Well the weather here is frightening, but not as bad as elsewhere. In Tennessee home of the deniers of science, climate included, has had flooding that has led to over 20 dead. But hey don’t ask the Legislature to do anything about infrastructure as well they will take that Government check and promptly build some monument to a White Supremacist over doing needed repairs to roads, bridges and flood controls on the rivers despite the 200 year old floods that now are Decade new ones. Hey they have mask mandates to overturn, civil rights to oppress and open carry laws to pass. Priorities people! (Yes folks I hated every waking minute living in Tennessee and that will not change, no absence and heart not in the least fond)
That said Memphis was a cover story in The Washington Post with regards to the issues of hiring and how it is affecting small businesses, mostly those owned by people of color. Memphis is largely a chocolate city and perhaps unlike most of the other racist cities in the State it is the one that truly reflects the concept of Southern Hospitality. I loved it there and cannot wait to return but this issue is one I am seeing everywhere. From Bridgeport to Newport the swath of Help Wanted signs is why many of the businesses have permanently closed, from small business, to major ones you see CLOSED on many doors or limited days and hours. And no folks it is not the extended UI benefits as again as a study has shown that employment in states that ended in earlier versus those still in the plan have a slight difference in that trajectory, the irony is that the states which have elected to keep the extended benefits hiring is up and most notably the workforce has changed, to one of teenagers; a group that has found in the past few decades the lowest employment, go figure. What this says to me is that is what these jobs truly are, low wage entry level which for years have been the jobs that were the ones that we have neglected with regards to paying a living wage and filled by Immigrants and Women. As for those other jobs, such as child care and home care health workers, we pay them poorly as well but those cannot be held by teens and much like the ongoing Nursing and Teaching shortage, little will change until they stop paying in change.
Then we have another Tennessee tale, Phil Valentine, the Covid denier is dead, from Covid. Irony much? May Governor Greg Abbott of Texas join him soon. He has a colleague from a Texas town who thought it was all bullshit too, waiting to greet him. Not so much bullshit now is it? Well can’t suppress voting rights from six feet under! Okay, I have zero problem wishing the deaths of men who are largely enabling people to die from something preventable. Sorry folks pity for the ones who did not do anything wrong and died or became seriously ill thanks to the bullshit peddled by assholes like these. Hey but in Florida it is a new way to defund the Police, kill them with Covid.
Next up on the hit parade is the riots and mayhem in the streets of Kabul. What? You mean Portland. Oh yes same difference, angry men fighting to prove who are the bigger meaner men. One is about religion and the other about religion. Christianity vs Islam when it comes to that issue it is literally a race as in a color of skin and gender. Men swinging dicks with guns as the condom. Oh wait these shitholes won’t wear masks so would they wear condoms? No love no glove or mask. Wow you know this mask thing is kinda sexy folks, and the Proud Boys do love some cosplay costumes there. Funny that at least the women in Afghanistan are more than masked. Yes we women are the problem.
And Trump had a rally in Alabama. Was Jeff Sessions invited? Guess not. Odd, he promoted vaccines. Well he has to as he needs his Trumptards alive. They are going old school Japanese and doing it Kamikaze style. Just say NO. Wow we are back in the Reagan years!
And lastly in this the Country of Old Men, great movie btw, we have my beloved Joe Biden doing the right thing and upholding the deal Trump made and getting eviscerated for it. Again this war was useless and we knew this and The Washsington Post had long uncovered how the Military had obfuscated this fact for decades.. yes all two of them we were there. The link is to the NYT and it in turn has the link to the Post and they are a must read, so anyone who truly believes we are handling this wrong, needs a dose of Fox News and a recall back to another decade of my life that was all GOP all the time, the Nixon years and Cambodia. Kissinger is still, well, alive and I am sure railing that we should have stayed there too. War kills all living things.
And then we have the R. Kelly trial (number one)going on in Brooklyn. There is so much luggage there to unpack I am not sure what to make of this. But the Doctor who diagnosed Kelly’s Herpes but never took a payment from him in exchange for free tickets and comped show travel seems to have some problems with being a licensed Physician. As stated in the trial: Dr. McGrath said that he had first believed that Mr. Kelly could have had herpes in 2000. He had first begun to serve as the singer’s doctor around 1994, but did not charge him for his services, he said. (Instead, he testified, Mr. Kelly invited him to about a dozen concerts, sometimes flying him across the country and paying for his accommodations.)
And to hear one former employee describe working for R Kelly as being in the Twilight Zone you realize how money and access to fame color our vision when it comes to men doing harm to young women. And in turn enabling toxic workplaces such as former Governor Cuomo (who assured all of us or reassured us that he would still be leaving office today as scheduled, despite the weather. Yeah a bitch to move during a Hurricane) or Scott Rudin who did not sexually harass anyone (and apparently Gay and married which makes this one a glass ceiling breaker and steadfastly unusual) who did discriminate in his abuse, women and especially those of color the targets of his abuse; however it seems that regardless he was a Grade A asshole across the boards, literally across the boards as he became one of Broadway’s most notorious or most voracious, either/or, none of it good. What we tolerate in the search of money and fame – herpes, death, rape and beatings by a computer keyboard. When does it stop Mommy?
To demonstrate my quest to prove equality when it comes to abuse can we discuss Naomi Campbell? Yes folks, phones were thrown but the Guardian is right, someone has to work with these people. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.
I like to think of Dolly Parton as a larger than life figure – like Barbie – only a talented walking, talking version. As for her music I have found those who covered them by far more interesting but no less or more entertaining. That said, Dolly is well Dolly, a complicated Southern woman who like many seem to be more endearing as they age and have numerous complex surgeries in which to aid that process of holding on less to grace and beauty but of deflecting aging. Think of Patricia Altschul in Southern Charm as another of those Southern Belle types.
Now Dolly has always been an icon in the Gay Community. Why? Well, The Advocate, can explain that to you. But I have always thought it has to do with the caricicture of her appearance and less about the music of country but then again many a foot stomping dance party has been played along with a tune of Dolly’s. I always thought it was less about her and more about her former manager, Sandy Gallin, who died in 2017. He along with Kirt Webster, her former publicist until he too got MeToo’d are also largely responsible. They knew how to market her and take her out of the icon of other Country Women, like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette’s of her day. It was a smart way of changing courses or islands in a stream (pun intended). If anything Dolly when asked or pressed on a issue of controversy says something but actually says nothing that commits her to anything. That my friends is the Southern Conundrum experience I have long written about. It is when they literally say one thing and then through the course of the conversation completely contradict what they just said. We might call it hypocrisy but that is an act versus a word, they don’t bother with that, they literally talk in circles and then often end a dialogue with “I haven’t heard that before.” Well you just did and then you told me your version of it, it is called GASLIGHTING. And the South can sure light a lot of gas lamps, and Dolly is no exception.
Her position with regards to the MeToo movement was perhaps my most distressing and given that she had a “close personal and professional” relationship with Porter Wagoner and that too has been long brushed under the wig, it was that show biz breakup was truly what launched her solo career. The woman has been around enough to know who is who and what is what when it comes to women in show business and country music is hardly exempt despite its moral sanctity.
This interview in The Guardian again confirms that Dolly says little without saying anything more than this: Surely, I say, she must have experienced sexual harassment in her career. “I have, but I have always been able to manoeuvre because I come from a family of six brothers, so I understand men and I’ve known more good men than bad men. It’s a man’s world, and it’s not their fault any more than it is just life and … we have allowed it to happen. I think people now see that we’re here, and women are very important, and they need us, just as we need the men. But if someone was getting real aggressive with me, I’d scream or throw something at them. But, of course, I’ve been hit on – I’ve probably hit on some people myself!”,
Through self-depreciating remarks, such as asked about trans bathroom bills, Parton goes: “I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don’t judge people and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know, if I have to pee, I’m gon’ pee, wherever it’s got to be.” See how that works?
When you are seeking an icon you can turn to Dolly, here charity and philanthropy know few boundaries. We can thank her when the wildfires tore up the area where Dollywood is located she was there to ensure money was raised to help families while they recovered. Her work for women (despite her claims of being apolitical), and of course the donation to Moderna vaccination research cannot be overlooked. She has been an amazing resource to many and yes while for some I think there is projection as always on larger than life figures, the Imagination Library, is again something I think few know about and in a region where reading is not fundamental this one is a personal favorite.
