Yeah, we're under-babied, but they like WHITE babies, Kate. Maybe you need to listen to Stephen Miller a little more. And they want teen pregnancies to start gaining traction again, and apparently at TPUSA they tell the young preteen girls to grow up and have lots of babies, even if they can't afford them. And then they kick everyone off SNAP benefits. It's very Christian, but I don't know these verses, they're weird!
And seriously, JD picked the wrong Pope lol. I am very glad you "enjoyed" my picture, I was laughing pretty much the whole time. Hugs and love. What a crazy timeline.
Ohhh this is a lot to contend with for you. Sending lots of love from Canada. Not that life is perfect but it’s definitely not as fucked up as the USA now.
I’m proud to be related, so to speak, to you and to the many, many good people who still comprise the majority of this country. I travel a lot for work and by far (almost without exception, actually) my experience with actual people in stores, on planes, in hotels (lots and lots of hotels), on trains, on the streets going wherever people go, in parks, on nature trails, I could go on…my actual experience is that people are good and kind and generally want to be helpful. Bad behavior stands out because it still is jarring, an anomaly. Obviously I have spent zero minutes walking with or sharing a meal with people in power. The disproportionate effect of their evil—as you lay out so well—is tragic and hopefully coming to an end. Well, they will ALL come to an end, but only after living in the hell that is their life. I digress.
My point is that the measure of humanity, even American humanity, cannot be measured by headlines, or by the evil shit that evil and feckless leaders commit. So let’s continue to Promote Mutual Acquaintance of Peace and Goodwill Among All People. With malice towards none and charity towards all…
I have found that to be the case, too, Robert. For the most part. Aside from people who have fallen prey to the rhetoric and gone down a rabbit hole, because sadly I have seen that as well, the family members who have been swept up in the hatred and would rather not speak than question their thinking.
But out in the world, still, if there are people in need in real time,
or communities struggling with major events — weather or otherwise — I do think the majority of people will jump in to help. I think most people are kind. We just need to get back to that and start believing in each other again and hopefully collaborating on a better system so people aren’t feeling desperate and unsupported. Happy to know you, friend, and sending you a lot of love ❤️🩹🙏🏼
Families divided is such a tragedy and painful in a unique way. I have seen this as well. As you say, may we find our way collectively to loving our neighbor as ourselves, all neighbors, all selves. Peace.
The first time around, I was shocked at the level of misogyny in the country. I knew it existed, I'm a woman and I grew up here, but I didn't think so many women would vote for a man who said he grabbed women "by the pussy." Gotta say, I thought that would be a hard line for more women, conservative or not. I was sadly not shocked by the racism, though I had hoped we were on a better trajectory, painfully slow as it may have been. Those hopes were also dashed. Badly.
This time around, I'd hoped people learned last time. I hoped when he said "they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs..." or when smarmy JD said "childless cat ladies" were ruining the country, or when they had no plan for affordable healthcare or childcare, or...I dunno, when they released a 920-page document laying out every single thing they were going to do, given the chance, like privatize everything and screw everyone, and when they said they don't believe in democracy and enjoy dictatorship, white Christian nationalism, and the tradwife lifestyle that — call me crazy! — more people (even conservatives) would say hell no.
When that proved not to be the case, I thought, okay, we need to buckle in, this is going to be ugly, but I still thought there were Republican senators and congresspeople who surely loved country over Party and would not allow this administration to erode the pillars of our democracy. I genuinely believed that to be true. The day Musk entered the Treasury with 6 kids and their flash drives and our senators and representatives told us this was happening from their couches — going live over instagram because it happened on a Friday afternoon and they couldn't be bothered to race back to Washington — and there was no cohesive opposition leadership and no call for all concerned Americans to head to the Treasury and take to the streets and raise hell? I knew we were in a lot of trouble. That was the day the shoe dropped, and I suspect when historians look back, that will be the day they wonder why the fuck we didn't act. We froze. The coup was digital, quiet, and weird, not bloody, because these billionaires are weird. We didn't have a frame of reference for it and we could have used some guidance.
