Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Bark louder, little dog.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

He really is that stupid.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

You are here: Home / Suburban kids with biblical names

Suburban kids with biblical names

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The people bankrolling the alt right aren’t guys named Bobby Joe who made their millions on Powerball tickets they picked up at Winn-Dixie. They’re a computer science PhD turned billionaire hedge funder from New Mexico and his daughter from suburban New York:

Last December, about a month before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Rebekah Mercer arrived at Stephen Bannon’s office in Trump Tower, wearing a cape over a fur-trimmed dress and her distinctive diamond-studded glasses. Tall and imposing, Rebekah, known to close friends as Bekah, is the 43-year-old daughter of the reclusive billionaire Robert Mercer. If Trump was an unexpected victor, the Mercers were unexpected kingmakers. More established names in Republican politics, such as the Kochs and Paul Singer, had sat out the general election. But the Mercers had committed millions of dollars to a campaign that often seemed beyond salvaging.

That support partly explains how Rebekah secured a spot on the executive committee of the Trump transition team. She was the only megadonor to frequent Bannon’s sanctum, a characteristically bare-bones space containing little more than a whiteboard, a refrigerator and a conference table.

We’ve said it once (or more) before but it bears repeating: the Republican base is well-to-do white people. Plenty of the Neo-Nazis who marched in Charlotte were college students or college graduates. Robert Ritchie isn’t straight out the trailer, he’s straight out the mansion.

If you think all those nice white college-educated upper-middle class people who voted for Trump are going to desert him now, think again.

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    They aren’t going to abandon him, but their numbers are not enough. They need true believers or dopes among the masses.

  2. 2.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    Well, IIRC latest polls show he does seem to hemorrhaging supporters…*outside* the South at least.

  3. 3.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Well, sure… some uber wealthy but vile people want to protect their fortunes and privilege at the expense of their “inferiors”.

    They manipulate ignorant knuckleheads with various race-based and religious appeals to do their bidding.

    Parasites and hosts. A symbiotic relationship between the worst elements in humanity.

  4. 4.

    Dave

    This is very true. I actually see significantly more breakdown of race barriers between poorer communities. This is anecdotal and perhaps localized but I see the largest number of mixed race children, and the integrated families that this results in, amongst those lower on the socio-economic ladder. And as those barriers break down I’ve seen a realization that they actually have far more in common than not. There also appears to be second area and that is amongst the upper-middle class very highly educated set. It has to have both though and it seems to need an academic focus. Not the MBA types. Again all anecdotal.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    The other Charlottesville outrage: the open display of weapons to intimidate and menace political opponentshttps://t.co/BiovZZZLHg
    — David Frum (@davidfrum) August 16, 2017

  7. 7.

    Hunter Gathers

    If you voted for him, you’re a fucking Nazi.
    Therefore, 75% of the people I work with are fucking Nazis.
    The next 3 and a half years are going to be fucking golden, I tells ya.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    I’m working on Russia’s response now for @theroot, so give me a second…
    — Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) August 16, 2017

    Spoke with the press secretary at the Russian Embassy in DC. Said he’s just learning about the Daily Stormer ru domain. I’ll keep you posted
    — Terrell J. Starr (@Russian_Starr) August 16, 2017

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    He bragged at inexperience- turns out he’s unqualified. He mocked/shamed/groped – turns out he’s a bully. He embraced racists- turns out…
    — shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) August 16, 2017

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    See also: The Ricketts, spreading evil from Wrigley Field to the Nebraska governor’s mansion (I think they’re Ameritrade?). The mother started a never trump PAC but when he won, they went in whole hog, except for the one daughter who’s an LGBT activist and significant Dem fundraiser.

    Suburban kids with biblical names

    Since this is DougJ, I’m going to assume a lyric but I can’t place it. I have noticed the trend of Tote-Bagger/Yuppie types going Old Testament with the names. I’m waiting to be in an ice cream store and hear “Hepzibah, do you want your bubble gum sherbet on a sugar cone?”

  12. 12.

    germy

    rawstory headline

    White nationalists are flocking to genetic ancestry tests — but don’t like what they find

    The gun-slinging white supremacist Craig Cobb, dressed up for daytime TV in a dark suit and red tie, hearing that his DNA testing revealed his ancestry to be only “86 percent European, and … 14 percent Sub-Saharan African.”

