Pass The Popcorn...

I am loving it! Morning Joe is beside himself because Kellyanne from the hood, you know the one who was beyond loyal to trump and whose undeniable skill set is responsible for getting him to his present state, apparently "went rogue" on the Sunday morning news circuit yesterday and went completely off script. She all but dared trump to betray his supporters by making Romney Secretary of State.


She and others are demanding that in exchange for any such appointment, one of the most important appointments to be made and one wherein she feels Romney can undermine trump, that Romney apologize for all the horrible (but undeniably true) things he said about trump during the campaign. LOL!!! Who didn't say horrible things about the orange one? Everyone was holding their breath hoping this walking nightmare would go away. While others folded and saw trump as their (the repugs) only path to the white house, Romney has no intention of apologizing. I think he only considers the position because it seems rather clear that no one expects the orange one to be around for long. He probably thinks if he can hold his nose long enough, the stench of trump will go away and he will report to pence, as though he is any better...


Meanwhile, Kellyanne from the hood, who apparently has been cut off since she is no longer of value to trump (surprise! surprise!), made her point clear. According to joe, she is not included in any decision making meetings nor has she been given whatever is her coveted position. Seems the little misses has been reduced to the p**sy trump thinks she and all other women are... LOL!!! Love it! Serves her right! she could not have possibly believed this guy was anything more than the scum she defended him to be. She knew what was his regard for women. He showed her. He showed the world. Now he is proving himself to be who he showed us he was... No surprise here...


Kellyanne however is a Jersey Girl. Good for her for standing in her truth and being brave enough to speak her mind. She undoubtedly was sending a message of her own on yesterday. Certainly she holds lots of secrets that are potentially damaging to the orange one who has NOT been confirmed as anything yet. Kellyanne may go down but not without a fight! Meanwhile, the Dems are finally waking up and joining in the Green Party fight for a recount, Hillary STILL holds a commanding lead in the popular vote and the electoral college is watching... Keep talkin' Kellyanne!!! This is getting good! 

Pass the popcorn...

Who Knew?

Who knew that when Harriet Tubman said she would have freed 1000 more Slaves if they knew they were Slaves that one day she would be talking about poor and working class white folks? Who knew?

Waking Up After the Nightmare...

Still I have not totally checked back in. My house has been pure silence Tuesday. No boob tube unless mindless. No loud mouth pundits spewing their opinions as fact or expertise, no election results. No "breaking" news... Can't bring myself to hear that ignoramus' voice nor subject myself to seeing his disgusting orange face. Not yet... Gonna' be a long and painful four years in more ways than one...

What keeps resonating for me however, is what are White women saying when more than 50% of them vote for trump? How do they explain away even minuscule support for such a vile, racist and sexist person? 

For those who have questioned over the years why I have always so firmly declared that I am NOT a feminist, now you know why. Can someone get me the damn t-shirt please? LOL!!! I have always been clear where Black women stood in the White feminist woman's struggle for respect and equality; firmly behind her. The vitriolic anti-Black man, therefore anti-Black woman, rhetoric and rants of susan b. anthony and other founders of the women's movement, made that sentiment perfectly clear when they raised their voices to object to even the possibility that their White brethren would dare give Black men the opportunity to vote before them. That is the premise upon which lies the very foundation of the women's/feminist movement. Black women, who are feminists by force of life, have always carried the banner of womanhood, even when we did not want to, have been mere pawns in and distracted by another struggle while we ignored, diluted, denied, failed to see and/or tend to our very own, very real and very persistent struggles...

I have always been clear that at the end of the day White women, who would have us believe that they too are "minorities" who share our struggles (they are minorities of and when it is convenient), who would have us believe that they too are oppressed by White men as are Black and other folks and therefore rightful beneficiaries to the rewards and gains achieved through the struggles for Black freedom and civil rights, ultimately these women are the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the very white males whose behaviors dominate and control them and whose behaviors they condemn. Ultimately, they do not share our struggle... They are NOT minorities, numerically or otherwise. I am NOT a feminist.

Reason, anger, hurt, being disrespect or disappointed gives way to race for many of these women when such relationships give them access to and power, protection and privilege, access to all that being White entails; to not only include power, protection, privilege but unlimited opportunity and a solid footing and a firm standing. 

I will spare you the acknowledgment that I enjoy very real and very healthy friendships with many White women and that my criticisms and judgment herein in no way extends to ALL White women, but to not question when more than 50% of them, some of whom I am sure I call "friend", vote for the offensive and deeply disturbing racist, xenophobic, sexist and vile message of trump, would be inexcusable...

While astounded by the numbers, never have I believed that most White women's civic alignment with Black or other women of color trumped any of the benefits of whiteness. Any doubt that being white trumps all, literally trumps all, for most white people, whether women or poor, should have been forever removed on Tuesday when white women joined voice with white men, poor, ignorant or otherwise and voted for the worst kind of white man who does not respect, care about or value white women nor anyone else. 

