Going to the Caucus
I screwed up and didn't get my "I'm disabled" form in by the 18th or so online. so me, my cane, my pain meds, my sugarless juice and I are dragging to the bloody caucus at some high school way the hell over in the next town on Saturday.. and I WILL NOT BE MOVED to shift to Hillary.
Nosirreeboberoonie.
Way back in the dark ages, my then-boyfriend who'd gone to Hendrix dragged me from Texas to Arkansas to see this guy he was excited about who was running for Governor. And we went to a fundraiser... .and I thought to myself.. he's got wandering eyes and he's probably a hounddawg, but he remembers every damned thing he ever read, eidetic memory, and he's funny, and unflappable... and then I met his wife... and my hackles went straight up. and stayed there. I didn't like her.. smug, courting money people already and in a weird way, already dismissing people who weren't either dripping cash or who had some skill or "intro" that she didn't have.
I didn't like girls like that in high school nor in college... the're only happy when they're campaigning with the wealthy and they play fast and loose with facts an accuracy..
I think I'll try to manipulate for a ranking title if the fix isn't already in for all HRC people... and just smile and nod and refuse to change my affiliation all the while... and see how many others ai can charm over.
I might even tell them about Ollie the Octopus.. because the moral of the story is not to sell the little guy short and sell him out fast. ::grin::
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Keep us posted! n/t
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Stand your ground
I understand those gut feelings upon introduction to certain people. The ones whose eyes are surveying the crowd beyond. Having never met either Clinton, alto I did watch then-Sen. Clinton arrive late to a NY opening gifting event once, I never had feelings of trust in either. Never voted for the man.
I wish you well for your caucus appearance.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Thanks for bearing that
hardship to go, Fentress. You will always be glad you did it.
The night of our caucus in Colorado, I was feeling poorly, my legs were weak. I was worried about standing for hours and walking a long distance.
But, I knew I'd be disappointed in myself forever if I didn't get my vote in. I took a folding, tripod type camping stool with me just in case, and parked illegally so I didn't have to walk so far.
Turned out, since it was at a school, all the kids' desks/chairs were available to sit on. A nice young lady brought me a padded folding chair which was more comfortable than the school desk chairs. So, it all turned out all right.
Bernie won my precinct with 57 for him and 21 for Hillary.
Since your caucus is at a high school too, at least you should be able to sit down when you get there.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Also a Colorado caucus attendee
Just for what it is worth, I saw exactly zero efforts to sway a person's vote at my precinct and the other precincts that met in the same location. I was the Sanders precinct captain, and one of the first things I did was to ask if we had any undecided attendees. The answer was "no"- everyone had solidly made up their minds already. So I called the question, we voted, filled out the paperwork, and got people on their way quite quickly. There were a couple of speeches, one each from HRC and Sanders supporters, but there was zero arm twisting done within the range of my vision...
Definitely grab a chair when you get there, if you don't take one with you. It does seem to take a while for them to get everybody registered and get all of the organizational foofaraw out of the way...
Yea, you go grrrl!
(Yikes, do they still say that?)
See if you can borrow a wheelchair. No, really. Takes a lot of the strain off your
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Glad you're going and voting for Bernie..
You go fentress
Maybe you could convince a couple Hillary supporters to come to the light side.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
Good luck, fentress
We don't have caucuses in my state so I'm always fascinated by them. Please post back and tell us how it went.
I hope you have a relatively comfortable and fun evening!
My exposure to her
First came just before BC announced he was seeking the presidency.
I was a cochair of an ABA committee, subcommittee, really. We were all tech oriented, and our bar meeting discussed things like allowing computers into the court, what word processing software works for lawyers, and more. Laptops had not yet existed in any useable form. The Internet was a great mystifying place, and listservers were a hot topic. Browser wars had not yet happens. (Netscape who?)
We were told that we were designated a keynote speaker, and POW, all these glossy posters suddenly appeared, promoting one of the top ten trial lawyers in the country as our keynote. Despite digging, we never found out who in the ABA arranged her as keynote speaker, why, and how she was picked. It had nothing to do with technology, yet that was what our conference was all about.
Funny part was, our subcommittee probably had four top trial lawyers in the country, one of the top probate, tax, criminal defense and from CA, one of the best known PI lawyers - our only connection was this new fangled beastie called a computer. None of us had ever heard of her, Ms. Rodham, Hillary Rodham.