But again I point to her own absurd self mockery and denial of being a Feminist as at this point, Really? Despite the fact that she has starred in two of the greatest women’s movies ever (9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias), when I ask if she is a feminist she wrinkles her nose: “I don’t think … I mean, I must be if being a feminist means I’m all for women, yes. But I don’t feel I have to march, hold up a sign or label myself. I think the way I have conducted my life and my business and myself speaks for itself. I don’t think of it as being feminist. It’s not a label I have to put on myself. I’m just all for gals,” she says.
My icons are proud of themselves and their evolution and identity regardless of politics, but when I was watching Watch What Happens Live and saw Dolly on there saying she supported the black community when Whitney died by buying a property in North Nashville, I knew instantly were we being Dolly-winked. Again Southern’s lie out of habit and that is normal but this was well a little much. And sure enough she was finally fact checked and this is from NPR on this issue. She did not and if anything made millions on said property as it is one of the most heavily gentrified areas of Nashville. That said good on her as a woman she should do what it takes to be financially independent and stand on her own six inch heeled boots.
Why Do We Need Dolly To Be A Saint?
August 20, 202112:00 PM ET
Amanda Marie Martinez
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton’s persona has taken on an almost saint-like manifestation in recent years, writes Amanda Marie Martinez. Ron Davis/Getty Images
In recent weeks, multiple news sources (including NPR) ran stories on Dolly Parton, claiming she had, with the royalties she made from Whitney Houston‘s cover of “I Will Always Love You,” invested in a Black community in Nashville decades ago. These reports failed to acknowledge how exactly the singer invested in the neighborhood — beyond purchasing property in an area that has heavily gentrified in recent decades — while also presenting misleading claims about Parton’s own assertions. The reports resurfaced America’s love affair with the country star; media sources have become so quick to feed the public feel-good stories about Parton that routine fact-checking has gone overlooked.
Dolly Parton is having a moment — and has been, for the last half century. The singer, who first got her big break on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967, has endured as one of the savviest business minds in the entertainment industry, transforming herself over the past several decades from the great singer/songwriter she has always been into a larger-than-life figure that’s expanded her brand to include a theme park, popular films, and a lovable caricature of herself that’s captivated generations. Article continues after sponsor message
Parton’s tireless work ethic and vivacious personality has created a strong appetite among the American public for an endless stream of feel-good Parton content — a demand that’s amplified in the tumultuous age of Trump, Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus pandemic. But while the singer’s widespread appeal has long bonded fans across the lines of race, sexuality, and political beliefs, her persona has taken on an almost saint-like manifestation in recent years.
News stories abound about Parton’s often well-deserved praise. In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, the singer donated $1 million to help fund the Moderna vaccine. After Black Lives Matter gained mainstream traction last summer, Parton vocalized her support for Black lives — a risky statement to make for anyone in the notoriously conservative country music industry.
The recent, erroneous reports claiming Parton invested in a Black community decades ago triggers questions about how a collective infatuation with the singer has driven her beyond reproach — and adequate fact checking.
In a recent appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Parton was asked what her best purchase was from the more than $10 million she’s earned from Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover of her song, “I Will Always Love You.”
Parton explained she purchased property in what was then a Black neighborhood in Nashville, Sevier Park, saying it was “the perfect place for me to be considering it was Whitney,” adding, “I just thought this was great and I’m going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well.”
After the interview aired, several articles appeared quickly, pointing to the story as proof of the singer being akin to a longstanding civil rights icon, supporting the Black community long before Black Lives Matter was mainstream. Most notably, the Washington Post ran a story (triggering several additional stories) incorrectly stating Parton purchased the Sevier Park property in 1997, and portraying the singer as a champion of the Black community in Nashville without direct evidence beyond her purchase of the property in question. These claims come after the singer was forced in recent years to change the name of her “Dixie Stampede” dinner show for its celebrations of the confederacy, and also fail to look into the details of Parton’s property ownership claims.
Online property records from the Nashville Planning Department indicate Parton acquired the properties in question, two neighboring parcels at the corner of 12th Ave S and Elmwood Avenue, in 1990 and 1991 (then transferred to Parton’s trust in 1997) — before the massive success of Houston’s cover, released in 1992 as part of The Bodyguard soundtrack. These stories have also been presented without clear indication about how she contributed to the Black community beyond purchasing property — the compound then had a large gate constructed around it — in a neighborhood that has heavily gentrified over the past few decades, an area now called 12 South and one of most-white, tourist-driven and expensive areas of Nashville.
Just as the singer has now claimed to have purchased the Sevier Park property as a way of giving back to the Black community, Parton has offered similar explanations when discussing property she owns in Sevier County, the area of East Tennessee where she is from and where she now co-owns a popular theme park bearing her name, Dollywood.
“[Parton] has a pattern of claiming that when she purchases property, she invests in a place that she’s helping people,” explains Wilkerson. “I think she can get away with that when she’s doing it in her hometown. It gets trickier to do that with a Black community, where she doesn’t live, she’s not from there, and she’s doing it as a rich white person who can buy up real estate.”
Parton’s purchase of property in what then was Sevier Park, a central area of Nashville, also paralleled broader national trends of “urban revitalization,” where large numbers of white Americans began moving back into city centers and displacing residents of color in the process. Downtown Nashville likewise began undergoing renovation efforts in the 1990s, which included restoration of the historic Ryman Auditorium in 1994.
According to Learotha Williams Jr., associate professor of African American and Public History at Tennessee State University, Parton’s purchase of the Sevier Park property shouldn’t be interpreted as a conscious contribution to the Black community there, but part of a larger story of gentrification in Nashville.
“She invested her money in an area that had a rich Black history, but one that was actively being undermined as a result of gentrification,” he explains. Williams Jr. elaborates that the story of Sevier Park is part of a larger historical pattern within the city, where similar trends of Black displacement have impacted neighborhoods such as East Nashville, North Nashville and Edgehill, a neighborhood where Black residents are actively fighting gentrification.
The recent reports heralding Parton as a champion of the Black community are not the first time the star’s name has inexplicably been brought up in conversations about racial justice. Over the past year, as demands to remove the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest — a confederate army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, from the Tennessee State Capitol — intensified, they were met with widespread calls to replace the statue with a Dolly Parton monument. Others, including writer Marcus K. Dowing, suggested a Black figure, such as Ida B. Wells, would be better suited to replace the bust of Forrest.
The growing Parton obsession raises questions about why the media and the broader American public has developed such a strong appetite for stories about the country music star.
To Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom, a MacArthur Fellow, associate professor in the iSchool at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and someone who has written about what she calls “The Dolly Moment,” such stories aren’t truly about the singer, but an American public deeply invested in her positive portrayals – and what it says about themselves.
“This isn’t about Dolly,” McMillan Cottom explains. “Loving Dolly is a stand-in for how we can remediate our love for the nation, because Dolly is part of that American, apple pie iconography.”
At a time when uncomfortable conversations about race have been at the forefront of national dialogue, McMillan Cottom explains Parton offers a reprieve from that news cycle, explaining: “I think we want to be able to feel proud of our country, our nation state, our citizenship, that national bond. [Parton’s] a way to do that without being nationalist.”
Once again Nashville’s idiocy raises its head in another attempt at retaining “It” City status just now it has a whole new designation as batshit crazy.
Let’s review the Nashville of 2020. They thought early on that Islam was going to bomb Nashville and well sorta as a tornado blew through in March and killed if I recall 35. Then 10 days later Covid raged and the honky tonkers barely raised a glass to find themselves in all kinds of bad trouble. Then there was another flood that killed four that rivaled the one that destroyed the city in 2010. After that came the Bomber who has certainly changed the tune with his downtown bombing on Christmas Day. Which lead 2021 to a whole new year of crazy’s with the HatWks lady selling Nazi memorabilia to tout anti vaxx beliefs. And the Statue of the KKK founder, Nathan Bedford Forrest was put to rest in a new home that will enable to enshrine him to the historical trash heaps of yesteryear but don’t worry White Supremacists, Nashville Legislators are working overtime to continue to pass as many hate crimes masked as laws, and sorry for the use of the word mask as that there is a fighting word in town. That and vaccines as the Health Department Director found herself joining the unemployed for encouraging vaccines for children. Well her UI benefits are not going to cover her long as they are not extended nor boosted by federal aid thanks again to the belief that if you starve long enough you will work hard enough at any job to not. Okay. sure. Whatever.
