Chaos Attraction

Recap Day: October 2017, Continued

2017-12-24, 10:47 a.m.

I also got to see Hillary Clinton!
The setup: it was supposed to start at 7:30, I went over there after work and they had the whole place pretty much fenced off and they said they wouldn't let anyone through security until 6. Security appeared to be manned by the local college kid security team, I wasn't seeing cops or anyone looking Secret Service-y at the time. I did find out there was a secret "photo opportunity" going on but since I'm a peon, I didn't get to do that. Nobody really knew where to line up for the metal detectors, exactly, so people milled around and three newsvans filmed people milling around. I saw various "I'm with her," or "I'm still with her" or other campaign shirts and some pussy hats, which made me wish I'd thought to bring mine.

Going through security originally wasn't too bad, we weren't allowed to keep water bottles but otherwise they just vaguely felt up the bottom of my bag and made me walk through the metal detector without the phone in the pocket. I thought I had scored by getting through security without too much drama, because I was pretty much expecting an anal probing or something. I found a bench and was reading a book when I got told by two ushers that nobody was allowed to bring any kind of purse or coat into the theater. I was...really unthrilled to say the least about this (was trying to be polite but really wasn't able to totally mask my cheesed-off-ness) and when I was forced to check my bag and coat, I said that it really would have been nice to have gotten any kind of warning about stuff like this say, from the theater’s e-mails/put on the website/whatever. She said "they didn't tell us this was happening until an hour ago." Geez, Secret Service. Then of course when i got to my seat, I saw people who were allowed to have purses and coats. Grrr again. I'm specifically mentioning this if anyone else ever goes around a situation like this for the first time, now you know, because I didn't.

For the record, despite someone on the stage saying the place was crawling with Secret Service, I really just saw the two dudes in suits at each doorway by the stage and that was about it. if there were more than that they weren't dressing like I've seen on television. There were far more police outside along with the security 20somethings when we left more than anything else.

Anyway, Hillary had on a lovely pink shiny checkered jacket on. She did a talk by herself for about 35-40 minutes which was pretty recappy of the book in some respects (we all got copies with our tickets but not everyone had picked them up and finished ahead of time), but I liked it. It was a combination of recap, honesty, and rallying cry a bit. She expressed sympathies for our fires and the other disasters going on right now and how ah, someone should be doing something about that. She said she came here because Bill really really loved it when he came here before (he's come 3 times) and still raves about it being the best event ever. She wrote the book because now she can let her hair down, as it were. She talked about how we need gun control and cannot accept 270 mass shootings (so far) this year as normal. She said she didn't like being asked how she was doing for a while but eventually said that as a person she was doing ok but as a citizen she's worried (and still is).

She summed things up as having found four lessons that are applicable to the situation.
1. I get knocked down but I get up again (she didn't sing Chumbawamba but it sure went through my head), a.k.a stay involved, active, and fighting. She admitted to staying in bed/yoga/nostril breathing/Chardonnay/wood walks and yelling at her TV for awhile, but it helps to go channel emotion into something constructive. The people who wish she'd shut up apparently have not been paying attention for years.

She's concerned about health care and the CHIP program being defunded and the lack of bipartisanship going on, what does it say about us to let a children's health care program go defunded.

2. "There is no such thing as an alternative fact." She certainly has a lot to say about Russian interference, hacking, those targeted Facebook ads (lots to say about that), the birth control ban. "Sometimes I do feel like Alice down the rabbit hole."

3. The only way we will get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics. It's a tightrope women have to walk and it's "depressing but fascinating." Men get success/are likeable, women get hated if they get success. It's only okay if a woman advocates for others, but not herself. "People like me when I'm serving in a supportive role," she said, with a long smirk. But if you want to lead...all women in politics have stories. But it can be deeply rewarding. She noted that picture of all the white guys deciding about women's health care and her favorite meme about the dogs deciding on feline health care. Just by being at the table you make a difference. She quoted LMM about the room where it happens and that representation matters. "You can't be what you can't see."