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: I’ve never heard BiBi be specifically racist, but I always thought he hated Obama personally and passionately. Maybe this is a clue as to why.

    @different-church-lady: meh, I’ll not be lazy tomorrow, or next month when it’s no so hot

  18. 18.

    germy

    The Burlington Free Press reports that Ryan Roy, who had worked as a cook at a South Burlington Pizzeria Uno, was fired from his job after activists identified him as an attendee at last week’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    “Ryan Roy has been terminated,” Skip Weldon, chief marketing officer for Pizzeria Uno, told the publication. “We are committed to the fair treatment of all people and the safety of our guests and employees at our restaurants.”

  19. 19.

    hovercraft

    @Yarrow:

    Netanyahu’s son says Black Lives Matter are ‘thugs,’ worse than Neo-Nazis

    There’s nothing to say.

    Bibi must be so proud.

  20. 20.

    Keith P.

    The headline made me immediately think of this old Onion infographic. about how different ethnicities name their kids today. It’s one of the 3 that I will remember till the day I day (the others being “I don’t recall ever knife-raping any retarded nuns,” and the headline “Special Olympics T-Ball Stand Pitches Perfect Game”…BTW These kinds of jokes were perfectly acceptable in my family growing up)

  22. 22.

    germy

    @Yarrow: Why the fuck would Netanyahu’s son have an opinion about Black Lives Matter?

    I think he’s still pissed because his daddy couldn’t put RMoney into the White House. “All those speeches for nothing!”

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.: Huffington Post and 538 averages actually have his numbers stable or ticking up a little post-Charlottesville, but it’s inconclusive: driven heavily by Rasmussen doing their Rasmussen thing and by a Monmouth poll that is too infrequent to characterize precisely, last I checked. And the polling periods still overlap the whole weekend.

  27. 27.

    oatler.

    Biblical names goes back to the 80s (no slur on Reagan intended except fuck Reagan). Eli, Levi, and a continent of Joshes.

  28. 28.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    washingtonpost.com/national/democrats-are-still-ignoring-the-people-who-could-have-helped-them-defea…

    This sure hasn’t aged well:

    Democrats are still ignoring the people who could have helped them defeat Trump, Ohio party leaders say

    By William Wan
    April 5, 2017 at 7:00 AM

    YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO The dinner was supposed to be a Democratic strategy session for an upcoming county election. But the mood grew darker as conversation turned toward the future of their party.

    One by one, members of the Mahoning County Democratic Party poured out their frustrations: Just months after the presidential election, they felt folks like them were being forgotten — again. The party’s comeback strategy was being steered by protesters, consultants and elitists from New York and California who have no idea what voters in middle America care about.

    But worst of all, they said, the party hadn’t learned from what they saw as the biggest message from November’s election: Democrats have fallen completely out of touch with America’s blue-collar voters.

    “Every time Trump so much as sneezes, we as a party are setting our hair on fire and running around like it’s the end of the world,” Betras said as the dinner wound down. “Most people around here don’t care. They are living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to hold on. After everything that’s happened, if we as a party still aren’t speaking to them, then we are never getting them back.”

    My county Dem party ladies, gents, and non-gender binary folks. Whoops, I guess what I just said makes me an evil coastal elitist. Oh well.

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    CNBC‏Verified account @ CNBC
    BREAKING: 3M’s CEO resigns from Trump’s manufacturing council.

    there’s already a meme going around of Alphabet soup spelling out White Supremacy– Pepsi and Campbell’s soup are inviting a shitstorm of photoshop memes and the like. A lot of people shop at Walmart because otherwise they’d have to drive way out of their way. Pretty easy to grab Progresso or Coke three feet down the aisle. Do they still make RC?

    (Andrea Mitchell calls Montana a red state while introducing Chief Heartland Correspondant Tom Brokaw, live from one of his vacation ranches: Dem governor, 1 Dem Senator, just FYI Andrea)

  32. 32.

    germy

    "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…" pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017

    The message became the most liked tweet of all time, surpassing Ariana Grande’s response to the deadly terrorist attack after her concert in Manchester. It also ranks No. 7 among the most retweeted tweets according to Favstar, a tweet tracking site.

  33. 33.

    hovercraft

    @germy:
    Those who don’t know history………….

