A number of commenters have said that Trump’s behavior makes them afraid. His behavior is, in many ways, frightening. He is spiteful and ignorant and willing to use the power of his position in destructive ways.
But he wants us to be afraid. Fearful people are more malleable. That is part of his schtick, and part of why he thinks he is a good negotiator. He uses fear.
So we need to get past that fear and figure out ways to deal with him and the problems he is causing.
My mother always used to tell me to “Whistle a Happy Tune.” It’s stuck with me.
Corny, I know, and we can complain about colonialism, but I’ve found that the song, out of its context, helps. Open thread.
Chris
My own Happy Song In A Shitty Situation is “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.” Admittedly not as happy, but quite happy-sounding.
geg6
Can’t say he scares me simply because he is the epitome of every bully I’ve ever encountered and bullies don’t frighten me in the least. But he infuriates me. Just sends me into seeing red anger on a daily basis. And that frightens me because I am sure it’s going to send me into a heart attack or stroke. You can’t live with this much anger for a long period of time without serious health consequences and I’ve been that way every single day since November 9, 2016.
JCJ
Cute song, but I imagine the source of Anna Leonowens’s beef was that these uncivilized Siamese would not totally succumb to her superior white ways. It is hard for me to separate that from this or the other songs from that show.
dr. bloor
@Chris: I’m partial to Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days,” but that’s just me.
dr. bloor
@geg6: Yep. He’s exhausting more than he’s frightening.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
I’m angrier at that smug fuck Ryan, his chief enabler. I’m even angrier when I look at what 250+ years of white males in control of this country has culminated in, yet there has been nothing learned by anybody.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
I’m still about 79% certain Generals Red Forman and MD20/20 will promptly incapacitate Trump before allowing him access to the football.
rk
Trump’s behavior doesn’t make me afraid. I just hate him and want all sorts of bad things to happen to his voters and other republicans. The election has made me depressed because of everyone else. I’ve realized that a vast number of Americans would happily let their fellow citizens go into the gas chambers (and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration). We’re surrounded by monsters.
Major Major Major Major
I find solace in art and programming–things I can create and control.
On the more acute level, I also meditate.
raven
Fuck it and Drive On
FIDO
Major Major Major Major
Gudetama, the famous Japanese depressed egg, has a special picture up for fried-egg the 13th.
amygdala
Yup. He’s trying to instill fear and hopelessness in people who don’t support him, in order to neutralize them. We can resist that, by taking care of ourselves as best we can, and also each other.
It saddens me when people who are overwhelmed by it all get mocked for what are completely understandable feelings. We can and should do better than that.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I am scared, because the only thing that drives him is really his need to protect his fragile self image, and if he thinks blowing away half the world is what he needs to do to be a tough guy, then that’s what he’ll do, and the only thing in his way will be Mattis, Tillerson, McMaster and Kelly. I don’t like to have to depend on the military to save us from our own elected [sic] leaders.
Cheryl Rofer
As I think about this song, the picture I’ve always had in my head was of a young woman in the Siamese court singing it. Not sure where or when I got that.
geg6
So how have I been trying to cope? Watching escapist tv, reading quite a bit and buying adult coloring books. I find the coloring soothing. And wine. Lots and lots of wine.
Mnemosyne
@JCJ:
Interesting thing about Leonowens — she was at least one-quarter Indian and went to great pains throughout her life to keep that fact concealed.
I saw a traveling production of The King and I recently, and I think it really changes the show for the better that they can now cast actual Asian-Americans in the Asian parts. And the whole “Small House of Uncle Thomas” number is still a tearjerker, and a not-so-hidden message from Rodgers and Hammerstein in those early Civil Rights days.
Mnemosyne
I got my new Yarn Kitten pajamas this week, so that’s nice. And I discovered a Facebook group of romance writers that will help clueless white people like yours truly to write more diverse characters, so that will be helpful.
Adam L Silverman
This always works for me:
Juju
I’m not afraid. I’m pissed. I also loathe the man. We need to organize and rattle his cage. I like rattling his cage.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Why must you force Gudetama on unsuspecting people? Why? ?
jl
Whenever people get out of control heebeejeebees (real word, I looked it up in my head) write, call, fax or email one of your Congresscritter or Senator, and/or some random GOP Gongressfink who you think might be persuaded to do the right thing, or who will do something to curb Trump out of fear or blind panic.
I think recent news items show GOP Congressfinks are getting panicky. And they should. I wonder whether Trump will ever see even 40 percent approval rating again.
Complain to local and national media when they repeat Trump lies without correction. For example, Trump’s multiple bald face damned lies about iran nuke deal this morning.
Instructions are up on upper right hand corner of this here blog’s front page.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I know an Anglo-Indian family quite well and they love to pretend that are 100% British. So, not surprised at all by this woman.
Major Major Major Major
@geg6: what’s your favorite escapist tv?
lamh36
I’m heading home from work now…haven’t even had a chance to even look at much of the news today…it’s been a long sad day!!!
Gonna get settled at home, then illl post about it. All i can say now is you really never know what’s going on with someone outside of work…a smile can hide a lot
jl
Is there a way to set up a button so we can just bother some GOP Congressfinks? Could we hook a button so that you press it, and that ass Heller gets a message that he will lose the next election?
Ruckus
Cheryl
I think you are right about his use of fear.
But, he’s now way out of his element, I think having dementia issues, and has a level of power that he has no real concept of, other than it’s his and he’s going to use it. He thinks he deserves this level of power because he’s the best human ever. We all know better. But he still has that power. And he has and will continue to abuse it, aided by his enablers, with their own agendas.
CaseyL
He doesn’t scare me. He makes me go ballistic with anger. Him, his followers, and the GOP: I want them all to die, and their spawn with them. I want them all as extinct as dodos. Never thought I could feel such incandescent loathing for so many people.
stinger
@lamh36: Oh, dear, this doesn’t sound good. I’ll be looking for your post.
schrodingers_cat
I have been reading up on Indian history and watching Hindi movies. The ones I missed from the late nineties to the recent ones. Also watching a 10 part miniseries on the making of the constitution of India. And Orphan Black and DS9. Also following the YouTube channel, Great War.
bystander
I mostly object to these Marnie Nixon dubbings. I’d rather hear Kerr’s voice. The part was written for Gertrude Lawrence, hardly a nightingale. Same goes for Audrey in My Fair Lady. That fruity soprano of Nixon’s.
jl
Even if people live in areas with Democratic Congresspeople, good to contract them periodically to politely inquire what they are dong to stop the chaos and incompetence.
