I laughed my ass off about Senator Bob Corker suddenly calling out Trump saying he doesn't have the stability or competence to lead effectively.  Well to that better late then never you excuse maker and yet Corker still voted for him and often defended the fuckwit.  So them is fighting words and perhaps Corker is in fact not running for re-election as Trump is beloved here and if he is running for Governor apparently that will also hurt him.  (or not they are really stupid here)

So when Corker who is also quite typical comes out and starts criticizing our Il Douchebag in Chief I busted out laughing. That cagey prick is quite passive aggressive and in turn just as corrupt and idiotic in the same manner.  His history of tax evasion and other folly's are well documented here and yet he was elected to the Senate.  Where irony he is in the Finance committee.  Perfect frankly. He could look into Trump's and it would be like looking into a mirror.

But yet is the current round of Trump criticism that may lead Corker to "choose" not to run for Senate re-election and why we have the 100 year old crypt keeper Lamar Alexander firmly in place  this tragedy - both Charlottesville and Trump's election - has finally opened the dialogue to perhaps examine the history and more importantly the future.
I live in the South and for the past year have been mystified, angry, amused and largely resigned with regards to the way people communicate here.  And yet this tragedy in Charlottesville finally opened the door to the dialogue  about the issue of Race.   But talking is one thing doing is another.  Words but more importantly deeds matter.

I want to point out that Race is secondary to the matters that plague the South as it is not the color black that is the problem, it is the color of green that is.  The massive segregation is that of class and economics.  Then within that class it is divided by Race and Religion followed by Ethnicity and in turn Sexuality.   So that hierarchy is flexible when one is famous and/or rich but it is rarely challenged here as those who are would not live here as there is nothing to offer them other than low taxes. But you can have that in many States that have similar tax bases and less oppressive politics so why again would you choose to live here? 

And then it is when you speak to those of color they have nothing good to say about the "other" and that includes other Ethnic groups, other Religions not Christian and basically anyone who is not a Heterosexual.  And yet RuPaul could come here in full drag and the White and Black community would sashay immediately to a meet and greet.  Other than the heavy Jesus crew they would not and again that crosses color lines. 

I thought it was interesting that Oprah lived in Nashville and went to TSU and failed to graduate due to one credit. Again this is a story I hear repeatedly and it is always oddly faces of color that share similar tales that even I have a hard time believing it and then again this is the place where I think lying while talking is a part of the culture.  And yes that includes Oprah and in some ways makes sense on why she is so successful.  But her  relationship with her father is very fractured and she has little to do with the city despite that he still  lives in the area but that too is a bizarre and very typical scene here. 

Oddities about here.  The amount of Book Festivals, acclaimed Literary Journals published here, amazing Fine Arts colleges and programs, the Nashville Public Library system is nationally recognized and yet I know few who read and again with 30% of the population educated why read?  It is surreal the level of ignorance that dominates the dialogs here.  Oprah needs to start that book club again. 

People in the South LIVE BREATHE and DIE in the past. There are hundred of markers, not just Statues, that endlessly share some obtuse "fact" of history that happened in that place or near that place or about that person or whatever bullshit that whoever puts these up feels in needs mention.  It is fact overload and few if anyone I have ever met read them.  So why the hysteria about a Statue? Well no one actually cared about the Confederate flag either until that was used to kill innocent people in a Church.  That they were black and the punk was a screaming racist was not the real issue.  I can assure you it was because it happened in a Church, the house of God and all that is sacred. Had the punk wrapped himself in the same flag or even made a jumpsuit out of it, renamed himself Nathan Forrest Bedford (proud Tennessean and founder of the KKK) and ran into a Waffle House and killed all the black patrons, that flag would be still hanging on the Capital Steps. 

But that outrage carried over and in time the discussion of that flag - another irony that Nikki Haley was the Governor of South Carolina at the time and is now in the Trump orbit and oddly silent as her boss is one step removed from Dylan Root - that led to its removal.  And now that has been directed toward the Statues and in turn the names of Buildings and other markers that recognize without context who these people are.  I have no problem with said buildings or statues only that we have these same markers that they love with the proper epitaph that says who these assholes are and were and why they are there.  We could have a Confederate Museum for all I care and if you CHOOSE to go there and honor a bunch of racists who am I to say no?  But then that is where it should stop.  I want to walk down a street or enter a building that is not named after some figure of hate and division.  Why would anyone?  Flown into Nixon International lately? Oh wait...

And there has been some push back with regards to some of the Statues (here and across the country) with our Governor encouraging said removal,  this falls to our  infamous State Legislature here or home of the Beav as I like to call it thanks to my love of crazy batshit Mae Beaver (and perhaps inspiration for the crazy eyed Bedford statue on I-65) has the final call on it. And given the hysteria of moving Polk's tomb out of the Capital and back to his home I don't think this will be resolved any time soon.  One thing that is consistent is that time moves on a whole other continuum here, might be the humidity.