Since I was a cochair, I had the distinct displeasure of arranging her talk, dealing with her, and dealing with sycophantic staffers. (The many glossy posters were a real shock, and quite expensive. And seriously, what private attorney had personal security? ) . She was rude, condescending, arrogant, uncooperative - in short, she was everything that our subcommittee was not. When she finally gave her speech, not only was she late, but she refused to cover any topic that we had suggested. Instead she said some crap about her husband being the governor of a state we had never heard of and how he would be making a surprise announcement shortly.
She even brought a group of cheerleaders who screamed and clapped at the proper time during her speech. The rest of us (a couple of 100 lawyers from across the country) were mystified at the cheerleading, her topic, and who the hell she was.
Cheerleaders. Unthefuckingbelievable. At an ABA tech meeting.
During the whole process, She repeatedly lied, especially when there was no reason to. After the conference ended, we took it upon ourselves to check out her claims of being a top ten trial lawyer. Turns out she had NEVER, EVER tried a case in court, much less a jury trial. She sat on the boards of some corporations I always thought were scummy. And basically, her whole CV that she flung at us and we used for her intro turned out to be all fluff, no fact.
Dealing with her was so distasteful that I can never forget it.
Only when the Paula Jones story broke, and she and BC appeared on some news program for a joint interview did I recognize her as the same person who was so unbelievably rude 4-5 months earlier.
That was my personal intro to her, and it was vile. No, she was vile. I don't use that term loosely.
This should be Front Paged.
This is a first-hand account of an encounter that sets a historical perspective to HRC and the feelings of "Ick" that follow her everywhere.
Shame to see it buried in the comments.
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That's a great story, PA
and worthy of its own diary, but I thank you for telling it. I don't like her policies or her associates or the way she's handled every job she's had while she's been in the public spotlight, so that was always reason enough not to vote for her. And I try not make personal assumptions about her character as they often don't have anything to do with the question at hand.
I have wondered if Hillary is a bad candidate, the type of person I disagree with, or maybe bad on television, but my instinct has always been that she's just an awful excuse of a human being. Having never met her personally, I try to remember that its just my impression and I don't KNOW. But your story, along with several others I've run across lately, make me think my instinct about her has been dead on from the beginning. And thank you, because that makes me feel better about my instinctive loathing of her going back to the 90s
PA...You and Fentress are scaring the hell out of me
with your personals stories of HRC. There was always some part of my dislike for her that I could not identify, above and beyond the obvious, and now it all makes sense. Heaven help us if she gets in the Oval Office.
Write a diary/blog/essay.
'Dealing with her was so distasteful that I can never forget it' needs to be headlined. All that fakey 'just like your abuela' nonsense is obscene.
Wow
That's quite a chilling personality sketch. . . .
When I met her it was a barbecue fundraiser for her hubs' run
for gov. He was interested in going from table to table under trees shaking hands, sipping a tea (not a beer, to my surprise, most of the men had beers); and rolling up his sleeves and flirting with the women, trying on ball gloves when they were held out to him; and she was knotted in with some overdressed women (overdressed for a sweaty picnic.. almost stepford moms); and talking babies and motherhood.. I was not married not a mom and never wanted to be (and as luck would have it, never had an accident for birth as it was) and when I asked what was going on, I was told by one of the slightly older Stepford wives that "you wouldn't like it".
An approximate decade prior to that dismissal, I had been in Chicago playing tag with teargas and outnumbered by cops with billy clubs and some unauthorized beating tools, mostly running for my life when not demonstrating. I'd snuck away to Chicago. It was discovered where I was before I returned and I got yanked out of the U of AZ by my family and stuck in a small protestant church owned Texas college a few hours from home instead in retaliation. However, I wasn't treated like a kindergardener or a kid still playing with dolls by Stepford bots. I was treated like an out of control revolutionary by my pissed off family, which I was. What should have happened in August 1968 and September is that I should have been seen daily by a shrink for a while. I was *really shook up. Scared out of my gourd by blue uniforms, and to this day if I see a billy club or its equivalent, I start shaking and lose track of conversation around me.
Being told to piss off in so many words by one of HRC's syncophants was just another irksome distraction. Someone got WJC to talk about human rights and health care (a big deal to me as I'd seen to many Viet Nam Vets who couldn't deal and for whom the VA wasn't doing its job -- at that time it didn't occur to me how many people his age and mine would be unable to pay a simple hospital bill 30 years down the road). He impressed me, but I didn't live in his state. HRC NEVER impressed me that day. That fundraiser was almost too many people, but it was spread out most of the time.
