The chess champion nails it:
The demagogue doesn't lead radicals, he radicalizes his supporters. With each outrage he drags them down by association until they feel they have no one else, and no one else will have them. It works. https://t.co/NQebCcnOLJ
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 6, 2018
We’ve discussed before how this wretched administration has made us worse people. I know it’s made me a worse person — I’m angrier, more bitter and less patient. I savor enemies’ suffering in a way I didn’t before. It’s not good.
But it’s made the MAGA chuds worse too, and they were already starting with a significant character deficit. I’ve seen it among relatives whose acquaintance I can’t escape. I don’t know where the bottom is, and that’s scary.
Anyhoo, sorry to be such a downer on a Friday afternoon. Here’s a gorgeous butterfly to make up for it:
Open thread!
germy
Corner Stone
After this hellish week, don’t we all deserve a nice, juicy, Friday News dump?
A Ghost To Most
Rump didn’t change the GOP base; he released them.
Embrace “Fuck civility”.
Corner Stone
Because if there’s not going to be a Friday News dump, I’m giving serious thought to knocking out a Boss Nap.
eemom
I guess I’ve gotten worse, but gotta admit I was pretty bad to begin with. ?
germy
Manafort Kept in Solitary 23 Hours a Day to ‘Guarantee His Safety,’ Lawyer Says
Felony Govt
I have become a much worse person. I curse way more than I ever did. Also I frequently have to edit my social media posts (although not my thoughts) before publishing, to make sure I’m not going to bring the Secret Service knocking on my door.
EBT
donnie confirmed every bad thing I have ever said about conservatives.
schrodingers_cat
It has affected my health, adversely.
Corner Stone
This is now at least twice in two days that MSNBC has had Jen Kerns on their air to lie and spew hatred. It’s also interesting to note they describe her as a contributor to TheHill, which she is. But she’s also something much, much worse. Which they don’t seem to mention any longer. Hmmm….
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Me too.
Miss Bianca
Pretty butterfly!
That’s all I’ve got. I’ve always been a hotheaded loudmouth, so to the extent that I haven’t gotten *better* since the Release The MAGAts Tour began, I guess…I’ve become a worse person, too.
Origuy
@germy: And now the MAGAots on Twitter are calling this “cruel and unusual punishment”. They’d be happy with it if he were a black guy caught with pot.
Karen S.
I guess I’m angrier, but then I’m black and a lesbian so I’ve had a lot to be angry about well before now. Mainly, I’m not surprised by how awful Trump and the GOP are and how low they go. After the election in 2016 and subsequent events and depravities perpetrated by Trump and his GOP brethren, a lot of straight white people seemed shocked, which I didn’t understand initially, but it didn’t take me long to realize that their USA was never, or rarely, to be charitable, my USA.
The Thin Black Duke
There is no bottom. Things can go from loudmouths spewing vulgarities to bloody-fisted atrocities in the blink of an eye and it’s dangerous to believe otherwise. America is teetering on the edge and the abyss is waiting.
NotMax
Don’t let their behavior alter anything you like about yourself. Ever.
On another topic, whatever happened to Sarah, Tall and Proud?
germy
germy
@Origuy:
Not a whisper from them about Kalief Browder, who was actually innocent.
A Ghost To Most
traitors
oatler.
Fuck the French. The guillotine is too humane for this bunch.
Raoul
Maybe it won’t matter that much, but dumping on HW Bush doesn’t seem like a strategic move. Maybe it does solidify his base somehow, but it makes it all the easier for the waverers to peel off. If it helps peel off 2% or 3%, that’s the shooting match in several close Senate races this fall.
Kay
Allow me to introduce you to another wonderful Trumpster. Bill Shine’s wife:
In June 2018, Shine retweeted an attack on Gretchen Carlson, who sued Ailes in 2016 for sexual harassment and retaliation. Carlson’s lawsuit led to a settlement with Fox News and Ailes was pushed out of the company. The tweet read, “I guess if you ignore the FACT that Gretchen would still be at FNC [Fox News Channel] if they hadn’t fired her for abysmal show ratings & how she kept kissing up to BILL & ROGER till the end!”
The Trumpster v Trumpster fights are the best. No collateral damage. No innocent people harmed.
Fox is a sewer, by the way. They all look like hostages reciting propaganda for a reason. They’re all awful people.
germy
@Kay: A happy ending for Shine, who takes his rightful place in this administration.
What took them so long? I was saying he’d be a perfect fit a year ago.
donnah
I saw an interview with a dairy farmer who is in danger of losing the family business, and is worried about the tariffs. But they’re Trump voters. They believe he’ll win and the tariffs are just a bluff, and the Chinese will roll over pretty soon. They will never be disloyal to Trump and they’ll go down the drain still supporting him.
There is no reasoning with them. Let them go down the Trump toilet. Stop interviewing them, stop asking them what they think about anything.
I am a much angrier person as a result of this president. I honestly still wake up some mornings and am shocked that he was ever elected. When I think of his picture in history books or on the walls of government offices, I feel sick. He’s damaged our country; he’s damaged us. I don’t know how people aren’t angry.
BlueGirlFromWyo
@germy: So gross. Every time you think he can’t go lower, he does.
I’ve become a worse person too. I think it’s from knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, there simply are no better angels to appeal to in some people.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Oh, my…the world’s saddest song is playing on the world’s tiniest violin for poor Paul Manafort, over here.
Incidentally, I can’t help but wonder *why* he’s in such grave physical danger in there. Can there be that many prisoners whose moral standards he will have offended by being a handmaid to dictatorships? Or are they afraid that the Russians are going to suborn the guards to get to him?
Gex
All the people who used to scold me for the way I spoke about Republicans are a lot quieter about it nowadays. Turns out this QPOC had to pay much closer attention to who and what they are than most. But hey, now I really resent all those assholes who made sure it got this bad because they refused to see it until it got this bad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: I caught the bit where he was mocking Poppy Bush and “thousand points of light”. It was more incoherent than actually mean, but his weird smirk when breaks into what he thinks are killer jokes, the flailing comedian trying to imitate someone more successful* is so weird to me. But as Patton O says, he’s not flailing, the mouth-breathers just love him.