    These fucking morons have no idea that their white forbearers couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, they may have denounced the ni**ers, and natives in public, but they had no compunction about screwing them when no one was looking. Very few of us are “pure”. Apparently “e pluribus unum” is both literal and figurative.

  35. 35.

    germy

    If the Beatles were born today, they’d be called Conor, Joshua, Andrew and Ringo.

    – McSweeneys

  37. 37.

    MattF

    Just a side-note– if you’ve got a ‘biblical’ name, and anyone comments on that– the correct response is “Yeah, like my cousin, Snake.”

  38. 38.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Yarrow:

    Soon, the only people on it will be two coal miners, one wildcat oilwell owner from Oklahoma, some knife trader from Eastern Kentucky and two flea market stand operators from Tennessee.

  39. 39.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    The treatment of the Jews from Africa, particularly Ethiopia was racist. Bibi has pissed off Europe with his attempts to lure all the Jews “home” to Israel, but have you ever heard of him trying to recruit Jews in Africa to come “home”?
    Bibi is a winger, he disliked Clinton, and he hated Obama, and I suspect his feelings toward Obama are because of race and Obama not knowing his “place”.

  41. 41.

    schrodingers_cat

    The one T voter I know personally is Jewish, fairly well off and in the healthcare profession, originally from Long Island, NY. The WWC people I know on the other hand were firmly in the HRC and President Obama corner. So much for stereotypes beloved by the lazy media.

  46. 46.

    HyperSphericalCow

    She was the only megadonor to frequent Bannon’s sanctum, a characteristically bare-bones space containing little more than a whiteboard, a refrigerator and a conference table.

    Worst man cave ever.

  48. 48.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Omnes Omnibus: Lots of Americans’ names are biblical in source. Kind of comes with the territory of having a majority Christian nation

  51. 51.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    @oatler.: Ha ha it turns out smart business people what everyone’s money. I guess Trump’s business buddies only want Reichsmarks.

  56. 56.

    HyperSphericalCow

    @lamh36: Good god, these guys are amateurs. If there is a warrant out for your arrest, here’s a pro-tip: Don’t post a publicly-viewable video that will almost certainly reveal your location. “Laying low” is still a good strategy, even in the social media age.

  57. 57.

    Partisan Cheese

    When is Anne, Betty going to apologize for encouraging use of the alt-left name that Trump has co-opted. You guys totally led credence to the both sides are equivalent extremes nonsense when it was the primaries. Now it’s being used by Trump to gaslight progressives. If there aren’t both sides are equal in this whole Charlotteville mess, isn’t use of alt-left your hypocrisy you should own up to? Experts say its a made up term. You guys certainly didn’t mind spreading it when you considered progressives your enemies.

  59. 59.

    Chyron HR

    @Partisan Cheese:

    When are “progressives” going to apologize for voluntarily handing control of the country over to the Nazis because they were mad about insane shit like “Democrat doughnuts”?

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    @LAO: @lamh36:

    Isn’t that the asshole who gave that VICE/HBO interview, showing off his 4-5 guns plus the AK that was ‘somewhere’…the same guy who said that the Charlottesville murder was entirely justified?
    HE’S the one who’s crying in fear???

  63. 63.

    rikyrah

    Trump claims with a straight face he needs ‘facts’ before speaking
    08/16/17 11:20 AM
    By Steve Benen
    It was hardly the most important thing Donald Trump said at yesterday’s press conference, but when the president was asked why it took so long for him to denounce white supremacists after Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville, he launched a rant about the value he places on accuracy.

    ………………………

    How reporters in attendance didn’t burst into immediate laughter remains something of a mystery.

    Look, I’m not even going to talk about the astonishing number of lies Donald Trump tells on a nearly daily basis, contradicting the idea that he “likes to be correct” when speaking. In this case, we can instead narrow the focus to instances in which the president rushed to make statements in response to violence and suspected attacks – often without having any idea what he was saying, occasionally pointing to attacks that didn’t actually happen.

    In June, for example, Trump told Americans about his concerns regarding a “terrorist attack in Manila,” when in reality, that’s not what happened.

    In February, the president told a group of supporters about an “attack” that he said had happened the night before in Sweden. There was no such attack.

