Back on the Road to Philly

The day before the plane leaves, I run around looking for essentials, like contact lens solution in small bottle. None exists. I set my answering machine. I make lists.

Then I watch the Rules Committee meeting now happening. As you may guess, Bernie people are not happy with Tim Kaine. Chris Matthews (I think it was Chris) said, "the best thing you can say about him is he's the most liberal governor Virginia ever had." Faint praise?

There are not enough chairs in the Rules Committee meeting room. Will they get more? Bigger room. Barney Frank, no fan of Bernie, is convening it, I believe. All this I know from Facebook. Maybe I'll just stay here and watch it all unfold on my computer.

Bernie may let us all go tomorrow. He may call on us to join Party unity.  While fighting for issues, no fracking, no TPP at least not fast track. And as he has said, campaign finance reform

For the first time I think I should have taken the red eye, just like when I was in my twenties and we all went standby, lots comraderie in lines at midnight.

We must stop Trump. He is Hitler reincarnated, I believe that. That is job one.

It is the only way to save Mother Earth,and her children. Onward to Philly..

First day of Convention.  Last night we all heard and saw on CNN, that Wasserman-Schultz was out, but still convening the Convention.  At breakfast, chants of "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!" filled the room, and when Secretary of. state Alex Padilla spoke, chants of "Count our votes!"  A bunch of not happy people saying we told you so, in the aftermath of the Wikileaks. Revelation of DNC emails showing disparagement of Bernie and what many seas the foreordained coronation of Hillary.

One Bernie delegate from our District says, "tell people not boo, because that's all the press will pick up on." Probably true.

Unfortunately cat is out of the bag, horse is out of the barn. More Wikileaks say big donors promised to appointments.  DWS To be top Clinton advisor.  No matter people are pissed. Here we are eating our own again. Or being eaten.  No one wants to be on the dinner plate.  Stay tuned.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3706004/Democratic-party-chairwoman-Debbie-Wasserman-Schultz-steps-down.html

Off to Medicare for all rally, Bernie delegate meeting.

Back on the Road to Philly

The day before the plane leaves, I run around looking for essentials, like contact lens solution in small bottle. None exists. I set my answering machine. I make lists.

Then I watch the Rules Committee meeting now happening. As you may guess, Bernie people are not happy with Tim Kaine. Chris Matthews (I think it was Chris) said, "the best thing you can say about him is he's the most liberal governor Virginia ever had." Faint praise?

There are not enough chairs in the Rules Committee meeting room. Will they get more? Bigger room. Barney Frank, no fan of Bernie, is convening it, I believe. All this I know from Facebook. Maybe I'll just stay here and watch it all unfold on my computer.

Bernie may let us all go tomorrow. He may call on us to join Party unity.  While fighting for issues, no fracking, no TPP at least not fast track. And as he has said, campaign finance reform

For the first time I think I should have taken the red eye, just like when I was in my twenties and we all went standby, lots comraderie in lines at midnight.

We must stop Trump. He is Hitler reincarnated, I believe that. That is job one.

It is the only way to save Mother Earth,and her children. Onward to Philly..

First day of Convention.  Last night we all heard and saw on CNN, that Wasserman-Schultz was out, but still convening the Convention.  At breakfast, chants of "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!" filled the room, and when Secretary of. state Alex Padilla spoke, chants of "Count our votes!"  A bunch of not happy people saying we told you so, in the aftermath of the Wikileaks. Revelation of DNC emails showing disparagement of Bernie and what many seas the foreordained coronation of Hillary.

One Bernie delegate from our District says, tell people not boo, because that's all the press will pick up on.  Probably true.

Unfortunately cat is out of the bag,horse is out of the barn. More Wikileaks say big donors promised to appointments.  DWS To be top Clinton advisor.  No matter people are pissed. Here we are eating our own again. Or being eaten.  No one wants to be on the dinner plate.  Stay tuned.

This device will not let me access pics off its own camera, so will be working on that. Off to Medicare for all rally, Bernie delegate meeting.

Make America One Again

Day 4. Make America One again   

One what? Number one

Instead of a real blog post, here are some of my ongoing Facebook posts and comments received. Feel free to add your own.

