The Day Obama Socked it to the Harper Valley PTA

This sweet little dish was made back in July but I'm writing this in October, just 23 days from the November Election.  Something serious has just gone down in Yemen but it will take days before I understand it. Instead on my day off I feel the need to bleed out my thoughts on Trumps bus leak transcripts and finally put this thing to rest (in my head). You never know what you're going to spend time thinking about and it's hard to truly understand why a particular action or event might bother you as opposed to another.

Initially when I listened to the audio from the bus footage I was totally disgusted but it came as no surprise to me that Donald Trump from what we now know about him, spoke like this.  The beginning was repulsive but then he went that much further than say the drunkest biggest asshole at the bar in describing and being specific about actions.  And this was key in the words and his past words actually, suddenly becoming so much more powerful. It didn't change anything politically for me except to increase my deep dread of living in a post winning Trump world.  In the back of my mind I was kind of excited to at least see the few people I know that have held onto him as a candidate finally concede enough is enough.  It wasn't until more thinking people brought up that he was describing actual sexual assault did I really understand how big this was for our country in a weird way.   A very high profile man had just done the unthinkable and it was caught on tape for all to replay lest he try to deny it.  Joy, Joy!

And then, I read just a few too many defenders.  'These are just words'.   'Tell me you haven't said things like this before or worse'.  (* btw side note: my husband and I pride ourselves on out-cruding each other on a regular basis but our grossest humor never crosses into that hateful, dark world of wrongness that Trump so eloquently laid down on Bush). Someone's meme read:  'People are afraid of words but will let a man in the same bathroom with their daughter'. I felt all sick for a day.  Wow, was I over reacting?  I stopped reading all the backlash and thought it was time to go onto more important issues. Then Trump defended himself.  And to this day he digs even deeper into this huge ugly hole by claiming 'those women' who are accusing him are 'not attractive' and would never be his first choice....for assault mind you.  This is his response to sexual allegations!!!??  People that I know and love are okay with this???  Talk about alternate universes.  What is happening right now?









First of all, I woke up and realized. I know this man very well.  I am unfortunately super aware of this mindset.  But this isn't about me or me having to deal with past abuse.  This was about acknowledging just how many men and women know this man and continue to allow him to carry on decade after decade, every reincarnation of this asshole that lurks and we generally don't try to stop them because it's uncomfortable. We are all Billy Bush in some respects.  How many women had to deal with a Trump in their life intimately?  How many guys did you suspect thought this way but couldn't even bring yourself to believe it.  How many times because of exactly the reaction of a huge portion of the country have so many of us women just gritted our teeth and shoved various forms of sexual assault under the rug because we didn't want to bum anyone out?  And for me personally it's even more sad and disturbing for women to ignore or play down the power of those words especially in 2016.

But then this week, Michelle Obama gave a speech and I don't know if I took one breathe for the first five minutes. I felt her words so strongly one because she was serving them up them with a conviction I had not seen before.  But two because she was fucking reading my mail all week!  I couldn't stop thinking about this. I was feeling this personally, this is not acceptable!  Her words were screaming in my head all week dying to come out.  The whole of America was hearing this speech from the most powerful woman I can think of at the moment.  She was not only calling major bullshit, she was sorting and organizing my week of disparaging thoughts.  The foundation, the history, the deep contrast of the world right now..beautiful progressive movements celebrating women and this crazy train thinking that too much of the country is supporting.  It's not a regular election.  This is not normal!  This is right versus wrong.  No woman deserves to be treated this way and let's be honest, a non reaction is a slap in the face to all women. These human decency rules apply for either candidate, man or woman.  But like she said, this wasn't necessarily about politics at that moment.  And even if she wasn't the president she was our First Lady, the mom-in-chief doing what needed to be done at that very moment as a voice for all thinking women and men.  She finally said the words I wanted to hear,  Enough is Enough!  And then she said 'This has got to stop, right now!' like in the most epic mom voice ever and for all of America to hear.  Talk about the power of words!

Cauliflower Steak Pizzas with mushrooms, onions and turkey sausage.