Hernando's Hideaway. Another Thread "almost certainly not for you."

Oh, boy ... Obama. He's a complicated topic.

He's been on the radar in our household ever since the Democratic Convention in 2004. We both watched him speak, and my husband turned to me and said, "He's going to be big in a couple of cycles ..." Little did we know he was going to shoot to the head of the class so quickly. My husband also noticed how Obama used the speaking cadences of a Southern preacher when he spoke, and that's why we never listened to his speeches. We always read the transcripts later on. Those rhythms are designed to get you listening without listening, if you know what I mean. My husband grew up in the south and is familiar with the style.

We aren't surprised he won over so many people, but we are a little surprised at how blind they apparently are. Hope and change were so empty. Obama won on a fill in the blanks campaign with no particulars. Eastwood's empty chair is not far wrong. In 2008, people made Obama into what they wanted for president. And I'm not surprised so many are so disappointed. That was inevitable. He could never be all those things to all those people. I'm just amazed it took so long for the disappointment to register and start showing publically.

I can't help but wonder if that is a product of how afraid people are to be perceived as racist? And that goes back to what I said about people not being comfortable being who they are. If you aren't comfortable being yourself, you have to identify with the group. And if the group is still seems to be following Obama ... then you follow Obama at least publically which reinforces that perception for everyone else who might be in the closet like you are. Vicious cycle. And it feeds right on up into Congress because this is the crowd that elects congressmen, advises them, etc. Oh, and it's also our Congressmen.

It mystifies me, but then I gave up on caring what other people thought so long ago that I barely remember what it was like to be utterly terrified of what other people were going to think of me.

And Obama uses that as much as possible to get away with as much as possible. He is a Marxist, social justice true believer, and I don't think he really knows what to do when his world view is shown to not work except double down.

I'm not sure that directly answered you, but Obama is so complex.

At least he seems like a family man of sorts. I wish he'd use that from the bully pulpit to make some points to his "sons" in the black community. He could be such a positive role model in that aspect.

a reply to: charles1952

is it because of hatred for the traditional, or for America as an idea, a country?

This. Obama seems to hate almost everything traditionally American except maybe the golf courses.

Also it's not the whole congress so much that is the problem. The senate (Harry Reid) is responsible for much of the obstructionism.

House Republicans passed more than 200 bills in 2013, many of which Reid has refused to hold votes on in the Senate. House-passed legislation is readily dismissed as “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber,
source

That's not to give the GOP a pass though.

a reply to: guohua

Good afternoon. One problem in getting up so late, is that I have so much to get caught up on. Hernando's is obviously the place to be for thoughtful, classy people.

Well, I'm glad you're here and not out chasing those Blondes Charles was with earlier. Could be bad for your Ticker

Ummmm, Excuse me? You're saying that I was chasing them? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Here, sit down, I'll buy you a drink and tell you a little story.

It wasn't all that long ago that I was the toast of all of the red hot social circles in the City. Wherever I stopped for more than ten minutes a party would spring up. All the women would follow my movements via cell phone and twitter, and it seemed like thirty would show up if I even stopped to look at a magazine at a news vendor's.

I'm afraid it sparked many episodes of violence, after all only so many women could touch me at the same time, and those in the outer circle became envious and angry. That became my best means of escape. After they started fighting with each other I could drop to the ground and low crawl away.

As you would expect, many women provided me with their names, addresses, and phone numbers. Some gave me other items, but I will refrain from discussing those. It took about a day and a half before my "Little Black Book" was filled. I now have a "Little Black Library" which I have stored in a medium-size warehouse on the southern edge of the city. I thought of having it entered into a database, but new names were coming in faster than my data entry team could handle them.

Besides the purely logistical problems, there are other complications. At last count, 213 women have accused me of failing in my promise to marry them. Just last month. Their claims are made a little more difficult by the fact that we've never met or communicated in any way.

There has been one fortunate development for all of mankind from this. I used to be kept awake by the women outside my door, begging to be let in, screaming at me to come to the door to smile on them. Because of the strain this was putting on my constitution, I have invented a teleportation device. It is locked in the most secure government level rooms ever installed in a private residence, with booby traps galore.