4 hrs ·

Trump is channeling Hitler, Mussolini, and Atilla The Hun. With a little Nixon thrown in. I like the way he blames Lyndon Johnson now. Remember The Great Society? I don't think Johnson meant the same thing as Trump's Make America great again. Bring back the robber barons, that's what he might as well be saying. It was great for them.

Bernie Sanders rips Trump’s speech from home: ‘Is this guy running for president or dictator?’

While GOP nominee Donald Trump took to the podium at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, former Democratic candidate for president Sen. Bernie…

rawstory.com

Judy Jessica-Sass 😂😂😂The pot calling the kettle black😂😂😂

Like · Reply · 3 hrs

Kay Karpus Walker I'm glad you mentioned channeling but I got a different leader coming through for one crazy moment and that was Julius Caesar - definitely Roman and definitely an Emperor. This is the type of leader who appealed to the masses way before Hitler. That wa...See More

Like · Reply · 2 hrs

 

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Dotty LeMieux

16 hrs ·

Yes, blame Bush. Blame Cheney. Now blame Trump.

Bernie Sanders on Twitter

“Trump is wrong. The real cause of instability in the Middle East was the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq. By the way, where is President Bush?”

twitter.com

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7Deb Heaphy, Gina Fromer and 5 others

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Dotty LeMieux

16 hrs ·

Now he claiming Sanders supporters will join him because of TPP. Do not fall for it! These people ARE the establishment. They ARE big business. They will not save us from it.

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30David Murray, Kevin Reilly and 28 others

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Jerilyn Stapleton Trump said he wants to get rid of NAFTA so he can bring in the much worseTPP

Like · Reply · 16 hrs

Kay Karpus Walker replied · 2 Replies · 4 hrs

Rebecca Curry this is a little beyond 'establishment' dotty

Like · Reply · 15 hrs

Dotty LeMieux replied · 1 Reply

CJ Barker Anyone who believes that this man means ANY populist thing he says is just delusional. He says whatever will rile people.

His business success- like that of far too many of the mega rich- is grounded in inherited wealth, bullying, cheating, lying, and legal intimidation of anyone who crosses him or complains. The idea that brining that approach to governing a nation will net any long term good is ludicrous.

Like · Reply · 4 hrs · Edited

Dotty LeMieux Great article in New The New Yorker by the man who ghost wrote "the Art of the Deal" for Trump and how he regrets it and is doing penance years later. He says if people think Trump will help them, they need to know he won't. He's all for himself. Period.

Like · Reply · 1 · 4 hrs

 

Trump is throwing red meat raw meat to the lions, while Code Pink is hauled out of the hall. His code words of the night are "law and Order". Fear that.

  

Don St.Clair Fascism comes to America

Like · Reply · 1 · 12 hrs

Sabine Jordan-Lott As I keep saying, he sounds exactly like Hitler. Leave now while we still can. Dark days ahead for America. Took Germany nearly two decades to emerge from the darkness, and they are forever stained by what happened. I guess the unenlightened here in this country want the same to happen, cause its coming.

Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 hrs

Michelle Sura Oh, I think Americans love their freedom too much to have Trump's law and order.

Like · Reply · 4 hrs

Melanie Nathan When I heard those words .....law and order..... In the context of his personality lack of qualification and reprehensible anti minority platform .....I wanted to throw up. Our flag's stars are about to be replaced by swastistars!

Like · Reply · 3 mins

Day Three of the Republican National Bloodfest

It was more Hillary bashing last night. Talk about blood coming out everywhere. Not to mention fire and brimstone. Chants of "Lock her up!" Echoed through the hall and someone even called for a firing squad.  As a staunch Bernie supporter, that is just so over the top.  Free speech is one thing, but that is shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater, throwing red meat to the lions.

Mike Pence was the least nasty, but with scary undertones. As Governor in Indiana he legalized discrimination against LGBT people, put tough regulations on abortion, likened Obamacare to 9/11 and other choice legislation (what was that kiss from the Trumpster?). Then were more loyal Trump children, the dutiful Stepford Family in full force, running Daddy's casinos, his golf course in Scotland (Brexit was really good for business Trump decreed, and that's all that counts to him) and a bunch of gold plated hotels.

