Gamma Donna
@gammamadonna.bsky.social
Earthling, human, live-in Gamma of 3, retired music educator, domestic violence counselor, and tiny shard of the Cosmos. ✨
“We are here to help each other get through this thing…whatever it is.”
• Kurt Vonnegut
🚫 DMs w/o permission = block
“We are here to help each other get through this thing…whatever it is.”
• Kurt Vonnegut
🚫 DMs w/o permission = block
Pinned
🧵
Continuity matters.
“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”
• Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Continuity matters.
“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”
• Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
In November 2009, something unusual and quietly powerful happened at the White House. Outgoing President George W. Bush invited President-elect Barack Obama, along with all living former presidents, to lunch.
November 11, 2025 at 3:06 AM
🧵
Continuity matters.
“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”
• Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Continuity matters.
“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”
• Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
a day in the life of a retired
#MusicEducator (as if we ever retire) and
#Live_in_Grandma
Beginner tuba guy, age 13 (who started on trombone) is being coached by 17 yr old trombone/tuba brother, while I coach the bare bones beginner flutist, age 8. 🥰
🖤🎵🖤🎵🖤
#MusicEducator (as if we ever retire) and
#Live_in_Grandma
Beginner tuba guy, age 13 (who started on trombone) is being coached by 17 yr old trombone/tuba brother, while I coach the bare bones beginner flutist, age 8. 🥰
🖤🎵🖤🎵🖤
November 11, 2025 at 12:52 AM
a day in the life of a retired
#MusicEducator (as if we ever retire) and
#Live_in_Grandma
Beginner tuba guy, age 13 (who started on trombone) is being coached by 17 yr old trombone/tuba brother, while I coach the bare bones beginner flutist, age 8. 🥰
🖤🎵🖤🎵🖤
#MusicEducator (as if we ever retire) and
#Live_in_Grandma
Beginner tuba guy, age 13 (who started on trombone) is being coached by 17 yr old trombone/tuba brother, while I coach the bare bones beginner flutist, age 8. 🥰
🖤🎵🖤🎵🖤
No surprise. Joyce Carol Oates nails it. Like Smaug upon a mountain of riches, he’s a poverty-stricken predator who’ll never be able to understand what he’ll likely never have.
lithub.com/elon-musk-ge...
lithub.com/elon-musk-ge...
Elon Musk gets roasted on his own platform by Joyce Carol Oates.
Like an ancient cyborg culling through the ruins of a post-apocalyptic planet (twitter, derogatory), Joyce Carol Oates recently fired her full-power death ray at aspiring trillionaire Elon Musk, wh…
lithub.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:45 PM
No surprise. Joyce Carol Oates nails it. Like Smaug upon a mountain of riches, he’s a poverty-stricken predator who’ll never be able to understand what he’ll likely never have.
lithub.com/elon-musk-ge...
lithub.com/elon-musk-ge...
The towering songwriting genius, Jimmy Webb, sings his song, duetting with Joe Cocker, who finally this month is being posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
🎵🖤🎵
youtu.be/nH1phEjFlB0?...
🎵🖤🎵
youtu.be/nH1phEjFlB0?...
The Moon's A Harsh Mistress (feat. Joe Cocker)
YouTube video by Jimmy Webb - Topic
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The towering songwriting genius, Jimmy Webb, sings his song, duetting with Joe Cocker, who finally this month is being posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
🎵🖤🎵
youtu.be/nH1phEjFlB0?...
🎵🖤🎵
youtu.be/nH1phEjFlB0?...
Reposted by Gamma Donna
For the midnight crew on this #EdmundFitzgwtald50 anniversary, I have added more markups to the Newsweek article that gave Gordon Lightfoot his template for His "Wreck of" song lyrics.
November 10, 2025 at 6:29 AM
For the midnight crew on this #EdmundFitzgwtald50 anniversary, I have added more markups to the Newsweek article that gave Gordon Lightfoot his template for His "Wreck of" song lyrics.
Second-order change is doing something significantly or fundamentally different from what you have done before. The process is usually irreversible. Once you begin, it becomes impossible to return to the way you were doing things before. It requires a new way of seeing things and is transformative.
November 10, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Second-order change is doing something significantly or fundamentally different from what you have done before. The process is usually irreversible. Once you begin, it becomes impossible to return to the way you were doing things before. It requires a new way of seeing things and is transformative.
This!
November 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM
This!
“There are some spectacles before which satire herself stands mute.”