Meanwhile in the burb of Williamson County, the richest county in Tennessee btw, Dave Ramsay continued to espouse his crazy religious beliefs on his employees while again espousing Covid denial and encouraging all his employees to go maskless at company events. Super spreader or no this man will save you money! But to say it is cult may be a statement too far, that will cost you your job sir. Praise Be!
But the year began truly with Nashville rising high as Zip Tie Guy the most infamous of the Capital Marauders (that should be a band name) is waiting his time out in prison with his mother whom he claimed he was there just to help her do whatever she was doing there. Okay. Sure. Whatever.
And we have more coming. The conservative radio host., David Valentine, after espousing Covid denial beliefs and anti vaxx ones decides to come down with Covid, threaten to come to work only to end up at the hospital so serious his family has urged his followers/flock/crazy fans to get vaccinated. Okay. Sure. Whatever.
Now we have the Preacher who is apparently also willing to tout the belief that he and God know best. When I talk to myself I don’t pretend it is to God I know it is well nuts but I at least admit it.
Meet Greg Locke, CRACK POT. Maybe he can share a room with Dave Valentine. Oh I would love to be a fly on that wall.
Evangelical pastor demands churchgoers ditch their masks: ‘Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense’
Since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, Greg Locke, the pastor at a Nashville-area church, has repeatedly called covid a hoax, undermined emergency mandates and refused to comply with guidance from public health officials.
This week, Locke took his defiance a step further, making a sharp warning regarding mask-wearing.
If “you start showing up [with] all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave,” Locke, 45, told scores of Global Vision Bible Church parishioners during his sermon on Sunday. His statement was followed by cheers and applause.
“I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church,” he added.
Global Vision Bible Church did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
Locke’s fiery five-minute diatribe, in which he also denied the existence of the delta variant, comes as vaccination rates in his home state slow and infection rates climb. So far, about 44 percent of Tennesseans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to The Washington Post’s vaccine tracker, making it among the states with the lowest rate. The state recently reported that 98 percent of people who died of covid and 97 percent of covid hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. The delta variant is causing outbreaks across the
The vaccine rollout in Tennessee made national headlines after the controversial firing of the state’s top immunization official, Michelle Fiscus, on July 12. Fiscus’s firing was the casualty of the Tennessee Department of Health’s campaign to encourage teenagers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The effort attracted ire from Republican state lawmakers.ADVERTISING
In an interview with WTVF on Monday, Fiscus said Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee (R) consistently resisted the state’s promotion of the vaccine.
“I feel like the[health] department was gagged,” she said.
Locke’s evangelical church in Mount Juliet, Tenn., about 20 miles east of downtown Nashville, has grown during the pandemic, CNN reported. The pastor’s controversial commentary on covid and the 2020 presidential election has attracted far-right churchgoers.
During a sermon last month, Locke called President Biden a fraud and “a sex trafficking, demon-possessed mongrel,” a reference to QAnon, an extremist ideology based on false claims.
He has also falsely claimed the pandemic is “fake,” the death count is “manipulated,” and the vaccine is a “dangerous scam.”
And the pastor has preached misinformation about the vaccine, including falsely claiming it’s made of “aborted fetal tissue.”
During a sermon in May, Locke told churchgoers that he wasn’t getting the vaccine and would refuse to promote it.
“I discourage everybody under this tent to get it,” he said, according to CNN.
Locke has also openly defied the state’s emergency mandates. In July 2020, he posted on Facebook that the church was remaining open and that people did not have to wear masks or social distance.
“I don’t care if they send the military, they roll up in there with tanks … ladies and gentleman, we are staying open,” he said, according to Newsweek. “We are packed to capacity. You ain’t gotta wear a mask.”
Strutting back and forth on a stage beneath a sprawling red-and-white striped circus tent on Sunday, Locke launched into yet another impassioned monologue. This time, he warned churchgoers to not wear masks and railed against the possibility of more shutdowns.
“They will be serving Frostys in hell before we shut this place down, just because a buck wild, demon-possessed government tells us to,” Locke said, referencing the frozen dessert from Wendy’s.
“Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense,” he continued. “Stop it!”
He advised parishioners who are looking for services with social distancing “don’t come to this one” and chastised other churches for following public health advisories and abstaining from certain rituals as cases rise.
“A bunch of pastors talking about how much they want to see people heal, and they’re afraid to baptize people because of a delta variant — I’m sick of it,” Locke said. “I ain’t playing these stupid games.”
Toward the end of his rant, Locke made one final warning.
“I’m going to be a problem moving forward,” he said. “I’m not giving in to this mess.”
Well folks we are about half way through the year… I cannot wait as time flies, like Covid at a super spreader event.
A few days away in Raleigh, North Carolina to catch a show by the band Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, a fitting name given the temp of area and the air cloudy and overcast thanks to the Bootleg Fire which has literally generated its own weather. Still don’t believe in climate change?
Then we have the vaxxed and the unvaxxed. In North Carolina that is about a 50/50 split and almost all the people I met had contracted Covid and subsequently vaxxed and convinced yeah that shit is real! The larger portion of masked folks were Black and of course the concert was outdoors and no one was masked but they also were not using the gender neutral bathroom set up for the concert goers. One look at that women’s line up I waltzed right in and entered an immaculate port a potty, air conditioned with two stalls with full doors. Okay then. They have issues with that being the first State to literally pull that shit about bathrooms and trans. That said I loved the quaint Raleigh, and it is clearly in trouble with many shops closed, restaurants with limited hours and yet the home of amazing museums, the NC Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden are all free and worth it. The cost of living is less and should be a magnet for artists and others looking to live more affordably. It is close to beaches, mountains and an hour from NYC. What is the loss? Oh the red state blues. Hey folks that is a small state it would be an easy conversion I believe and yet the same folks that complain about the conservatives actually never speak to any of them and work to resolve the pressing issues that these communities have. Pointing fingers and laying blame is not the answer.
Meanwhile in Tennessee the fired Health Director has brought national attention to issue of vaccinations in the Volunteer State. Apparently volunteering for a vaccine is not an option and when I agree with the town crier, Margaret Renkyl of the Times I need a shot! But the reality is that despite the efforts of the home town crew of Vanderbilt and Dolly there are real emotional and philosophical issues at play here – church and politics.
And then I read about this Trans woman who was a former Evangelical Minister. She is determined to engage and speak to those in her former community as a way of educating and changing minds about why one would feel the need to change their identity in a world where being a white male is the one identity we all covet. She she learned how women are perceived and then add the transition part and you think we got problems? The Evangelical community will resist and persist as they are the most fearful of all faiths and the most ignorant. Just ask my “friend” Ethan and his flock of old white people who actually sit and listen to a poorly educated 24 year old preach about sex, gender and identity. Yeah, you need to live a little before telling others how to.
As the Delta Variant which is now version 3 of Covid crosses the country, the vaxxed have become the shamers and blamers. Again good way to win hearts and minds there. I spoke to a Black man yesterday about how I felt having been vaccinated and the personal freedom it allowed me to do what I want and not worry. I still feel I have to be respectful, aware and cautious but risk taking is not my nature regardless and that having the ability to avoid getting a disease that could force me into a hospital to be the guinea pig for the Covid treatments that are being used, created, experimented and just the overall lack of actual care in a system that in the best of times is a fucking hot mess is just another reason to get vaxxed. If this shot keeps me out of a hospital then give me all of them. And the same message I shared with our Concierge who has not been vaxxed as her partner does not believe in them. Yes I agree that western medicine lacks but this is not medicine it is preventative, like Vitamin C, like Acupuncture or any other tool one uses to treat the body and build immune systems. That it is a chemical does not deter me or lead me to question the validity of that instrument as it is by far less invasive and dangerous than any of the shit that a hospital would do to you if you entered through those doors with Covid. Sorry folks I don’t get the excuses as that is all fear and that is where the White Supremacists have won. They know how to trigger fear and you can be sure they are all vaxxed to high hilt, I mean you Tucker Carlson, but making sure that misinformation is passed on is a way better way to genocide a race of folks. Smallpox blankets anyone?