"Lyin' Ted Cruz was the highlight of the show, urging people vote their conscience, prompting the faithful to boo and Trump to show up with the hook. (No kisses for you!)

Someone burned a flag outside the Convention Center, a protected activity by the way (it was the same guy who litigated and won that right in then Supreme Court some years back, by the way). You can imagine how popular that was with the crowd and the cops.

Oh yeah, the theme of the evening was Make America First again, first in what you might ask. We're already number one in people locked up. And we're number two in ignorance. Let's move that rank up kids! Trump has said he loves the poorly educated. So let's dumb down America some more. Do it for the Trumpster!

On the Road to Philly -Cleveland, DayTwo

The theme of Day Two of the Republican  National Convention was "Make America work again".

Paul Ryan vowed to bring all offshore companies back home, tax them heavily and make them pay their workers a decent wage. "$15 an hour or bust" he shouted to the thunderous applause of the patriotic crowd.

Which Convention was this? Or is the W for "work?"

Or no, wait, That was in a dream I had. He really said something along the lines of  "Poor Americans deserve the right to a job like everybody else" Translation: "Get off your lazy asses and go to work," or "get a job you bums!"

Then it was back to business as usual, as Chris Christie held a mock trial of a Hillary Clinton in the court of (Re)public(an) opinion in which she was found guilty of every transgression from the death of Christ to the framing of Roger Rabbit.

Even the good Doctor, Ben Carson, called her the spawn of  the devil.

The Stepford children had their night in the limelight. Poor chipmunk faced Tiffany was nervous extolling the virtues of her kind, loving dad,and Donald Jr., who everyone in punditry agreed made the best speech of the evening, but I can't remember what he actually said,can you?

The Donald himself put in a cameo appearance with trademark squinty eyes and trumpet mushroom mouth, a scrap of his grandmother's musty old dead muskrat coat perched on his head, and said "You love me, you suckers."

Not sure which lines of tonight's speeches were plagiarized. Or whose songs were stolen. But we have two more days to go but predictions of a rousing stiff armed salute to lose out the proceedings are already popping up on the inter webs or will be when post this.

For tonight, drink a Moscow Mule or three and all will be well. Make America drunk again!

 From Esquire magazine:

The Moscow Mule is not, by the way, the first silly vodka drink. That distinction belongs to the Blue Monday, first printed in the English Savoy bar book in 1930. The BM, which appears to have been quite popular in Europe, mixes vodka with a splash of Cointreau, which is just a superior brand of triple sec or white curaçao, and blue food coloring. It's a simple step to premix the curaçao and the dye, yielding blue curaçao -- the first artificial liqueur (have you ever seen a blue-orange?).

Moscow Mule

Level: Easy

Ingredients

• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 2 oz. vodka
• 4-6 oz. ginger beer

Directions

1. Squeeze lime juice into a Collins glass (or Moscow Mule mug) and drop in the spent shell.
2. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes, then pour in the vodka and fill with cold ginger beer (not ginger ale, although what the hell).
3. Serve with a stirring rod.

Side roads on the way to Philly

First stop - Cleveland and the Republican National Circus, er, convention. Day one - Make America Safe Again. I can sum this up in three words: Buy more guns.

OK, that was easy. Now for some highlights. Sad mom whose son was killed in Benghazi "It's all Hillary's fault." Poor woman, why subject her (the mom, Hillary can take it) to this public display of her grief and anger?

Then various veterans, including one who says he saw a movie that convinced him women were not cut out for the military followed by Joni Ernst, farmer's daughter from Iowa, who happens to be , wait for it, a military veteran and the first elected Federal official from her state. Also a big smile, and more Hillary blaming. Obama blaming too. Our veterans. We don't take care of them. It's shameful, blah blah. Yeah, we know that. George Bush started this mess that got them all sent into war in the first place, then left his wars unfunded for Obama. Fact check: Lack of VA funding not Obama's fault, delusional Republicans.

Next up, the lovely Stepford wife, Melania, whose speech was "inspired" by, wait for it, Michelle Obama's 2008 speech. Got it, inspired, not plagiarized. Oh, irony.

