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“Trumpregierungsschlamasselschmerz”

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December 31, 2019, 11:34
Kalleh
“Trumpregierungsschlamasselschmerz”
This is the word a German scholar came up with (in the New Yorker) for Donald. Here is what the author of the article (Susan B. Glasser) says about it:

"My German is nonexistent, but a quick Internet search suggests that Constanze nailed it. In thirty-three letters, she managed to capture the whole damn mess. Her word has pretty much everything that has come to characterize this uniquely dysfunctional moment in America’s troubled capital: Trump and his Administration (“regierung” means government); the slow-motion car crash of constant controversies (“schlamassel”); and the continuous pain or ache of the soul that results from excessive contemplation of it all (“schmerz”). Sure, it’s a mouthful, but that’s the point: there should be one word that sums up the Trumpian disruption we are experiencing, not merely a jumble of different ones. It’s the tweets and the other stuff, too: the endless attacks on enemies, real and imagined; the torrent of lies; the eroding of the basic functions of government; and the formerly unimaginable assault on our institutions. It’s impeachment and the Mueller Report and migrant children in cages, the bullying of allies, and the lavish praise of adversaries. It’s the uncertainty and worry that comes with all of the above."
December 31, 2019, 14:27
haberdasher
It's a twisted coincidence that the middle part of that word (“-schlamassel-”) sounds like the Yiddish word for "the victim of everything that can go wrong" (schlemozzel, as in "the schlemiel spills the soup on the schlemozzel"). [Mozel means "luck."]

If anything, it's backwards.
January 01, 2020, 19:15
Kalleh
I found this funny:

The schlemiel is someone who dies by throwing himself off a building.

The schlemozzel is the poor schmuck he lands on and kills in the process.
January 02, 2020, 10:35
Geoff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJzF8_df1R8
The first line of the opening song.
January 17, 2020, 20:33
Kalleh
Oh, yes, I remember Laverne and Shirley! And from Milwaukee, too.