    In April, Trump talked to reporters about a terrorist incident in France before it had been confirmed by local officials, and before the president had relevant details.

    As we discussed last week, Trump’s rhetoric in response to suspected terrorism has been so profoundly irresponsible that the Associated Press published a fact-checking piece a couple of months ago that said the president “can’t be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad.”

    The president seems to take his time in response to violence when the suspects appear to be right-wing Americans.

  65. 65.

    LAO

    @Jeffro: Yes! That’s why it’s so funny. Mr. Tough Guy crying about the possibility of an arrest warrant. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO

  66. 66.

    bluehill

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: There’s rumors about disbanding the ceo council. Schwarzman is a smart guy and politically this seems like the easiest way out without having to make a explicit statement.

    President Trump’s main council of top corporate leaders appeared on the verge of disbanding on Wednesday, said people briefed on the matter, following controversial remarks from Mr. Trump on Tuesday when he equated white nationalist hate groups with the protesters opposing them.

    Late Wednesday morning, Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group and one of Mr. Trump’s closest confidants in the business community, organized a conference call for members of the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @Yarrow: From the NYTimes

    President Trump’s main council of top corporate leaders appeared on the verge of disbanding on Wednesday, said people briefed on the matter, following controversial remarks from Mr. Trump on Tuesday when he equated white nationalist hate groups with the protesters opposing them………If they don’t several are ready to quit

    Later in the article it states that what’s left of the manufacturing council might disband

    or what bluehill said

  74. 74.

    lamh36

    Per CNBC: Strategic Policy Counsel is disbanding! Uh huh…so saves the other gutless CEOs like Walmart and Pepsi who STILL were clinging on.

    @AliVelshi
    BREAKING: @CNBC confirms that @realDonaldTrump “Strategic and Policy Forum” (different from Manufacturing Council) has disbanded

  75. 75.

    JPL

    @lamh36: About time. The only product that I have is Pace salsa, and I’m not sure that I’ll buy it again She took too long.

  76. 76.

    Spanky

    Gutless punks.

    SAN FRANCISCO — Organizers of a free speech protest planned at Google locations across the United States said late Tuesday that the marches were postponed because of threats from “left-wing terrorists.”

    “The Peaceful March on Google has been postponed due to credible Alt Left terrorist threats for the safety of our citizen participants,” organizers wrote on a blog post on the protest’s website.

  80. 80.

    trollhattan

    @Spanky:
    Yeah, but the city fathers were also trying to make it not happen so at the end of the day, better no march than an inevitably ugly one.

  81. 81.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: That’s 8, I believe.

    Hey GOP Reps and Senators – this is what it will look like near the end, as everyone heads for the lifeboats then discovers they stuck with Orangemandias too long. You still want to go down on the Trumptanic?

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: Rikyrah, I like the articles you post. I end up seeing articles I might not otherwise.

    I hope your sister is doing okay. Apologies if I missed an update.

  84. 84.

    amorphous

    CNBC is reporting his Policy and Strategy forum is dissolving en masse. Even the Wall Street loving talking heads on CNBC actually just called for Trump to resign on live TV.

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36:
    Must be hard being Walmart, trying to simultaneously embrace and distance themselves from Trump, who’s still the best pathway to getting every fvcking thing they ever wanted. National right to work bill? Yes, please! Freeze the minimum wage forever? Be still my heart!

  86. 86.

    LAO

    Captain America has been killing it on Twitter since the press conference:

    Wow. Are there any Republicans in Washington who will take a REAL stand? Are there ANY leaders left? History will remember.— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) August 16, 2017

    Also — I saw that Pence is cutting his trip short and returning to DC tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll fix everything.

  87. 87.

    Peale

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    Well, sure… some uber wealthy but vile people want to protect their fortunes and privilege at the expense of their “inferiors”.

    How about noting that its possible to be a super billionaire and a racist AT THE SAME TIME. Its starting to get on my nerves that otherwise NICE people like to chalk up racism within the GOP as some kind of GOP savvy ruse to attract the working class when its possible that the GOP is home to racists because it attracts racist billionaires.

  88. 88.

    SenyorDave

    @germy: The gun-slinging white supremacist Craig Cobb, dressed up for daytime TV in a dark suit and red tie, hearing that his DNA testing revealed his ancestry to be only “86 percent European, and … 14 percent Sub-Saharan African.”