* My theory is that his models are Jackie Mason and Joan Rivers. Especially during the campaign he used to do a lot of latter-day– and kind of pathetic– Rivers’ “ugh… ugh” schtick, random disgusted noises that were supposed to take the place of actual funny words.
Mnemosyne
@Karen S.:
I was not shocked (despite being cishet and white ?) because I saw how they treated the whole Obama family while Barack Obama was in office. I knew that their hatred and spite was limitless and they would feel free to express it as soon as they were in office.
I have been horrified by their actions, but not shocked or surprised that assholes are assholing all over the place.
Kay
They rigged it so it’s minority rule which means we need huge support to get some semblance of representative government BUT. 12 is a lot :)
It ain’t over yet. As long as we can still vote we have a shot. Use it or lose it.
schrodingers_cat
It has made me sad and mad. More outspoken too. I have been commenting on this forum since President Obama was first inaugurated. I have got into more spats with commenters and FPers in the last year and a half than the previous 8 years put together.
Jacel
@NotMax: Good question. Sarah, Tall and Proud’s contributions to Balloon Juice were rare, brilliant, and hysterical. Hope she’s well.
Gex
@Karen S.: YES. THIS. NBQPOC here, so it’s a bit different for me, but this really resonates.
germy
Whenever I see video of his rallies, I find myself watching the audience behind him.
Such a mix of ages, body types, facial expressions. But a rather grotesque tableau.
ruemara
I am still a better person on my worst day than any of those people on their best. They haven’t yet hit their bottom. Any student of American or world history should know that they can be much, much worse and the goal of better people is to prevent that by hook or by crook. I won’t pretend that I’m getting worse in any way except the mental fatigue & strain of an America still pretending that everything is ok and they’re just having a little disagreement in the humanity of other people. Personally, I know the recovery will be a decade or more – if we can root out these diseased people. And it will take steel on our spines & our hearts because they keep using that general belief in goodness & redemption to stay vile on the down low. They can go to hell & I’d happily push them into the pit if it preserves life & liberty for all. That’s not evil, that’s justice. Mercy is for those who genuinely abandon this path. So far, his base is gorging themselves on hatred, cruelty, ignorance and wickedness. I do see a bottom, just review Wounded Knee, Rosewood, Greenwood, Newark. It’s a goddamned sewer mile high & wide bottom and sadly, American spent hundreds of years in it. The job is to see to it that we don’t return to the spawning ground of this country. There’s a thing called civilization, where nations grow out of nationalism & ethnocentric barbarity. I’d like to preserve our progress & keep moving forward. Fuck these hellspawn and their demented babbler.
@germy: read that online. Might not be a bad idea for people with republican senators to start haranguing them now, with faxes and phone calls. You know, if you’d like to keep the level of compromised by fascists DOJ to the current level.
hitchhiker
We’d all be disgusted-but-not-horrified if Trump was some rando b-list celebrity bleating his stupid insults. Instead we have to swallow the shame of seeing him do it from podiums with the seal of the president on the front while secret service agents stand there ready to take a bullet for him.
The fact that we’re not rioting or going on strike is evidence that we still have faith in our system … but if Nov goes badly, I just don’t know. Same, if he’s officially given a pass for his assaults on women, his tax evasion, his corruption, and his goddamn collusion with Putin.
Patricia Shinagawa
I know it feels like Trump is turning his supporters into Nazi brown shirts but I think the truth is not so black and white as all that.
I am reading an old New Yorker article about how the Oklahoma teachers strike led to several teachers running for local offices as Democrats and winning in the middle of Trump country. They ran on education issues, pretty much ignored the national picture and won over voters with their message of reversing years of Republican de-funding of schools in their state.
I think this is happening in all parts of the country now, under reported and under the radar. I feel it in my own need for activism.
The Trump voters are angry as hell at the state and nation failing them. It’s easy when one is full of anger and feelings of betrayal to be manipulated into blaming somebody for one’s problems. Trump gave them an enemy they were already disposed to, Mexicans, blacks, Musllims, Democrats. It’s reinforced by Fox news and the GOP. Most of these people don’t know anyone from the above four in their daily lives so it is really easy to make them into cartoon villains.
But if a Democrat candidate runs locally on an issue he or she knows and is passionate about, that authenticity can connect on the street level with those voters. And if the candidate can win office and deliver, he is no longer a cartoon villain but is instead, a trusted leader.
Our party needs to start over on the grassroots level and start delivering results to the community. In two years those candidates can start runs on the national level. But for that to happen there needs to be a continuous spring of grassroots candidates making the jump into politics.
I read somewhere that one can tell a society’s values by what is considered the highest profession. In the Renaissance the arts were exalted, in time of our revolution is was politicians, during the industrial revolution it was the captains of industry, in most of the 20th century it was scientists. In this time of the collapse of our institutions, perhaps it can be the citizen, rising up to reclaim our power.
Kay
The gun numbers are interesting. We finally have passionate gun regulation voters. Talk about a silent majority. They absolutely bury gun nuts as far as raw numbers of voters. Maybe that will start to show up in voting.
Raoul
@Mnemosyne: Yes, this is a solid distinction. Even as all the predictable incompetence, narcissism, nepotism, theft, self-dealing, corruption, racism and just general shit-flinging awfulness of Trump has unfolded, it still horrifies and infuriates. But surprise? Nope.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: I don’t think I have become worse person either. I don’t understand this self flagellation.
bemused
Chuds, what a great word. The MAGA Chuds aren’t really worse than they’ve always been. They just feel liberated to show exactly what chuds they are.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: His current behavior should come as no shock to anyone who witnessed the long presidential campaign run on hate and bile, naked xenophobia and racism.
MattF
I agree that Kasparov’s observation is important. One should pay attention to what he says– Russians are familiar with the political dynamics of this sort of thing. They’ve still got a generation of old Stalinists running around, and now a new generation of Putinites.
And here, back in the US… it’s more than just depressing that the vast majority of Republicans have fallen for it and gone the Trumpian Way. We’re stuck with a generation who has bought the whole shitpile and aren’t going to suddenly see the light and change their minds, ever.
Uncle Cosmo
@oatler.: Which was precisely M. Guillotin’s intent: to produce a killing machine that was foolproof & instantaneous, hence humane.