• George Orwell
• George Orwell
November 10, 2025 at 3:58 PM
“There are some spectacles before which satire herself stands mute.”
• George Orwell
• George Orwell
How powerful they must think themselves, with their passions to have such control over human beings. Coincidently 😉 this passion is a hallmark of dark triad/tetrad psychopathy, and shouldn’t ever to be mistaken for leadership acumen. Leaders eat last.
November 10, 2025 at 3:49 PM
How powerful they must think themselves, with their passions to have such control over human beings. Coincidently 😉 this passion is a hallmark of dark triad/tetrad psychopathy, and shouldn’t ever to be mistaken for leadership acumen. Leaders eat last.
“The greatest discovery any alien anthropologist could make about our culture is our overriding response to failure: If it didn't work last year, do it AGAIN this year (and if possible do it MORE)”
• Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization
• Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization
November 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
“The greatest discovery any alien anthropologist could make about our culture is our overriding response to failure: If it didn't work last year, do it AGAIN this year (and if possible do it MORE)”
• Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization
• Daniel Quinn
Beyond Civilization
I’m having a “tiny speck in a ruthless universe” day, so I’m drinking sparkling cold brew coffee, eating carbs & watching ST:DS9.
“I could never step lightly enough or run fast enough to get away from the cracking, so I made everything around me so loud that it drowned out the sound.”
•Brené Brown
“I could never step lightly enough or run fast enough to get away from the cracking, so I made everything around me so loud that it drowned out the sound.”
•Brené Brown
November 9, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I’m having a “tiny speck in a ruthless universe” day, so I’m drinking sparkling cold brew coffee, eating carbs & watching ST:DS9.
“I could never step lightly enough or run fast enough to get away from the cracking, so I made everything around me so loud that it drowned out the sound.”
•Brené Brown
“I could never step lightly enough or run fast enough to get away from the cracking, so I made everything around me so loud that it drowned out the sound.”
•Brené Brown
Lest we think it’s just happening in the US. Perspective isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.
“If the international kleptocracy in charge of this economy knew they could be held accountable, they wouldn’t be this ruthless. They do what they do because they expect their actions to be tolerated.”
“If the international kleptocracy in charge of this economy knew they could be held accountable, they wouldn’t be this ruthless. They do what they do because they expect their actions to be tolerated.”
“Only rarely do farm-bred humans revolt. If the international kleptocracy in charge of this economy knew they could be held accountable, they wouldn’t be this ruthless”
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...
End-Stage Necrocapitalism: Fumbling Towards The Exit
Societies were formed not to evolve, but to obey, and what we tend to affectionately call “social evolution” was merely the aftermath of succumbing, and then adapting to, ever changing forms of oppres...
open.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Lest we think it’s just happening in the US. Perspective isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.
“If the international kleptocracy in charge of this economy knew they could be held accountable, they wouldn’t be this ruthless. They do what they do because they expect their actions to be tolerated.”
“If the international kleptocracy in charge of this economy knew they could be held accountable, they wouldn’t be this ruthless. They do what they do because they expect their actions to be tolerated.”
“a “serial sexual predator.” Notoriously, he belonged to a secret cabal of rich, influential, and concupiscent New Yorkers known as the Sewer Club, whose libertine members regularly debauched themselves at orgies. White was the Dionysian figure at the center — the dynamo of all of that depravity.”
"A little party never killed anyone, sure, but a big party, the Republican Party, has indubitably killed hundreds of thousands of people—and it’s just getting warmed up."
Sunday Pages: White Houses
Musings on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Evelyn Nesbit, and Jay Gatsby.
gregolear.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM
“a “serial sexual predator.” Notoriously, he belonged to a secret cabal of rich, influential, and concupiscent New Yorkers known as the Sewer Club, whose libertine members regularly debauched themselves at orgies. White was the Dionysian figure at the center — the dynamo of all of that depravity.”
“I have observed him both in person and from afar since the late 1990s and can promise you … Trump was in poor condition fifteen years ago on the set of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ -since then his ill health and addictions have only gotten worse, in my opinion.”
noelcasler.substack.com/p/flirtin-wi...
noelcasler.substack.com/p/flirtin-wi...
'Flirtin' with Disaster'
President Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior, cognitive decline and clear physical deterioration are posing a great risk to the safety of our country and represents an imminent threat if not addres...
noelcasler.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:44 PM
“I have observed him both in person and from afar since the late 1990s and can promise you … Trump was in poor condition fifteen years ago on the set of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ -since then his ill health and addictions have only gotten worse, in my opinion.”
noelcasler.substack.com/p/flirtin-wi...
noelcasler.substack.com/p/flirtin-wi...