    Great, now there are millions of Sub-Saharan Africans who have to live with that shame.

  89. 89.

    JPL

    @LAO: He’s suppose to meet with Trump on Friday to discuss southeast Asia. Trump desperately needs to change the subject, and I hope that Mattis prevents him from doing something stupid.

    hahaha yeah, that’s won’t happen

  90. 90.

    germy

    @trollhattan:

    Must be hard being Walmart, trying to simultaneously embrace and distance themselves from Trump, who’s still the best pathway to getting every fvcking thing they ever wanted. National right to work bill? Yes, please! Freeze the minimum wage forever? Be still my heart!

    Before and after every Tavis Smiley show, there’s a five minute walmart commercial.

  93. 93.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    They need true believers or dopes among the masses.

    I’m pretty sure we just saw them marching with their tiki torches.

    The problem is the ones smart enough not to march out in the daylight without their hoods.

  95. 95.

    lamh36

    @ABC
    Follow
    More
    JUST IN: POTUS: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum I am ending both”

  96. 96.

    TenguPhule

    @Spanky:

    A proper seppuku requires a second.

    Allowing Donald Trump the mercy of a beheading is way too generous. Old Style Seppuku all the way.

  97. 97.

    SenyorDave

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Andrea Mitchell calls Montana a red state while introducing Chief Heartland Correspondant Tom Brokaw, live from one of his vacation ranches: Dem governor, 1 Dem Senator, just FYI Andrea)

    I assume Brokaw decried the lack of civility in the US, and then went out to blather about the Greatest Generation never being divided. Because racism and the klan didn’t exist in the 1940’s.

  99. 99.

    Yarrow

    @amorphous:

    Even the Wall Street loving talking heads on CNBC actually just called for Trump to resign on live TV.

    Really? Wow. That’s unexpected.

  102. 102.

    Cacti

    @Chyron HR:

    When are “progressives” going to apologize for voluntarily handing control of the country over to the Nazis because they were mad about insane shit like “Democrat doughnuts”?

    About the same time Bernie acknowledges that economic anxiety wasn’t the driving force behind Charlottesville.

  105. 105.

    hovercraft

    @Spanky:
    Good!

    So is the media going to get suckered into an “Alt Left” both sides narrative?

    ETA: damn you Major 4X ;)

  107. 107.

    Quinerly

    Trump has disbanded by tweet the economic counsel that all the business leaders were quitting. Looking for links. Scathing statement from Campbell’s.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    Anyone have a link to a clip of one of the CNBC talking heads saying it should be Trump who resigns?

  110. 110.

    MP

    Since Mercer is mentioned in the article above, I’ll throw out a conspiracy theory. Who audits the books at Renaissance Technologies (the hedge fund responsible for Mercer’s wealth). Beating the market consistently year-in-and-year out is almost impossible to do, and yet RT has ostensibly done so and built a track record like none other. I wonder if those returns are real, or if foreign money has flowed in to provide the illusion of astronomical returns.

    That may well be impossible, but it sure would be nice to know who audits the books and how one can prove they’ve actually achieved those returns given the extent to which Renaissance is cloaked in secrecy.

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major:

    LOL. They’re really working hard to manufacture an enemy here.

    I wouldn’t call it funny. They’re trying to build a narrative and lets all remember that they’ve managed to flimflam the fucking idiots in America multiple times with less material to work with.

    Swiftboating still fucking works.

  113. 113.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @West of the Rockies (been a while): and @Peale:
    I hate the ‘manipulating the rubes’ argument. Don’t we have AMPLE proof that billionaires are no smarter than your average joe? That we sure as Hell don’t live in a meritocracy? We have statistical proof that racism flourishes even more in the middle class than the working poor. The Kochs in particular have a background neck deep in batshit crazy Bircherism. The racism in country clubs is legendary. Just as this was never about economic anxiety, it’s not about money for the rich. It’s about them also being crazy, racist assholes. Greed is a sideline that combines easily with their desire to grind the poor and minorities. Same with the majority of Republican elected representatives.

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Therefore, 75% of the people I work with are fucking Nazis.

    Look on the bright side, when the world goes to hell you won’t feel bad about having to butcher and eat them.