We will get them out. If voting didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so hard to stop us. But the damage that's been done is real, and it's going to take inspired effort and collaboration to heal. I am really hoping we can start from the ground up, restore the things about our system of government that have been good, and rethink the things that have left too many people out in the cold. And get busy healing the global relationships that have been damaged by all this madness, too.
I wrote you a whole essay :) I am calm now most days, but it's a calm that comes with heartbreak and exhaustion. These people break my heart every day. I don't understand the hatred, either, and I'm grateful I don't. I cannot imagine living life that way, what an absolute waste. I have moments (hours sometimes) of outrage, but I try to channel that feeling into fuel and do something (anything) productive that might help in any small way, even if it feels totally unrelated to the thing that's upset me. For every shitty, unfathomable thing they do, I try to do some small, kind thing. It makes me feel like I have some power. Anyway, Helen, thank you for giving any of this any of your attention at all from the other side of the globe. I always have the same reaction when people comment from other places in the world, which is immense, profound gratitude. There are so many of us here who do not want it to be this way, and the solidarity is generous and energizing. Thanks for being here <3
So brilliantly written, as usual. But. But: I had an actual physical reaction to this. To all of it. It’s 104 degrees out and I shivered a little reading Part 1 because I always shivered in that situation, in the way I shivered when I was blamed for Rita’s shopping addiction, after which the credit card bill arrived and I was expected to pay it, and saying No made my knees turn to jelly. There’s a direct, hot wire between gaslighting in Part 1 and gaslighting in Part 2, and, to quote my grandmother, I’m so mad I could spit.
I think this is why, for some of us, dealing with this shit show creates an added, and very profound tax on the nervous system. My mom came to LA for my birthday every year, which sounds sweet, and was, except she'd want me to arrange a dinner out with my friends on the actual night. Then she'd invite a few of her friends, and drink herself into an oblivion, which wasn't a lot of fun for me as you might imagine. Sometimes she'd say awful things to me, other times, it was "just" the stress of worrying about how bad the night might get.
It became a running joke, my friends would say, "Is your mom coming out to ruin your birthday this year?" The rest of the trip might be great, but the birthday night was not what I would call a good time. If I tried to say, "you know, I might just keep it chill this year, why don't you come the week before or after?" that would be a whole thing. "Some daughters would be grateful" etc. Some daughters would be grateful their moms got drunk and hit on their friends, Elissa. I don't know why I was so "overly sensitive" haha.
I'm sorry you were shivering in your car. I'm sorry you had tears streaming down your face. I'm sorry these awful, hateful people are running the show, and I'm sorry they will never, ever be accountable. I'm sorry it's all so reminiscent, and the feelings of being powerless in the face of all this gaslighting are so profound. We all deserve better.
Most of all, I am sorry (and I am not presuming to get this exactly right, nor would I ever speak to your experience with your mother) that it would seem we were sacrificed on the altars of our mothers' demons just enough that we burned, not so much that we were consumed. I am grateful we weren't consumed, but sometimes I think we need to be reminded we never should have been on that altar in the first place. Sending you so much love xx
Trump is like a bad salesman you try to close the door on and he keeps it open with his foot so you can’t lock him out. He wedges his way in and tries to keep selling. The birth right voter thing may be understandable but once he wedges that in he will say your parents weren’t born here, or your grandparents were not born here, all the way back. If you are black or Latino your ancestors were probably not born here. Then he will claim you are ineligible to vote
He is definitely like a salesman you would never want to allow inside your house, that's for sure, and the foot inside the door totally tracks, because that man has never understood consent. Even "the birth right voter thing" is not even a thing, because only citizens are allowed to vote, so the whole topic is another "fake problem"! Perhaps one thing we *can* give him credit for is proving how much election fraud is NOT a problem in our country, because god knows he tried to prove malfeasance in 2020 over and over again, and even judges he appointed were like, nope! But that doesn't stop him from continuing to promote the Big Lie, and it's so exhausting. Meanwhile he seems to forget, his mother was not born here. Two of his three wives were/are immigrants, and 4 out of 5 of his children therefore have mothers who were not born here. This is a stupid and ugly game he's playing. Thanks for being here, John. May we not encounter any sleazy salesmen this week!