And then I read two articles about the isolation of Americans. Well given the last President that was pretty much the same in both his personal philosophy as well as his Presidential one. Trump has few friends, largely family and he talks at people not with them so how the fuck would he know about empathy and compassion. And his cult members seem to appreciate that and in turn apparently became crazy mother fuckers who raided the Capital. When I read this essay in the New York Times I was not only offended I was furious with rage. I wanted to raid the NY Times Offices with folded up papers to beat them with, as well I still get it hand delivered so that would be fitting. And with that the Washington Post came up with an article that has a study on social isolation and loneliness, but what was more telling was the comments that followed. Many readers are much like myself, loners, readers, thinkers and have no other interests in connecting to others through the most conventional methods, breeding and religion. Wow! Shocking, I know! Not really. We love our idea that we have a soul mate, partner and that having children is fulfilling. Well if my Son was Ted Bundy then fuck no! And on that note I met another kind of serial killer on my way to Raleigh, a big game hunter. This man was coming home from where he was on a safari in South Africa. If you are not following the news there are some major political issues ongoing all along with Covid as vaccinations are in short supply. So this man travels across the Globe to kill animals indigenous to their country to hang their carcass on the walls of his home in a trophy. Okay Hannibal!
On this note, I love being alone. And of course The Guardian has been covering the issue of loneliness as another national epidemic. But the reality is that definition of the word itself needs an examination: If we are to address our experiences of loneliness, we must challenge our beliefs about loneliness itself, including the narrative that being alone necessarily means feeling lonely and that authenticity and vulnerability are overrated or unimportant. It is at this point even I am going, “Fuck, am I lonely?” No I am bored entertaining myself and so I have elected to travel to cover that, despite the heat and overall confusion of summer travel, which in normal times (but these sure as a hell are not normal times) I do not participate I have made an exception to that rule. And with that off to Newport Jazz Festival next week, so I must go practice my Jazz Hands. And no I don’t feel the compulsive need to share, like, Instagram or Tik Tok any of it. That may be why people feel lonely. Hey I did not even read Twitter until I got home and watched the Real Housewives of NYC and BH to see what the crowd had to say about race, lies and Erika Jayne. Well that was a hell of a convoluted story about why she is divorcing the now poor and brain addled Tom. I would have stayed, yes folks, payback is a bitch and Erika is one hell of a cold one. And with that I would go all Baby Jane on the man if he was that much of an asshole. “Honey it’s time for your enema.” “No, I pooped Erika” “Okay, but let’s just clean that ass up shall we anyway?” All while singing It’s Expensive to be me and use pages of Pretty Mess to wipe up. And then Richard Widmark him down the stairs. Okay, I am saying revenge is a dish served. Period.
So be lonely, be not, you be you or whatever the kids say. I am going to be me and head outside and figure I am depressed because I am alone, not rich enough, not stupid, too smart, too bitchy or just bored. Whatever. Missing you much is not what I missed.
The endless hysterical squad is up and running and I again need to point out that while the GOP seem to be the loudest and most histrionic, the left equivalent is as loud and proud as any other with the endless need to call out, reprimand, scold and remind those that we must all be as diverse and inclusionary as possible. Case in point the bullshit over the film Into the Heights. I got nothing to say other than it is a lively film with an amazing talented group of actors set in a location that has been one of the most decimated by Covid. So take a dose of shut the fuck up and appreciate what was made as years ago this would have never made it to screen.
With the issues of opening schools just a few months away the move to adapt Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project into the curriculum’s across the country has started another hysterical move to outlaw, out legislate or just eliminate any mention of race and the history of race with regards to the social and economic stratification across the history of America’s development. This right now has sidelined the other hysterical emphasis on Trans kids by stopping them from playing sports in their identified gender as well as eliminating medical care regarding their physical transformation. Go Arkansas on that one! First to go, more to follow.
The reality is that critical race theory is not new. No, really. No. It was devised in the 1970s and I should know as well that was my “time.” I went to Catholic High School and had perhaps the most progressive Teacher of my entire life, Harry Purpur. Can I say I blame him for my wokeness? He was amazing, the amount of literature and history he introduced to me changed how I viewed myself and myself in the world and affected how I saw myself later as an English and History Teacher. He is why I double degreed in college in English and Sociology and later became a dual endorsed History/English Teacher as the two are so integrated in my mind as a reflection of time and place I feel you need to merge them in which to glean a greater sense of perspective and find personal connections to that of a world not your own. In fact the Arts overall should be inclusive to introduce that concept of historical canon in which to again find resonance of how again place and time and person are all one in living history. But enough about me.
I lived in the shithole Nashville, Tennessee for three years of which I had the dishonor of teaching in the schools. Not full time but as a Substitute and it was in that gig I realized there was no fucking way I would ever take a job there let alone continue to live there. And I did not relocate there with that ever in mind, it took a matter of months to realize this place was not good for me, nor I for it.
The below article is one I found from the Williamson County newspaper, the Tennessee Star, journal I had never heard/read/cared about until this. And with that I want to point out what one hears repeatedly when living in Nashville, Williamson County, home of my favorite place to visit, Franklin, is the RICHEST county in Tennessee, with the best schools. Okay if the bar is that low being the best isn’t saying much. And with this can you see why?
I am not going to bother refuting, debating or well even commenting on the stupidity. Click on the link and read the comment section, that tells you everything you need to know why I bailed. The reality is that all of this canned curriculum is horrific at worst, useless at best. It comes after a long haul with the Gates funded Common Core which was “different” and utterly designed to be a testing tool and measure, learning not so much; and by learning I mean actually having critical thinking skills and analysis to an issue and/or subject and enable the Student to find or navigate around subjects and issues they find challenging by finding the methodology that works for them. It requires competent Teachers and well funded schools that offer diverse subjects, pushes kids correctly and into the right rooms which will challenge them and of course provide them with a foundation to go further. And that means into whatever field or pursuit they wish. Some kids are not College bound but that does not mean a life of idiocy, it means they can still be good, enough, smart enough and that they will do well in society in a manner that makes them fulfilled and gratified. But well we know to parents that is never enough and these parents are making sure that their kids are not be learning and stuff!
Moms for Liberty Williamson County Lays Bare Evidence of Critical Race Theory, Suicide Ideation, Violence, and More in Curriculum Across 33 Counties
FRANKLIN, Tennessee – After around 1200 hours of investigation, a parent-led deep dive team uncovered how a widely-used English curriculum in Tennessee pushes narratives on history and introduces K-5 students to a range of concepts such as Critical Race Theory, suicide ideation, gender fluidity, alcoholism, promiscuity, torture, cannibalism, and more. The curriculum, Wit and Wisdom, offers social-emotional learning (SEL) and was produced by the organization Great Minds. It is approved for use in 33 counties.
Moms for Liberty (MFL) Williamson County Founders Robin Steenman and Lori Friedheim presented their team’s findings on Tuesday during their public event, “Let’s Talk Wit and Wisdom.” The group gave attendees packets with comprehensive reviews on the Wit and Wisdom books and teacher manuals. MFL explained that these reviews are works in progress. Up-to-date versions of their reviews of these curriculum materials are available here. The Wit and Wisdom K-5 curriculum is divided by grade and then by module.
At the start of the presentation, Steenman outlined 9 common themes and ideas that their deep-dive team recognized in Wit and Wisdom: suicide ideation, condemnation of White people, displays of extreme emotion, cannibalism, opposition to the nuclear family and America, dark imagery, graphic death, and age-inappropriate content such as alcoholism and promiscuity. Steenman walked the audience through examples of those ideas grade by grade, using the book reviews compiled by their deep dive team.
Steenman explained that the negativity and darkness affects students’ perspectives of themselves, their families, and their country. She showed the audience several photos of students after exposure to Wit and Wisdom curriculum. One tearful child faced the camera with an agonized expression; another, her back to the camera, was slumped forward on the beach with her head hung low.
