.

— 6 —

Olympics Take #2. Was it not completely awesome to see Michael Phelps school Chad Le Clos in the 200m butterfly?!?!?!?!? Especially after Le Clos was trying to get a reaction out of him the night before!

You mad, bro?

Phelps was classy about it. He did make the #1 signal on both hands, but he had the grace to go over and give Le Clos a hug after the race.

— 7 —

Olympics Take #3. I’m watching the all-around finals right now and while the results were a foregone conclusion, it’s still cool that we went 1-2 like we did in 2008. I’m also excited to see what Laurie Hernandez will be like in 4 years with more experience.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: July 31, 2016

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For Today… July 31, 2016

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny. It was a blistering 74F today and I seem to be annoying various Californians by pointing this out. 🙂 (It was 109F in Sacramento on Friday.) I’m hoping for a pretty sunset tonight.

I am thinking… about my week and what is on my plate.

I am thankful… for the sweet woman from church who wrapped me in a prayer shawl today. It was a good surprise.

One of my favorite things… Coffee Almond Fudge ice cream from Tillamook.

I am wearing… jammies. Clothes from church were a blue-green shirt from Old Navy and stretchy black skirt that I got from Lands’ End 10+ years ago. When I got home, I exchanged the skirt for my black capris from Kohl’s.

Me with Daniel while wearing my prayer shawl.

I am creating… plans for new WIP’s on my hooks.

I am watching… “Lockup: Indiana – Extended Stay” on MSNBC. I’m kind of a forensic show junkie.

I am hoping… for good sleep tonight and that I can be competitive in the various Workweek Hustles I am part of on Fitbit.

In my kitchen… the normal Sunday fare.

In the school room… Daniel is done with ESY and school is starting on August 30th.

Post Script… I liked the list of signs that one is a counterfeit Christian. Let’s just say that I know a few people who fit the profile and the list is a warning to me to be authentic with my faith.

Shared Quote… “So, look, so don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again. Because this right now is the greatest country on earth!” — Michelle Obama

A moment from my day… One of the pictures I took at Deception Pass today.

Puget Sound @ Deception Pass

Closing Notes: Unless you’ve been intentionally avoiding all political news (which I think is a totally rational option for this election season), you’ve heard Trump’s criticisms of Khzir Khan and his wife Ghazala who spoke at the DNC. Their son, US Army Captain Humayun Khan, was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004 while serving as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. One of Trump’s criticisms was that Ghazala was not the one who spoke at the DNC. She didn’t speak because… SHE’S GRIEVING HER SON, EVEN 12 YEARS LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is her op-ed from the Washington Post, which I found to be very tender and very well-written.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Political Fun, History, and Grizzly Bears Scarfing Down Salmon

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

A little fun with all the political drama going on right now… Stephen Colbert goes to the two conventions as the character “Julius Flickerman” (brother of “Caesar Flickerman” from The Hunger Games with his pet weasel Caligula

— 2 —

History made this week. Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t win the election in November, she is still the first woman to secure the nomination of a major political party as a presidential candidate. (I emphasized that part because she is not actually the first woman to run for president, as various people have been pointing out all week.)

— 3 —

Yeah… no. In her beautiful speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama pointed out that she lives in a house that was built using slave labor. Fixed FOX News pundit Bill O’Reilly disputed this, mansplaining and whitesplaining to the First Lady that they were well-fed and were local moochers. Hate to break it to you, Bill, but the First Lady is correct. She is backed up by primary source material from Abigail Adams and by the Smithsonian.

If you want a good read on our tendency to whitewash some of the negative effects of slavery and our inability to deal with our society being complicit in it even if some of our ancestors weren’t in the country yet, I recommend this piece by a woman who used to lead tours at a southern plantation.

— 4 —

More fun related to the DNC. Quartz Magazine posted this piece talking about Bill Clinton and his speech on Tuesday night but did it in the style of a puff piece about a woman’s appearance giving the speech rather than the content of it.

— 5 —

Radio Free Babylon for the win! Sometimes Frequently, Coffee with Jesus manages to communicate the truth better than I can articulate it.

Closed to Dialog

— 6 —

Green smoothies. It’s hot here this week (translation: it’s in the 80’s) so I’ve been doing lots of green smoothies for meals because it helps to keep me cool. My recipe: a little bit of whole milk, some Greek yogurt, a handful of frozen fruit and a handful of spinach. Yum.

— 7 —

Something to watch when bored. Have you ever had the urge to watch grizzly bears in Alaska eat salmon and go fishing? Here you go!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favourites}: I’m With Her

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#5Faves

This might be a little politics-heavy so you might want to skip it if you aren’t a fan of Hillary Clinton. 🙂

One

This version of the song “Fight Song”. It was done by a bunch of musicians and actors and regular people who are Hillary supporters. I saw it when my dad was watching the news and liked it.

Two

Bernie Sanders. Unlike Ted Cruz’s speech at the RNC in which he did *NOT* endorse Trump (and proved how much of a sore loser he really is, which even my Texan Republican friends have commented upon), Bernie Sanders had the grace and class to endorse Hillary. His supporters are still fighting for him but he understands the need to have a united party right now.

Three

Cory Booker. He responded to Trump’s rude tweet with love and with class.

Four

Michelle Obama. Even if you don’t like her husband, you can’t deny that she is graceful, classy, wicked smart, and well-spoken.