Yeah, all those pregnant tourists giving birth here so that they can get access to our universal free healthcare. Is that it? How can anyone get access to that? Get elected to congress, I guess, is one way.
Did you hear that Glitch McConnell is being kept “alive”—for obvious reasons? Schrödinger’s Senator.
Exactly! Women just racing here as their water breaks to give birth, get that big EMTALA ER break lol, and then...nothing! With the added bonus of likely deportation after the birth, or extended time in a "detention center" i.e. free labor/for profit camp. Who wouldn't come running for all that?!
And I did hear about that, Martha! It's "Weekend at Mitch's" I guess, until it isn't. These people have no shame in their game. None. But somehow they're the party of Christian family values. I have to laugh or I shall cry.
I am absolutely not without hope! I think it's one of the reasons it's good to know what's happening, so we can be clear-eyed about it, and so that when (WHEN) we get these people out, we can be focused on what we need to fix, and get to work.
It really is, Holly. There are so many real and urgent problems, it is devastating to watch this bullshit go down. I just keep trying to do as many good things as I can to tip the scales. Obviously, I can't match their level, but I know we're all trying, and we absolutely outnumber them, so that is what I hold onto when I start to lose my mind!
I’ve met some pregnant bad asses, so I dunno, pole vaulting might be in their skill set?!
But how sad is it, that these closed off, unscientific, amoral, racist bootlickers live in a world where they think skin color represents things like intelligence, character, invention, etc. They think about purity from having the most impure ideas ever- that human beings can be divided by race, religion and ethnicity into inferior or superior. It is simplistic, and easy to peddle onto people who are economically and educationally deprived, and frustrated with what the corporate overlords are actually doing to them as well as their so called family values politicians, who just need their votes. They do not actually care about them. Money and power are what they actually worship and religion is a tool of control via tyrants.
Miller is a shrill, strange man who has had this lifelong obsession over race. What died inside of him as a young person, I wonder? Vance is what some of my hillbilly ancestors would have called a carpet bagger, a flim flam man, a snake “awl” salesman. He goes where the wind blows in his favor, even if it means constantly smelling the gas of a rotten human being who is his boss and telling him all he can smell are flowers.
The obsession with race, with AI, with giving all power to an executive is the blueprint of people who want a slave class again. Slaves without original thought, who never question what happened to their rights, who are grease in a machine that makes them money. They speak of days of yore, of a religious awakening, of welcoming an end times. Well of course they do- burn it all down and they live in a lavish bunker here, or their god shows them magical favor when they die. It’s the most destructive joining of forces- religion masking as a means to create profit and power.
And oh, while my father was something else awful compared to your mom to grow up with, I do know the attitude well of-“it’s not my problem, it’s everyone else’s” too well. Where you feel gaslit all the damn time. And you lose confidence in your judgement, your desires, your actions. And it takes a lot of therapy, while they were alive and after they die to unpick the knot in your soul from it.
As always- your writing is always worth waiting for when I get a chance to sit and actually read on Substack.
As ever, we are on the same page with all the things, I was reading your comments and nodding away. I have the affliction of always wanting to understand wtf happened to a person to make them the way they are, and Stephen Miller is a horrible mystery. He grew up in Santa Monica, where I have lived for the last 20+ years and where I've raised my kids. I am not naive, you can be in a very liberal city and still find out your neighbors across the street are conservative af, but by and large, people here tend to be pretty chill. Live and let live.
He attended the same high school as my kids, decades earlier of course, and he was already causing trouble back then. His cousin posted something on social media last year about how painful it is for her to see what he's become. Maybe his extended family is loving but there was trouble inside his family of origin, I have no idea. Or something happened to him out in the world. It is hard to fathom the depth of the hatred and rage that exist inside him, so clearly something went wrong somewhere along the way. Whatever else happened, he knows the wheel and math were not invented in America by white people. It's so bizarre and gross.