Oh yeah, there were floor fights. Someone wanted a roll call vote on the Rules, which would have allowed them not to vote for Trump. (Who would they have voted for?) At first nine states agreed with this, then only six. Gee, did Trump offer to buy them a casino or something? One of those wanting a roll call vote says she was "threatened" out in the hall, by some angry Trump women who said, "Die Bitch," words to that effect. (OK, she didn't say they used the B word, but they did tell her and her whole Utah delegation to die.)

And this was all just on Day One. Day Two, Make America Work Again, tonight. Let's see how many times the words "lazy bastards" come up, and your drinking game for tonight is the word "illegal" as in illegal immigrant, or maybe wetback; any variation will do.

Your drink? "Inspired" by Paul Clark from his tasty blog The Cocktail Chronicles, the aptly named:  Suffering Bastard 

Recipe

Paul Clarke

[Photograph: Wes Rowe]

• Yield:makes 1 cocktail
• Active time:3 minutes
• Total time:3 minutes
• Rated:

This recipe appears in:

Tiki Revival Hits its Stride with New Recipe Book 'Beachbum Berry Remixed'

I can't explain how I've managed to stay interested in mixology this long without ever getting around to mixing myself a drink as enticingly named as the Suffering Bastard. But when I was perusing Anvil's 100 Cocktails list, the Bastard stood out as one I had yet to cross off my list.

The drink's genesis can be traced to the Long Bar at the Shepheard Hotel in Cairo. As the story goes, in the late 1940s, the Shepheard's bar steward was Joe Scialom. One day in 1947, according to Esquire, Scialom was desperate for a hangover remedy and the Suffering Bar Steward (soon somewhat sloppily rechristened as the Suffering Bastard) was the result.

There are a number of recipes for the Suffering Bastard floating about. Some are merely Mai tai variations with extra rum, while some call for brandy instead of bourbon, and others for rum. Today's drink historians generally settle on bourbon as one of the two base spirits, along with a shot of gin. The drink is then leavened with the healing powers of lime juice and bitters (the lime juice can range anywhere from a teaspoon to an ounce) and lengthened with a good dose of ginger ale.

Since I'm just now crossing it off my list, I can't say if the Suffering Bastard lives up to its reputation as a hangover buster. I can say that on a lazy evening, with one of these in front of you, "suffering" is about the last word that comes to mind.

Bumps on the Road to Philly

 Will He or Wont He?

As part of my Bernie delegate status I get to communicate with others of the same status. People are seriously disturbed that Bernie might endorse Hillary before the Convention. Don't do it they say. The Platform battles have been going on for a week or so in other places, like Orlando. Our plank to not bring up TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) during Obama's lame duck administration fell on deaf ears. Even though Hillary says she is against it too, her delegates, or enough of them, voted it down.

Now it will be a Minority Report and maybe taken to the floor. Can we get the votes there? People are concerned about going against Obama's wishes. But he will be gone? He has so much else he has done to leave a lasting legacy in this Country. This is a bad deal for America, and probably for the world, in terms of environmental regulation (or lack thereof) and workers' rights. We can have fair trade agreements. Let's work for those.

Anyway, I am getting all my ducks in a row for the long trip east. Since I just had a birthday, my wonderful husband bought me a new Surface Pro. Now I just have to get it up and running and learn how to use it in time for the trip. Yesterday got a new carry on bag in bright orange on sale at Macy's only because of the color. The black one was twice as much!

  The Big Endorsement 

 

 Some of you all were surprised that Bernie actually endorsed Hillary.

Joint appearance in N.H. off the YV screen

Some people think he can still get the nomination. That is very unlikely; but there is work to do and so all of us delegates, spending our precious vacation money, money we could use to buy a new car, or put away for a rainy day, are still headed to the Democratic National Convention. There will be votes on Platform, Rules, and of course on the candidate. We are promised a roll call, so we get our vote. There will be workshops. I have signed up for Candidate Training. What I do. And Bernie is asking us to work for down ticket progressives and 50 state strategy. Keep the Political Revolution alive!

I am honored to be one of 1832 delegates chosen to represent Bernie in Philly.

News Flash! the Airport workers on strike! Will planes be able to land? will baggage be unloaded? More to come on the bumpy road to Philly! Stay tuned.

What to eat while stuck on the tarmac while an airport strike is on:

 

Trailmix, and lots of it. Hershey Bars; bottled water, but not too much; the toilets might be backed up.