Send them some links to clips of Jerry Brown ridiculing the press. Once he ridiculed reporters for running to niff every fart the GOP pumps out. I need to look to see if there is a youtube of that when I have time.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: Why did I just realize now his name is a pun?
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
It was common in Hollywood. Boris Karloff (né William Henry Pratt) was also Anglo-Indian and actually related to Leonowens. When some of his family tried to contact Leonowens to confirm the Indian connection, her family freaked out and refused to speak to them.
Even sadder, Merle Oberon pretended that her Indian mother was actually her dresser/lady’s maid. If it had been made public that she was half-Indian, her career would have been ruined, especially in the US.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: That sounds like some FB group!
BTW, have you seen this title out yet? I looked in my local library system and haven’t found it – I may have to break down and actually *buy* it! A modern update of “Les Liasions Dangeureuses” set in 1947 Harlem, what’s not to love!!
Bess
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Will Mattis, Tillerson, McMaster or Kelly be in the room if Donnie decides to trigger a nuclear war? Do they sit outside his bedroom at night in order to tackle the person carrying the football?
Whether Trump is or is not nuts enough to launch it is time we had a safeguard built into the system. It is insane to leave that much power in the hands of single person.
JMG
Kevin Drum, who is too nice for his own good, had a post today in which he quoted some National Review writer who lives in the sticks about how angry rural Trump voters are. Since it was Kevin, he wondered what we could do about that. I know the answer. Fuck ’em. Treat them with the contempt they deserve.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Not getting out of the boat for *that* one again, nosiree. But whatever blows your dress up, says I…
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: Rodgers and Hammerstein are a classic example of how the world moves on and usually in the right direction. There’s a fair amount of stuff in their plays which seems cringeworthy now. But they were pretty progressive for their time and even by today’s standards the overall messages are usually good, in spite of the (now) cringeworthy bits.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
A less depressing version: they did DNA testing of a “typically English” village and it turned out that a majority of the residents are not strictly English. One woman who found out that she has some South Asian ancestry is looking forward to traveling there to try and research her roots.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: The family I am talking about lives in Mumbai and has no Hollywood connection that I know of.
Ruviana
I’ve been going with Life During Wartime. Perhaps depressing, but at least you can dance to it.
Raoul
We can whistle a happy tune. Sometimes.
But I also think that anger is an energy. We should not be driven by our anger, that can lead to bad decisions. But we can tune in to and channel righteous anger into action.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat:
You don’t normally see a documentary try to cover three very diverse events like that. Especially in only 10 episodes. Have they provided a unified theory for how the Indian foundational law is linked to neogenics and the Dominion? Or does that not happen until the final episode?
jl
@Ruckus: One of Trump’s great weaknesses is that he has lived the life of a pampered and favored fool for so long, the fool in him is baked into the marrow of his bones.
He seems to think that he can announce that he is wrecking the incompetent N_ president’s policies and everyone will rush to blame Obama. I think, sadly, 30-40 percent of the whites are bigoted enough to support him to the end will do just that. but that is not enough to win elections. In some areas where popular misunderstanding and bias allows abject failure of reactionary policies to go unpunished, Trump might get away with it. His potentially disastrous, possibly merely impotent, actions on the Iran nuke deal might be an example. But that kind of unjustified allowance will not be made for issues that hit voters in their own pocketbooks. So his vile and malicious actions on health care policy will be an example of that, and that is enough to hurt the GOP badly, if the Democrats can be effective in 2018 and 2020.
Edit: and I think Trump’s idiotic health care sabotage is another case, like the BS GOP tax slash plan for the super rich, where Trump is specifically causing hurt to the more prosperous part of his own base, out of ignorance and stupidity and incompetence, or some psychic dysfunction.
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: dunno!
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
I had not heard of that, but I just sent the Kindle sample to myself. I love Dangerous Liaisons and the Cecile character always seemed too thin, so I’m glad it sounds like the author fixed the issue.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: You are funny, there is no connection at all. I need better punctuation.
But you know what RSS says, everything is in the Vedas, so may be there is a connection after all.
vtr
One thing that really annoys me is that I can’t open a newspaper or a webpage or watch a newscast without seeing his ugliness – his fatness, weird hand movements and facial expressions. And always looks like he’s slept in his clothes three nights consecutively. If we need to hear what he has to say, ok, but please just keep him invisible.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
You know that everything is about Hollywood history for me! ?
I do like that the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” combines regular genealogy with DNA testing. It gives a fuller picture, IMO.
germy
I didn’t know The King And I film was produced by Charlie Brackett!
An interesting dude with a long list of entertaining credits to his name.
opiejeanne
I have had an earworm of “Sail!” the past two days, and only partly because of the parody, called “Snail!” that I played for my husband.
SNAIL!
different-church-lady
A few years ago I was unknowingly under the thumb of an emotional manipulator, and as I was struggling for an answer to my pain and confusion I was fortunate to stumble across some significant insights.
1) Emotional manipulators cannot imagine a world where manipulation is not the default way of life. For them the entire world is a binary state: be the manipulator or be the manipulated. Thus, they always choose to preemptively be the former.
2) Truly toxic people will not be happy until everyone around them is as miserable as they are.
3) There is no negotiating or cooperating with them, nor changing them. The ONLY way out is to remove them from your life.
Unfortunately there is no way to remove Trump from our lives at this moment. The only thing we can do is remember that some day he WILL be gone, and remember that no matter how overwhelming it may seem at the moment, toxic is not the default state.
Mnemosyne
@Fair Economist:
“Western People Funny” definitely has a different air when you have actual Asian-Americans mocking European manners and dress rather than Europeans pretending to be Asians pretending to mock Europeans.
The Moar You Know
He doesn’t scare me at all. He’s pretty fucking pathetic.
His voters scare the living shit out of me, and I just try not to think about that too much, because those people are a problem without any solution.
Ajabu
Speaking of Colonialism: As a child in what was then the BWI (British West Indies) we children had a few choice rhymes. My favorite:
“The British woman is so refined; no lips, no bosom and no behind.”
White colonialism has created the vast majority of problems the world faces today. Fuckers.
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know:
DING DING DING DING DING DING WINNER WINNER WE HAVE A WINNER!