And yes regarding Vance, he's less difficult to figure out, though equally soulless. He'd sell his Mamaw's soul to the highest bidder. He's a shapeshifter. He'll be whomever you need him to be if it gets him where he wants to go. Terrifying he's second in command. It's all just a shit show that needs to end. Thank you for your comments, Jen, and thank you for being here <3
Thank you, Dana, I cannot remember the last time I sat down to draw a picture with markers, but I suspect it was when my kids were little😳😂 I enjoyed myself immensely. And I thank you, and am so glad you’re here! ❤️
My grandfather was a WWII veteran and carried the mail in the Bronx. 💜 I love knowing more about the history of the inscriptions. I know he took such pride. There weren't as many fake problems then, maybe. Thank you for your diligent work and for all you carry, our dauntless messenger.
You just made me cry! Did not see the last sentence coming 🥹🙏🏼 That is so cool about your grandfather, and yes, I really do not believe we have ever had this much time for fake problems, or “the need” for them! I’m sending you a lot of love, Mary Beth, as always. Was listening to Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” in front of the Statue of Liberty” earlier, and it’s so mournful I was 😭😭😭
That'll always be the anthem I prefer... come on. Purple mountains... from sea to shining sea.... thank you so much for sharing that. Also anything to do with Lady Liberty makes me cry.
It’s all very confusing bc aren’t we under-babied? Does dr oz know about the pole vaulting touristy pregnant women? Bc he might be into it.
Also, that drawing is giving me the happiest slice of life I’ve had in a while— lol.
And, JD picked a terrible time to convert to Catholicism — Leo ain’t havin it any of his bullshit.
Oh and —as always, your writing blows me away. You’re magic. 🪄
Yeah, we're under-babied, but they like WHITE babies, Kate. Maybe you need to listen to Stephen Miller a little more. And they want teen pregnancies to start gaining traction again, and apparently at TPUSA they tell the young preteen girls to grow up and have lots of babies, even if they can't afford them. And then they kick everyone off SNAP benefits. It's very Christian, but I don't know these verses, they're weird!
And seriously, JD picked the wrong Pope lol. I am very glad you "enjoyed" my picture, I was laughing pretty much the whole time. Hugs and love. What a crazy timeline.
And they only want 15-17 year olds having those babies...
Exactly! Teen pregnancies are down, and somehow that’s a bad thing, because of course it is. Under his eye.
Ohhh this is a lot to contend with for you. Sending lots of love from Canada. Not that life is perfect but it’s definitely not as fucked up as the USA now.
Thank you, Alice. We may be pole-vaulting to you before long ;)
I’m proud to be related, so to speak, to you and to the many, many good people who still comprise the majority of this country. I travel a lot for work and by far (almost without exception, actually) my experience with actual people in stores, on planes, in hotels (lots and lots of hotels), on trains, on the streets going wherever people go, in parks, on nature trails, I could go on…my actual experience is that people are good and kind and generally want to be helpful. Bad behavior stands out because it still is jarring, an anomaly. Obviously I have spent zero minutes walking with or sharing a meal with people in power. The disproportionate effect of their evil—as you lay out so well—is tragic and hopefully coming to an end. Well, they will ALL come to an end, but only after living in the hell that is their life. I digress.
My point is that the measure of humanity, even American humanity, cannot be measured by headlines, or by the evil shit that evil and feckless leaders commit. So let’s continue to Promote Mutual Acquaintance of Peace and Goodwill Among All People. With malice towards none and charity towards all…
I have found that to be the case, too, Robert. For the most part. Aside from people who have fallen prey to the rhetoric and gone down a rabbit hole, because sadly I have seen that as well, the family members who have been swept up in the hatred and would rather not speak than question their thinking.
But out in the world, still, if there are people in need in real time,
or communities struggling with major events — weather or otherwise — I do think the majority of people will jump in to help. I think most people are kind. We just need to get back to that and start believing in each other again and hopefully collaborating on a better system so people aren’t feeling desperate and unsupported. Happy to know you, friend, and sending you a lot of love ❤️🩹🙏🏼
Families divided is such a tragedy and painful in a unique way. I have seen this as well. As you say, may we find our way collectively to loving our neighbor as ourselves, all neighbors, all selves. Peace.