ETA: Having worked as an engineer for 8.5 years, I love engineer jokes…:D
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: I think people who have been able to avoid dealing with terrible people have a hard time seeing people they know and like or even love show they have a terrible side. Goes double when you see it is literally millions around the country just looking for a reason to unleash that side. Disturbing, except to the already disturbed.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
The Russian mafia is very active in NYC and has suborned the local FBI field office and probably quite a few people working for NYPD and/or whoever runs the jails. So, yeah, Manafort’s life is definitely in danger, which means he’s truly a moron for deciding to commit additional crimes while he was out on bail.
O. Felix Culpa
I’m a more politically engaged and determined person. I will NOT let these asshats win without a fight.
I also swear more and savor Betty’s creative invective.
BC in Illinois
July 5 – Trump goes to a rally in Montana to mock Senator Elizabeth Warren( and John McCain).
July 4 – Elizabeth Warren goes to Iraq to visit American troops.
Trump has had many “campaign rallies.” He has never yet visited US troops overseas.
Two years ago, Elizabeth Warren and John McCain were also in Iraq for the 4th of July.
Enough.
BlueGirlFromWyo
@ruemara: That was beautiful. I need to read that every day.
MattF
@Mnemosyne: Manafort’s behavioral repertoire doesn’t include a way to back out of a bad situation.
JPL
I’m a member of the swear club, also.
marc
We know where the bottom is.
Mandalay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I think you are right, and this will only make the teetering worse:
If either of those rallies takes place it’s easy to predict the world salad sound bites from Republicans in Congress: “While I don’t necessarily agree…important that all points of view are heard…First Amendment…greatest country on God’s earth”.
Kay
It’s important (to me) to admit they’re getting worse, not so people will give up, but so people will feel a sense of urgency.
You don’t get 50 million chances. There really is a point of no return.
zhena gogolia
@A Ghost To Most:
Yeah, that’s the one I found yesterday. The whole segment is stomach-turning.
gvg
I dunno, I think I am a better person for deciding I am not going to put up with certain things. I may not start a fight everytime but I can walk away or shun people. Not starting anything at work though.
On the other hand my super nice mother in her 70’s is always trying to hush me and warn me not to say things at work etc. I am getting resentful because I do have more sense than that and feel that if I said that she should believe me and quit repeating herself.
Also suspect she thinks many of her friends might be racist trumpers.
I happen to think there is a time for engaging and civility and a time for social shunning and consequences. I don’t approve and I am going to say so.
Work is different because there are too many power issues. If we all make a habit of bring every moral issue to work, above will always be imposing on below and it won’t actually be fair. Would breed even more resentments.
Brachiator
Yeppity, yep, yep. Great summation of how Trump’s entire presidency is founded on cruelty and resentment, and false promises.
It has made me more focused. And ready to do battle. But not angrier. I have been energized by the example of the Parkland students, by the woman who climbed up on the Statue of Liberty, by the people marching and by the candidates winning special elections and primaries.
The more Trump talks, and the more his supporters embrace him, the more I realize that this is not me, and never will be.
I once was tempted to get up in the face of a guy I overheard talking about immigrants with contempt, but instead silently reminded myself that as long as there are people like that, there will also be people like me.
It is beginning to feel like the most pivotal era in our history since 1968. The sad thing is that that there are so many Trump supporters who yearn for a crabbed, selfish, cruel, fearful version of the country, and who are willing to toss democracy aside and replace it with a belligerently racist autocracy led by an immature, ignorant buffoon.
I am surprised in a way that a lot of stuff that I thought was settled is now all up in the air. But if there has got to be a fight for tolerance, inclusion, decency, bring it on.
germy
No such introspection from the RW.
During the eight years of Obama, I doubt any chud commenting on any RW site ever confessed anything like this.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: It is only after T was elected did I truly get the Mahabharat. I don’t know how many here know of the story. But it always felt like Krishna’s take no prisoners attitude and winning by any means necessary was unsporting, not necessarily noble. But now I get why it was necessary. The Kauravas had been given chance upon chance to change, but they decided they wanted it all, and couldn’t spare land that would fit on a pin point for their cousins. You cannot be “good” and “nice” to those who won’t even acknowledge your right to live.
ETA: Mahabharat and Ramayana are the stories I grew up with, like many others of Hindu/Indian origin.
The Moar You Know
Guy has the FTFNYT’s number!
Amazed he hasn’t had a Novichok bath yet, God knows Vlad has had people killed for far less than the kind of opposition that Kasparov has shown.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: Well that does it. Time to actually read “The Mahabarat.”
As opposed to just listening to the soundtrack from the Peter Brook adaptation over and over.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: And what is she that is much, much worse?
Adam L Silverman
Now all we have to do is increase your pit fighting experience and you’ll be ready to take on Thulsa Doom.
pamelabrown53
@germy: #23
re: Shine’s happy ending”. I always thought that the trump admin. was scraping the bittim of a very shallow barrel. Now I’m wondering whether either Trump can’t find fols willing to “serve” in his maladministration or if he’s just so ostentatiously cruel that freaking out the libtards gets his pebbles off. (Lord knows, neither Viagra nor a forklift will work).
The Moar You Know
@germy: There is no way to guarantee his safety. Guards are easily bribed. For that matter, so are attorneys. If he testifies he and his family die.
I don’t know why he and his lawyers are trying to get him loose, save that they’ve got to be in absolute denial about the danger he’s in. If he flees to Russia they’ll just kill him there. He’s safest in a cell, and as it is that’s not very safe.
Adam L Silverman
@donnah: The difference between the President and Xi is that neither Xi, nor anyone in his party, has to worry about being elected or reelected. This gives Xi the strategic advantage.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: Its awesome. I am not fond of the other epic Ramayana, which is very patriarchal and simplistic, with goody goody characters. Characters in Mahabharata are imperfect, make mistakes and are 3dimensional. Female characters are strong and propel the story.
Even the minor stories of the Mahabharata are interesting.
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: I remember watching a Hindu live action performance – as opposed to my usual cartoons – of the Mahabharata. Krishna had it right about those fools. they couldn’t take yes for an answer.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
@ruemara:
I hate to talk about my own people behind their backs, but a whole lot of white people (including myself at times) are used to ignoring what their relatives say or changing the subject when those relatives start going off on a racist rant. That gave many of us the illusion that racism wasn’t so bad — see how quickly we were able to change the subject! And the people who fooled themselves like that are now shocked to discover that, yep, Grandma or Dad really do believe all of those horrible things that they say.