FWIW, growing up I had a paternal aunt who was REALLY hero material.. one of the earliest members of NOW; progressive -- probably what you'd call a "socialist". She also got involved with NARAL which horrified all the paternal Catholic male relatives and she didn't give a flip. Also, she was college degreed when so many women my mother's age were DENIED college and even denied jobs to pay for college. I DREAMED of women heroes; wanted more women like Eleanor Rooseveldt. I never for a second considered a fvcking "cheerleader team captain" to be a "hero".
TBH, I am afraid of caucusing, afraid of crowds....been frightened of crowds even at rock concerts after Chicago 1968 -- never got over it -- don't even like going to movie theaters (or malls on crowded days). Didn't like crowded bars or dance clubs due to noise and the human crush. However, this really REALLY matters to me. I consider this possibly our last hope in this country, on thie planet, in my lifetime. Seems like now or never and just flush us away please.
Having read replies here, I'll take a lightweight folding chair with me. This is a junior high. Those desks are often tiny. I'll empty most of the crap out of my shoulder bag, add a thermos of iced filtered water and a bag of apple chips, and another bag of almonds, as well as my much hated lenovo pad. Weighs a bit, but with everything out of the bag, but ID, cash, cards and nibbles, it'll fit. My cane is some lightweight wood from the Ozarks, I think. It's a racoon head and torso and weighs less than a single shoe.
Also, I decided on Dearfoam clogs instead of the less comfortable Mephistos. I'm going for comfort over "pretty" so I can stay focused. I don't want to make an ass out of myself by dithering. I want to do the right thing.. for myself and for other women over 65, not just for Bernie Sanders.
Want others to shine and me not be too noticed.
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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%
Good Luck
and hope that any discomfort is so minimal as to be unnoticeable.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
w00t! Go get 'em! I'll keep you in thought all day. Do update.
Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.
Yes!
I hope it's as painless as possible. My god, voting shouldn't be such a pain in the ass.
Thanks for your dedication!
Good Luck!
I and Mrs Bollox felt great after casting our votes for Bernie here in Minnesota.
Such that Kos and his silly site felt like very small potatoes in the scheme of things.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
That's how I see him already
and if he doesn't recover from this, well, he CHOSE it.
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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%
Fentress, where are you caucusing? We will be at
Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
A junior high school in Arlington, off 172nd
just W. of I-5, not far from Costco, Five Guys burgers, Target, Best Buy, and twin lakes. I used to head out that way a lot, but would turn back along I-5 to get to the Plant Farm, which went under last winter due to a *really vicious divorce forcing its closure and sale. I am having to scramble for strawberry starts this year (organic, perennial, indeterminate). Starts at 10 a.m. I pre-registered on line, have printed out the forms and filled them out as much as possible, ca turn them in, flash ID and voter registration, unfold chair and park, I HOPE...
am going there more like an hour instead of half an hour early in order to get a good parking place as well as a good seat inside.
I sneaked into Seattle a couple of times with bags of groceries and an envelope of bail money for OWS occupants. Were you in with those people, library and all? I thought that was SO civilized of the Seattle bunch.
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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%
A little caucus history in WA:
1992: Bill Clinton may have been known as the “comeback kid” in the 1992 Democratic race, but Washington caucus-goers were cool to him. Clinton placed fourth in the caucuses, behind ex-Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas, former (and present) California Gov. Jerry Brown, and “uncommitted.” The state GOP sticks by President George H.W. Bush, who goes on to lose to Clinton in November.
Let's hope Hillary places third behind uncommitted.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
That was about 2 years
before I came up here. I lost a coin toss with my late husband to determine whether he moved to Texas or I here. I "lost" the toss. I lucked out. Dallas's hospitals weren't using TpA yet on people with heart attacks. I had one in 1995, and was given it in WA, and in Dallas I would have died.
Let's hope Bernie wipes the floor with her, but remember that E. WA. could for once since I-5 corridor developed, be a spoiler. ::shudder::
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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%
I am looking forward
to the caucus tomorrow. I took a "dry run" today, it took 5 minutes. I will be attended by my "companion", my O2 tank. For those who wonder if their phone calls make a difference, I wasn't going to go until someone called me from Bernie's campaign. I will go tomorrow and report on it. (WA, Spokane)
BEST OF GOOD WISHES FOR YOU.
Spokane's kind of a tough venue, isn't it?
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Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%
Good luck at the caucus tomorrow!
My sister's caucusing in Seattle somewhere. (Yes, for Bernie.)
I always thought it would be kind of cool to go to a caucus, though I can also see the drawbacks.
(BTW, Fentress, your kitty looks a lot like my Chaplin! Yay for black-nosed tuxies!)