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: It was just to good a pitch not to swing at.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: They should do that for people who live on coasts of India, they have had visitors from Mesopotamia, Africa, later the Arabs and then the Europeans. Indians are a such a melange. In my own family I have some green eyed relatives who could pass as people from southern Europe and people darker than most black people in the United States. and every shade in between. My great grandfather was quite dark, while his two wives (he was widowed and then married again) were several shades lighter.
My other great grandfather worked for the Siddhis who were a small coastal kingdom on the west coast of India and a naval power. They were black African Muslims.
rumpole
If you’re feeling down just perform a random act of kindness for an individual. Seriously. A few days after the election, there was a guy outside my office that was asking for money. I wouldn’t give it to him, but I told him I would buy him lunch and that he should just tell me what he wanted. That kind of thing affirms both people’s faith in human nature.
And then return to wishing karma on the treasonous cheeto and his Benedict Arnold loving family.
Ruckus
@jl:
I vote – all of them Katie. He is after all an equal opportunity asswipe.
germy
When wealth and power are given to pigs
Major Major Major Major
Exhausted Trump Supporter Just Decides Massive Cuts To Healthcare Subsidies Reason He Voted For Him
dmbeaster
Ridicule. Respond to his fear mongering with ridicule. And that he is weak and ineffectual.
And yes, the really depressing thing about this is that it proves that so many of our fellow Americans are colossal dicks. I have gotten into the habit of calling them un-American. When they whine about declining values, I list off all of the values they embrace that are un-American, and reflect a lack of values.
Make America Hate Again is the reality of their mantra.
As for the Iran treaty, it is another nail in the coffin of American leadership in the world. That is another thing I repeat to Trump-humpers, that America is no longer the leader of the free world. We are an unreliable pariah now, and everyone is going to make other arrangements. The images of Trump alone at the last world summit are more than just symbolic.
And this is not something regained easily by just getting rid of Trump. The rest of the world also is aware that America seems to be dominated by colossal dicks, with little likelihood of the situation improving.
waspuppet
THANK YOU. I’ve been saying this since the Bush years. These cheap thugs don’t scare me at all. He’s the former host of The Apprentice. The proper response is pfft — and to make his life as miserable as possible every second of every day, including reminding him every day that he lost the popular vote by a lot.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Vivien Leigh was also (probably) part Indian on her mother’s side.
A Ghost to Most
@dr. bloor: Hah. One of mine is “One of These Days” by DBT, which ends on a similar note:
“One of these days,
You’ll take one look at me and run”.
Chris
@Major Major Major Major:
God, I wish that wasn’t exactly how they think.
@dmbeaster:
An extremely true point that was made by a foreigner at LGM some time ago: “I don’t think Americans realize how much Obama was already America’s second chance.”
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
Been there. “Fortunately” mine was also a drunk. I say fortunately because it limited his ability to fuck with me as much. But the cure was exactly what you said, get out of the situation. The only person that can change this any other way is the manipulator. And that takes a pretty massive fuck up by them that catches them by the short hairs to get them headed in that direction.
Raoul
@jl:
Yes. And in at least some states, GOP congress-slime are starting to sweat. They hope they can keep blaming Obama, but that well is drying up fast now that the three stooges (Rump, Ryan and McConnell) are visibly in charge. A material part of the so-called middle in this country are not going to buy “It was that guy over there, we’ve pissed away two years but don’t blame us!”
delk
I see this hospital building every time I walk out my front door. It is a good reminder that no matter how down or hurting I am, somebody is looking out of those windows who would gladly trade their problems for mine.
ps You can see the high school that Michelle Obama graduated from (as well as the Wachowski siblings) in the pic!
Brachiator
On the other hand….
Tawny: [after Seth says it’s Tawny’s turn to teleport] I’m afraid.
Seth Brundle: Don’t be afraid.
Ronnie: No. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
— The Fly
Vincent Hanna: I gotta hold on to my angst. I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be.
— Heat
Trump should make our Spidey sense tingle, so we take him seriously. Fear should spur us to action, to block him where ever necessary, and to vote him and his crew out of office.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
“White” Britons having Indian ancestry is MUCH more common than people realize. IIRC, the royal family found out fairly recently that William and Harry have some Indian ancestry from Diana’s side of the family. Intermarriage and sex happens in colonies no matter how much the colonial authorities try to prevent it. Humans are humans.
OGLiberal
Personally, Trump is a wimp – can’t even fire people in person, which is what made him most recently famous outside of NYC. But he is a wimp who thrives off the approval of his adoring and insane fans and there are still too many people I grew up with who I thought were moderately sane who still love the guy….love him. Flag wavers think he’s the most patriotic, America loving president ever. God squaders think he is the most Christian president ever. Business loving folks thinks he’s a super successful businessman. Cops and cop lovers think there has never been a greater friend to law enforcement than Donald Trump. He is none of these things – not even close, he cares only about what makes him feel good about him self at the moment, updated every minute – and that people who I know who love him are at least somewhat intelligent but can’t see this and can accept his incompetence is much more frightening to me than the man himself. Because of their racism, their sexism and their “anything that makes liberals angry” worldview means that they’ll support anybody, even somebody more incompetent than Trump (if that’s even possible), if that person channeled their stupid “I’m pissed that white guys can no longer freely be dicks to anybody” attitude. That’s what’s most frightening…and not being afraid of Trump – and I’m not – isn’t going to change these people, who are the biggest problem and threat. (and the people I am talking about are folks from suburban Central NJ – these are not some Confederate flag waving ranchers in Tennessee)
They are not the majority, but they won an election – and I don’t care about Russian meddling and Comey and all that stuff – in a sane nation there should have always been enough people to prevent that from happening. That’s scarier than Trump every day of the week, because you could have swapped him out for another white-dude, authoritarian demagogue moron and that guy would have also won.
Actually, sadly, had the Dem candidate been a moderately competent standard issue white dude Democratic candidate not named Bernie Sanders, Trump probably would have lost. That fact is also is a huge problem.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Fearless Nadia, on whom, Kangana’s character Miss Julia, in Rangoon is based on was Australian. Indian movies of the silent era also had a fair number of Jewish actresses.
Sulochana (Ruby Myers) is one who comes to my mind, right now.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: There were racist Jim Crow like laws in India during the British era. Yes those same “liberal” British. Indians were not allowed in a fair number exclusive British clubs, except may be as guests. Cricket Club of India, Turf Club, Yacht Club in Mumbai come to mind.