I was fooled however by the obviously feigned outrage and level of offense taken when their candidate, their White brother, who is accused of raping even a 13 year old, was exposed for making such lewd remarks which pretty much reduced them and all other women to nothing more than a pu**y. I thought for sure that insulting women, white women, was the final nail in the orange one's coffin. Finally we had gotten a resounding answer to whose life mattered; White women of course! He had insulted every other possible group yet kept climbing or maintaining his standing in the polls. I foolishly thought that insulting White women was the kryptonite that would destroy him. Not withstanding the comey effect which was his last life line, not even degrading White women would be his destruction...  

No one will ever convince me that we have not been jacked and that the election was handed to one rich white guy by the maneuverings, back room dealings and manipulations of other rich white guys. Even me however, a non-feminist, is disturbed by the level of complicity of white women. This vote suggests to me that White women do not respect or value themselves. No one of sane mind and self value plays Russian roulette (literally) with the safety and sanctity of not only their own existence and pleasures of thought and freedoms but that of the rest of the world as we know it. No one of sane and sound mind, dignity and self respect gives power to a racist, sexist and vile bully who has shown us his true colors, his true intent, his lack of respect and ill intentions affecting women and every one else imaginable. Self respecting people just don't do that...

So who are we, us Americans? What kind of America do we really live in? Who can we trust? What must/will Black folks and other people of minority persuasions do to protect ourselves, for ourselves, by ourselves? These are the post election questions I ponder... What is our response and how do we challenge those persons of financial, monetary and legal means (the Bloombergs, the Cubans, the Oprahs, the disgusted republicans) who so vociferously and publicly spoke out against this moron to now join forces, voices and resources to diffuse the orange one's power and long range, long term and irreversible detrimental effects? These people too can wheel and deal and engage in back room manipulations. I'm Just Sayin... Make it happen!

Young people, who I certainly hope voted, I am told are protesting in the thousands across the nation, continue to think outside the box and keep pushing the envelope. One thing that is for sure is that Tuesday proved to us in so many ways, that conventional practices are no longer the sole response... We are essentially working from a cleared slate. Time to draw a new design. Yes this is going to be a long four years but it does not mean that we must or should resolve ourselves to being victims. Nope, not going to down like that. Of that I am sure!!!

Black folks should now have the awakening that all who deny us jobs, deny us housing, refuse us promotions, entrance to college, reject our requests for bank loans and more, do not all wear red. Some of them, far more than we are willing to accept, wear Blue and are our neighbors, our "friends" and our teachers, our co-workers and so on. Wake up Black People!!! We are in this on our own, Always have been, Always will be. Time to spit out the Kool Aid and start taking care of, supporting and saving our own...

I am interested however in hearing from both my Black Sistah Girl Feminist friends and my "I am woman, hear me roar" White feminist woman friends as well. Do Black feminists feel betrayed? Are White feminists re-evaluating and re-assessing who they are, who is their audience, what is their stated purpose? Are you all talking? How many of you who marched to the polls together smiling, bra less, feeling proud displaying raised fists and unified voices parted in more ways than one once you entered that poll booth? Silly me, but I am just wonderin'...

I have had the pleasure of meeting Dorothy Pitman-Hughes, the Black woman featured in the infamous photo used by the feminist movement. I would like to speak with her. Perhaps I will...

This nightmarish election is the awakening we ALL so desperately needed. Are you awake yet? Just Askin'...

So The REAL Nightmare Has Only Just Begun...

Ok so somewhere around 8 or 9pm on election night I left my Friend's house and didn't turn on the boob tube when I got home... An hour or so later I turned off the ringer on my cell phone. Although I was trying to push even the possibility out of my mind, it was lurking. It was making me sick...


I checked in and out of Facebook every now and then or read the occasional text message. At some point I checked completely out and did not read any messages and certainly did not watch any of the pundits who were in heaven playing folly with our nation's future. Ratings for them. That is all they truly care about... Our media and their reckless and relentless greed for sensationalism and ratings is responsible for the creation of trump...


At 4:15 am I walk into the kitchen and see the message light flashing on my phone. Of course I want it to be flashing to tell me good news. I build up my strength and begin to read the messages. I can see before I even begin to read that it AIN'T good news...


The writing seemed on the wall early in the evening but in my heart I just c/would not accept just how deep not only racism but stupidity and hatred runs in America... I checked out early last night wanting to believe that sanity would prevail and that I would wake up and find that Hillary eeked out a victory not only for herself but for God's sake for the sake of the rest of us, our sovereignty. I felt it inevitable that as a nation, we would look in our rear view mirror at our near missed and potentially deadly collision and truly reassess what just almost happened in our country because the story and angst behind the scenes was/is bigger than trump...


