White educated female Democrat votes red for the first time By Emma Palova EW Emma’s Writings Grand Rapids, MI- Reeling off from the historic “unprecedented & unpredictable” Election 2016…
Source: Against all odds
Against all odds
White educated female Democrat votes red for the first time
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Grand Rapids, MI- Reeling off from the historic “unprecedented & unpredictable” Election 2016 with President-Elect Donald Trump soon to take residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, I admit that I am glad it’s over.
Wearing a red sweater for the occasion, I cast my ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 11 a.m. at precinct no.1 at the Vergennes Township Hall on Bailey Road. I couldn’t find a parking space. After voting I took a selfie with a selfie stick in front of the township hall. It was windy and cloudy. I was shivering, and not just from the wind.
I didn’t expect Trump to win anyways much like the media, the polls and the political pundits.
“You’re an idiot,” my mother Ella yelled at me on Wednesday, “just like the rest of the people who voted for him. The whole world thinks that. The stocks have gone down.”
Okay, thank you mom.
Coming from generations of Liberals, I was supposed to vote for Secretary Hillary Clinton.
After all I am a white educated female Democrat who started her blogging/design business Emma Blogs, LLC on the WordPress platform in 2013.
But, my business and entrepreneurial spirit have nothing to do with my vote for the 45th president of the USA.
I consider myself a people’s woman and I have always voted Democratic until now. I would have voted for Bernie Sanders, if he had stayed in the race.
But, not for Hillary.
As a victim of politics of the Prague Spring 1968 in former Czechoslovakia when the Soviet tanks invaded the country, I do not put up easily with lies, tactics and establishment.
And I write about my encounters with politics throughout my life in the memoir “Greenwich Meridian.” (c)
Thus, I am more keen and sensitive when someone is lying to me and to other billions of people around the world. Hillary’s private server, erased e-mails, Wall Street speeches and funding of her presidential campaign from the Clinton Foundation, didn’t resonate well with me.
It takes a lot more than a polished lying lawyer sporting a blue or white suit and a great blonde haircut, to convince me.
Lies were the biggest issue that the voters had with Hillary and they expressed it in the following keywords:
Liar/Not trustworthy.
“I made a mistake,” she said on the theme of the proverbial private server and the erased e-mails.
I should have been more graceful and forgiving, we all make mistakes.
But, I wasn’t. Considering Hillary’s political history and my political history, there was not enough grace left in me.
On the other hand, I should have been offended by Trump’s misogyny and his rough language at the debates and rallies around the country, his bullying and overall disregard for some human values.
His language did offend me, but there was a grain of forgiveness in me.
I separated the former bully from the agent of change. That apparently struck accord with the majority of voters; that is Trump’s promise of change.
I watched him defy the establishment of both parties, while mocking the media all along. Hillary would have only been an extension of President Obama’s policies. And I voted for Obama twice.
President-Elect Trump didn’t bypass the importance of the rural and blue-collar votes in the Midwest. I love rural America. It’s been my home for 20 years. Michigan became one of the battleground states in the pivotal hours of the election.
On election eve, Trump made his last stop at DeVos Hall in Grand Rapids at 11 p.m. with 10,000 people present.
“This is our Independence Day,” he said to the crowd.
On Wednesday Nov. 9 at 2:45 a.m., I watched his victory speech starting out with tears in his eyes.
“This was tough,” he said about the campaign. “It’s complicated business.”
Spreading his arms wide to the audience and looking directly into the camera, Trump said.
“I love you.”
Let independence from old establishments, institutions and biased media ring around the world.
Good luck and God Bless Mr. President-Elect. Protect the freedoms and independence in this great country.
Copyright © 2016 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Madame Secretary
Hillary Clinton concedes race to President-Elect Donald Trump on Wednesday
By Donald Brookins, ACVN co-founder
Election special for Emma Blogs, LLC
Tampa, FL-The results are in for the 2016 Presidential Election. Donald J Trump is our new President- Elect. He defeated Secretary Clinton in the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. Looking back on the Clinton campaign Hillary lost this election the moment she made the reckless decision to create a private server for her emails when she knew it was against State Department guidelines. What is even more unforgivable to me is she tried to be slick about it once it was discovered via Congressional investigation.
Secretary Clinton’s actions only confirmed what a majority of the American electorate thought about her as a candidate. The electorate believed her to be a liar, a crook, and a Washington insider. All of these perceptions were confirmed by her actions involving her email server. Secretary Clinton never took responsibility for her behavior or her actions. She never apologized. She deflected when asked to say it was wrong to have a separate server by saying “she would never do that again.”
President – Elect Trump seized upon her bad behavior and used it as a weapon and rallying cry to predominately uneducated white blue-collar voters to win the election. Trump ran as a Populist outsider. I am deeply sad because Hillary Rodham Clinton was more prepared and more capable to be our next President than any other candidate. She just had too much baggage; she made the mistake of arming Trump with a powerful weapon when all she had to do was disarm him by getting in front of the issue the moment she decided to run for President. I believe if she had apologized to the American People and took responsibility for her actions, she would have been elected the 45th President of the United States.