Lyrebird
@Mnemosyne: Ah but since he’s not currently a front-pager, he can’t embed stuff to force Gudetama on us, just offer a link…
I’m pretty sure you were teasing @Major Major Major Major… I’m just trying to make people laugh. And maybe tease @Adam L Silverman… but even though I remain very “meh” about Disney films, that Elsa song the other night definitely helped.
I’m not sure I’m as scared as horrified, can’t think about the kids whose parents just got deported, maybe also discouraged.
Thanks for the sand cats update last night, that was awesome!
jl
@OGLiberal: Trump is the ‘magic honky’ to them?
Edit: I don’t even bother to listen to media garbage interviews with defiant, or angry, or anguished, Trump voters anymore. Hell with them. Time to worry about them is when Dems need to design good policies to repair the damage after they are politically crushed in upcoming elections.
A Ghost to Most
@Mnemosyne:
Except for the alt-humans, who think they are better.
Anotherlurker
@dr. bloor: Or….. “Careful With That Ax, Eugene” always puts me at ease and cheers me up.
Lyrebird
@delk: Thanks for the beautiful photo! And for the good reminder.
Even in the hospital… as nervous as I have been when my child has needed expert medical assistance, we were walking past corridors and whole buildings with kids & parents facing stuff so much scarier.
The other thing that helps me, though I am behind on this right now, is sending donations, even if it’s just $5… the Trans Equality folks are next, and one of the refugee-oriented orgs after that.
father pussbucket
@Miss Bianca:
Can someone please tell me what this phrase means? Is it a reference to walking on water? An amusement park ride? Thanks!
Mike in NC
@vtr: It seems like Trump is literally on every page of the newspapers I read. Even the crossword puzzle has “five letter synonym for asshole”.
jl
@Mike in NC: Sounds like a good crossword puzzle even a crossword puzzle hater like me could get into. Which one is it?
A Ghost to Most
Did anyone else catch this from Rump’s speech to the talibangelicals today?
Raoul
@Chris: “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
We don’t deserve a third chance. And in some ways, at least as long as Trumpelstiltsdork or his successors don’t rage-nuke the planet, the US losing it’s hegemonic global dominance was inevitable. We’re losing it faster and dumber than I ever imagined, but lose it we were going to — and here we are.
Now, if Russia somehow manages to ascend in that vacuum, we have new problems. Some permutation of the BRIC is likely, I think. But I’m not that smart on geopolitics these days (ever??).
Timurid
@schrodingers_cat:
A big thing in certain Latino families too… “we’re 100% Spanish, no (American) Indian blood here.” My grandfather always said that, even though he eerily resembled Jawaharlal Nehru, of all people. Some people in the family were quite light; others looked Middle Eastern or even South Asian. The “official” explanation was that there were hidden Jewish ancestors. Unfortunately for all involved, my great aunt’s post-retirement hobby was genealogy. While researching the family tree she found plenty of Native Americans and mestizos, no Jews. She only went back as far as the earliest Spanish colonists she could find, so God only knows how many Arabs and Berbers were in the woodpile (the Spaniards came from Andalusia, so probably a bunch). Lots of people stopped talking to my great aunt.
father pussbucket
@Bess:
YES. Also, next time, if ever, we have a Dem in the WH, we need to address the imperial presidency. Every time we regain the WH, the GOP has left so much shit to clean up that we feel we need another round with the Elder Wand, but …
MomSense
The King and I brings back so many memories. I played Eliza (run from Simon!) about a million years ago.
I’m not afraid of DonaldTrump. I’m afraid of the consequences of what he and the GOP are doing.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s Weird, Really Weird!
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost to Most: You cannot travel backwards in time. Can’t be done. Sorry Dotard.
germy
@father pussbucket: Based on this movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbFvAaO9j8M
Refers to looking at vile reader comments after any online article.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
There ain’t no such thing as strictly English. Never has been. The Victorians tried to declare the English to be Anglo Saxon, but this was a polite fiction. Hell, the English have never even been strictly European. Vikings and the Anglo Normans (kinda Viking offshoots) included other groups as well. The Roman invaders included Spanish, North and West Africans, etc. Some African and Asian peoples have been incorporated into England at least since the Renaissance.
schrodingers_cat
I am going to celebrate Diwali next week. It should be fun.
Villago Delenda Est
I am not afraid.
I am, however, very, very angry. I hate bullies. I hate fascists. I hate bigots.
Fuckem.
Mike in DC
Final Fantasy victory jingle.
A Ghost to Most
@schrodingers_cat: I said that a hundred times to my racist, ammosexual brother. Didn’t make a dent, or even a scratch. Logic doesn’t work on them. They see what they believe.
rikyrah
I don’t have fear. I have a persistent rage that hasn’t left me since November 8th.
It has hardened me.
With every insult
With every action
With every wrong he does against this country, I grow hardened.
When. I write that those who voted for Dolt45 and those who voted third party will NEVER be forgiven… I mean that.
And, I know that I am not alone on this side of the aisle. I read it all the time.
There is a sea change. We are not ‘ letting it go.’
They put sociopaths in charge and think that we should ‘ understand’ why they voted the way that they did.
I.DON’T.CARE.WHY.
I just want them to suffer.
But, fear?
Oh, phuck no.
I’m phucking PISSED OFF.
Chris
@Raoul:
I like to fantasize that non-Western democracies – India, Brazil, South Africa, those kinds of countries – will be able to fill the vacuum somehow. Or even the freaking EU. I wouldn’t mind losing superpower status if, like the British, I knew it would be a sympathetic democracy that filled the void; I might even welcome it. But at the moment, that doesn’t seem likely. Russia and China are the ones who want the prize.
rikyrah
@geg6:
I feel you.
A Ghost to Most
@Villago Delenda Est: Seconded. I am beyond angry at these people.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost to Most: I’m only probably not a robot.
Did you get my email?
rikyrah
@rk:
Let them know that you know that they are monsters ?
Chris
@Brachiator:
This is true of most countries, as near as I can tell: the identity that the historical narrative latches onto is always at best a massive oversimplification.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
I am heartened by reports of what is apparently a serious romance between Prince Harry and the American actor Meghan Markle, who is (again, by reports I have seen) of mixed-race parentage. Must admit I never heard of her before the Harry buzz started, but it’s lovely that the Queen and other royals seem to have welcomed her as the next prospective royal bride. Can’t imagine that even a generation ago there would have been such whole-hearted acceptance of a commoner of both AA and white ancestry.