Thank you hoover, I mean comey. You are spineless and for whatever reason you handed this election and the country over to the devil himself...


While I would love to just check out and do nothing for the next few days, my standing in life does not afford me that luxury. I have to deal whether I like it or not. My first Facebook response was to a redneck classmate that I have not seen or heard from in more than 30 years. He was gloating. I told him given all I have heard about him since we graduated high school in 1978, I was not surprised by his elation for the rebirth of the klan. I dismissed him by telling him that as we have not seen one another or spoken in more than 30 years, that we should keep it like that...


I feel that way right now about a lot of people. Don't kid yourself folks. It was not just Mountain Dew drinking, trailer park living, uneducated, yahoos wearing plaid shirts and bib overalls and singing dixie and who have not read a book in decades (like trump himself) who handed our country this devastating blow. They have LOTS of cuzzins' and they live all around us and believe it or not, SOME of them even wear blue...


This nightmare takes me back to two elections beyond the obvious devastation of Gore/Bush 2000. First I am reminded of Bush/Kerry 2004. I was still in law school. I had worked the polls all day before a 6pm Constitution law class. I went into class hearing the exit poll results that pretty much gave the election to Kerry. I was elated! The Bush nightmare would be over SOON!!! To my horror somewhere around 9pm word started spreading through class that Bush had won (notice that I have capped his name. Pre trump, I thought he was the worst. Post trump, he was a damn blessing). I was devastated. I coasted home via auto pilot after class and did not eat, come out of the house, turn on the boob tube and likely spoke to very few people for at least the next 24 hours...


Election two that this debacle brings back to mind is Doug Wilder for VA Governor 1989. I campaigned hard for him, for history, and worked for his election right up to the end... I remember that we knew early in the evening on election night who had won on the ticket from Lt. Governor down. We did not know until the next morning that Mr. Wilder, a Black man running for Governor in a VERY RED state, had won the seat. What that said to me then and what it says to me now, is that folks will tell you whatever they want outside the polls but once they get in that booth it is between them and a stroke of a pen... Those good Blue hearted Democrats with whom Black voters so closely and blindly align ourselves, went into the voting booth and while they did not cross party lines, as has obviously happened here again, and vote for the republican candidate, they did not vote for that Black guy either!!! So just like last night, MANY said one thing and did quite another, to include White women and dare I say even some Black, Brown and immigrant folks I am sure the results will bear this out...


And while my apartment is still quiet, no noise from the TV and I have not ventured past my phone text, email and Facebook messages, I imagine a lot of yahoos are dancing all over the streets in trailer parks and such around the nation. I imagine they are the same people who threw shit at their TV and cursed the day President Obama, and all who shed tears of elation in celebration of his victory on this very day 8 years ago, was born. As many thought him our savior, these folks feel like they have hit the lottery, look forward to having their slaves back and will kiss the feet of the orange lunatic as he turns from orange to their great white hope who has risen to save them and give them their nation back...


Silver lining? There will be no chaos, cross or church burnings, suspicious lynchings and/or other random acts of hate crimes committed against innocent and random people. Proudly, Democrats are not wired that way... We take the high road even when sometimes we should opt for that low road. The republicans count on it... That is just who we are and in this instance, it is my preference...


Silver lining two? I am proud to say that I live in a Blue state and all that it implies; thinking, learned, educated, less racist (because racism has always been nigh), etc., etc people... While there are definitely trumpettes amongst us here on the Blue Coast, they are squarely in the minority. While I will be looking at mostly everyone side eyed, it gives me some comfort to know that at least for now, they will keep their sheets on...


So I have had this news for just over one hour now. I am still processing. Unfortunately, as with Kerry/Bush, I cannot check out. Life mandates that I engage in just a few hours, so I will...


These are my initial thoughts. I will keep writing as the REAL nightmare has only just begun...

Election Day 2016; The Nightmare Ends...

Well it's here. Election Day 2016. Seems an eternity since the nightmare of trump began. As much as

I do not respect most republicans and their ideology in general and Lord knows the thought of a ted cruz candidacy scared the absolute hell out of me, trump trumped it all in his over the top display of just how disgusting, frightful, distasteful, hateful and indifferent republicans can really be... 

trump took their level of hate, racism, machismo, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, etc. to a whole new low. The sight of his face on TV, even with the volume down, nauseates me... The thought of him as POTUS scares me shitless!


I look forward to tomorrow and hope he will keep his promise to just go away and disappear forever in the face of defeat... Of course I don't suspect that will happen. Nor do I foresee that he will ever concede, not ever... He will instead incite even more anger in his deplorable and uncontrollable followers by convincing them that Hillary Clinton and those dirty Democrats stole or rigged the election. He will give them an excuse not to face that their time has passed. That they are no longer relevant... trump likes being in the forefront, sucking up all the attention the media has indiscriminately given him for damn near two years now. So sadly, the orange loud mouth wind blown bully ain't going no where... We are stuck with him...