It is crystal clear to me that the party of Reagan is no more; Obamacare is dead, the Obama coalition that won the 2008 and 2012 elections has been severely damaged; and that Donald Trump has made legitimate all of the seedy elements of white Nationalism.
The 2016 contest is over and the PEOPLE have spoken. My candidate did not win. But in a democracy when all the votes have been counted we accept the results and come together to support our new President. So in the spirit of unity with respect to our beloved constitution – God Bless our new President Donald J Trump and God Bless the United States of America.
For more info and radio episodes go to: Americas Community Voices Network at http://www.americascommunityvoicesnet.org
Copyright (c) 2016 ACVN. All rights reserved.
Live: Donald Trump wins US election and vows to ‘bind the wounds of division’ as world leaders react – Mirror Online
Election 2016 unleashes the force of democracy
Election 2016 attracts voters in droves, creates tension
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Grand Rapids, MI – Voting in small towns of America, and everywhere else, matters.
I voted today at 11 a.m. in precinct 1 at the Vergennes Township Hall in Kent County. There were no parking spaces left, and there was a steady stream of voters.
I was voter no. 471 in what the media dub as an “unprecedented & unpredictable” election.
Both candidates Mr. Donald Trump and Mrs. Hillary Clinton stumped heavily in Michigan, which is traditionally a blue state.
Clinton spoke at a rally of 4,000 people at the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) on Nov.7th.
Trump held his final rally on election eve at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There was a massive crowd for the event estimated at 10,000. People lined up on the bridge over the Grand River to get into the hall carrying their coolers packed with food.
Political pundits are calling Election 2016, a consequential election.
“This election is between division and strong leadership, the opposition is a loose cannon,” said spokesperson for Clinton’s campaign “Stronger Together.”
Trump called himself an agent of change at the Grand Rapids rally last night.
“Today is our Independence Day,” he said. “My only special interest is to you.”
What some call an insurgent candidacy, Trump made 14 campaign stops in 72 hours.
“Will this be an end to the insurgence by Trump and will Hillary be able to shatter that glass ceiling,” political analysts asked these questions.
I’ve been voting since I became an American citizen through the naturalization process at the Grand Rapids Ford Museum in 1999, along with my daughter Emma Palova Chavent, MD.
But, I’ve never been nervous about it until the eve of the election and today. Actually the anxiety sank in last week, after reading through hundreds of election-related Facebook posts.
I even received texts from my Czech friends asking about the integrity of the election.
“The Czech media favor Hillary,” wrote Ales Kobylik. “They keep this inflated bubble that there is no way that Donald Trump could win. In all respect what do you think?”
And my Czech- Canadian friend D.P. even bought a small TV, so she could follow the candidates’ campaigns and the election in the USA. That’s a big honor of our election system because D.P. does not watch TV.
“I bought that TV because of you,” she laughed.
“Really, you are that interested in our election?” I said uneasily.
“Sure, because Trump might close the borders,” D.P. said.
And now we have it all laid out in front of us after months of campaigning, rhetoric and derogatory language from both sides, the GOP and the Dems.
At one point, as the campaigning progressed throughout the summer and fall, I arrived to a fleeing conclusion that I wasn’t going to vote.
From a moral and character stand point of view, I don’t believe in either one of the candidates, Mrs. Hillary Clinton or Mr. Donald Trump.
They both have proven that they are unfit to lead this country. Mrs. Clinton’s past as the First Lady and as the Secretary, as well as having the private server and the 33,000 erased emails speak for themselves.
As for Mr. Trump, if his present roughness is any indicator of his potential future leadership skills, then the country would get the “perfect” dictator.
“Stalin or Ceausescu?” you ask.
“Take your pick, they were all the same,” I answer. “And they never quit.”
Mr. Trump would first get away with our democracy, waving his hand:
“What a nuisance,” he would say.
Much like the Mexican illegal immigrants, or any other ones for that matter.
Bouncing back to Mrs. Hillary through the eyes of my friend Sheryl G. from Iowa who posted this:
“As you go to the polls this Tuesday, do your due diligence and your homework,” she wrote.” Hillary Clinton is the first and only First Lady to come under criminal investigation while serving as First Lady. Washington and Jefferson must be rolling over in their graves.”
However, to answer Ales’ question about Mr. Trump having a chance.
In spite of the polls and other opinions, both candidates may stand very well the same chance.
But, the real horror is regardless who becomes the 45th president:
“Is this the beginning of an end of an empire?”
“Look back over the past with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.”
-Marcus Aurelius
Copyright (c) 2016. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
November events inspire memoir
This is my story.
November events fuel Greenwich Meridian © memoir
By Emma Palova
Lowell, MI- The months of November and May, with events both in the family and in the history of the Czech Republic, have inspired entire chapters in my Greenwich Meridian © memoir.
November is significant historically and spiritually worldwide. The thread of events that I track in the memoir starts with All Souls Day on Nov. 2, touches on US elections and leads up to the 27th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on Nov. 17, a state holiday.