ETA: Meghan shares a birthday, August 4th, with PBO — and Harry and Barack are very tight these days. I find that a nice omen.
jl
@A Ghost to Most: I think if forces of sanity can keep chaos at bay over next year, the white bigots will get the first in a series of crushing political defeats. We’ve made it halfway from the previous election to the next, so need to keep our fingers crossed and do everything we can to hold things together.
Next time a Trump baser gets you angry, contact a politician or media to make a constructive suggestion or criticism.
rikyrah
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
We have had to put faith in the IC and military. Yeah, things have turned upside down.
Karen
dolt is using the same “playbook” as bible thumpers; using fear to control people, the bible thumpers tell you that you will go to hell. dolt is “promising” straight, rich white men will rule
schrodingers_cat
For inspiration, I like Sufi and Bhakti poetry and music (mystical traditions in Islam and Hinduism, respectively). Plus many of the songs popular during the Indian freedom struggle, many were banned by the “liberal” British.
rikyrah
@CaseyL:
Tell the truth. Let it out.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Can’t remember whether I’ve asked you this before, but what is your view of Tagore?
rikyrah
@JMG:
THEY are angry?
Phuck that.
I am angry ?
A Ghost to Most
@Major Major Major Major: yes sir, thank you. I need to read and respond when I don’t have steam coming out of my ears from Benedict Donald. Sorry, I’m an old crank.
Ok, read it. I will Google SQLite. And yes, a diagram and description would be great. Have you gotten as far as a db design yet?
Hal
Oh look. My eyes just rolled out of my head.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/12/trump-slams-media-indiana-lawmaker-jim-lucas-threatens-license-johas-drafted-bill-license-journalist/757157001/
Brachiator
@Timurid:
it’s fun to look at some of the YouTube videos of various people revealing the results of DNA tests (23andme, etc). Some Latinos seem “surprised” to discover African heritage, although with some peoples, Venezuelans, Dominicans, etc, it should be freaking obvious.
One guy who works in the area was trying to impress a woman buying stuff from a food truck by declaring, in all seriousness, that he was 100% descended from the Conquistadors. She practically laughed in his face. Some of the more sophisticated genetic testing confirms the obvious, a lot of Spanish ancestry in the Y chromosome line, and a lot of indigenous ancestry in the maternal X chromosome line, with varying amounts of other ancestry, particularly African, varying from country to country.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
“Of a sudden she can see
Wicked Simon of Legree!”
CarolDuhart2
@Mnemosyne: And humans sent far away from home for long stretches of time…we know the outcome very well. Married (or often young single) men will not wait for a transfer back home.
Also, many people in the world of Jim Crow who look acceptably white passed by changing their names and moving away.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Not read much by him except for the Indian National Anthem. So can’t comment on his literary stature. He returned his knighthood after Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. Where British opened fire and killed unarmed protesters (range given is between 400-1000, depending on who you want to believe.)
after closing the only exit.
So, much respect.
Aleta
@amygdala: Well said. I’ve thought the same but couldn’t put into words as well as you have. Thanks.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost to Most: thanks, just making sure :)
Chris
@Hal:
And this is why I just want the Second one repealed, full stop. There’s something toxic about a culture that values guns at the same level that it values freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Major Major Major Major: At this point, Game of Thrones seems pretty escapist. (Even though I’m not caught up with the latest season yet. I blame work & school.)
The president* isn’t that scary in and of himself; he’s a typical bully, and they don’t scare me these days. The fact that he has access to nuclear weapons is pretty fucking scary, but I’m fairly sure the IC or one of the generals would intervene before he could start WWIII. Fairly sure.
There’s also the issue of his Twitter outbursts, which aren’t scary in and of themselves but are scary for their potential repercussions. The refusal of the company to ban him in order to stave off a nuclear war is honestly a bit incomprehensible.
Finally there’s the issue that his presidency* has normalised sexual assault in this country in ways I’m not sure any of us can comprehend.
That said, I’m trying not to let any of this preoccupy me too much – living well is the best revenge and all that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@geg6: I am the same way, I see mister posturing on the outside but crap pantsing fear on the inside and I want to have a go at him. But, one of must have inner peace and humor is the key.
Annie
@JCJ:
The character in the film sings this song when she and her son are en route to Thailand, because they are nervous about this new place and new job.
A Ghost to Most
@Major Major Major Major: np. You sure you don’t want to call your idea “Balloon Juice”?
Raoul
@Chris: I want human progress, kindness and goodness to expand. But there is no guarantee.
We might be headed to decades or generations of global misery. Given the climate catastrophe that is probably baked in already, we might have little say in that.
The post WWII era may have been a human anomaly.
khead
@JMG:
I actually liked Kevin’s post today. He just forgot the “Fuck you David French, you helped do this” part that should have been added. The comments over at NR are actually kinda fascinating to me.
Also, I ain’t skeered.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost to Most: I have it on good authority that that’s already taken.
A Ghost to Most
rawstory
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, is claimed by some to be descended from Margarita de Castro y Sousa, a black branch of the Portuguese Royal House. BTW, a lot of otherwise white Portuguese carry the African sickle cell gene variant which confers some immunity from malaria, from Africans brought to Portugal after the 1500s.
There is some other Brit royal or aristo, who is descended from Alexander Pushkin, who was also part African (and who always reminded me of Prince).
schrodingers_cat
Also, my personal inspiration is my grandmother’s younger sister who was a freedom fighter. She even spent time in British prison. The liberal British frequently imprisoned freedom fighters, sometimes for years without any due process under sedition charges for daring to protest. She was fucking brave, she wore simple hand spun cotton till she died.
ETA: The British would beat the Satyagrahis on their heads in their lathi charges. Many died of concussions. Very genteel and liberal, their rule was.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
I like his poetry a lot — what (relatively little) I’ve read of it. As a voice student at USF, I studied John Alden Carpenter’s “Gitanjali,” settings of a few of Tagore’s poems from that collection. Lovely stuff. I actually have on my Kindle app The Complete Works of Rabindranath Tagore and dip into it now and then, but can’t claim at all to have made any kind of systematic study of his work.
bemused
@Ruckus:
Oh, he’s definitely out of his element and has no clue he is. He is the most petty, thin-skinned ass I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I’ve actually known anyone as awful as he is in my personal life, thank gawd. I’ve known people who had those traits to a lesser degree but none of them had enough money or power to get away with being a total tantrum tyrant.