Steenman also remarked on how the teacher manual includes warnings about some of the material being presented to students.
“I would submit: why have this book if it has all the warnings?” asked Steenman. “There’s a lot of beautiful literature out there. Pick something from that pile.”
In the second half of the presentation, Friedheim offered an analysis of the implicit messages within the Wit and Wisdom curriculum. She focused on how second graders are required to spend 9 weeks on the concept of injustice, with one of the ultimate goals for these students to pair the concept with vocabulary words like “protest,” “refuse,” and “marching.”
Friedheim pointed out that school policy prohibits materials using incorrect grammar. She then presented a copy of one of the class handouts for the second graders learning about injustice: the protest song, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”
Then, Friedheim discussed one of the curriculum books, Separate Is Never Equal, which discusses the segregation and discrimination of Mexican children by White communities. She noted that the teacher manual instructs educators to read this book aloud to children because of its complexity.
“Why are we giving second graders books that are way out of their lexile range for them to read?” asked Friedheim.
Lexile serves as a numeric representation of an individual’s reading level.
Another in-class handout discussed showed photos of the violence that occurred during segregation protests in the 1960s, when fire hoses were turned on Black protesters.
“Without seeing all the teaching materials involved in this module, one cannot begin to grasp the high level of manipulation being inflicted upon the young minds of impressional second graders who do not yet have the maturity or capacity to think critically or enough knowledge of U.S. history and experience to provide adequate context to the narrowly-focused Wit and Wisdom lessons,” stated Freidheim.
Steenman and Friedheim finished their presentation with a question for the audience to consider: does some of the Wit and Wisdom material violate Tennessee’s new Critical Race Theory ban? Specifically, they highlighted the third module books and materials for second graders.
MFL invited the entire Williamson County Schools (WCS) Board of Education to “Let’s Talk Wit and Wisdom;” at the front of the room, MFL reserved a long table with paper name plates for each board member. The Tennessee Star spotted board members Jay Galbreath and Candy Emerson in attendance at the back of the room. No board members sat at the table.
Other elected officials were in attendance, including Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, State Representative Mike Sparks (R-Smyrna), and Rutherford County School Board member Tammy Sharp.
The MFL presentation also included a timeline on the adoption of the Wit and Wisdom curriculum. It documented how the curriculum was failed twice by Tennessee Textbook Commission reviewers in 2019, but adopted anyways by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE). After the first five reviewers failed the Wit and Wisdom curriculum, TDOE reportedly brought on new reviewers – who also failed the curriculum. At that point, TDOE overruled that second review and declared that the curriculum was approved.
Wit and Wisdom wasn’t the only curriculum that received failing grades but was adopted by TDOE regardless. This behavior prompted the Tennessee General Assembly to strip Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn of her textbook commission voting powers and her ability to grant waivers for unapproved books and materials.
It was in early March of last year that the WCS Textbook Adoption Committee reportedly recommended Wit and Wisdom. By the end of that month, WCS Board of Education adopted the curriculum unanimously.
As the meeting dispersed, Steenman asked attendees to consider going to the WCS board meeting next Monday at 6 p.m. CST.
When I read the article in the Washington Post regarding how Trump’s appointed acolytes went about disseminating false information, obfuscating facts and sowing seeds of falsehoods during the onset of Covid, I was not shocked. A young woman in Florida was terminated over her refusal to alter data for DiSantis and we know Cuomo is under investigation for his altering of the data associated with deaths at Nursing Homes. You honestly think these are the only ones?
Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show
Political appointees also tried to blunt scientific findings they deemed unfavorable to Trump, according to new documents from House probe.
The Washington Post By Don Diamond April 9, 2021
Trump appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists’ reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with then-President Donald Trump’s more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators.
The documents provide further insight into how senior Trump officials approached last year’s explosion of coronavirus cases in the United States. Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees was attempting to blunt the scientists’ messages, edit their findings and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points.
Then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote to then-HHS public affairs chief Michael Caputo on Sept. 9, 2020, touting two examples of where he said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had bowed to his pressure and changed language in their reports, according to an email obtained by the House’s select subcommittee on the coronavirus outbreak.
Pointing to one change — in which CDC leaders allegedly changed the opening sentence of a report about the spread of the virus among younger people after Alexander pressured them — Alexander wrote to Caputo, calling it a “small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!”
In the same email, Alexander touted another example of a change to a weekly report from the CDC that he said the agency made in response to his demands. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR), which offer public updates on scientists’ findings, had been considered sacrosanct for decades and untouchable by political appointees in the past.
Two days later, Alexander appealed to then-White House adviser Scott Atlas to help him dispute an upcoming CDC report on coronavirus-related deaths among young Americans.
“Can you help me craft an op-ed,” Alexander wrote to Atlas on Sept. 11, alleging the CDC report was “timed for the election” and an attempt to keep schools closed even as Trump pushed to reopen them. “Let us advise the President and get permission to preempt this please for it will run for the weekend so we need to blunt the edge as it is misleading.”
Alexander and other officials also strategized on how to help Trump argue to reopen the economy in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, despite scientists’ warnings about the potential risks.
“I know the President wants us to enumerate the economic cost of not reopening. We need solid estimates to be able to say something like: 50,000 more cancer deaths! 40,000 more heart attacks! 25,000 more suicides!” Caputo wrote to Alexander on May 16, 2020, in an email obtained by the subcommittee.
“You need to take ownership of these numbers. This is singularly important to what you and I want to achieve,” Caputo added in a follow-up email, urging Alexander to compile additional data on the consequences of virus-related shutdowns.
Atlas, Alexander and Caputo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Many of the Trump officials clashing with government scientists had little or no previous experience in combating infectious disease. Caputo, a GOP political communications consultant and longtime Trump ally, had not previously worked in public health before Trump installed him to oversee the health department’s communications in April 2020.
Alexander, who was not a physician but recruited as Caputo’s handpicked science adviser, had previously been an unpaid, part-time health professor at Canada’s McMaster University. Atlas was a neuroradiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution who caught the White House’s attention after defending the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Fox News.
“Our investigation has shown that Trump Administration officials engaged in a persistent pattern of political interference in the nation’s public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, overruling and bullying scientists and making harmful decisions that allowed the virus to spread more rapidly,” Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the subcommittee chairman, wrote to Alexander and Atlas.
The subcommittee is seeking additional documents from Alexander, Atlas and others, noting that some of the Trump officials’ correspondence was sent from personal email accounts. Clyburn also is requesting that Alexander and Atlas sit for interviews with his subcommittee’s investigation by May 3.
Politico first reported on Sept. 11 that Trump appointees had demanded the right to edit the CDC’s reports and won some changes to scientists’ language, prompting Democrats to open an investigation. Caputo took medical leave on Sept. 16, 2020, and HHS announced that Alexander would be “permanently” leaving the agency on the same day.
Alexander had previously spent months battling with scientists over reports that he deemed misleading or insubordinate to Trump, with a particular focus on those detailing the risks of the coronavirus to children. The effort accelerated after the White House last summer installed several new officials as members of the agency’s leadership team, including Nina Witkofsky as acting CDC chief of staff. Witkofsky had previously been a contractor helping plan events for Seema Verma, the Trump administration’s Medicare and Medicaid chief.
“The last 2 MMWR reports have been more positive than usual and I find [that] encouraging,” Alexander wrote to Witkofsky on Aug. 30, according to an email obtained by the subcommittee. “Maybe you are having a huge impact and this is tremendous. Well done!”
Ten days later, Alexander wrote to Caputo, extolling several changes to CDC reports that he claimed were made because of his influence.
For instance, Alexander said he had won changes to the “key opening sentence” of an August report about a coronavirus outbreak at a Georgia summer camp. The draft report’s opening line argued that understanding youth transmission of the coronavirus was “critical for developing guidance for schools and institutes of higher education,” according to Alexander’s email. But that language was removed from the final report and a caveat was inserted to specify that there was “limited data” about spread of the virus among people under the age of 21. The CDC said that the change had been made because of “thoughtful comments” from Alexander and the agency’s
The Trump appointee continued to demand more revisions, calling for changes to a September MMWR report that concluded that children who contracted the coronavirus in child-care facilities later transmitted the virus to their family members.