A psycho-spiritual emergency as a result of the savage sadistic pathocratic regime in power. Erich Fromm in 1964 called such “the quintessence of evil”, that seeks destroy for the sake of destruction, with passion to have absolute & unrestricted control over living beings — dark tetrad psychopathy.
November 9, 2025 at 4:39 PM
A psycho-spiritual emergency as a result of the savage sadistic pathocratic regime in power. Erich Fromm in 1964 called such “the quintessence of evil”, that seeks destroy for the sake of destruction, with passion to have absolute & unrestricted control over living beings — dark tetrad psychopathy.
Leonard Bernstein introduces 7-year-old Yo-Yo Ma and his 11-year-old sister Yeou-Cheng Ma to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower at "An American Pageant of the Arts," on November 29, 1962.
youtu.be/wiwkBFR6rW0?...
youtu.be/wiwkBFR6rW0?...
7-Year-Old Cellist Prodigy Yo-Yo Ma's Debut Performance for President JFK | The Kennedy Center
YouTube video by The Kennedy Center
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Leonard Bernstein introduces 7-year-old Yo-Yo Ma and his 11-year-old sister Yeou-Cheng Ma to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower at "An American Pageant of the Arts," on November 29, 1962.
youtu.be/wiwkBFR6rW0?...
youtu.be/wiwkBFR6rW0?...
Breathing Bach
youtu.be/Rx_IibJH4rA?...
youtu.be/Rx_IibJH4rA?...
Yo-Yo Ma - Nature at Play: J.S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 (Live from the Great Smoky Mountains)
YouTube video by YoYoMaVEVO
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Breathing Bach
youtu.be/Rx_IibJH4rA?...
youtu.be/Rx_IibJH4rA?...
Our Princess Buttercup is not sure how she feels about my granddaughter’s fancy effects mic.
🐾💖🐾
🐾💖🐾
November 8, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Our Princess Buttercup is not sure how she feels about my granddaughter’s fancy effects mic.
🐾💖🐾
🐾💖🐾
The desires of the predators in power are so all-consuming that they have no comprehension of, respect for, or ability to empathize with “the other”— all people are merely objects to them. Their ethically sick ways of seeing and being are contagious; they influence scared people.
November 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The desires of the predators in power are so all-consuming that they have no comprehension of, respect for, or ability to empathize with “the other”— all people are merely objects to them. Their ethically sick ways of seeing and being are contagious; they influence scared people.
A well-spent 22 minutes:
“What typically happens when you drop one
psychopathic actor into a group of humans?” (@8:37)
youtu.be/90ePY2MQ3-Q?...
“What typically happens when you drop one
psychopathic actor into a group of humans?” (@8:37)
youtu.be/90ePY2MQ3-Q?...
Why 'Humans' Are Better Than We Think | Frankly 108
YouTube video by Nate Hagens
youtu.be
November 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
A well-spent 22 minutes:
“What typically happens when you drop one
psychopathic actor into a group of humans?” (@8:37)
youtu.be/90ePY2MQ3-Q?...
“What typically happens when you drop one
psychopathic actor into a group of humans?” (@8:37)
youtu.be/90ePY2MQ3-Q?...
🙌🏻😆
“Someone faints but Donny is thinking: “I'm tall, very hot. I’m down to four diapers per day. I sell Bibles. Have a free jet. I defeated magnets. I end a war every morning. I throw the best Gatsby parties. And the UTI in my neck is all gone. Why do people still love Gavin more?!!”
“Someone faints but Donny is thinking: “I'm tall, very hot. I’m down to four diapers per day. I sell Bibles. Have a free jet. I defeated magnets. I end a war every morning. I throw the best Gatsby parties. And the UTI in my neck is all gone. Why do people still love Gavin more?!!”
November 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
🙌🏻😆
“Someone faints but Donny is thinking: “I'm tall, very hot. I’m down to four diapers per day. I sell Bibles. Have a free jet. I defeated magnets. I end a war every morning. I throw the best Gatsby parties. And the UTI in my neck is all gone. Why do people still love Gavin more?!!”