At night, I enter the room and teleport myself to a secret location where I can nap and restore my tissues. The plans for my device will be distributed to the entire world upon my death due to natural old age, or heart failure due to excessive exertion in romantic circumstances. My dying in any other way will result in the plans and device being instantly destroyed.

So if anyone wants those plans in the near future, well ........






And that's the kind of story that can only be told in Hernando's.

a reply to: charles1952



Charles I don't think your sleep meds have entirely worn off.

More COFFEE for Charles.

Hello, Bassago,

And which of you was maligning blondes again? Surely we're not all bad.

a reply to: ketsuko

And which of you was maligning blondes again? Surely we're not all bad.

Whoops, er... pretty sure it was Charles. Yeah that's the ticket.

Hee hee... ducks and runs for hills.

a reply to: Bassago

What???

You think a story told in a bar between friends and over a couple of drinks is not the absolute truth? I'm surprised.


By the way, don't give the Republicans a pass, they don't deserve it. The Democrats have a couple of simple goals and principles which they stick with and fight for using any means, legal or illegal, clean or dirty. I have no idea at all what the Republican principles are any more.

I'm sorry for the people here under 40. We might pull through, but I'd be pretty nervous if I were one of them.

a reply to: Bassago

Hey! What are you doing? I'm supposed to take the fall?

Whoops, er... pretty sure it was Charles. Yeah that's the ticket.

Hee hee... ducks and runs for hills.

You'll have to come back some time, you left your keys and wallet. Of course to be honest, if I had stepped in it like that, I wouldn't waste a second on saving personal belongings either. Good move. I'll try to placate her.

a reply to: charles1952

Good move. I'll try to placate her.

Thanks for that. I'll be working feverishly on my three part apology.

@ ketsuko - You are of course one of the many exception's to my disgraceful generalization. Sorry.

Republicans, I don't know what they're doing either.

Did you see Ted Cruz got booed off the stage while addressing middle eastern christians a day or so ago? They didn't seem to like his version of Christianity. At least in respect to the connection to Israel.

a reply to: Bassago

I wouldn't expect many in the larger Middle East to like Israel. It's heavily painted as the cause of all their problems just like certain minorities in the US get told that whites are the cause of all their troubles. Cruz walked into that one. Christianity around the world may have the one basic core in common, but it looks radically different depending on where you are. African and Philippine Christianity are very different. I remember seeing a bit a video on a group in the Philippines that proved its faith by licking the mercury powder off the back of fluorescent light bulb tubes. They have sort of the same ideals as the snake handlers in the US - if your faith is strong enough, God will protect you. It was hard watching the children do that.

So, I would imagine that Middle Eastern Christianity is different, too. They may even have the idea of replacement doctrine or whatever it is that says God is done with the Jews and Israel and Jerusalem won't happen again until after the end.

Just goes to show he should have done his research on who he was talking to, or that maybe that he is honest despite knowing it wouldn't win him any points. Take your pick.

originally posted by: charles1952
a reply to: Bassago
By the way, don't give the Republicans a pass, they don't deserve it. The Democrats have a couple of simple goals and principles which they stick with and fight for using any means, legal or illegal, clean or dirty. I have no idea at all what the Republican principles are any more.

I'm sorry for the people here under 40. We might pull through, but I'd be pretty nervous if I were one of them.

I have to add my $.2 on this.
The 2 party system is a joke, Both sides work the same agenda. The only thing you get to control whether you vote one or the other is how the agenda gets worked in the public eye.
Sure they fight,argue, and generally don't get along but that's because both sides are fighting over who gets the bigger paycheck once its said and done.

I don't think we're going to pull through. i expect national financial catastrophe before i turn 40

a reply to: EyesOpenMouthShut

Hey, EOMS, I'll buy you a sympathy drink. The only thing I have to worry about is whether my health care will be too fouled up to let me have a decent death. You've got a whole life to try to patch together. As I said, you're in a tricky spot.