He loves chaos and creates chaos when it gets too quiet. I don’t think he can live without chaos and keeping people off balance. That’s basically the only plan he has.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
I still remember the choreography. I had to remove the sound piece from one of my old dolls so it wouldn’t make that obnoxious crying sound when I jumped or turned
germy
drumpf’s biographer:
bemused
@JMG:
They’re fucking morons too.
Manyakitty
@Adam L Silverman: Bouncy, horrifying, and oddly cathartic. Now I need to grab my guitar and see if I can still play the songs I mastered on Rocksmith a few years ago. Not sure how that’s all connected, but that is where it landed me. I was in a Tom Waits mood until now.
Major Major Major Major
And I’m off back to San Francisco, up highway one from Santa Cruz! Mandatory teambuilding week is over!
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
Right you are. I knew that, vaguely, but had forgotten that connection.
lamh36
Late in thread, but I may post again in the next open thread. I apologize in advanced for the length of this comment.
Finally made it home and got comfortable enough to share what went on at work today.
First, in case you don’t remember, I work in a pretty large busy hospital lab. The lab as whole is made up of about 5 sections, 3 of the sections are collectively referred to as Core Lab. I work in the Micro lab, which is a separate section from Core Lab. Even though we all work in the same lab building, we don’t always work in the same space, so if I’m not near the Core Lab area, we don’t always interact with the other sections, particularly Core Lab. Where we interact mostly, is in passing, at meeting/parties, or in the breakroom during lunch or breaks.
Today I worked in the setup area of Micro, which the most interaction w/the Core Lab than other Micro areas. Today the Core Lab had a tech who was almost 2 hours late for work. The supervisor wasn’t in yet, but she did call in to say she had not received any calls from this tech. So rather than ding her for a “no call, no show” infarction, the supervisor and others called her cell and there was no answer and it also DIDN’T immediately go to voicemail. It just rang until finally voicemail picked up.
By the 3 hour of not being able to contact her either on her cell or via social media (also a NUMBER of the techs in Core Lab text/messaged/called etc her contacts as well and still no answer). She was just at work yesterday and folks didn’t notice that she was sic or down, and knowing that she lives alone, they were worried, so the supervisor called her emergency contact which was her sister
and told her that she didn’t report to work and that they couldn’t reach her on her cell.
I assumed her sister tried her cell too, but couldn’t reach her either so she said someone was going go over to her house. That was at like 1100am. At about 1215 the manager came and called an emergency meeting in the middle of the lab, a police officer called and told mgr that they found her at her home deceased.
they had chaplin services there and they let anyone who couldn’t continue to work go home. We don’t know the details for all we know it could have been an accident or an aneurysm. All we know is that she did have some issues with depression and she was taking anti-depressant meds.
A few of the techs who knew her better and were friendly with her said she didn’t seem down just stressed, but that she was always kinda manic. One of those techs did have a convo where she said she had no one and was alone…and this tech said when she heard hat she didn’t call or come in that her first thought was that exact conversation…so when they called the meeting and told us she had died…that tech basically broke down and couldn’t come back to work so she went home ☹️
I didn’t know her well, but she was always nice and pleasant to me. She actually knew my name and would initiate conversations
yes. She was young too, no older than maybe 30.
When I left work, there wasn’t any new information about the circumstances of her death. So it could be that her mental state had nothing to do with her dead, but either way…it was a very sad way to start the weekend. Even NOT knowing her well, it’s still hard to shake it off.
bemused
@vtr:
He is looking more and more unhealthy, sweaty and frumpy as Bannon.
Corner Stone
Looks like Reincy spilt his guts but good to Bobby Mueller today.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: If we are talking about Indian connections, then how about language. Sanskrit is one of the oldest Indo-European languages with a sizable literature and has been used continuously in India for at least 5000 years. Compared to that western civilization is latecomer to the Sanskriti (civilization).
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
How sad and shocking and awful. I’m so sorry. May your friend/colleague be in peace.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Supposidly the rash of Trump nonsense this week is because Trump is soiling himself over Moore’s win in Albama and how The Base rejected Trump’s chosen one. If the fiction has cracked like that about Trump then Schwartz might be right.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Link?
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
Me too.
Anger not fear, definitely. But just soul-eating, heart-burning anger.
A Ghost to Most
@Corner Stone: That would have been fun to watch.
Barbara
I read a collection of essays by Doris Lessing called “A Small Personal Voice,” and I have forgotten most of what she wrote, but one of them really stuck with me. Lessing was a serious and committed political activist in addition to writing fiction, a lot of which has probably not aged all that well. To avoid being overwhelmed by current events she adopted the practice of taking one or two days a year and cutting out the front page of her newspaper and hanging it up on her wall. Over the years she was able to see how much of news is made up of strikingly similar, recurring catastrophes. She specifically mentioned recurring famines (Biafra, Bangladesh). Not that you shouldn’t care but that you should realize that progress can be glacial and that we will never eliminate all suffering in the world. Trump is not something that has happened in the same way before — with influence of a foreign government, but Richard Nixon’s interference with the Paris peace accords did likely change the outcome in 1968. We have to keep going and not become mired in the day to day idiocy of Trump.
Also, has anyone else noticed that Jarvanka seems to have vanished from the public eye altogether? Or is that just my imagination?
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: He is also know for composing music, its very soothing.
father pussbucket
@germy: Thanks!
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Reported on The Beat on MSNBC in last Breaking News block.
MomSense
@Timurid:
My maternal grandmother’s Appalachian family claimed they were European to explain their dark skin. More like Melungeon.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Somehow, I missed that announcement. For some reason, I believe I was otherwise occupied on November 8, 2016.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Spill, what did he say?
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
Outlander, This Is Us and Project Runway. I can also watch House Hunters for hours at a time.
Corner Stone
Here’s an ABC bit:
Lawyer: Priebus interviewed by Mueller investigative team
“Attorney William Burck said in a statement that the interview took place Friday and that Priebus was “happy to answer all of their questions.””
ETA, obviously no way to know what he said, but IMO he has no reason to want to lie for Trump or anyone else. And he was there (in the WH) when Comey was fired. So….
Laura
@Ruviana: Hey, that’s my song too!
Tenar Arha
@OGLiberal: Yep. The fact that they are so far gone to NOT being furious with him laughing and joking during the sounding of retreat for the flag is significant. Especially considering the fuss they’ve made over Kapernick’s protesting. It shows they’ve completed the authoritarian followers course and graduated with flying colors.