  115. 115.

    hovercraft

    @LAO:

    I saw that Pence is cutting his trip short and returning to DC tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll fix everything.

    Nah it’s just so that he can have someone else on hand to rail about the media to. You’ll know it’s serious if Javanka cuts their vacation short and swoop down to demonstrate their tremendous moderating abilities by getting him to denounce all forms of anti Semitism. He loves the Jews, no one loves the Jews more than Twitler, he gave them his most precious possession after all. Oh and he loves “the blacks”, no one loves the blacks more than him!

  116. 116.

    trollhattan

    @germy:

    Before and after every Tavis Smiley show, there’s a five minute walmart commercial.

    Calling Dr. Faustus. Christ, what a sellout (not totally surprised, but still….)

  117. 117.

    Peale

    @Quinerly:
    I have just received word that the President has dissolved the council permanently. They shall govern by fear going forward.

  119. 119.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @hovercraft:

    Very few of us are “pure”.

    I’m close, with a teeny bit of Finnish and a wee spot of Italian/Greek. My husband is all Western Europe. We were both rather disappointed.

    The one that amused me, though, is the friend I gave a test kit to for Christmas. He came back 100% Sub-Saharan Africa, and his family are NOT recent immigrants. We were all quite shocked.

    As were these people in England.

    Which has apparently affronted a right-wing rag (The New Observer) enough to publish an article decrying it as Fake News.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    @JPL:

    He’s suppose to meet with Trump on Friday to discuss southeast Asia.

    I’m south-east Asian. Should I worry?

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    @Peale:

    I have just received word that the President has dissolved the council permanently. They shall govern by fear going forward.

    Tarkin reference for the win.

  131. 131.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think, going forward, we should avoid using any English words because Donald Trump might utter some of them at a later point.

    This hasn’t stopped Trump’s Cofefeing before.

  132. 132.

    Ian G.

    Worth remembering that jihadis are also generally middle class or wealthy. Osama bin Laden was Mercer-level wealthy. Mohammed Atta was an engineer. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a doctor.

  133. 133.

    Chyron HR

    @Cacti:

    THEY’RE NOT DEPLORABLE! (waggles desiccated finger, impatiently waits for “identity politicians” to “bend the knee”)

  134. 134.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I don’t know, maybe I read too much Wittgenstein in college, but I just have to laugh at all these language games.

    If our fucking worthless media lets Trump and his Nazis keep repeating his bullshit without pushback, its not going to be a laughing matter.

  135. 135.

    No Drought No More

    The sun certainly doesn’t shine above the ground in NY’s 1st congressional district, if their Trump loving congressman spoke for the people of that district in his prepared remarks supporting the “both sides are equally culpable” bullshit.. What the hell is wrong with Long Island?

  136. 136.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    It does sound weird and stupid, but one does get the impression that a lot of the soft racists really don’t see themselves that way; the whole “but I have black friends..” or “it’s those blacks, you know, the gangsters on welfare (the strawmen) ones” and crap going now has them in shock too. I mean after all if 48% of the country were secret neo-Nazis we would have never been able to end segregation and so on.

    But no reason to lighten up since the choice is pretty clear now for everyone- are you an American or do you agree with Davis, Putin and Hitler that the US was morally wrong in the Civil War, WWII and the Cold War?

  137. 137.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @TenguPhule: Still need the second for the full ritual. He doesn’t have to do anything but strike a pose.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @hovercraft:

    I was weirdly disappointed to get my results back and find that I was just as European as my family always said, even though my mom’s side has been here since Jamestown.

    Of course, they moved north PDQ and stayed there, so …

    ETA: Even the one possible “exotic” strain was still European — a possible 1 percent Ashkenazi Jewish.

  143. 143.

    J R in WV

    Reading about the Charlottesville Temple and their worshipers leaving through the back door, how they prudently removed their sacred books and scrolls ahead of time, just makes me sick. That Americans of any religion need to face this kind of thing on their sabbath is so despicable.

    The Charlottesville police failed too, one of their primary responsibilities in such a situation is to protect those most specifically attacked, and when Nazis riot, the local Jewish community will be a primary target, and deserve extraordinary protection. There should have been a SWAT team at Temple, and smaller detachments at the homes of prominent members of the Jewish community for the whole weekend.