“In my view, the parents got it more likely when they picked up the kids and came into contact with the school personnel or teachers as happens with my wife and I when we pick our kids form [sic]school,” Alexander wrote to Caputo on Sept. 13.
Then-CDC Director Robert Redfield and other Trump appointees repeatedly claimed last year that the agency’s reports had been protected from political interference.
“At no time has the scientific integrity of the MMWR been compromised. And I can say that under my watch, it will not be compromised,” Redfield testified to the Senate on Sept. 16. However, Redfield told CNN last month that then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar and other Trump officials tried to change several MMWRs that they did not like, a charge disputed by Azar.
In emails obtained by the subcommittee, Alexander and others also repeatedly took aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, critiquing his statements about the coronavirus and complaining that Fauci’s calls to close schools last year were disproportionate to his more measured response to prior flu outbreaks that had led to more deaths among children.
“Dr. Fauci has no data, no science to back up what he is saying on school reopen, none … he is scaring the nation wrongfully,” Alexander wrote to 11 senior HHS officials on Aug. 11, arguing that Fauci was unnecessarily alarming parents.
Trump officials also strategized over how to build the president’s case that virus-related shutdowns were creating a more significant health burden than swiftly reopening the economy. Trump repeatedly cheered Republican governors who rolled back coronavirus restrictions last year against scientific advice, even as virus cases in those states later spiked and some governors subsequently paused the reopenings.
“We have to now ‘unscare’ people while as we reopen, we will see blips and spikes in cases and deaths,” Alexander wrote on May 15 to the HHS secretary’s speechwriter, insisting that failing to reopen the economy would “have far greater consequences,” as deaths related to alcohol, drugs, depression and other causes would mount. “We must school them that we will respond to the spikes and hotspots as needed.”
The long-term consequences of last year’s shutdowns are still not clear. CDC officials this week reported that the total number of suicides dropped by 5.6 percent last year, the largest decline in four decades, surprising some officials who had warned of a spike. However, deaths from heart disease rose by 4.8 percent. Meanwhile, total cancer deaths remained flat in 2020, although public health experts warned that many screenings that would’ve caught early cancers were skipped or delayed last year.
Alexander, Atlas and others also repeatedly drafted op-eds intended to provide an alternative message to government scientists’ warnings, including five possible op-eds detailed in emails obtained by the subcommittee.
One email from Alexander to Atlas on Sept. 3 proposed an “op-ed on possible damage to children immune systems with lock downs and masks,” arguing to Atlas that“I do think locking down our kids (and healthy adults) and masking them can dampen their functional immune systems.”
Scientists have said there is no evidence that wearing masks harms the development of children’s immune systems.
Early on when we knew little I knew one thing that this is where Science matters and immediately turned to Science Journals to garner information as a way of trying to understand what was happening. The CDC was sending so many mixed messages and that Redfield and Birx were involved I knew they were full of Evangelical shit. I have never liked Fauci and he plays politics and he too was pandering to the point of concern, often contradicting others who were in the field with more current relevant info. I began to look a the competing data models and who was funding them as they too seemed to constantly move and change with each passing day. There was no consistent message nor messenger that I respected fully but you read enough you have enough to go and make critical decisions. The one that was the most hilarious was the Covid Theater or contagion by touch. The CDC finally rescinded that today. Again I knew that early it was airborne and when a nursing student told me that it was blood-borne I thought, fuck we are in trouble. For the record, Fauci consistently advocated that. At one point I wondered if he was ever in the loop.
I knew that no one leader was going to provide the truth or facts as well, frankly, they did not know. Since the Cuomo scandal has begun it was revealed that he distrusted the medical and science folks of the Department of Health and in turn that became the norm across the country as many left their jobs in frustration and fear from the harassment done at the hands of the Q Army who took it as their job as keyboard warriors to do and harass any who threatened their Big Q Trump.
And the secondary crazies, the white supremacists and militia crazies stepped up their assaults, threatening of course State Leaders as they did in Michigan and Journalists throughout the country by doxxing them and in turn posting threatening mail to their homes. We saw that in Seattle with the campsite and their role in going to homes of elected officials and Police leaders to make a point. Funny how the right and left follow the same format so it should not be surprising that today members of the Atomwaffen plead guilty to conspiracy and hate crimes; two of the most vitriolic were from good old “liberal” Seattle. What was odd and distressing that one young individual, Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, is a member of the Trans community who for whatever reason thought it was better to join them than be a target of them. How sad. How grim. How pathetic. The Judge concluded the same and Mr.Dieppe has been released with time served. My heart breaks for us all.
And this is why I laugh at those in Covid mode. I argued with an asshole that I feel more threatened by the Q-tards and the GOP than Covid as the reality is that science will come through. And yes another poster attacked me in a typical mixed message that said that the GOP are throwing down restrictive voting laws, anti trans agenda and other hate bills into laws and then says Covid is going to kill us. Okay which is it? True there are many many who are afraid of the vaccine and with the time and continual lockdowns thanks to their stupidity they may finally realize getting shot won’t be as bad as they believed but in the interim these crazy mother fuckers are rallying, organizing and using the downtime to find ways to continue to harass and subvert Democracy. They are a bigger threat and the two posters continued to harass me, call me names and then they finally quit when I refused to rise up to the occasion. I have to have hope and that doesn’t make me less of a realist it just makes me hopeful and we need hope.
The true nature of these groups has managed to get at least two women elected and there are others already in Congress who advocate that same general factor of negativity and paranoia. Asa Hutchinson wrote a op-ed in the Washington Post to cover his lies as he vetoed a bill that prevented trans children from getting care knowing that it would be overturned and signed into law regardless. Neglecting to mention only the day before he signed another anti-trans bill into law. So go ahead and deny truths and continue on your paranoid train of fear and hate. Will Arkansas ever matter? No, but Georgia does and this is a peach of a time to step up. And the same goes for any State in the Union that seems to focus on oppression and suppression of rights. Try Tennessee for example.
The GOP is now the party of hate, of paranoia and of self-loathing. The projection aspect is not lost as we see Matt Gatez of Florida undergoing an investigation regarding sex trafficking, as well as others with varying charges of infidelity, drug and alcohol abuse and other social misdemeanors that they spend the better part of the day attacking others for said injustices against social mores. So far me think one doth protest too much. And today John Boehner, former Speaker, has now joined the apology chorus admitting that he made decisions based on party over politics and doing the right thing! Wow, just wow. Little late to the party but pass me a glass of red.
And this is where we are in America. Hate-based politics. Again Covid is the real problem? It is just one of many.
I have repeatedly mentioned I am no fan of Dr. Fauci. I find him annoying. He has a lot of baggage and frankly its time at age 80 to retire. He has validated his creds and he is respected but of all the spokesmodels one could have to educate, inform and discuss Covid, this is the best we got? I call him the Christy Tiegen of the med world. God he needs to zip it.. and frankly does she.
As we have now a third vaccine added to the list the reality that we are coming closer to reducing the spread or to use the catch phrase – flattening the curve. Despite that there are two new variants that are “more contagious” in and of itself vague as what does that mean exactly, have seen numbers of positive cases declining. Death count is now at 500K unless Cuomo is counting so that could be less or more dependent upon the real numbers that were never tallied early on in the pandemic as they were never tested nor confirmed as POS. And we will never know the true number of Covid POS cases as many have never been tested nor confirmed either by choice or because it was again in the early days and the lack of tests and the stringent protocol criteria did not allow them to get tested and as a result they recovered or again died without true accounting of cause of death.
What is still transpiring is the endless misinformation and inaccuracies with regards to Covid and the vaccines. And what that means after one is vaccinated and how they are to proceed until we reach an appropriate level to determine herd immunity. And if Fauci is still the town crier I suspect a great deal of off switches will be used as to the right he will never be anyone worth listening to.
I read this in the Tennessean as a reflection of a year gone by and lack of listening that went down when it came to Covid response in the region. The area is ripe with religion, we know that many of the insurrectionists came from that area, fueled with lies and a lack of respect for science and fact that comes from any source other than behind a pulpit or screen. Lies are best swallowed with some sweet tea and biscuits the better to choke them down and they love their sweet tea. It is also explains the numerous health issues faced by that population so Covid and pre-existing conditions are why that region took a big death toll. That may be the morbidity issue we are trying to understand why faces of color seemed to have higher fatalities, poverty, poor health and lack of access of preventative medical care are massive public health issues in non-pandemic times.