The hatred mystifies me. I can only assume it's the toxic version of masculinity, as you say.
Even in Australia, I wasn't far enough away not to choke as JD espoused some Christian virtue he supposedly embraces.
It's so effed up I sometimes turn off the info. Fortunately, I am able to do that. Must be hard to stay calm while living through it.
The first time around, I was shocked at the level of misogyny in the country. I knew it existed, I'm a woman and I grew up here, but I didn't think so many women would vote for a man who said he grabbed women "by the pussy." Gotta say, I thought that would be a hard line for more women, conservative or not. I was sadly not shocked by the racism, though I had hoped we were on a better trajectory, painfully slow as it may have been. Those hopes were also dashed. Badly.
This time around, I'd hoped people learned last time. I hoped when he said "they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs..." or when smarmy JD said "childless cat ladies" were ruining the country, or when they had no plan for affordable healthcare or childcare, or...I dunno, when they released a 920-page document laying out every single thing they were going to do, given the chance, like privatize everything and screw everyone, and when they said they don't believe in democracy and enjoy dictatorship, white Christian nationalism, and the tradwife lifestyle that — call me crazy! — more people (even conservatives) would say hell no.
When that proved not to be the case, I thought, okay, we need to buckle in, this is going to be ugly, but I still thought there were Republican senators and congresspeople who surely loved country over Party and would not allow this administration to erode the pillars of our democracy. I genuinely believed that to be true. The day Musk entered the Treasury with 6 kids and their flash drives and our senators and representatives told us this was happening from their couches — going live over instagram because it happened on a Friday afternoon and they couldn't be bothered to race back to Washington — and there was no cohesive opposition leadership and no call for all concerned Americans to head to the Treasury and take to the streets and raise hell? I knew we were in a lot of trouble. That was the day the shoe dropped, and I suspect when historians look back, that will be the day they wonder why the fuck we didn't act. We froze. The coup was digital, quiet, and weird, not bloody, because these billionaires are weird. We didn't have a frame of reference for it and we could have used some guidance.
We will get them out. If voting didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so hard to stop us. But the damage that's been done is real, and it's going to take inspired effort and collaboration to heal. I am really hoping we can start from the ground up, restore the things about our system of government that have been good, and rethink the things that have left too many people out in the cold. And get busy healing the global relationships that have been damaged by all this madness, too.
I wrote you a whole essay :) I am calm now most days, but it's a calm that comes with heartbreak and exhaustion. These people break my heart every day. I don't understand the hatred, either, and I'm grateful I don't. I cannot imagine living life that way, what an absolute waste. I have moments (hours sometimes) of outrage, but I try to channel that feeling into fuel and do something (anything) productive that might help in any small way, even if it feels totally unrelated to the thing that's upset me. For every shitty, unfathomable thing they do, I try to do some small, kind thing. It makes me feel like I have some power. Anyway, Helen, thank you for giving any of this any of your attention at all from the other side of the globe. I always have the same reaction when people comment from other places in the world, which is immense, profound gratitude. There are so many of us here who do not want it to be this way, and the solidarity is generous and energizing. Thanks for being here <3
So brilliantly written, as usual. But. But: I had an actual physical reaction to this. To all of it. It’s 104 degrees out and I shivered a little reading Part 1 because I always shivered in that situation, in the way I shivered when I was blamed for Rita’s shopping addiction, after which the credit card bill arrived and I was expected to pay it, and saying No made my knees turn to jelly. There’s a direct, hot wire between gaslighting in Part 1 and gaslighting in Part 2, and, to quote my grandmother, I’m so mad I could spit.
I think this is why, for some of us, dealing with this shit show creates an added, and very profound tax on the nervous system. My mom came to LA for my birthday every year, which sounds sweet, and was, except she'd want me to arrange a dinner out with my friends on the actual night. Then she'd invite a few of her friends, and drink herself into an oblivion, which wasn't a lot of fun for me as you might imagine. Sometimes she'd say awful things to me, other times, it was "just" the stress of worrying about how bad the night might get.