Honestly, if my father were still alive, I might be much more torn because he was pretty racist, and he had conservative friends and Fox News to make him even more so. I think he would have hated Trump, but I can’t be 100 percent sure.
gvg
also I am not in favor of solitary. From what I have read it tends toward causing insanity. It’s especially bad for unstable types like Chelsea Manning, but not good for any one. I think it’s used too often in our prison system and we need a bunch of reforms not just less of that. I get the impression it’s used as a punishment way too often before the trial too.
I really can’t judge ifit’s actually necessary in Manaforts case. Seems like they could handle security some other way but I am admittedly not expert.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Not quite noon here in LaLaLand, but my thermometers say it’s 122(the one in the sun) or 110(the one under the eves of The Cave), at least it’s a dry heat.
Adam L Silverman
@BC in Illinois:
He’s waiting until he repositions them back within the continental US to save money and stick it to the Germans, the Japanese, and the South Koreans. This way he can be home in his bed for his nightly chat with Hannity.
Ksmiami
@donnah: I just want trump and the gop destroyed, dead, gone
The Moar You Know
@MattF: They bought it a long time ago. Quite a few of them are folks my age, GenXers. Reagan planted the seeds. Trump was just the guy who gave them permission to fly their freak flag high. It would have been someone else if not him. Which is something we really need to take to heart. The problem isn’t Trump. It’s the 60+ million people who voted for him. Every last one of them knew what they were voting for.
Mnemosyne
@Mandalay:
DC is a majority Black city surrounded by purple states. His little “rally” is going to turn out like the one in Boston where they had about a dozen white sipremacists surrounded by thousands of counter-protesters.
I say, don’t throw us in that briar patch.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ve never actually minded being a bad person.
? I’m obnoxious and disliked, you know that sir…. ?
Captain C
@Miss Bianca: More likely the latter (especially if you include possibilities like “bribe prisoners to take him out” and “have an agent get busted and sent to that jail to do the job”).
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Cool so you know what I am talking about! Good guys win but at a terrible cost. War is terrible even when it is unavoidable.
opiejeanne
Thanks for the butterfly! It helps quite a bit.
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo: Engineer and son of an engineer and this is one of my favorite jokes too.
The Moar You Know
@marc: I would argue that we don’t. There’s worse things than gas chambers and gulags. There are people in power now willing to use them if they think they can get away with it.
cckids
@donnah:
You describe my feelings perfectly. Every now and then I realize how infuriated I am all the time now & think: This is how so so many conservatives live their ENTIRE LIVES. They were this pissed off about the Clintons, both Bill and Hillary, because ??? They were even madder when Obama was elected, and we all know why; every “reason” they gave was BS. I often thought when they were ginning up the poutrage meter over tan suits, Malia’s t-shirt, golf or whatever the fake “scandal” of the day was, How do they live their lives being so ANGRY all the time?? Isn’t that exhausting?
Now I know. Yes, it is exhausting. At least we don’t have to go looking for phony scandals; they are served up continuously. I feel 10 years older than I did 18 months ago. Who would choose to be this worked up all their lives? Something is fundamentally wrong with them.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: Good for you! Well, I don’t think I am bad or have become worse, if people don’t agree, that’s their problem.
Mike in NC
This morning I discovered my car apparently had a dead battery. My wife had a doctor’s appointment an hour away, so we took her car. When we got to the clinic we were told they had some sort of network problem and all patients were being turned away to be rescheduled. I was quite pissed off that they didn’t call people to notify them. As we got ready to leave a car with a Trump bumper sticker passed us by, and I was glad to think I didn’t have an open carry permit.
Mandalay
@germy: From your link:
That’s a bizarre and desperate argument. The specific reason for Manafort being in jail is that the judge said that there was no way to prevent further witness tampering by Manafort if he remained free.
There is a real possibility that Manafort will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, his thinking tends to be that considered and well-planned. //
Ajabu
@germy:
When I see his rallies (on mute, of course) I think about what Redd Foxx said about going to a ball game and looking at the crowd. Black people ranging from Ebony, mahogany, cocoa, all shades up to light, bright & almost white. And then, white people. All just white. And WE all look alike??
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
FTFY.
Dread
Yeah. I have relatives that are Trump supporters.
And I honestly think that if it came down to it, they would send me off to a camp to die.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: If they’re all “over there”, how can they have a military parade for him here?
Karen S.
@Gex:
And you know, sometimes it’s been exhausting. I’m not angry all the time, but enough that sometimes it’s flat out tiring. So I try to do my part and have over the years. I’ve never cast a protest vote or sat home on an election day because none of the candidates gave me sparkly feelings. I can’t afford to do that. Besides, I’ve always thought that not voting would be an insult to the memory of those African Americans and women who fought for the right for me to vote.
jacy
The Boyfriend used to chide me for wishing bloody death on Republicans. He said it was better to wish them enlightenment. Lately he has come around to my position of wishing them bloody and lingering deaths.
We are middle-aged white people who now look upon every middle-aged white person we meet with suspicion. Nobody gets the benefit of the doubt. Ever.
cckids
@Mnemosyne:
This. Mine too. And it would break my heart. I know after he got cancer & retired & ended up watching way too much Faux News, he changed for the worse.
lollipopguild
@eemom: Thanks for the 1776 reference. Adams was a pain in the ass but he was the right kind of pain in the ass. We need people like him now.
Miss Bianca
@gvg: I dunno…I sort of feel that if *anyone* actually *deserves* solitary, it would be Paul Manafort.
Karen S.
@Mnemosyne:
I wasn’t shocked at all by how the Obamas were treated. I was dismayed but neither shocked nor surprised. My father is a retired chemist (Ph.D. in organic chemistry), my mother a dietitian. They worked hard all their lives, didn’t get into trouble and achieved what’s supposed to be the American Dream. Yet that didn’t stop some white people indulging their bigotry/ignorance toward and around them. It didn’t stop white cops from pulling over my dad occasionally because, well, a black man with such a nice car must have stolen it. We were the second black family to move into the predominantly white suburb I grew up in. For the first few months that we lived there, my mother kept the curtains drawn in our house day and night because some of our new neighbors thought nothing of walking up to our house and standing at the windows to watch us, like we were zoo animals. This was well before Barack Obama entered the American consciousness.
efgoldman
@Raoul:
Weasel Face doesn’t do strategy . It’s all narcissistic id. He got a germ of a thought and rode it into the ground, as he does.