I will also agree that both parties are FUBAR now. The only hope I see is that one of the two parties is taken over by a group of relative outsiders. While it's possible, I don't think a third party will have much of a chance, but I could be wrong.

I don't know who is mounting any opposition within the Democrat Party, but the whole world knows the Tea Party is challenging for Republican leadership. Sheesh! I don't know, I might just go Tea Party because they're not one of the other two.

For my nightmare scenario, say something dramatic happens and in 2016 Hillary gets a solid Democrat House and Senate for eight years. If she follows Obama's lead, it's just my slightly inebriated opinion that it is then, officially, over.

I have no idea what the Republicans are proposing, who their candidate will be, or whether the Tea Party will still be a factor in 2016. I think that will be decided in a couple of months.

In your case, things are so up in the air that I don't have any advice of a financial nature. Of course, working for the government is pretty safe, but a lot of people aren't made for that kind of work. I suspect that one of the worst jobs in the world must be presidential press secretary. I wouldn't last a month facing the world and saying the things they're told to say.

Heck, maybe I'll need to get you a second sympathy drink. I have the opinion, and that's all it is, I'm willing to abandon it, that the country got sick in the mid-1960s. It staged a couple of rallies when it was seen as strong and healthy, but we've been falling back for awhile, and now the nurses in the Intensive Care Unit are shaking their heads and starting to call the relatives to come in if they want a last minute visit.

Man, that's not the attitude I need for the day. Give me something cheerful.

For the record, my husband and I have more or less written our own future prospects off entirely at this point. We know that Social Security and Medicare won't be there for us. Ours is the generation that will fall through the cracks. The very best we figure we can hope for is to put all our eggs in our son and hope he will be both successful and kind to his broken old parents when that time comes.

So all we do now, we do for him. Sure, we make plans for our future with retirement and such, but we expect it to be robbed out from under us by a funds starved robber government one of these years unless we wind up getting transferred abroad.

a reply to: charles1952
Charles,

When i saw what was happening with the country i began to learn and practice the old way of life arts,before electricity was harnessed. I will be just fine without money and despite what the gov would have you believe, food is very free, all you have to do is go out and find it.

This should put you in a better mood

a reply to: EyesOpenMouthShut

Holy smokes, EOMS! I thought for sure he was going to have a cobra bit butt at several times in that clip. What's the turnover rate in that profession? Is he on Obamacare?

I don't care much for snakes, but I don't have a phobia either. Still, I don't think the job comes with retirement after 20 years. They've probably never had anybody last 20 days.

Nice work, by the way, in protecting your future. I know every generation is supposed to reach a stage where they are in their rocking chairs predicting the end of the country, but I haven't had anyone show me a reasonable way out of this situation. I'd rather be here than in the cobra pit, though.

Come to think of it, you'd probably make a lot of meals out of that pit, so it all works out.

Here, basically, is what I said on the show last night. I didn't stick to the script 100%, but it's pretty darn close.

Hernando's Hideaway is doing quite well, thanks for asking, but it's a little hard to tell you, exactly, what Hernando's is. I suppose, if you want to be technical, you could call it a thread. But that's not really the right description for it.

You've seen threads on ATS and other places. In some of the forums, ATS stands for Attack, Tear, and Scream. Some people are attracted to the rough free-for-all spirit of attack and victory over the enemy, some don't care for it and look elsewhere.

Hernando's is "elsewhere." Yes, if you're a stickler, it's a thread in the not too real world of the internet. But in the truest sense of the word, Hernando's is a real place. You've walked by it a few times and probably didn't even look in. The members, called Hernandos, finally decided to let ATS know about themselves.

Until now, many people have found out about it through invitation U2Us, sent by someone who thought the individual might be a prospective member. They've been flying under the radar, as threads have been known to do. But even under the radar, in the last two weeks Hernando's has climbed to the top ten Members forums threads in the last 11 years and is growing quickly. The Hernandos decided, by vote. that more people should be offered the chance to enjoy it.