What we can do however, is lower the decibel, the perception of might behind his rhetoric. We can hand him not just a defeat but a HUGE defeat!!!! As we say in the Black community, mop the floor with him! Leave no room for doubt that his ass has been thoroughly kicked and that the rebirth of the nation he seeks, ain't gonna' happen. Not here. Not in USA 2016!


I shared with a Friend just yesterday that I don't ever understand why in sports competitions the winner can't just be satisfied with beating the other team. Why do they have to crush and humiliate their opponent? I now understand. I want us to crush trump at the polls. Shut him, and as many republicans as is possible, down!


Election Day 2016 is upon us but the hard work is before us. We must now stop, breathe and assess what just happened in America and why it happened... The elephant in the room is now standing on the coffee table, trumpeting as loud as he can, demanding to be heard. We cannot continue to ignore him.


There is no denying that America is broken. Our work, WE THE PEOPLE, has now begun. We must challenge not only Hillary but more importantly our local legislators, to hear our trumpet and to do something about our overall displeasure with the state of our government. We must remind them with the power of our voice, through organization, through assembly, through our vote, that they work for us!!! Failure to do so, renders us vulnerable and ensures the inevitability for a national crisis like we have not seen before...


First however, GOOD MORNING & go vote!!!! Make Hillary our President! Vote like your life, your freedom, your dignity, your integrity, in support of your intelligence, vote as though our national persona and reputation depends on it. ALL of that and more, because it is so!


Happy Election Day! The nightmare of trump is almost over. Thank You God!!!


WE GOT THIS! GET TO THE POLLS TO ENSURE WE GOT THIS!!! 

VOTE PEOPLE VOTE!!!

Sugar Comes to Harlem!!!

Good News QUEEN SUGAR Fans in the NYC area.

On Wednesday night, November 9, 2016 Aunt Vi will be in Harlem!

Come to The Cove Lounge for a Queen Sugar Watch Party 

WITH AUNT VI!

Yes that's right! Aunt Vi in the flesh!!! My Friend Tina Lifford will join us to watch this week's episode! How Cool Is That? NO! She won't be revealing any secrets for all of you speculators and co-writers! LOL!!!!

When Black Women Gather and Cove Lounge Welcome you!!!! 

Discount Drinks!!! 

Support a Black owned business and also Enjoy Dinner and/or Appetizers while you are there.

Not in the area? Pass it on to your NY peeps!!!

The Cove
325 Lenox Ave
Harlem, NYC
November 9, 2016
9:00 - 11:30pm
MTA 2 or 3 Train, 125th Street Stop

SIX Days Until Election. Get Out The Vote!!!!

SIX Days Until the Election!


Understandably some folks are a little nervous. ALL of us want this never ending horror story to end. ALL of us need to do whatever we can to do our part to ensure the victory we want. If you are reading my posts, I am assuming that you are sane, literate, intelligent, self respecting and that Hillary is your candidate. IJS...


A Friend inboxed her concerns to me. My response to her was to keep the faith, roll up her sleeves and spend these last few days pushing to get the vote out. We got this! But we have to get out the vote. The repugs know this. Where they cannot depend on us staying home, they are doing their part to disenfranchise the voter, to kill our spirit, to impede our vote. This should piss you off! It should piss you off so much that you are running to the polls!!!!


Get involved folks! Reach out to your fraternal, civic or other social organizations, churches, local NAACP, local Democratic headquarters, Color of Change PAC, etc. Ask what you can do to support their efforts during these last few days. Knock on doors, make calls, send text messages, drive folks to the polls, call your elders and make sure they have a ride, start a family/friend network calling on those in your circle encouraging/reminding them to vote, where IDs are necessary to vote, educate yourself to make sure your friends, family, neighbors, church members, etc have the proper ID now BEFORE showing up at the polls... And of course your local voter registration office can likely use poll workers on election day.


ATTORNEYS: I heard yesterday on Roland Martin's show that the NBA (National Bar Assn) and the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights is needing attorneys to do voter protection work between now and election day. I am sure they are not alone. Contact your local bar associations and campaign headquarters to see how else you might support such efforts.


Trust me folks, there is still work to be done and you WILL feel good knowing that you did your part! It is never too late. Get Involved.


Try this link to help Color of Change PAC get out the Black vote for Hillary! Lift your voices! We did it before. We CAN do it AGAIN! OH YES WE CAN!!!


See ya' at the polls. Vote early where you can and do volunteer work on election day!!!


Onward to Victory!!!


http://act.colorofchange.org/survey/Textathon_Virtual/