mussolet > Recent Status Updates

The Diane chapters are the single most annoying thing I have encountered in a long time. Have sped up the audiobook massively, just to get through it quicker.

"There is no It is hard to say who is good and caring when you know nothing about a person [...] but there's no sense in going throgh life presuming awful things about people you do not know."

"It was becoming painfully clear that there was no room in our politics for the kind of discussion I wanted to have - or maybe I was the wrong messenger. Either way, this wasn't working.
I found more receptive audiences overseas."

Missing a comment on the fact that many stated that she was 'the lesser of two evils'. Also missing a thought about the Republican party in general. And about the choice of poor Tim Kaine.

"Generations of far-sighted leaders on both sides of the Atlantic came together to build a new liberal order out of the ashes of WW2. They defended universal human rights, defied totalitarianism and delivered unprecedented peace, prosperity and freedom. As Americans, that is our inheritance."

With all the explanations about Russia, that's still over 60 million people voting for Trump. No matter how much they helped, a significant amount of people voted bc they believed.
(Hillary stated that the Frenh election learned from her example, but Macron did not deal a "sound defeat" to Le Pen. That was way closer as well.)

On a personal note, I wonder how much the reporting on the candidates in the U.S. differed from the reporting in other parts of the world. But I often wonder that, given the countless 24/7 news channels in the U.S.

Emails!!!

So far the chapters on women in power, on her family, and on the coal mining regions are by far the most interesting and genuine. At other times she snaps into campaign mode, but not here.

"I wanted to debunk the false charge that I wasn't a true progressive, and explain why I thought socialism was wrong for America. And that those two positions were in no way contradictory."
On debating Bernie... ... ... what a statement.

The chapter on feminism and women in power felt much easier to follow, perhaps because it was a topic for her for much longer.
Talking about her policies, she sounds determined to ensure that they are not forgotten and remain as talking points even though she has lost.
There is some arguing against Bernie that comes through every now and again, potentially bc Trump did not offer anything to argue against.

Only just started, but think this will be exhausting. I know some names will be important but I feel like there are way too many in here. Also, on the one hand I am glad she narrates it herself, on the other hand I think a professional reader might have done it better. I can hear the (understandable) anger in her voice, but that does not make it easy to listen to.

already looking forward to the reread of the entire series up until this point. if my poor poor heart can make it through the rest of this.

"And, at such a time, for a few of us there will always be a tugging at the heart - knowing a precious moment gone and we not there.
We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass."

"The first feeling of autumn was in the air, a prodigal feeling, a feeling of wanting, taking, and keeping before it is too late."

"To say the least, this was embarrassing. In part, because people one doesn't care for, even dislike, make most of us feel uneasy when they appeal against their sentence."

"We didn't really know each other when we married. Who does? For that matter, who knows all that much about anyone even after twenty years in the same house? We only show what we care to and so it's a bit of a guessing game, isn't it? And if the other person doesn't care to answer "Right" or "Wrong", guessing it stays."

"Ah, those days ... for many years afterwards their happiness haunted me. Sometimes, listening to music, I drift back and nothing has changed. The long end of summer. Day after day of warm weather, voices calling as night came on and lighted windows pricked the darkness and, at day-break, the murmur of corn and the warm smell of fields ripe for harvest. And being young."

"Am I making too much of this? Perhaps. But there are times when man and earth are one, when the pulse of living beats strong, when life is brimming with promise and the future stretches confidently ahead like that road to the hills. Well, I was young..."

"Most country people had a deep-rooted disinclination to sleep away from home and a belief that, like as not, to sojourn amongst strangers was to fall among thieves. It was the way they always had lived and, like their forefathers, they traveled no further than a horse or their own legs could carry them there and back in a day."

"'What are your feelings about growing old [...]?'
It wasn't an inconsequential question: I could tell that he really wanted an answer, a second opinion.
'I can't imagine,' I said. 'I mean I can't imagine it happening to me,' I said. 'It's too far away now. Well, do you wonder? You know what it was like. There can't have been many of us who thought we'd need to worry about growing old.'"

"surely we shouldn't be required [...] to justify the ethic of our labour? Our jobs are our private fantasies, our disguises, the cloak we can creep inside to hide."