Five

Jerry Emmett, the 102 year old woman from Arizona who got to cast 51 votes for Hillary during the Roll Call. It gave me chills to watch this. Women didn’t have the right to vote at the time of her birth and she lived long enough to see a woman be the presidential candidate for a major political party AND she had the honor of casting her state’s votes at the party’s convention!

Oh, and a message for Donald Trump: the family of late Ambassador Christopher Stevens wants you to stop the ‘opportunistic and cynical’ use of his name and death for political attacks. So please, out of respect for his family who has been asking this favor of you and your minions for four years now, SHUT UP!!!

Go love up Bonnie, babystylista, and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Lots of Politics and Some Other Randomness

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Butterflies in my stomach. I’m currently waiting for my cousin Sarah to come over with her fiancé Evan. I have serious butterflies in my stomach because I haven’t met him yet. I’m excited to get to see Sarah for the first time in almost 6 years — she’s one of my favorite cousins and I think Daniel will love her. (We all love her so that’s not surprising.)

**UPDATE** It was a fabulous visit.

— 2 —

Introverts for the win! I saw an article this week on why silence is much for important to our brains than previously thought. This totally explains how my mind works better than I could ever vocalize, especially why I could sit down at my computer and bang out a 10 page paper without writing a bunch of drafts first and have it receive the highest grade in my college classes.

— 3 —

Fascinating. Someone shared this piece which has a bunch of pictures from the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As know most of my readers are fans of her books, I thought I’d pass it on.

— 4 —

A chart of lying liars who lie. Someone shared this chart of the biggest liars in the 2016 election and not surprisingly, Donald Trump is at the top. Hillary is 2nd from the bottom and Obama is at the bottom. Why am I mentioning this? IT WAS MORMONPRESS.COM WHO COMPILED IT!!!! You would think that they would be anti-Hillary which makes me trust their chart a bit more because why would they publish something like this unless the numbers backed it up?

— 5 —

Because food is a uniting force. Instead of having a protest, the Wichita police department had a cook-out with the local Black Lives Matter group. Props to police chief Gordon Ramsey and activist A.J. Bohannon for putting this together and finding a way to get along and show that police and the BLM can get along!

— 6 —

This terrifies me. As the mom of a kiddo with autism, this terrifies me. And seriously, y’all? The autistic man had A FREAKING TOY FIRE TRUCK!!!! That officer should be facing some serious charges!!!

— 7 —

In all seriousness… I was going to share the picture of Donald Trump’s star in Hollywood surrounded by a miniature concrete wall. However, in light of him accepting the nomination from the GOP to be their candidate for the presidential election in November, I thought it better to share what it really does look like to “throw a little gas” as Trump joked about Saddam Hussein doing. Genocide isn’t a joke, y’all, and I really hope that any Trump supporters reading this take a long hard look at themselves because voting for someone who thinks this is funny is a foul move.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favourites}: Miscellanea (LXIX)

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#5Faves

One

Reading Twitter instead of watching #RNCinCLE. My deepest thanks to all of my friends who are watching the Convention and live-tweeting it so that I can get the salient points without having to watch any of the foolishness. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Two

Padilla Bay Walking Trail. It’s an easy mile each way along the slough and depending on when you hit the trail, you’ll either see water lapping at the rocks or bare sea floor for miles. It’s a good place to go and think.

Three

Quiet. I crave it and rarely get it unless the kid is asleep or nobody is home. I’ve had a couple nights of Daniel falling asleep in his own bed (!!!) so I’ve managed to get a little bit of it in the last few days.

Four

The church I am currently attending. I’m hanging out at my grandparents’ church and while I’m still figuring out if/when I’m going to swim the Tiber, they are feeding my soul richly. Rev. Helen is a masterful preacher and it’s pretty awesome to see people singing as they’re headed to the rail to receive the Eucharist.

Five

Praise FM 106.5 I can’t get KLOVE or Air1 clearly where I am so I was station-surfing and discovered them the first week I moved up here. They play a little more variety than the other two national stations and I also discover local events that I might want to attend.

Go love up Bonnie, babystylista, and the others.

Why I Generally Don’t Weigh In On Current Events As They Happen Anymore

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Back when I started blogging, I would weigh in on things going on in the world as they happened. It was 2000 and the big news was The Election That George Bush Stole. Sixteen years later, I’m pretty quiet on most things going on in the world. I didn’t weigh in on the Target transgendered bathroom debate, the shooting at the Pulse, the massacre in Nice on Bastille Day, or really anything that has happened in the last three months. Part of it has been that I’ve been swamped. (I haven’t read any blogs in my Bloglovin’ in probably two months because of the move.)

Part of it, however, is this:

There are times when I simply lack the words to say. Seriously, what can one say about the Bastille Day massacre other than “Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.” With regard to the transgendered bathroom issue, I have friends who are transgendered and while I am totally in favor of standing up for them, I didn’t have permission from all of them to write about them so any decent blog entry I could write would have unfairly outed them.

There are times to write and times to connect with people instead. When the Pulse shooting happened, I chose to reach out to my queer friends and let them vent about their anger and feelings of fear instead. It seemed more important at the time.

There are frequently people who can either put things more eloquently than I can or who can write more authoritatively on a subject than I can. This is why I chose to share the John Pavlovitz post on the bathroom issue and the explanation of why #AllLivesMatter is so offensive rather than weighing in on each of them. Let’s also add in the fact that I as a white chick am not qualified to write about the black experience.

Facebook is useful for sharing other things. Facebook is useful for sharing the random links of things that I find though I do save some of them to share as Quick Takes.

There you have it — the reasons I am not blogging on a lot of what happens in the news these days.