It became a running joke, my friends would say, "Is your mom coming out to ruin your birthday this year?" The rest of the trip might be great, but the birthday night was not what I would call a good time. If I tried to say, "you know, I might just keep it chill this year, why don't you come the week before or after?" that would be a whole thing. "Some daughters would be grateful" etc. Some daughters would be grateful their moms got drunk and hit on their friends, Elissa. I don't know why I was so "overly sensitive" haha.
I'm sorry you were shivering in your car. I'm sorry you had tears streaming down your face. I'm sorry these awful, hateful people are running the show, and I'm sorry they will never, ever be accountable. I'm sorry it's all so reminiscent, and the feelings of being powerless in the face of all this gaslighting are so profound. We all deserve better.
Most of all, I am sorry (and I am not presuming to get this exactly right, nor would I ever speak to your experience with your mother) that it would seem we were sacrificed on the altars of our mothers' demons just enough that we burned, not so much that we were consumed. I am grateful we weren't consumed, but sometimes I think we need to be reminded we never should have been on that altar in the first place. Sending you so much love xx
Trump is like a bad salesman you try to close the door on and he keeps it open with his foot so you can’t lock him out. He wedges his way in and tries to keep selling. The birth right voter thing may be understandable but once he wedges that in he will say your parents weren’t born here, or your grandparents were not born here, all the way back. If you are black or Latino your ancestors were probably not born here. Then he will claim you are ineligible to vote
He is definitely like a salesman you would never want to allow inside your house, that's for sure, and the foot inside the door totally tracks, because that man has never understood consent. Even "the birth right voter thing" is not even a thing, because only citizens are allowed to vote, so the whole topic is another "fake problem"! Perhaps one thing we *can* give him credit for is proving how much election fraud is NOT a problem in our country, because god knows he tried to prove malfeasance in 2020 over and over again, and even judges he appointed were like, nope! But that doesn't stop him from continuing to promote the Big Lie, and it's so exhausting. Meanwhile he seems to forget, his mother was not born here. Two of his three wives were/are immigrants, and 4 out of 5 of his children therefore have mothers who were not born here. This is a stupid and ugly game he's playing. Thanks for being here, John. May we not encounter any sleazy salesmen this week!
Another great piece. You write so well.
Thank you so much. I'm so glad you're here.
Yeah, all those pregnant tourists giving birth here so that they can get access to our universal free healthcare. Is that it? How can anyone get access to that? Get elected to congress, I guess, is one way.
Did you hear that Glitch McConnell is being kept “alive”—for obvious reasons? Schrödinger’s Senator.
Exactly! Women just racing here as their water breaks to give birth, get that big EMTALA ER break lol, and then...nothing! With the added bonus of likely deportation after the birth, or extended time in a "detention center" i.e. free labor/for profit camp. Who wouldn't come running for all that?!
And I did hear about that, Martha! It's "Weekend at Mitch's" I guess, until it isn't. These people have no shame in their game. None. But somehow they're the party of Christian family values. I have to laugh or I shall cry.
It all feels so hopeless AND your writing clarifies it and somehow gives hope…so again, thank you!!
I am absolutely not without hope! I think it's one of the reasons it's good to know what's happening, so we can be clear-eyed about it, and so that when (WHEN) we get these people out, we can be focused on what we need to fix, and get to work.
Thank YOU for being here!! <3
The whole fake problems thing is infuriating!!
It really is, Holly. There are so many real and urgent problems, it is devastating to watch this bullshit go down. I just keep trying to do as many good things as I can to tip the scales. Obviously, I can't match their level, but I know we're all trying, and we absolutely outnumber them, so that is what I hold onto when I start to lose my mind!
Me too.
I’ve met some pregnant bad asses, so I dunno, pole vaulting might be in their skill set?!
