Watch now (2 min) | How I met my fellow theatre nerd and Substacker Mary Poindexter McLaughlin and the tale of our one day adventure in Boston attending RFK Jr's 2024 presidential bid
Well I have been hanging out for this take for the last week, and you haven't disappointed Tonika. Clearly The Simulation made sure you had no choice but to be at the event so that you could provide (and hopefully keep providing!) your wholesome conspiratorial take on this most significant of political candidacies.
Now, I had no plans to make this about myself (let alone to even compare myself in the most tangential of ways to a Kennedy), and I apologise in advance for doing so, but perhaps I have a unique perspective to offer on what RFK's candidacy might be able to achieve. Exactly a year ago I was running in the Australian Federal election as an explicitly anti-Jibby Jab candidate. It was a mildly traumatic and highly exhausting experience, and I never had a chance in realpolitik terms of achieving anything. Nonetheless, there are no regrets, because winning was never the aim (even if I obviously wasn't saying this out loud at the time): the aim was to use this privileged platform I had been offered to *tell the truth*. By doing so, it gave license and inspiration for those who had been silenced for the last 2 years to tell the truth - but (perhaps most importantly), it created a space for fellow truth tellers like yourself and Mary to come together and foster the type of connections that actually can bring about a type of change that Politics itself seems now incapable of.
So, yes: tell the darn truth Bobby... even if that seems like an unfair expectation of us to hold, given what telling the truth has cost his family.
yes, just tell the truth Bobby, this is your chance! I agree, I think he knows that we know that he knows he can't get elected- too much cleaning up of the rivers and vaccine schedules for that to be allowed to happen, but this is his opportunity to expose some stuff that goes on to many more people, before his skeletons rush out of the closet. Why does'nt he do it?
Funny what you say about Meryl Ness and the Rockefellers.
We're so caught up in distrust, we make a fuss cos Russel Brand kissed an historian on the forehead after said historian had spoken at Davos to promote his book, as though one can be infected with evil, become controlled opposition, be compromised morally and become a gullible fool just by standing next to or touching someone who might transmit these things to us, much like a non-existent virus!
This is absolutely delightful! Great commentary! Fun story! RFK may not win, but I sure hope he gets people *talking*!
This takes me back (roughly 30 years ago) to when I was running for US Congress and in the middle of a crowd a man said to me "If you keep running you will meet the same fate as the Kennedys" and then he disappeared into the crowd again.
I was looking forward to this. Thanks for including the nuance, all the grays. I was most delighted to hear how you found yourself there with Mary. Heartwarming. Thanks, Tonika for avoiding the extremes, for not jumping to conclusions, for staying open and curious, without blinders on. Yes, Just Tell the Truth, Bobby. Thank you.
Well done, Tonika! I just read Mary's article as well and loved them both. I asked her if she has much Sagittarius in her chart because we spend our lives searching for the Truth with a huge dose of optimism. Do you?? "Just Tell the Truth, Bobby" is the absolutely perfect title. I said the same to a friend the other day. "I just hope he tells the truth."
I have so many virtual friendships that I've made since 2020, like you and Mary. It must have been a happy meeting!!
TONIKA! Isaac is right --this essay was well worth the wait! Of course, my bias is creeping in because a) I was there and had the most meaningful, energizing, hilarious and moving seven hours I could possibly imagine with you; b) I have such a love for your work (and you!); and c) heck, my name is in the subtitle!! 😆
All of that aside, if that's even possible, I do think your well-crafted message (in the essay AND the fantastic video) is spot-on. What we need from Bobby is not a hero... We need the WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP HIM GOD. 🙏
A tall order, for sure, but that is what will set him, and all of us, free.
Thank you, dear theatre nerd friend, for your spontaneity and honesty and sense of humor and talent and smarts... And for your deep goodness! I am so damn lucky to have found you! 🌟
So good!!! I cannot believe you were in Boston and I missed ya 😊. In Oregon of all places meeting my beloved’s (who was just as sad to miss Bobby’s event as I was!) family. Time well spent, oh yes, but would have been so lovely and amazing to meet you and Mary. Feeling the cautious optimism and jaded realism of this moment with you. Game of Thrones, in so many ways. “A wise man once said the true history of the world is a history of great conversations in elegant rooms”. Bobby has had his fair share I suspect. Grateful for your work, friend 🙏❤️
I loved yer accountin' of the whole enchilada -- the spicy hot red sauce, the milder cheeze, the BEANS! (An' of course RFK Jr aside, it's purdy great you an' Mary got ta meet in person!) So... since ya mentioned RFK Jr & the comp'ny he keeps... I'll mention this recent one'a mine on jus' that top-pick:
Part've me would like ta think that Bobby's frankness 'bout his past AND his smarts 'bout all things medi-cull might revive some hope fer the Left (which I LEFT!!!!) but I'm thinking that nice guys finish last... some trust the wrong folks in 5th Gen warfare (Mlle Meryl too...), AND there's so much more'n meets the eye that even those've us TRYIN' ta look harder an' discern git tangled in some'a them weeds...
All that said, it WUZ a moment historic an' you were there--that's sumthin' in an' of itself... (Mebbe time fer a viddeoy 'bout it?)