Mnemosyne
@cckids:
It’s hard to say for sure, because my grandfather (dad’s dad) was a malignant narcissist, so there’s a decent chance that my dad would have hated Trump for that reason. But I’m kind of glad I don’t have to find out.
I am relieved that my (step)mom seems to despise Trump. She’s fairly racist thanks to having literally been raised in a trailer park pre-Civil Rights, but she’s not a mean or spiteful person, so his cruel actions and speeches really bother her.
Mike J
Has it really though? If Hillary had won you’d be carefree and having brunch, and therefore you would be a worse person since you would not be devoting all of your energy to bringing down the corrupt system.
ruemara
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oh, that’s quite disturbing. The dang Chinese hoax is at it again.
Mnemosyne
@Karen S.:
I’m willing to say that I was shocked, because I was stupidly naive about my own (white) people on both sides of the political spectrum. I got over that quickly, but I was shocked at the time to see how wrong I was. ?♀️
And pretty pissed off, too, FWIW.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I am upper caste Hindu, I have heard what some of my relatives think of lower caste people or Muslims, not that different from what some privileged white people may say of the minorities here.
ETA: Human beings are the worst.
Aleta
Adam Bloom (racist at NC pool who called police) got fired. (From his job as well as from the board of the homeowner’s association that maintains the pool.) After the outcry at Jasmine Edwards’ video, he actually hired a lawyer to put out lies to the media that contradicted the statements of the HOA, etc. It didn’t work. Boom, fired.
(Social media publicized contact email/ numbers for his superiors at the co. where he was a manager.) Hitting it hard really mattered.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The cult leader is getting worse, and so are the cultists. I knew a girl in high school who got caught up in a cult in college. It took years for her to get past it. We weren’t good friends, but we grew up together, and I had always considered her a fairly weak-minded person, so I wasn’t that surprised when I heard she fell for a cult.
I think cults and confidence scams have a lot in common. The person who runs it is invariably an awful person — a narcissist and user with no regard for other people. The people who fall for it have something missing at their core and/or are weak. They need to believe the bullshit they’re being fed, and breaking free requires strength because it means admitting they’ve been fools. That’s hard to do.
Cult leaders also need to believe the bullshit they’re selling, and they’ll divide their cult from everyone else with greater ferocity the more threatened they feel. That seems to be happening with Trump. I’ve always believed he was a conman, but now I’m wondering how much of a cult figure he is and how dangerous it will get before it’s all over.
cckids
@Mnemosyne: I never saw my dad as racist most of my life; he never used derogatory language or, really, even spoke about minorities in any way (born & lived most of his life in small-town Nebraska). As he got older & moved to Nevada, he met & worked for & with lots of Hispanics & people of many backgrounds, and had no problem with them either, thought they were great. Then he was diagnosed with leukemia, had to retire. Then Obama got elected. And, if he thought he was alone with the TV, the . . . hate that rolled out of him about the President was, to me, unbelievable. The gentle man I knew would not have ever gone there.
Fuck Fox news with a rusty rake heated to the fire of a thousand suns.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: @ruemara: I always liked this framing from Fosse’s translator’s introduction to the Gita:
When I’ve taught the Gita, usually to US military officers with some officers from other countries sprinkled in, I usually use Fosse’s translator’s introduction and then the students and I use Ghandi’s translation and annotation.
https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-According-Gandhi-Contents-ebook/dp/B01KN16KZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530903544&sr=8-1&keywords=ghandi%27s+bhagavad+gita
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, that’s where I am. I felt like I knew the truth about just how racist and sexist America was. Turns out, just like poor mad King Lear, that every time I thought I’d got the whole truth, some later horrifying circumstance that I – or at least, my tribe of white herrenvolk – had facilitated ended up bearing hideous new fruit and I realized that all along, what I’d thought was the whole truth was, ever and always, only part of the truth.
And the worst of it is, that we still have lower depths of meanness, depravity, self-delusion, and destruction that we could drag this country into. I’m to the point, honestly, where if I *could* wave a magic wand and be Queen for a Day, I’d wish that all white people were just out of power – political power, social power, economic power – in this country for at least a generation. Maybe two. Maybe we’d get better leadership from POC, maybe not – but no. No, I don’t think a true minority rule in this country could *possibly* fuck things up worse than we white folks have.
jacy
@Betty Cracker:
Weak people are unable to stand introspection. Feeling that they have been mistaken is terrifying for them, so they can’t admit they were conned. It just becomes a black hole where the worse it gets, the more they double down. The fervor subsumes the self.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Eez a puzzlement!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
You should have got up in his face. Of course, I tried that whole “I’m a real American and you’re not, you’re un-American” tack and it didn’t faze them then in the least.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Gandhi’s contributions to the freedom struggle are indubitable but where caste and women’s issues were concerned he was more than a tad patronizing.
Some have taken this as a justification for the caste system. Some scholars of Mahabharat (Iravati Karve, for example) think that the parts about the divinity of Krishna have been tacked on much later to the original text because of the popularity of the cowherd God. The Krishna in the Mahabharata is a prince who is whip smart though not necessarily divine
ETA: I will read Gandhi’s translation, that you have linked to. Thanks.
Mnemosyne
@Karen S.:
I’ll tell you something that may actually shock you (in a good way), because it shocked me: my middle-aged white male retired suburban cop cousin … voted for Hillary in 2016. Not only voted for her, but was very vocal about how important it was for everyone he knew to vote for her, too, because Trump was so horrible. He had never voted for a Democrat in his life until he voted for her.
That’s one of the things that still makes me suspect massive voting shenanigans in 2016.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, that’s what will probably happen. I heard some rumor that DHS was coordinating with the Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys assholes in Portland on Saturday. Is that true?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara:
The thermometers were probably made in China.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
wrt women, wasn’t he even worse than patronizing? I’ve read some pretty horrible stuff that he did with young girls….
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: No one is perfect.