Then let’s face the ugly truth about education, it sucks overall but in the South it is a hot mess of Covid fever. These are people whose academic level of success is largely confined to K-12 and even that is hit and miss. The largest sector of education is secular and that too means a selective approach to matters concerning Science, especially those matters surrounding Biology. It is the sex part kids that set them off. Literacy and ability to read at or above grade level is middling and few do read. There is the landscape itself with concentrated cities that are hardly world class surrounded by largely rural areas with little access to health care, education, let alone bandwidth. The social and physical isolation was long in existence before Covid and the tribalism alone contributes to further segregate people.
The rest of the country in largely rural economies also suffer from this and the Dakotas are certainly another example with a crazy Governor who is determined to be like Trump down to the deaths and destruction of communities rather than admit science may be right and while there were wrong steps made it can be righted. Nope, shame is a factor here that leads people to refuse to apologize and right wrongs. I am no less guilty.
Denial is another. The hoarding of cold and flu medicines did contribute to many who were POS spreading the virus as again getting tested for simply having a fever but no cough, having the shits. Not knowing anyone who had COVID or been in contact with one who had was impossible in the beginning and still is as there is little to no contact tracing and it turn more lies and misinformation. So why any reason, sole reason to be tested should have been enough but that like the vaccines there is never enough so we lie. And we deny and we go on as if we are fine.
Dr. William Schaffner, a prominent infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who’d watched all year as ill-advised gatherings spread the virus over and over.
Throughout the pandemic, Schaffner gave thousands of interviews to hundreds of news publications, offering expertise that was calm, polite and peppered with the folksy charm. But by December, faced with the same questions about yet another preventable surge, he’d finally grown exhausted of repeating himself.
“We paid a price after Memorial Day. We paid a price after July 4. The same thing happened, more or less, after Thanksgiving,” Schaffner said. “I don’t know how many lessons we need. How many times do we have to do this experiment to convince ourselves of the result?”
Denial and anger seems to be perfectly demonstrated by our Congressional reps. Irony or tragedy, a North Dakota man was elected to his State’s Congress post-humously. And since that two more have died. What more do you need to know with regards to Covid? That it is a virus, it is contagious and it can be deadly. Congress had to learn the hard way being trapped in a room with deniers (not just of the election) and in turn the CPAC convention this weekend will I sure rival any prior super spreader event.
Covid has reminded more and more of AIDS with each passing day. Shame, guilt, retributions and repercussions. The shame and frustration and of course the anger about condoms is the same expressed about masks. I am exhausted from hearing the endless excuses, stories and pleas to encourage safety and health. I have been down this road before and yet we are much like the Doctor in Nashville said, just not able to learn and alter our behavior. Why is that so hard? I assume being an asshole is simply easier.
This article from The Washington Post talks about a small town in Illinois, and its awareness that Covid was not just a big city disease is just one of many as Covid ran amok across the country. The article in the Tennessean ends with this note: And the second year of coronavirus in the American South began the same as the first – with a party. (This was over the cherished hysteria over College Basketball another Southern ritual) But like anywhere in America it is not just the South that feels the need to spread cheer and with it disease.
Living in Nashville acquainted me to the whack jobs in ways that I thought were confined to the screen, nope I met them, had them in my home and actually listened to them. Not in the fun way if say the late artist, Prince, showed up to offer you guidance and a copy of the Watchtower. On that case, sign me up! Yes, Prince was Jehovah and like U2 there are Christian references throughout his music. Fascinating, I know! But in Nashville I got to know the most troubled human being I have ever known and it all centered around his beliefs. I no longer speak to him as it is pointless, for when someone is in a cult there is little you can do without massive support to stage and intervention. And while I loved this boy like a son, there was no way to accomplish this and so when I moved I wanted to reach out and leave the door open. It is now firmly closed and locked. Anyone who watched that insurrection at the Capital and did not see all the religious symbolism was not looking hard enough. While he was not there, he was there in spirit, in a creepy way.
This morning the Tennessean had this op-ed which I think sums up the religions movement to the right of sane. How Christian America betrayed the Kingdom of God. In this the writer makes the point how the Religious Right evolved into this new version of the KKK.
Then came the 1960s, the decade that challenged the ethics of power and dominance that the white church in America had practiced since the birth of the nation. That was the perfect time for “Christian America” to finally take stock of itself in light of the teachings of Jesus on the one hand and the First Amendment on the other.Some segments did, but the white evangelical segment did not. Instead, it doubled down on attempts to exert Christian control at every level of government, from the local courthouse to the United States Capitol.
The author wisely points out that Black Christianity has never mixed nor confused the message of Christ and hence the use of the Church to lobby for civil rights and practice non-violence in their embrace of a movement. A movement you have seen since in the growth to register and vote Black citizens in States where they have gone out of way to oppress Black votes. Again, living in Tennessee they have an elected Government that goes out the way to write hate bills into law. They are hideous group of men and women who are mired in the belief that they are good Christians, no they are masking as such and are screaming Racists, Homophobes and Misogynists. The current attempt to make women’s vagina’s property of the man is just another example of how they care little about humans and their free will and right to choose anything, control of their body, whom they vote for, how they work (anti union) and of course who they marry. Fun times in that old time religion that is very much in the present.
Then we have the most recent bizarre announcement by the Southern Baptist wing of the Evangelical right wing crazy –
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee expelled four churches — two for sexual abuse violations and two for affirming LGBTQ people— during a Tuesday meeting in Nashville.
The 80-plus member body, which acts on behalf of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention when it is not in session, deemed these churches to no longer be in friendly cooperation with the conservative evangelical denomination.
Their reasoning is of course idiotic and confusing sexual identity with predatory behavior is absurd! Again these are fucking assholes who are so full of hate and self loathing that they are now equating two entirely different issues as one in the same. NO! Here are their justifications.
Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, Tennessee, has been removed from the convention. The executive committee says the church employs a pastor convicted of statutory rape.
West Side Baptist Church in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, has been removed from the convention. The executive committee says the church employs a registered sex offender as a pastor.
Towne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, has been removed from the convention. The executive committee says the church affirms homosexual behavior.
St. Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has been removed from the convention. The executive committee says the church affirms homosexual behavior.
If the riots and insurrections were not enough proof that white men have lost their fucking minds, let me assure you this will confirm your worst fears.
In an effort to further restrict abortion in Tennessee, two Tennessee lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow a father to deny an abortion without the pregnant woman’s consent.
SB494/HB1079, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon and Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, would give a man who gets a woman pregnant the veto power to an abortion by petitioning a court for an injunction against the procedure.
Tennessee lawmakers already passed one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws last year, although much of it is held up with legal challenges from abortion rights advocates. The ongoing court battle could stretch for months if not years.
Despite the outlook for potential lawsuits, state lawmakers appear adamant in pushing for stricter abortion laws this legislative session. Including Pody and Sexton’s legislation, six bills to further restrict abortion have been filed this year.
Pody said Wednesday he introduced his bill after a Tennessee resident expressed concerns that fathers do not have a say over abortion under the current law. He said his bill would assure fathers’ right to make a decision about an unborn child.
“I believe a father should have a right to say what’s gonna be happening to that child,” Pody said. “And if somebody is going to kill that child, he should be able to say, ‘No, I don’t want that child to be killed. I want to able to raise that child and love that child.'”
But the bill language has drawn criticism from abortion rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and the state’s Planned Parenthood chapter.
“This unconstitutional legislation demonstrates the condescending mindset underlying this bill: that men should control women’s bodies,” ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said in a statement. “Women are not chattel and this bill needs to be stopped in its tracks.”
Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, called the bill “insulting” in a Wednesday statement. She criticized the legislative priorities of state lawmakers as “out of step with the dire needs” of Tennesseans amid a pandemic.
“A pregnant person must have the ultimate control over their body and their pregnancy,” she said in a statement. “The legislature needs to stop trying to distract the public from their leadership failures with increasingly stigmatizing abortion restrictions.”