Well I have been hanging out for this take for the last week, and you haven't disappointed Tonika. Clearly The Simulation made sure you had no choice but to be at the event so that you could provide (and hopefully keep providing!) your wholesome conspiratorial take on this most significant of political candidacies.
Now, I had no plans to make this about myself (let alone to even compare myself in the most tangential of ways to a Kennedy), and I apologise in advance for doing so, but perhaps I have a unique perspective to offer on what RFK's candidacy might be able to achieve. Exactly a year ago I was running in the Australian Federal election as an explicitly anti-Jibby Jab candidate. It was a mildly traumatic and highly exhausting experience, and I never had a chance in realpolitik terms of achieving anything. Nonetheless, there are no regrets, because winning was never the aim (even if I obviously wasn't saying this out loud at the time): the aim was to use this privileged platform I had been offered to *tell the truth*. By doing so, it gave license and inspiration for those who had been silenced for the last 2 years to tell the truth - but (perhaps most importantly), it created a space for fellow truth tellers like yourself and Mary to come together and foster the type of connections that actually can bring about a type of change that Politics itself seems now incapable of.
So, yes: tell the darn truth Bobby... even if that seems like an unfair expectation of us to hold, given what telling the truth has cost his family.
yes, just tell the truth Bobby, this is your chance! I agree, I think he knows that we know that he knows he can't get elected- too much cleaning up of the rivers and vaccine schedules for that to be allowed to happen, but this is his opportunity to expose some stuff that goes on to many more people, before his skeletons rush out of the closet. Why does'nt he do it?
Funny what you say about Meryl Ness and the Rockefellers.
We're so caught up in distrust, we make a fuss cos Russel Brand kissed an historian on the forehead after said historian had spoken at Davos to promote his book, as though one can be infected with evil, become controlled opposition, be compromised morally and become a gullible fool just by standing next to or touching someone who might transmit these things to us, much like a non-existent virus!
This is absolutely delightful! Great commentary! Fun story! RFK may not win, but I sure hope he gets people *talking*!
This takes me back (roughly 30 years ago) to when I was running for US Congress and in the middle of a crowd a man said to me "If you keep running you will meet the same fate as the Kennedys" and then he disappeared into the crowd again.
I was looking forward to this. Thanks for including the nuance, all the grays. I was most delighted to hear how you found yourself there with Mary. Heartwarming. Thanks, Tonika for avoiding the extremes, for not jumping to conclusions, for staying open and curious, without blinders on. Yes, Just Tell the Truth, Bobby. Thank you.
Well done, Tonika! I just read Mary's article as well and loved them both. I asked her if she has much Sagittarius in her chart because we spend our lives searching for the Truth with a huge dose of optimism. Do you?? "Just Tell the Truth, Bobby" is the absolutely perfect title. I said the same to a friend the other day. "I just hope he tells the truth."
I have so many virtual friendships that I've made since 2020, like you and Mary. It must have been a happy meeting!!
Figures in the public eye rarely get a better chance to clear the table by simply telling the truth.
Start with the CIA and our DoD overlords and go from there.
We who believe that we know something of what you might say are waiting.
Respectfully, for now.
TONIKA! Isaac is right --this essay was well worth the wait! Of course, my bias is creeping in because a) I was there and had the most meaningful, energizing, hilarious and moving seven hours I could possibly imagine with you; b) I have such a love for your work (and you!); and c) heck, my name is in the subtitle!! 😆
All of that aside, if that's even possible, I do think your well-crafted message (in the essay AND the fantastic video) is spot-on. What we need from Bobby is not a hero... We need the WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP HIM GOD. 🙏
A tall order, for sure, but that is what will set him, and all of us, free.
Thank you, dear theatre nerd friend, for your spontaneity and honesty and sense of humor and talent and smarts... And for your deep goodness! I am so damn lucky to have found you! 🌟
So good!!! I cannot believe you were in Boston and I missed ya 😊. In Oregon of all places meeting my beloved’s (who was just as sad to miss Bobby’s event as I was!) family. Time well spent, oh yes, but would have been so lovely and amazing to meet you and Mary. Feeling the cautious optimism and jaded realism of this moment with you. Game of Thrones, in so many ways. “A wise man once said the true history of the world is a history of great conversations in elegant rooms”. Bobby has had his fair share I suspect. Grateful for your work, friend 🙏❤️
I loved yer accountin' of the whole enchilada -- the spicy hot red sauce, the milder cheeze, the BEANS! (An' of course RFK Jr aside, it's purdy great you an' Mary got ta meet in person!) So... since ya mentioned RFK Jr & the comp'ny he keeps... I'll mention this recent one'a mine on jus' that top-pick:
https://thcsofdaisymoses.substack.com/p/flying-robert-with-flying-robert
Part've me would like ta think that Bobby's frankness 'bout his past AND his smarts 'bout all things medi-cull might revive some hope fer the Left (which I LEFT!!!!) but I'm thinking that nice guys finish last... some trust the wrong folks in 5th Gen warfare (Mlle Meryl too...), AND there's so much more'n meets the eye that even those've us TRYIN' ta look harder an' discern git tangled in some'a them weeds...
All that said, it WUZ a moment historic an' you were there--that's sumthin' in an' of itself... (Mebbe time fer a viddeoy 'bout it?)