And I am aware and understand the history of justifying the caste system using the Hindu concepts of duty.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Kay would say that this passage is exactly what Comey and the NYT reporters need to hear.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: Lot of rumor, hard to separate fact from fiction. What have you read? There are a lot of fake YouTube videos doing rounds about how terrible Nehru and Gandhi were, spread by Modi bhakts. And he was despised by the British establishment when he was alive.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised, but right now it’s only a rumor. One of the stories I saw seemed to be conflating the behavior of cops in Sacramento with cops in Portland.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne:
I wonder if Team Mueller has opened a series of investigations into this. Because it is highly possible Trump actually was not elected via the Electoral College. I don’t think it was a legitimate victory.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: @Adam L Silverman: True, Geeta is a poem (literal meaning == song) so there are many ways in which a single line can be interpreted. I would love to read it in original Sanskrit. My Sanskrit unfortunately is not adequate to the task.
JPL
@Karen S.: You are describing my decades long friend. Her husband received his PHD in Chemistry, and she graduated from a top tier school. He worked for a major company and when the company was bought out, received a major package. They fly whenever possible because of the hassle of being stopped. He’s a major Trump supporter, and Fox viewer.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Historically, Christians have managed to fuck up a directive as clear as, “Love one another as I have loved you,” so …
Human nature always seems to intervene unless actively suppressed.
kindness
I have found that when I am very open and blunt about my lack of Trump love, those members of my family who are Trumpies avoid me. That is a win-win situation right there.
Karen S.
@Mnemosyne:
Oh, I believe that there probably were some shenanigans with voting in 2016. I’m not all that shocked about your cousin. I know that there are individual white cops who aren’t terrible people. I’ve met a few in my time. I still don’t trust the majority of them, though.
gene108
I don’t think we counter this tragedy happening to the country without getting angry. Anger can motivate people to take actions, they otherwise would be too complacent to do in a calmer mood.
This isn’t a bad thing. This is where we need to be.
As far as wishing ill on Trump supporters, fuck it. We are fighting for the Soul of this country.
efgoldman
@The Moar You Know:
Lotta’ presumption and hyperbole there, based on no facts whatsoever.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Can I be non-political? I’m in a mode these days where I’m kind of peeking at the headlines through my fingers. Can’t handle much more than that.
Anyway, a fun, totally non-political diversion. A couple of months ago there was a documentary in the theaters about Rose Marie, who many of us knew as Sally Rogers on the Dick Van Dyke Show. The documentary is called “Wait for your Laugh” (advice she apparently gave fellow cast members on the show) and it’s available for rent or purchase on iTunes, for pennies. We missed it in the theaters, but watched it a couple of nights ago at home and it’s FANTASTIC!
She was a hell of an entertainer. The comedian we saw on TV was in the middle of a lifetime of entertainment that started as a 4-year-old singer in the 1920s with her own radio show, and she kept going till the day she died in her 90s. Along the way she also basically helped create Las Vegas. She also has nothing but kind words to say about some pretty nasty characters like Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel, who befriended her (it was Siegel who brought her to Vegas). The only medium that didn’t work out for her was Hollywood, when she flat turned down the sexual harassment proposition from a producer and subsequently had all her scenes cut from the film.
Helluva lady!
Jager
When Rush was touting the effectiveness of advanced interrogation techniques (seems so long ago) and how waterboarding wasn’t a big deal, I used to think about capturing him, put a bag over his head, rough him up by tossing him to walls, etc. Then waterboard his fat ass. Put everything on video, after a couple of days of this, dropping him off in his front yard and releasing the tape to the networks. I haven’t changed. I’d just be busier today.
Mnemosyne
@Karen S.:
I was shocked, because he was a pretty typical Reagan Republican and pretty vocal about it. Plus I’d heard some things out of his mouth about minorities in the past that did not lead me to believe that he could do a 180 like that. And yet he did.
I do have one cousin who’s a Trumper in WI, and I am sad but not at all surprised by that. She’s part of the “pro-life” cult and refuses to acknowledge that any other social or political issue could possibly be important.
The Moar You Know
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: It is. Running protection for them. I don’t even know how you start addressing a problem like that.
David Evans
@Adam L Silverman: I didn’t know about Gandhi’s translation. Thank you. It’s gone straight to my Kindle. I shall compare it with Juan Mascaro’s translation for Penguin.
Ruckus
@EBT:
He is the conservative’s conservative, that’s for sure.
(A useless waste of manure shaped like a not good example of what a moron thinks a human looks like. A walking, bullshitting embarrassing example of what can happen when rich reproduce.)
Mnemosyne
I have no idea who Jon Zal is, but his Twitter account has made me fall in love with him:
Litlebritdifrnt
Not going to let things worry me today (including a worrying Doctors visit). I spent the whole day baking for the Fairfield Association Fun Day and Fun Run tomorrow. I am running the tea and cake stall and DH is a Marshal for the Fun Run. The Fairfield Association began with a bunch of people putting their foot down and saying no to some developers who wanted to buy and build houses on our green spaces. http://www.fairfieldassociation.org/ I have taken advantage of those green spaces almost weekly since I have been home and I am damned if I will let them down when it comes to raising funds for their continued existence. The Community Orchard is a wonderful spot and the fruit is available to anyone who wants to pick it. It serves three purposes, it provides trees for wildlife, (birds, pollinators, etc), a wonderful place to walk through and sit for humans, and food for people who need it. What could be better? Anyhoo going to be out there all day tomorrow doing my bit and damn proud to do it.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
Do you massively oppose the shitgibbon?
I’m going with a solid positive, based on past performance, and that can NOT make you a worse person.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@The Moar You Know: I would like to learn more – any links to share?
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: My feelings exactly.
Ruckus
@Karen S.:
No, it has never been the same. Not from day one
But the morons couldn’t seem to be able to make your world bad enough so now they are trying to make everyone’s far worse. They can’t conceive of you being able to have one, so no one can.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
This thing, though I readily admit I have no idea how well sourced it is.
More generally, it IS a thing these days to call out the horrific treatment of women by historically revered men of all kinds — political leaders, scientists, authors, artists. Lots of pointless arguments to be had.
Aleta
@Miss Bianca: How is young Watson?
We always talk about how animals make us better people. -J. Cole
Uncle Cosmo
@frosty:
A Ghost To Most
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Indeed. Expected, but still troubling.