How the bill would work
Under the bill, a judge would be able to grant the petition as long as the petitioner proves he’s the biological father of an unborn child and there is a “reasonable possibility” the woman would seek an abortion. If the woman acknowledges the petitioner’s fatherhood, no DNA evidence would be required, Pody said.
It would be up to the judge to ultimately decide if there’s enough evidence to establish one’s paternity, Pody said.
For unmarried couples, the father would have to voluntarily establish his paternity, but can do so without the woman’s consent. Once paternity is established, the father would have the ability to deny an abortion.
A man who voluntarily establishes paternity should be responsible for child support and fulfill other parental obligations, Pody said, and would not be able to rescind or challenge the acknowledgement of paternity afterward.
“He can’t turn around under any circumstance and say, ‘I was wrong, and it’s not mine,'” he said.
The injunction against the abortion could be granted even without both parties present for the proceedings, Pody said. The woman would be penalized at the court’s discretion if she violates the injunction.
The bill makes no exception for rape or incest. Weinberg said the legislation could lead to “dangerous” consequences.
“This extreme and dangerous bill would even allow a rapist to stop his victim from ending a pregnancy,” she said in the statement.
Hunt echoed Weinberg’s concern.
“Nobody should have the power to make health care decisions for someone else — not a judge, a partner, and certainly not a rapist regardless of paternity,” she said.
But Pody said he does not believe rapists would voluntarily go before the court and acknowledge their paternity to stop an abortion.
“If somebody comes up and says, ‘Yes, I raped her and I’m the father,’ he should immediately go to jail,” he said. “I just do not believe that somebody is gonna come in and say, ‘I committed this crime, I’m guilty of this crime. Put me in jail.'”
Tennessee’s abortion restrictions
Women seeking abortions are still allowed to do so under the current law, as legal challenges have halted enforcement for many of the restrictions.
The law passed last summer would prohibit abortions after the detection of fetal heartbeat, which can be as early as six weeks. The language includes an exception for women whose lives are in danger, but makes no exception for rape or incest. It would be considered a Class C felony for any physician to perform an abortion in those cases.
Under the law, doctors are also required to show the woman images of the fetus, allow her to listen to the fetal heartbeat and inform her of certain information about the fetus, including its gestational age, location within the uterus, dimensions, body parts and organs.
If anyone wondered why I left Nashville, this should cement it. I have never lived in a more repressive male dominated culture, that uses religion as a weapon to bring harm and damage. They are batshit crazy and little will convince me otherwise. This is a test case, more states will follow as this proceeds through the courts. It only takes one.
I have long discussed and written about Nashville and am now editing and revising posts to become essays in which to assemble in book form as a way of trying to explain what it is about the South and why many of the stereotypes and beliefs are in fact true but not in the way one believes. The South itself is complicated and is not easily defined by a single quality or characteristic, it in fact is much like where I was originally from, Seattle, divided by class, by money and by race. The singular exception and distinction is the obsession and reliance upon religion in which to both build community and ostracize others from said community. It is the greatest crutch and the biggest tool in which to destroy and in turn demonize anyone who simply cannot agree to comply and accept that without the Bible there is no sense of law and order and that is the only book in which matters, from which both the learned and the unlearned share. It is fucked up beyond belief that co-dependent relationship and in turn explains the racism, the sexism and the overall resistance to a cohesive rule and secular government.
I read this op-ed in the Tennessean and once again it states the facts as it is, neglecting of course the religious aspect as that is one critique which is not permitted nor tolerated under any circumstance, including those who have been victims of the Church’s dogma. The reality is that Nashville is not an “it” city, it is cheap man’s Vegas and is a city lost among itself as what it wants to be versus what it is. The rising Covid stats, the Governor’s and Legislatures avoidance of any type of guidance regarding staving off the disease, the business communities endless obsession with money over the lives of the citizens is what defines the region. Add to it the crime, most of it committed by teens or very young adults, the access and availability of guns and of course race makes the city utterly untenable as a safe space in which to live and work. Endless shootings, endless petty crimes and misdemeanors and sheer level of disregard by Police to engage in prevention and community building, leading to a new Chief finally being hired after decades of problems continues to demonstrate the priorities of what makes Nashville a shithole. Memphis has a much better hold on the reality of the area and it in turn is a by far more interesting city over Nashville but then again it’s a chocolate city and if you like vanilla then Nashville is all yours.
Nashville is appealing to higher-income earners, but everyone else is struggling
Why are people moving to Nashville? A recent article noted the relaxed COVID atmosphere, the availability of land, and the lack of income tax as reasons. Not diversity, equity or fair policies.
Maryam Abolfazli Guest Columnist. The Tennessean December 18 2020
What if I told you about a place that has great private schools, huge homes for relatively less than Austin or Arlington, beautiful backyards and hills, awesome private pools and sports clubs, great sports venues, tons of land and no income tax?
What would you think?
Maybe you’d be enticed, or perhaps you’d be concerned with other matters that I failed to mention. What about the public schools? Is the rent affordable? Are there good public parks and pools for kids? Decent public transportation? How much are average grocery costs? Food deserts anywhere? And how is the sales tax?
There is an invisible but distinct line that divides Nashville residents in our perceptions of progress. Depending on your own demographics, you might see Nashville and its “perks” very differently.
For instance, while zero state income tax might feel, for some, like a benefit to living in this city, it actually disproportionately harms the poor. According to a report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, when there is no income tax, “the lowest-income 20 percent pay up to six times as much of their income in taxes as their wealthy counterparts” through the burden of a high sales tax.
Low- and middle-income earners find it hard to live in Nashville
For many, Nashville seems to be a great seductress as a city, even during a pandemic. However, looking through a different lens shows a city in decline.
For a wealthy transplant or a current resident who is financially secure, a competitive housing market is at the forefront of selling points for the city.
This is very different from the viewpoint of Nashville’s low-to-middle income residents, many of whom are forced to leave the city due to the prohibitive cost of making a life here.
The reality is that Nashville ranks as more expensive to live in than Atlanta, Charlotte and Orlando — other major Southeastern cities. Average rent is $1,400 for a one-bedroom, while average hourly wage is about $17 an hour. While this would be considered a good wage for many, it means that over 50% of this wage could go to monthly housing costs, versus the recommended 30%.
If you’re at the minimum wage which, it should be noted, hasn’t changed in Tennessee in the last 10 years, you’re making more like $15,000/year. It might be easy to say, “Get a better job, then.”
If you’re looking for jobs with growth potential and training, many of the hospitality jobs that support Nashville’s success don’t offer these things. Despite programs with great intentions like Nashville Grad, there are still insufficient certification programs, and community college hasn’t quite solved the need for wrap-around services including transportation, childcare, and basic college counseling.
If you’re trying to build a life for yourself and your family and get out of a low-to-middle-income rut, Nashville may not be as appealing.
Affordable housing continues to be a vital issue for residents
At a meeting last year of the Metro Human Relations Commission (of which I am a member), an older resident made the significant effort to attend the meeting to make one simple request:
Please address the housing crisis in the city. She practically begged us. The discomfort in the room was palpable; we were faced with the desperation and truth she conveyed, juxtaposed to the reality of the booming real estate outside our windows.
The pandemic has shined a light on these differences, as the number of people experiencing homelessness increases and two more shelters have been opened to address the issue.
Employment claims have gone up in the lowest income neighborhoods, and organizations that support low income families in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods are seeing an increase in need. And yet, while many who have lost already low-earning jobs are forced to leave, others are eying Nashville with imperialistic aim.
So why are people moving here? A recent article in the Tennessean noted the relaxed COVID atmosphere, the availability of land, and the lack of income tax as reasons.
Socioeconomic and racial equity, diversity, and good policies for making a level playing field were not mentioned. Looking at the businesses and corporations relocating, from Amazon to Daily Wire, the appeal certainly isn’t a city solving or even taking responsibility for its social ills.
During a pandemic when some have lost everything while others have made notable gains, it’s easy to just focus on our individual realities, and double down on meeting our individual needs.
But Nashville has always been about more than individual wealth and comforts, and as it attracts more corporations and individuals looking for more wealth, it should remember those that are already here, making it the great town it is, who simply want to stay
Off the Rack Publishing 