    That this wasn’t done means to me that senior leadership in the police department and in city government should resign in disgrace! For shame!

  144. 144.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I think a lot of them also started off as for-the-lulz internet echo chamber Nazis who are only now realizing that in meatspace they have verifiable identities, and their ideology (such as it is) is colliding with consequences for the first time. It’s so easy to compartmentalize, and separate one’s online persona from one’s perception of ‘authentic’ self, that they might not even have seen a contradiction between being a 4chan Nazi and having black (more likely other non-white)/LGBT/female/disabled/etc. friends.

    Like a really fucked-up version of a predilection for cosplay turning into an identity disorder, en masse, a folie a milliard. And now they’re broken on a deep level. Widescale self-radicalization via the Internet of the type Adam has written about.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Partisan Cheese: Trump’s use of “alt-left” bore no logical relation to the use of the term on liberal blogs. Typically it was a pejorative for people who were so leftier-than-thou that they considered Hillary Clinton a greater threat than Donald Trump and a thousand marching Nazis. Trump was actively courting them. As used in his rant, he’s making it up.

  147. 147.

    frosty fred

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Yeah, my DNA profile reflects my native pale blue skin tone (and my sister called last night, she’s at the lake and hopes to get some sun “to raise these blue legs to white”). I did contemplate at one point sharing the information that we are “2% Caucasian” as I thought that might get a rise out of some of them.

    When I got started on the family history project one of the cousins of my father’s generation commented several times that he was “sure” I would fine we had African ancestry. I eventually gave him a DNA kit and he was “relieved” to find he didn’t. I think there can only be a family story there that I’m not aware of.

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mnemosyne: A couple of my close relatives took one of those tests, and discovered something very similar: yes, the usual family legends of Native American ancestry are probably bullshit, and we had an unexpected few percent match with, I think, Ashkenazi Jewish, probably through my mother’s side.

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    But no reason to lighten up since the choice is pretty clear now for everyone- are you an American or do you agree with Davis, Putin and Hitler that the US was morally wrong in the Civil War, WWII and the Cold War?

    As far as I can tell (I was born afterward), that’s pretty much how the Civil Rights Movement managed to prevail after decades of work: they made people decide if they wanted to ally themselves with the kind of people who would violently drag other people away from a lunch counter because of the color of their skin.

    Reagan made it respectable to be a down-low racist again, but another decision point is approaching.

  152. 152.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think a lot of them also started off as for-the-lulz internet echo chamber Nazis who are only now realizing that in meatspace they have verifiable identities, and their ideology (such as it is) is colliding with consequences for the first time.

    I said this same thing in a more sneering way yesterday, but I think this is a lot of it. They’re venturing out from their internet bubble only to discover that most people don’t secretly agree with them and those other people are plenty willing to fight back, unlike the video games they play.

    Tear gas actually hurts, and you don’t just lose a few life points on a game you can reset.

  153. 153.

    PPCLI

    @Mnemosyne:

    Reagan made it respectable to be a down-low racist again, but another decision point is approaching.

    True. Of course, it’s too much to hope that David Brooks might be thinking at this moment: “About that time I defended Reagan against the people (like Jimmy Carter) who said it was a dog whistle to open his campaign with a speech about “States Rights” in the neighborhood where Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner were murdered? Maybe Carter was right.”

    But at least Brooks is no doubt very concerned, troubled and privately wincing at Trump.

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Raw Story, huh…

    white supremacist Craig Cobb, dressed up for daytime TV in a dark suit and red tie, hearing that his DNA testing revealed his ancestry to be only “86 percent European, and … 14 percent Sub-Saharan African.”

    He’ll be needing to find some new groups. Most of his current groups believe in the “One Drop” rule, and an eighth+ is way more than a drop! Shame on them for kicking out such a loyal guy.

  157. 157.

    Origuy

    My sister and I did 23 and Me, and we’re about 0.4% West African and 0,1% “broadly sub-Saharan African”. The rest is western European. My father’s side were early settlers in Virginia and Maryland, and my mother’s side spent several generations in the Appalachians, there were a lot of opportunities for African genes. Probably where that family rumor about Native American ancestry came from. Easier for a mixed-race person to pass as Indian than white in those days.

    Some of my ancestors were Hatfields and McCoys; another was apparently King John; and there is at least one other murderer back there.

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