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: Growing, and still the sweetest puppy ever – tho’ now he feels secure enough that this is his home that he’s started mumbling my shoes! Now granted, Luna just chewed them up – Watson allows himself to be distracted by a chew toy or a bone, so he’s still the best-behaved puppy of my acquaintance!
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Ooh, I have bookmarked him! He is totally on my wavelength. Thanks!
Ruckus
@Patricia Shinagawa:
@ruemara:
Bravo for both of you.
First rate, every word.
Ruckus
@pamelabrown53:
Do they make forklifts that tiny? I’d think tweezers might do the trick.
Elizabelle
May 31, 2018 story, USA Today, new to me, anyway. John Boehner slams Republicans: ‘There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party’
LOL re that last comment. Shade thrown.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
114 in the east San Gabriel Valley. I noticed it a bit walking to lunch.
Aleta
@Miss Bianca:
“now he feels secure enough that this is his home”
I love the changes as their brains settle into “this is my home”
“he’s still the best-behaved puppy of my acquaintance!”
Congratulations on your excellence Watson!
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
No. Everybody there, including the other patrons, were there to enjoy their dinners, not to watch a floor show. Had he been louder and more obnoxious, maybe I might have responded.
We’re all Americans, even the jerks. But I agree with you that some Trumpers increasingly seem to be unreachable.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: That reads like a hit piece. That said, Gandhi was not a saint but all too human with flaws and all and where women were concerned a man of his time and upbringing.
Aleta
@eemom: @schrodingers_cat:
Are there writings of કસ્તુરબાઈ મોહનદાસ ગાંધી Kasturbai Gandhi that are preserved? Published/translated?
stinger
@Patricia Shinagawa: Very thoughtful comment.
bluefoot
@Karen S.: Come sit by me. :) I grew up as a child of two scientists in an all-white upper-middle class suburb in the Northeast. For a long time we were the only non-white family in our school….there were finally another two (!) once I reached high school. We had the cops called on us for playing tag in our backyard (this is when the eldest of my siblings was 8 years old) because we were “threatening and dangerous.” My white friends all told me I was being too cynical when I predicted how the Obamas were going to be seen as illegitimate by large chunks of the US, and they didn’t think “much would change” if Trump was elected. Again, they told me I was being too negative and cynical.. The sad part is that it’s turned out even worse than I thought.
schrodingers_cat
@Aleta: No idea. He was unfair to her but in that he was like a majority of the husbands of that era.
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: I can’t tell you how much plain crippling depression having that little pup around has saved me from! I’d be feeling a lot more angry and sad about everything in general, I’m sure. That old bromide about “who rescued who(m)”* when it comes to caring for waifs and strays is very real, in my case.
*grammar pedant
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
The last time I saw Jen Kerns on MSNBC, a few weeks ago, she used her “Tell me something I don’t know” spot with Chris Matthews to pimp one of her clients, the Repub loon running for California governor. WTF.
On the morning front, I wish someone would ask Susan Del Percio, a seemingly nice, sane person, how she ever became a Republican, much less remains one now.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t believe Trump was legitimately elected either. He barely won the EC. If we push up voter turnout to record turnoutRight now, the entire GOP is hanging by a thread to power.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
I’d say don’t be fooled by what JB has to say. He’s still a die-hard rethuglican and he ain’t changing. His dislike of drumpf won’t change anything about him.
Dan B
@Karen S.: My father was an organic chemist and mom got degrees from Oberlin and Ann Arbor. We lived in Jim Crow Arkansas when I was in seventh grade. My father quit his job to get my brother and me out of there.
I came out when I was 18. Got kicked out of college. Fled to Chicago hoping to meet gay people. Joined Gay Liberation a month after it started there. Lived through bomb threats, avoided a mafia hit thanks to help from the Blackstone Rangers, and avoided mass arrest by the Vice Squad. The AIDS crisis was just another wave of horror added to the storyline.
People who cry for civility get my wrath. They don’t know or fail to see how minorities are under siege, and have been, forever, in the USA.
Now we, two white guys, live in a majority minority neighborhood. It keeps our quietly racist acquaintances away. That’s sad and a blessing at the same time.
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: Oh yeah. That’s true. And am sure there is not a day Boehner is not thrilled he left Congress. He is one happy retiree.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mnemosyne: I was shocked during the 08 dem primary at the amount of racism and misogyny unabashedly posted at a supposedly progressive democratic site. I knew these attitudes were widely held. Just hadn’t realized howmany so-called progressives inha ited the dark side.
JPL
https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/1015338512042921985
stinger
@Litlebritdifrnt: Send pics!
Corner Stone
@JPL: There is no way that is real.
ETA, I see it is on both Peter Alexander’s and Julia Ainsley’s twit feeds but….son of bitch a Federal judge accepted that when kids are in cages?!
Brachiator
@hitchhiker:
The irony is that we were horrified when Trump was a rando b-list celebrity bleating his stupid insults.
Yes. The clock is ticking. And we are watching Trump demolish the system that we have faith in; and we watch him do so with the assent of the GOP leadership. November may well be a significant test. On the plus side, Democrats have been doing well in a number of states.
Dan B
@bluefoot: Yes! The racism and every other ism just went out of sight, except on conservative social media and conservative MSM. As far as we know all our friends, white and black, worshipped the Obamas. My partners brother and sister in law hate them. We got Christmas presents like an Obama chia pet. They laughed at our disbelief. Its given us holiday PTSD. The Thanksgiving after the election they asked us to stay and talk. I said we were afraid. They mocked our fear saying that Marriage Equality was “settled law”. I immediately flashed on how quickly Jim Crow followed Reconstruction. And how sodomy laws were still on the books when we were adults. And how there are anti-discrimination laws in Washington State but how proof is almost impossible.
Holiday PTSD. My partner says we won’t go to his family holidays once his mother passes away. It will be a bittersweet moment.
Gelfling 545
On the subjectof butterflies, this is happening in my area. Buffalo is such an odd mix of awareness and profound ignorance but from time to time we get things right.
https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/06/imagine-this-37-miles-of-plants-to-attract-bees-and-butterflies-conservationists-already-have/
Dan B
@Steeplejack: Susan del Percio = seems nice = like my sister in law = major blind spots to the lived experience of minorities and poor people.
Just a theory, but.