Aleta
@different-church-lady: Thanks very much for this. What you say at the end, that he will be gone someday, relates to taking care of ourselves too. So we may have enough health to continue to act, instead of destroyed as the Rs hope.
MomSense
@lamh36:
I’m so sorry, lamh.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Thanks. Will try to track it down.
Origuy
The BBC edition of Who Do You Think You Are did Billy Connolly a while back. They discovered that he had Indian ancestry.
lamh36
@Corner Stone: here’s the Politico link http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/13/muellers-team-interviewed-priebus-on-friday-243765
geg6
@JMG:
Funny how nobody gives a shit about our anger, isn’t it? Which just makes me angrier.
Manyakitty
@lamh36: Oh no, that’s tragic. I’m so sorry.
germy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: My mistake. Schwartz was his ghostwriter, not biographer.
A Ghost to Most
WaPo just put up a story as well about RNC PR BS.
trollhattan
@lamh36:
So sad, what a shame to lose someone so young. Her poor family.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Did not know he was a composer. Will look him up on the YooToobz.
Brachiator
@MomSense:
Some theater mucky muck wanted to cast me in some minor part of “The King and I” when I was a child. But I didn’t show any interest in theater then, and my mother turned him down. Always enjoyed the play and the movie, even though ultimately I preferred Yul Brynner as a cowboy in “The Magnificent Seven.”
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: There is an entire genre of music called Rabindra Sangeet, inspired by Tagore’s music.
This is an example from Lootera, which is set in 1950s Bengal.
trollhattan
Friday ponder: How has Ivana never appeared in a David Lynch movie?
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: It’s been twenty years since I had to go to one of those teambuilding seminars, but what I remember most is that we bonded over how stupid and timewasting it was. The instructor was one of those fake cheerleader types who would throw candy at people who answered a question in what he considered was the right way. (It didn’t help that he had no knowledge of our specific industry and most of his solutions were illegal/against company policy, also that we were all middle-aged people, some with diabetes, who didn’t want or need candy.)
@lamh36: Uncertainty is awful. Your imagination goes to town and it would be better if they had had some facts to give you, but I guess there was no real control over it.
Ruviana
@Laura: Seems very pertinent these days, yes?
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: So sorry about your colleague. {{}}.
lamh36
@lamh36: as I said, I did not know her well, but the brief time that I knew her and the few times I interacted with her personally she was always nice, polite and cordial. But there was a sadness about her, like she was smiling at you, but her eyes were sad…ya know…we didn’t really talk in any personal way though.
I did have an older coworker who was really good friends with her. They talked all the time and she even joked about setting the young tech up with her own son. It was a running conversation with that coworker and the young lady. Luckily, I guess, my older coworker was off today, but of course our supervisor had to call and tell her since we all knew she was the closest to her in our department. The supervisor said it was a heartbreaking conversation.
As I said, we hadn’t heard anything specific about what went down, for her family’s sake, I’d think it would be easier if it was some sort of sudden, unexpected thing that no one could control, instead of by her own hand…ya know.
I’m sure by the time I return to work Monday, there will be more to learn.
A Ghost to Most
@geg6:
Yes. I’ve been channeling my anger into preparing our off-road vehicle for an emergency overland excursion.
Having something to turn the anger into helps me.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Right. Where are all the NYT and WaPo and Atlantic and Vanity Fair and Washington Monthly and Guardian and CNN and MSNBC and The Nation and The New Yorker and New York Magazine and USA Today and NPR and BBC and National Review and New Republic stories about “Angry Hillary Voters”?
MomSense
@Brachiator:
Yul Brynner was gorgeous.
Aleta
@lamh36: I’m very sorry.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@lamh36: So sorry to hear that. My condolences.
lamh36
@MomSense: Yessss…Yul Brynner is one of the MAIN reasons why I watch the Ten Commandments…FAITHFULLY each year….oved Brynner in full Pharoah drag!!
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. Language and it’s impact on culture fascinates me. But I’m not much into the oldest or which came first, but I love how one language and culture influences another.
I am very impressed by a little I read about how Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar used his knowledge of language and history to challenge the Aryan invasion theory of Indian history. This kind of thing, these kinds of insights and discoveries, knock me out.
bemused
@Hal:
I’d bet good old boy Lucas has plenty of dirty laundry hidden away. These neanderthals are the ones who should be licensed as dangerous to society.
debbie
I am not afraid. I am ashamed. Trump has forced this country into a reflection of himself: Someone who welches on agreements and who cannot be relied on to keep their word. I no longer am confident this country can recover from Trump.
If Stephen Miller’s goal was to destabilize the Middle East, he’s probably succeeded. If he’s a reflection of the current Israeli government, I hope their only destiny is their own destruction.
efgoldman
@Karen:
Among his many wonderful and endearing qualities, he is a self loving, empathy-deprived bully of the worst sort.Way down deep, like most bullies, he is more afraid of us than the world is of him. Like any nasty, thoughtless bully, stand up to him and he’ll dissolve into a quivering puddle.SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks. That’s really nice.
(What has happened to the formatting tags? They have suddenly disappeared. Had to do blockquote by hand. My life sucks.)
Kay (not the front pager& from my phone)
My problem isn’t so much fear as a sense of unreality. Ever since the night of the election I have felt like this just can’t be happening. I mean, it’s more believable that the sky is red, or the grass is purple, or dogs are driving cars. How can this be happening here?? I mean, this is the good old USA! Yes, I’m possessed of white privilege, the source of my continuing embarrassment since 11/9/16.
So what I fight every day is immobilizing disbelief. It’s really happening and it must be opposed relentlessly.
germy
MomSense
@lamh36:
One of the sexiest men ever!
Just one more canuck
@Major Major Major Major: yes but the owner is never here so you should be good
Elizabelle
That’s a really good point that Trump wants us to be demoralized and afraid.
It’s working, but maybe a little less when we realize that’s his goal, in addition to performing like a rented monkey for his ugly as shit base. Which is cruel and stupid and moblike.
Brachiator
@lamh36: Very sorry to hear this. My condolences.
Elizabelle
@germy: Oh, I bet they’d pee on set, if they could do so.
NBC is so damn craven. Hiring Megyn and all the rightwingers they’ve studded MSNBC with (as you guys tell me; I don’t have or watch it).
Would love to see NBC and Kelly with huge black eyes over this one. Megyn laughing all the way to the bank. She always gets paid.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m with you guys! Angry, hostile, alert, trying to be aware of my surroundings, a little paranoid, but not so much fear.