“We’re surrounded by death,” said Fr. Mark Peacock pointing to the shrine of the dead at the altar of St. Patrick’s Church in Parnell during mass last Sunday. “Look at the trees and the nature; but we know all will live again in the spring and in heaven.”
A Lourmarin water fountain.
On All Souls Day in former Czechoslovakia, we headed out to the decorated cemeteries to remember all the dead in the family. The cemeteries glowed in the night with only the light from thousands of candles.
Spooky, you might say. But entire families gathered at the graves to reminisce and pray. Before the souls remembrance day we cleaned and polished the monuments at the gravesites.
I loved the yellow spiky asters arranged in wreaths, pots and vases.
At that time in 1989, my grandpa Josef Drabek from Vizovice was already very sick. He was transferred from the hospital in Olomouc to the Hospital of the Merciful Brothers in his hometown Vizovice.
I visited him at the hospital on regular basis. Pale, skinny and weak, grandpa could always recognize me. Stepping inside the hospital room, I already feared the next time.
One Sunday afternoon, I took him in the wheelchair to the hospital garden. The leaves on the trees were still orange and red, and there was water in the fountain and the pond. I could hear coughing and I could smell smoke.
More men congregated by the garden shed. My socialite grandpa didn’t want to join the group. As we passed by them, I could not believe my eyes. Standing or sitting in their hospital striped robes, that were hanging down from what used to be their shoulders and chest, the terminally ill men were smoking.
With shaking hands and fingers, they were holding onto what may be their last cigarette.
“Come and join us,” said one of them with a scratchy voice.
Grandpa turned his head the other way.
“You sold the ranch?” he asked me.
“Grandpa, you know I had to, so I could pay for my education before I leave,” I was crying.
Grandpa’s serious illness consumed me, so I hardly noticed that Nov. 7th has rolled around. Back in the totalitarian era from 1949 until 1989, November was the month of Czechoslovak Soviet Friendship.
It was a month of mandatory celebrations of the “Great October Socialist Revolution the military coup of 11.7. 1917 or 10.25. 1917 according to the old Russian calendar in St. Petersburg.
“Hurry up, Emma, you can’t be late for the parade,” I put a coat on my daughter and handed her the Chinese lantern. “You’ll light it when you get to the Revolutionary Boulevard.”
This time father-in-law Joseph took Emma to the parade, and I just stayed home. It was cold and dark. I was shivering from the upcoming events.
I had nothing to lose. I had my exit visa to the USA, and I had sold everything. No one could hurt me anymore by writing some bad cadre profile about me not being at the Russian Revolution celebrations.
The news magazine before movies was all about the Russian Revolution; that is about the Bolshevik movement with Trotsky and V.I. Lenin and the occupation of the Winter Palace.
My Alma Mater, the Gottwaldov Gymnasium pumped all the Russian & Soviet history into us. It was a total brainwash with weird results.
But behind the scenes, a different revolution was brewing preceded by months of unrest.
To be continued…..
Copyright © 2016 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Chaos of Generations
It’s getting better and better. I love “Chaos.”
This week’s WP Photo Challenge is Chaos.
Decades of jumble
Intertwined with memories
Generations pass.
310/366
A Haiku on “Chaos”
I love it: a Haiku on organized chaos. Pure magic. Take a bite at this Daily Post assignment “Chaos.” You can’t go wrong with this one.
The film got stuck
I thoroughly enjoyed the Daily Post’s “Chaos” photography assignment and how different bloggers treated it including the original post by Ben Huberman.
I am fascinated by the different things that inspired our posts from wildlife, legos, movies, art to dilapidated shacks and more.
Take a bite at it in any form of creative action. You can’t go wrong with this one.
There continues to be a deep but organized chaos inside me. It’s not an oxymoron.
Orderly Chaos
Seems like an oxymoron? It isn’t. Just remember Dali, VanGogh or Russian painter Chaim Soutine. And I must mention one of my favorite author’s Nobel Prize winning piece of literature “100 Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
This photo is in response to the Daily Post
Chaos prompt “Chaos.”
I was inspired by Soutine’s chaotic paintings of a wild game catch and his twisted villages.
I threw my three summer dresses haphazardly on the bathroom floor along with the yellow ballerina flats that walked 10 kilometers through Paris to the Musee de l’Orangerie in the Tullerie Gardens near the Place de la Concorde.
Inside the gallery, I was flabbergasted by Soutine’s twisted chaotic paintings. The orderly chaos stayed in me.
The little girl Ella in the featured photo is confused in the little garden by the house not recognizing any of the plants or berries in the plot.
Orderly “Chaos” in nature.
The left photograph shows the chaos in my EW studio, where I can find everything in its place. Next to the studio is the chaos in the nearby woods with broken tree limbs and trunks rolling in the bed of leaves.
How about the chaos in the upcoming election on Nov. 8th? There are so many different forms of chaos in the world, in nature and in the society.
Take a bite at this “Chaos” assignment. You can’t go wrong with this one. I thoroughly enjoyed how different bloggers treated this encompassing subject.
Copyright (c) 2016 Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
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