Gelfling 545
@germy:so make him happy. Put him in the general population. I seriously doubt that the prison officials are so solicitous of the safety of the rest of their guests.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
He barely eked out enough reported votes in certain places to win the state, but saying he “barely” won the Electoral College vote is pushing it a bit. Topping 300 in modern times will never be considered a landslide but neither is it a squeaker.
Winning totals in all elections since 270 was the number need to win:
Dolt 45 – 304
Bush (2000*) – 271
Bush (2004) – 286
Clinton (1996) – 379
Clinton (1992) – 370
Bush (1988) – 426
Reagan (1984) – 525
Reagan (1980) – 489
Carter (1976) – 297
Nixon (1972) – 520
Nixon (1968) – 301
LBJ (1964) – 486
269 needed to win prior to reapportionment but after AK and HI became states (and D.C. did not yet have electoral votes):
JFK (1960) – 303
*I know, I know. No need to mention it.
Citizen Alan
@BlueGirlFromWyo:
I don’t consider Trump voters to be in any sense of the word human beings. And I have told Trump voters this to their filthy ignorant faces. Without any regrets.
NotMax
@NotMax
Revised what originally intended the list to be and then promptly forgot to add in Obama. Bad NotMax, bad.
Obama (2012) – 332
Obama (2008) – 365
Karen S.
@Ruckus:
This! So much this. I’m convinced that the lies they (whites with power and money) told about nonwhites, especially blacks, over the generations and the horrors visited upon us was just a dress rehearsal for what’s going on now. Whites who are taken aback by the gleeful cruelty of Trumpers/the GOP is something I’m well acquainted with. They’ve simply widened their targets to include ANYONE who disagrees with them or who they find undeserving for whatever reason.
JPL
@Corner Stone: Just saw that although the comment was made, the Monday hearing was decided before hand. I don’t know if Alexander corrected yet, but Daniel Dale did.
more info
The judge was talking about having a meeting Monday well before the attorney said this. He asked whether they’d be out of town and she said that. She didn’t argue against giving a list of kids tomorrow as requested. The remark was tone deaf but this tweet isn’t how it went down.
Mnemosyne
@Ladyraxterinok:
Yep, the 2008 primary season was when the scales fell from my eyes. Everything since then has just been confirmation that I really did see what I thought I saw.
Karen S.
@Dan B:
My parents grew up during Jim Crow (Mom in Virginia, Dad in Missouri). They got out as soon as they could. They knew there was nothing for them back there. They met in Chicago and settled in one of its suburbs. My father told me several years go that he and my mother decided that they would never tell my brothers and me the full extent of the discrimination and racism they faced when they were growing up because we’d be growing up around whites and they didn’t want us to be “unduly biased” against white people. My parents are among the best people I’ve ever known.
Gelfling 545
@schrodingers_cat: Please don’t say naked in connection with Trump. Horrifying. ?
JWL
“We’ve discussed before how this wretched administration has made us worse people”.
Speak for yourself, sister. Or leastwise, don’t look at me when you say it.
Karen S.
@bluefoot:
I’ll gladly sit by you. :)
It sucked sometimes when I was growing up because there were times when I didn’t feel safe playing in front of my house. I remember one day I was riding my skateboard up and down the sidewalk in front of my house, minding my own business and having a good time. At one point, a car full of white teenaged boys rounded the corner (we lived on a corner). One of them saw me and shouted, “Hey, n*gger, Where’s your master?!” I heard the laughter of his buddies like he’d said something oh so witty. I still can recall my insides recoiling and just freezing on the spot. I don’t remember what I did after that. I probably went inside my house. Sometimes, I just wished I didn’t have to go outside.
Gelfling 545
@BC in Illinois:
“He has never yet visited US troops overseas.”
Just as well. They’re dealing with enough hardship already.
Adam L Silverman
@David Evans: Just to be clear it is someone else translating into English, including Ghandi’s teaching notes and annotations from his daily Gita study with his aides, from the Gujarati translation done by Ghandi. So it is an English translation of Ghandi’s translation of the Gita from Sanskrit to Gujarati. Just want to make sure you know what you’re getting.
Gelfling 545
@kindness:
I know that some of my relatives ( only a few) voted for Trump. They are afraid of me finding out, however, so they keep quiet around me.
bluefoot
@Dan B: Yep. The step from equality to Jim Crow is a short one. I live and work in the supposed liberal bubble of Boston/Cambridge/Somerville MA and unofficial red lining is alive and well. None of my white friends believed what I went through trying to find an apartment a few years ago. Just wait until fair housing is repealed. I got stopped “walking while brown” last summer in Cambridge in the middle of the afternoon. At a previous job here in Boston I had to fight hard to get people (including the management team) from making openly racist and homophobic comments in meetings etc. I could go on and on about this crap.
I take heart in the young people. Some college-age kids I was talking to recently were horrified when I told them back in the 80s, people could be evicted for being gay. Their attitude was one of “What the hell was/is wrong with people? And why haven’t we moved on from this sh*t?” Like the Parkland students, they’re not going to take any of this crap lying down.
bluefoot
@Karen S.: I hear you. I still get crap like that, and I’m a middle-aged, middle-class mixed-race brown woman. Wtf is wrong with people?
The thing I think a lot of people don’t understand is that it’s not that it happens all the time (though a lot more frequently than most would think), it’s that it can happen at any time. You get blindsided…just living life, minding your own business and then, boom, suddenly someone shoves it in your face & psyche that you’re not human. And it could be anybody. Any time. Some of those people are just random assh*les, but some of those people are banks, landlords, potential employers, doctors, teachers, etc….people who can actually affect your life.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
“Winning totals in all elections since 270 was the number need to win:”
But I don’t see President Obama on your list, anywhere. What gives? All the WHITE president winner totals?
No offense, I’m sure your list just happened to omit Obama, and you just happened to not notice…
Seriously, though, no offense intended! I’m just making my point here.
@NotMax:
….
Bad NotMax, bad.
Obama (2012) – 332
Obama (2008) – 365
And there you are fixing it… thanks, and again, no offense!!
tybee
@eemom: +1
Tim in SF
I’m pretty sure CHUD is supposed to be in all-caps.
Gretchen Diefenderfer
@Jacel: I just went to her Blog – Sarah, Proud and Tall – and the last post was June, 2015. Smart and funny. Now I’m missing her, too!