Yes, it's a thread, but more truly, it is a place. You come inside and see the beautiful bar and dance floor. There are stools at the bar, tables for meals, a fireplace, and great leather armchairs. In the back room you can find cots for an overnight if you should have the need for something more than a catnap in one of the chairs.

You'll see the couple in the corner having their own conversation, and smell the astonishingly great food served by G our bartender, chef, and bad ass Asian mama who has a pretty twisted dance style, just ask her, or her husband.

You'll also find an astonishing juke box. Spike Jones and his classic "Cocktails for Two," Original Mongolian music played on authentic Mongolian istruments, Cellos waging a Star Wars based duel, Peter Frampton, Chinese music played by "12 Girls Band" who deserve more publicity than they've had, Lionel Hampton playing solos on the Vibes, drums, and piano, IN THE SAME SONG. And more. And it's growing.

But the outstanding feature is the conversations. Acupuncture, adoption, fishing with cormorants or good old American worms, the existence of God, censorship, martial arts, Communications between men and women, world peace.

But besides the conversations you'll find comments like these:

"This world weary person is dropping in to Hernando's for a break. And because of a very kind invite. I had to read the whole thread first just to see where the conversations were going and found the flow quite interesting."

And:

"Why was i not informed about an ATS smoke lounge???
scotch and a triple maduro is my thing"

Any of our members could say similar things. Who are the members? Right now?

ThePublicEnemyNo1
guohua
Kangaruex4Ewe
Expat888
Thurisaz
Disraeli
Serdgiam
ADJensen
HarbingerOfShadows
Ketsuko
Bassago
Bilk22
Tsingtao
Marlin Grace
EyesOpenMouthShut
Brotherman
Murgatroid

And every one of them turns out to be one of the more fascinating people ATS has. But every member is asked to read the OP and as much of the thread as they need to in order to get a feel for the place.

It includes the source of the name:

"The Labour Member of Parliament, Stephen Pound, told the House during a smoking debate on February 14, 2006: "I refer the House to the dystopic hell – 'Hernando's Hideaway' – that is the Smoking Room on the Library Corridor. It is like the Raft of the Medusa most nights, with great groups of people crammed into it."

And of it's principles, it begins with:

"Our Hernando's Hideaway doesn't rely on imposing rules, rather it hopes to attract the type of people who already have the rules imprinted on their hearts.

1.) The care for a fellow Hernando is far more important than winning a debate, or even a war. People who are willing to treat people as less than human in order to gain some advantage, are less than human themselves and not fit to join with us. "

Our bartender has asked me to provide the following information:

You know, Charles you could talk about the Fine Wines and only the most expensive Liquors and Beer we have and our Coffee and Tea area is to Die For

our own special host's for Tea are our friend's, ketsuko and EyesOpenMouthShut and let's not forget, Expat888.

Our Special Hosts for our Wine drinkers are, Thurisaz and of-course Expat888.

Our special Host for our Coffee drinkers are, Bassago, charles1952, guohua ( with shot of Rum ), DISRAELI, and Expat888.

Our Very Special Experts on our Very Expensive Liquors Cabinet,Thurisaz, ketsuko, EyesOpenMouthShut, Bassago, charles1952, guohua, HarbingerOfShadows,

and our House Expert of all things Drinkable,,,,,Expat888!!!!

To close, here's a comment one of the Hernandos made, which really means a lot to me.

"Whats on my mind? This and that. I guess it really depends on how far you want to get into the pool.
Do you just want to wet your toes, or cannonball right into the deep end?"

The people at Hernandos are different from a lot of the posters on ATS, many won't fit in here. But for the few of you who value conversation imagination, caring and other people, stop on by.

*flops down in a chair in a corner*
Mead please.


Good evening everyone.
How is everyone?

a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows

Doing OK, how about yourself?

Pretty quiet around here right now. I'll join you in a drink.

Bartender, hello? Ah well will serve myself and grab the whole bottle.

a reply to: Bassago
As the song goes "It's just one of those days.".
Ah, so you enjoy mead as well?