“Someone faints but Donny is thinking: “I'm tall, very hot. I’m down to four diapers per day. I sell Bibles. Have a free jet. I defeated magnets. I end a war every morning. I throw the best Gatsby parties. And the UTI in my neck is all gone. Why do people still love Gavin more?!!”
Do not obey in advance, or as I prefer to say: Do not obey EVER.
“Resist much, obey little.”
* Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass
“Resist much, obey little.”
* Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass
one year ago today, I wrote a post called "let’s celebrate acts of defiance." I think it still holds up. the people I wrote about three days after the election are still pretty much the people leading the way a year later.
let’s celebrate acts of defiance
Governors are already saying no to Donald
www.jefftiedrich.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Do not obey in advance, or as I prefer to say: Do not obey EVER.
“Resist much, obey little.”
* Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass
“Resist much, obey little.”
* Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass
“The way that capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy…”
•Jon Ronson
Traits shared by the ultra wealthy & psychopaths:
1 Lack of Empathy
2 Egotism
3 Superficial Charm
4 Lack of Remorse
5 Selfishness
6 Unethical Behavior
7 Prone to Boredom
•Jon Ronson
Traits shared by the ultra wealthy & psychopaths:
1 Lack of Empathy
2 Egotism
3 Superficial Charm
4 Lack of Remorse
5 Selfishness
6 Unethical Behavior
7 Prone to Boredom
![“The way that capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy…”
* Jon Ronson,
“The Psychopath Test”
Art by Christopher Lovell, a favorite of mine as the dark predators herd everyone closer to the edge of the Anthropocene era.
“You're standing on an escalator and you're watching the people go past on the opposite escalator. If you could climb inside their brains you would see we aren't all the same. We aren't all good people just trying to do good. Some of us are psychopaths. And psychopaths are to blame for this brutal, misshapen society. They're the rocks thrown into the still pond.”
- Jon Ronson
"Psychopaths are social predators and like all predators they are looking for feeding grounds. Wherever you get power, prestige and money you will find them."
- Robert Hare
The incidence of psychopathy among CEOs, for instance, is four times higher than the general population, reports journalist
“Basically, when you get them talking, [psychopaths] are different than human beings — They lack things that make you human: empathy, remorse, loving kindness.”
Traits shared by the ultra wealthy and psychopaths:
1 Lack of Empathy
2 Egotism
3 Superficial Charm
4 Lack of Remorse
5 Selfishness
6 Unethical Behavior
7 Prone to Boredom](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:galar2m47jhara3c7cjgn46o/bafkreid2xgm7a74rwcu2rz63vurhlv535clmjzrypkrdzirkfucgt43xqa@jpeg)
November 8, 2025 at 5:13 PM
“The way that capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy…”
•Jon Ronson
Traits shared by the ultra wealthy & psychopaths:
1 Lack of Empathy
2 Egotism
3 Superficial Charm
4 Lack of Remorse
5 Selfishness
6 Unethical Behavior
7 Prone to Boredom
•Jon Ronson
Traits shared by the ultra wealthy & psychopaths:
1 Lack of Empathy
2 Egotism
3 Superficial Charm
4 Lack of Remorse
5 Selfishness
6 Unethical Behavior
7 Prone to Boredom
“simply, the president is impounding money *already set aside by the Congress* to fund the SNAP program. Put more simply, he’s stealing it.
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet & say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”
•Dostoyevsky
The Grand Inquisitor
The Brothers Karamazov
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet & say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”
•Dostoyevsky
The Grand Inquisitor
The Brothers Karamazov
November 8, 2025 at 5:01 PM
“simply, the president is impounding money *already set aside by the Congress* to fund the SNAP program. Put more simply, he’s stealing it.
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet & say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”
•Dostoyevsky
The Grand Inquisitor
The Brothers Karamazov
“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet & say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”
•Dostoyevsky
The Grand Inquisitor
The Brothers Karamazov
🚨
“…the way she structured the stay means that she was able to try to control the timing of the Supreme Court’s (forthcoming) review—and to create pressure for it to happen faster …”
“…the way she structured the stay means that she was able to try to control the timing of the Supreme Court’s (forthcoming) review—and to create pressure for it to happen faster …”
November 8, 2025 at 4:30 PM
🚨
“…the way she structured the stay means that she was able to try to control the timing of the Supreme Court’s (forthcoming) review—and to create pressure for it to happen faster …”
“…the way she structured the stay means that she was able to try to control the timing of the Supreme Court’s (forthcoming) review—and to create pressure for it to happen faster …”