The election was a perfect storm of circumstances that are still with us. Her e-mails got "more coverage than WWII." She called the Russians a clear and present danger and we should all be disturbed at the targeted ads, because negative ads work. "Putin is not interfering in our discourse just because he's bored," though he likes to play bored as a strategy. He has a grudge against her (for saying that Russia should have free elections) and wants to destroy Western democracy. The Internet is the new kind of cold war and it's just getting started--wars in cyberspace.

4. If you take nothing else away from tonight--"we cannot just move on." We need to learn from this, bridge the divide.

After that there was a Q and A with a guy named Scott-- never caught his last name. Scott found the book to be a revelation because she was being so blunt in it. She talked about her second debate and the dilemmas she had going through her head the entire time--it's one thing to practice running from the Trump impersonator ("if there's ever a course on Trump, this man should be guest lecturer") and figuring out what to do if he started yanking on her, but it's another to have it happening in practice. She wanted to speak up but knew what kind of horrible reactions she'd get if she didn't. She'd get called "angry" and people would say she couldn't take it, etc.

Nobody was prepared for running against a reality TV candidate, they agreed. "I couldn't figure out how to break through." What do you do when a guy takes pride in not being prepared? She did comment that the news focused too much on Trump's drama rather than policies--"I would give a speech and he would insult somebody. And that's what got covered." She said that she still reads the Times and thinks they were bewildered and did not know what to do. On the other hand, she made a crack that if Trump ripped off his shirt and she lost a button the headline would be "Both candidates suffer wardrobe malfunction." She also said the Times were clearly paying attention, but just didn't tell their readers.

They talked about Hillary's mother and her past history--the night ended with Scott asking Hillary to read from the book the part in her victory speech about her mother.

Why did she lose? She cited Comey's October Surprise and says she still has no idea why he did that. Why did Giuliani seem to know about it two days in advance? Why was the FBI investigating Trump but wouldn't say anything a bout that "too close to the election?" She felt validated by Rosenstein's memo, but also sick. Comey has no satisfactory explanation for what he did.

The Dutch, French, and Germans have learned from what happened to us with Russia and are taking precautions. "It's pretty clear Putin doesn't respect women." She recounted how Putin made sure he brought a giant dog around Angela Merkel. "I really don't care if he likes me or not," but she does care that he doesn't like America. Does she think this is bigger than Watergate--yes, back then it was just a simple burglary. Now they're hacking election systems, there's voter suppression going on all over the place, "voter fraud" is a tiny problem that they are trying to substitute in instead. She pointed out the voter suppression in Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina specifically and said that "blue" states don't do that. Suppression is the problem, not voter fraud.

What would she advise other female politicians? You need to have a high pain threshold due to the double standards. You need to push that sort of thing out into the daylight, don't let people just sigh and forget about it. Don't be afraid to talk about it. She talked about how Elizabeth and Kamala persisted (noting that after Elizabeth was kicked off the Senate floor it was perfectly fine for a man to read that letter and nobody said anything) and how Kamala got "Hillary'd" in the pressed. Also, be prepared for really horrible things being said about you. "They accused me of everything." Also, "I'm the most amazing serial killer you've ever met." She recounted the whole Pizzagate shooting and was hard pressed to not call the guy what she wanted to say--I think for a long time she was just kind of silently floundering until she came out with "susceptible."

Let's define sexism vs. misogyny!
Sexism: everyday bigoted comments, dismissive attitude, women can't do their jobs well, "threaded within quilt of society."
Misogyny: hated of women, virulent, rooted in power relationships. She brought up GamerGate and the level of hatred Zoe Quinn got for saying that there should be more women in games--that's misogyny.

What happened to the white women voters? Well, she did get the college educated vote, but posits that the Comey letter got a lot of white women to back off, especially if they were getting social pressure to not vote for her. Also, women of color "just can see through things better."

She talked about Mothers of the Movement for a while, saying this was insane stuff, like shooting kids for playing loud music in a car like teenagers are gonna do. How can this happen, why are we letting this happen--that's why she's highlighting these stories.

And like I said ahead of time, she finished off by reading about her mother.

So there you go. The hippie liberals of my town liked it and gave several standing O's.

Continue to page 3....


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