Jeffro
@Raoul:
Whew, you’re not kiddin’ there…
germy
@Elizabelle:
And after all that, drumpf still wants to shut them down!
Citizen_X
@lamh36: Oh my god, that’s so awful. I’m sorry.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@lamh36: I’m so sorry for you all, including her family. No matter the cause, that sudden and unanticipated a death is like a heavy electric shock.
Shana
@Fair Economist: See “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific. A song that ran through my head for weeks after learning that the 3 year old son of some neighbors (now long gone thank god) threw a fit and had to be removed from his preschool because there was a black woman teaching there. A 3 year old. THREW A FIT. Because a black woman was a teacher and he refused to stay there with her. I did something I’ve never done before since I’m generally pretty non-confrontational, I asked the mother if the story was true. She confirmed it and I told her she and her husband were repulsive human beings and my children would never be allowed to play with her son, nor would I ever speak to her again. Not saying there’s any connection, but they moved about a year later. I did tell everyone I knew in the neighborhood about them so it may have had something to do with it.
BTW, this was in the mid 90s in Fairfax County, VA, one of the close suburbs of DC. Our neighborhood is fairly upscale, lots of government contractors, lawyers, executives.
pluky
@bemused: because when the noise stops he’s left with the voices in his head.
Seanly
@JMG:
I read that and didn’t come away thinking that Kevin thinks we need to kowtow to those idiots. They’ll be like my father-in-law and pass away. He was just getting angrier and angrier – much of probably at himself and some of it probably due to his uncontrolled diabetes. My MIL was upset that he passed by my wife & SIL were just concerned about her. He’s well over a year gone now and she’s doing very well.
Now my SIL is another matter. She’s gone full ammosexual since Newton. But she also takes on aspects of her husband and the latest one is a raving Islamaphobe gun-nut.
debbie
Pity UC chickened out and will allow Richard Spencer to speak. Not that Spencer’s attorney had much more of a backbone.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
Loved him in Anastasia.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
One of the linguistic connections that’s always intrigued me is the Finno-Ugric link (Finnish-Hungarian). Even their mythologies are connected. Kodály, like Sibelius, drew heavily on The Kalevala for inspiration.
khead
@Seanly:
Yeah this. Kevin seemed a lot more amazed than accommodating.
trollhattan
Napa-Sonoma fire map. Pretty effective presentation of their scary size and extent.
Shana
@SiubhanDuinne: Wasn’t Alexander Dumas also mixed race?
No Drought No More
Trump doesn’t scare me, but Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush did. A lot.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ooh definitely.
I’m trying to find a video of the NYCB dancing Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a tv special and I think the sets had lots of trees. I can’t remember if it was PBS or not.
Shana
@lamh36: I’m so sorry. Really sorry. Be good to yourself this weekend.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Shana: Yes. Here’s a bit about his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, and another about the general’s mother, Marie-Cessette Dumas. I am including the link for Madame Dumas because there are too many people like her who are left invisible to history.
germy
President Lex Luthor
SiubhanDuinne
@Shana:
He was indeed. His grandmother was an enslaved woman from Africa.
Aleta
@germy: I didn’t even know we had pet insurance.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I bought a whole book about General Dumas called The Black Count, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
different-church-lady
@germy: “We had to implode the village to save it.”
Shana
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio): Thanks, very interesting.
Sloane Ranger
@Brachiator: FWIW the British Royal Family is also descended from the Prophet Mohammed through a daughter of the Moorish King of Seville whose daughter converted and married into the Spanish nobility.
Apparently the King of Morocco calls Queen Elizabeth his dearest cousin in letters.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sloane Ranger:
I have been known to get lost for hours on end in the genealogies of royal/noble/aristocratic families. There are some really fascinating and unexpected connections.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Ooh, that could be an interesting read!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: He was the man. He was brilliant. He is prolific too, has written about every topic imaginable.
ETA: Its not the question of the oldest, but a lot of Latin has its roots in Sanskrit, those connections were discovered by a Jesuit priest IIRC.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Also, its pretty cool I think that the poems written down in the oldest Veda (vadan==to speak), Rigveda (composed are still recited in India and we can understand what it says.
Nasadiya Sukta (Or the hymn of nothingness)
The Sanskrit verse is first followed by its Hindi translation, from the starting credits of Shyam Benegal’s Discovery of India based on Nehru’s book by the same name. Benegal is the filmaker behind Samvidhan (Constitution) too.
Kayla Rudbek
@Mnemosyne: The Black Count is a great book.
Origuy
@SiubhanDuinne: My sister has done a lot of work in Ancestry.com on our family and has found several royal connections. The most interesting to me is Jasper Tudor, the uncle of Henry VI. He had an illegitimate daughter named Joan with a Welsh woman named Mevanwy derch Daffydd. Jasper’s parents were Owain Tudor, the descendant of Welsh royalty, and Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France. I’m also descended from Henry V and Bad King John. My claim to Buckingham Palace is somewhat less than the current occupant, I’m afraid.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss, just because it’s a work acquaintance doesn’t lessen they impact of this loss.
An older co-worker of mine didn’t come to work one day. The group’s administrative assistant actually went to her apartment, couldn’t get in, called the fire department who forced entry. G was dead in her bathroom, probably either a stroke or a heart attack.
What was most remarkable to me was two days later, coming off the elevator, her identical twin was standing there when the elevator doors opened. Quite a shock! But G was at least in her 60s. And K. who went to her apartment, had the worst shock. By the time she called the F D she knew what to expect, but still.
G was a Bahi’i which is unusual here, anywhere I guess. Also a veteran. An interesting person. Taught end users how to use newly developed systems…
BruceJ
He doesn’t make me afraid. He makes me angry. Ezekiel 25:17 level angry…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=xbc63s8SOX4
stinger
@lamh36: Oh, gosh, I am so sorry to hear that. I’m glad your employer offers support, in terms of the chaplain service and letting folks go home who are too distressed to work. I hope you’e doing okay.
afanasia
@Mnemosyne: Would those be the Munki Munki yarn kitten pajamas?
Daddio7
@Shana: Same thing happened in my wife’s kindergarten class. This one little girl screamed when the teacher tried to talk to her. She cried when any of the other children tried to play with her. Her parents had to pull her out and take her to a school where she could have a teacher that was like her, Black. For some reason White people, like my wife and the first teacher, frightened her.