But how sad is it, that these closed off, unscientific, amoral, racist bootlickers live in a world where they think skin color represents things like intelligence, character, invention, etc. They think about purity from having the most impure ideas ever- that human beings can be divided by race, religion and ethnicity into inferior or superior. It is simplistic, and easy to peddle onto people who are economically and educationally deprived, and frustrated with what the corporate overlords are actually doing to them as well as their so called family values politicians, who just need their votes. They do not actually care about them. Money and power are what they actually worship and religion is a tool of control via tyrants.
Miller is a shrill, strange man who has had this lifelong obsession over race. What died inside of him as a young person, I wonder? Vance is what some of my hillbilly ancestors would have called a carpet bagger, a flim flam man, a snake “awl” salesman. He goes where the wind blows in his favor, even if it means constantly smelling the gas of a rotten human being who is his boss and telling him all he can smell are flowers.
The obsession with race, with AI, with giving all power to an executive is the blueprint of people who want a slave class again. Slaves without original thought, who never question what happened to their rights, who are grease in a machine that makes them money. They speak of days of yore, of a religious awakening, of welcoming an end times. Well of course they do- burn it all down and they live in a lavish bunker here, or their god shows them magical favor when they die. It’s the most destructive joining of forces- religion masking as a means to create profit and power.
And oh, while my father was something else awful compared to your mom to grow up with, I do know the attitude well of-“it’s not my problem, it’s everyone else’s” too well. Where you feel gaslit all the damn time. And you lose confidence in your judgement, your desires, your actions. And it takes a lot of therapy, while they were alive and after they die to unpick the knot in your soul from it.
As always- your writing is always worth waiting for when I get a chance to sit and actually read on Substack.
As ever, we are on the same page with all the things, I was reading your comments and nodding away. I have the affliction of always wanting to understand wtf happened to a person to make them the way they are, and Stephen Miller is a horrible mystery. He grew up in Santa Monica, where I have lived for the last 20+ years and where I've raised my kids. I am not naive, you can be in a very liberal city and still find out your neighbors across the street are conservative af, but by and large, people here tend to be pretty chill. Live and let live.
He attended the same high school as my kids, decades earlier of course, and he was already causing trouble back then. His cousin posted something on social media last year about how painful it is for her to see what he's become. Maybe his extended family is loving but there was trouble inside his family of origin, I have no idea. Or something happened to him out in the world. It is hard to fathom the depth of the hatred and rage that exist inside him, so clearly something went wrong somewhere along the way. Whatever else happened, he knows the wheel and math were not invented in America by white people. It's so bizarre and gross.
And yes regarding Vance, he's less difficult to figure out, though equally soulless. He'd sell his Mamaw's soul to the highest bidder. He's a shapeshifter. He'll be whomever you need him to be if it gets him where he wants to go. Terrifying he's second in command. It's all just a shit show that needs to end. Thank you for your comments, Jen, and thank you for being here <3
That drawing is EVERYTHING.
Great piece. Thank you. ❤️🤍💙
Thank you, Dana, I cannot remember the last time I sat down to draw a picture with markers, but I suspect it was when my kids were little😳😂 I enjoyed myself immensely. And I thank you, and am so glad you’re here! ❤️
Not giving up. I'm too infuriated by it all. Bring it on, you POSs. The primaries are just the trailer.
That’s the spirit! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
My grandfather was a WWII veteran and carried the mail in the Bronx. 💜 I love knowing more about the history of the inscriptions. I know he took such pride. There weren't as many fake problems then, maybe. Thank you for your diligent work and for all you carry, our dauntless messenger.
You just made me cry! Did not see the last sentence coming 🥹🙏🏼 That is so cool about your grandfather, and yes, I really do not believe we have ever had this much time for fake problems, or “the need” for them! I’m sending you a lot of love, Mary Beth, as always. Was listening to Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” in front of the Statue of Liberty” earlier, and it’s so mournful I was 😭😭😭
https://youtu.be/5LZOhEGG-_o?si=QzII5m8bwVebJTha
❤️🩹🤍💙
That'll always be the anthem I prefer... come on. Purple mountains... from sea to shining sea.... thank you so much for sharing that. Also anything to do with Lady Liberty makes me cry.
Same 🥹