Maybe this is just the riesling talking (I may inflict an incredibly pretentious Finger Lakes single vineyard riesling 2008 horizontal tasting on you at some point this weekend), but I found this screen-shot of Intrade’s “most active” compelling and terrifying:
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WaterGirl
I don’t follow Intrade, and I had no idea what to make of that chart when I looked at it. Serious question: could you sum up what this means and why this is compelling and terrifying?
Edit: I have a bottle of riesling in the refrigerator, if that is a prerequisite for understanding.
MikeJ
Weird how a most active chart has four items with zero change. I think they just have such a teeny tiny market that it’s really easy to game it. We know in 2004 people actually did exactly that. Should be even easier when we aren’t in the heat of a pres race and all you want to do is create buzz.
steve
I was just there. not too bad, the gop nomination numbers. Basically
Mittens 25%
T-Paw 17%
ev else single digits
Mitt and T Paw would suck, but they wouldn’t be the monsters Bachmann etc would be.
Comrade DougJ
@WaterGirl:
It means the main things people are betting on is whether Palin, Santorum, Bachmann, or Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee, along with whether a nuclear reactor will go to “level 6” along with the winners of American Idol.
TenguPhule
Surely Rome in its last days of power was never this bad…
WaterGirl
@Comrade DougJ: Hmm. Thanks for the explanation. I was trying to make sense of the numbers and it seems like you were paying more attention to what the the top items were.
It seems to me that one of these things is not like the others. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person who is really worried about all the radioactive water that is running into the ocean. I may get that bottle of riesling out of the fridge after all.
Edit: The book On the Beach had a big impact on me when I read it decades ago, and every few days I find myself thinking of that book and wondering if we might not get bad news, then worse news, then even worse news out of Japan.
steviez314
What’s terrifying is I thought that Niki Haley and Ron Paul were on American Idol.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
euwwwwww
riesling is a yucky dessert wine.
i cant tolerate anything sweeter than Poully Fuisse or Fume Blanc.
arguingwithsignposts
You know, fuck Intrade. Fuck all the cas1no gamblers. They don’t know shit. They’re just betting. And they deserve to DIAF just like their big brothers on Wall Street.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i don’t think there is any need to have a horizontal tasting of the 2012 vintage of gop noms, that whinery ain’t putting out nothing but mad dog.
Comrade DougJ
@steviez314:
I though that too at first.
Are we sure they’re not?
gbear
@steve: T Paw would be as bad as Scott Walker if he had the chance. I bet he’s spitting nails about how he should have run for one more term as Gov now that whacko conservatives control the house and senate in MN.
I think T Paw will be remembered as the stupid guy with the worst timing in history (starting when Cheney called him up to tell him to quit running for US Senator so Coleman could run. Pawlenty was on the way to the dentist when he got that call).
TheOtherWA
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: More like zima.
hilts
In addition to being one of the dumbest politicians to ever appear on a presidential ticket, Sarah Palin is one of the most insecure and gutless politicians in American history. Palin is a George Costanza personality trying to convince everyone she’s Clint Eastwood. She’s isn’t a mama grizzly, she’s a mama jellyfish. She’s not running Doug.
Keith G
I see nothing terrifying in this.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Jeepers, it’s like an evil(er) updated version of We Didn’t Start The Fire.
.
RareSanity
@DougJ:
Talking about riesling has triggered ads for wine coolers.
What happen to you DougJ? You used to be cool, now you’re just an elitist. I bet you even use Dijon mustard on burgers…for shame.
You’ll never be a real American…
Cat Lady
Is there anything that can’t be monetized?
Can’t buy me love.
hilts
Bachmann, Palin, Santorum = Larry, Curly, Moe
TheOtherWA
After picking up dinner from a great Vietnamese place, I’m enjoying a cheap cab-merlot. It’s too cold for white wine here. Maybe it’s just me.
I’m more worried about the repubs who are being very quiet. Huntsman, Brownback (a real whack job of the fundy variety.) The showy ones this early are probably just in it for any money they can get.
Mark S.
I don’t know if this is an April Fool’s joke or something, but this claims to be an excerpt of an interview between Matt Taibbi and Boehner. Either Boehner is on his sixth martini or he is really a deluded fucking asshole:
hilts
@Cat Lady:
This is the most uplifting video that’s been posted on BJ all week.
Gin & Tonic
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: That’s because it’s not a dessert wine.
Cat Lady
@hilts:
The Beatles is always my happy place too. I often wonder what John would have to say about all of this craziness. WWJD?
Mr Stagger Lee
What??? No Sailor Jerry, No old Grand Dad, No Montego BaY?
Valdivia
@Mark S.:
OMG that cannot be real. Please please tell me it is!
Southern Beale
That graphic made my head hurt.
Then again, I’m hurting because my beloved Predators lost to the Red Wings this afternoon, and we drowned our sorrows in a Napa Cabernet.
Suck It Up!
@steve:
yes they would. They have no backbone whatsoever and will do and say whatever it takes to keep the wingnuts happy.
Mark S.
@efgoldman: @Valdivia:
I don’t know. The site seems a sketchy.
Suck It Up!
@Mark S.:
collecting $60,000 worth of what?
piratedan
fuck ’em all, but remember to wear protection, I can’t account to what those people may have done to their souls.
Valdivia
@Mark S.:
Here’s hoping!
Phoenix Woman
By the way, for those who are wondering:
Bachmann really doesn’t want to be president. (She knows that the party establishment will move to crush her if she actually tries to make a serious run that lasts past, oh, December of this year.)
She does, however, want to do two (2) things:
— Rack up one hell of a campaign warchest, which she can use to dole out to frosh candidates she likes and thus win their loyalty (as well as cementing her ties to the institutional religious right — and their bank accounts).
— Make Tim Pawlenty’s life miserable. (She’s pretty much already succeeded in that, but she wants not only to ensure no one takes him seriously as a candidate, she wants to make sure he can’t even be somebody’s running mate, by demonstrating to the world that she, who the powers that be won’t let anywhere near the presidential ticket, has more electoral and financial “ooomph” than does the human snooze button.)
The first goal — essentially, where she gets to be Tom DeLay, and hopes she can do so without incurring any prison time — is her main goal, but the second one is what warms the cockles of her heart, such as it is.
PurpleGirl
@Mark S.: We’ll have to wait and see when and what Taibbi in the future about Boehner. But if it’s true, Boehner’s more of an idiot than I thought he was. He doesn’t know (or realize) that Facebook wasn’t around when he was in community college!
feebog
The Boehner story has to be a spoff (remember yesterday’s date?). Even though the elitist bastard probably does think exactly like that.
gbear
@Phoenix Woman: So you’re saying Bachmann wants to be Bag Lady Karl Rove?
edit: I wish her luck on mission #2. I bet that Pawlenty would like to claw her eyes out most days.
MikeJ
@Mark S.: It’s not sketchy. It’s bullshit.
Which isn’t t say that Boner isn’t an idiot, but Taibbi is a moron to begin with and that site isn’t trustworthy for an accurate quote.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PurpleGirl: Boehner is actually less of an idiot than he is a late stage boozer. It’s a subtle difference. He’s always been corrupt, but he didn’t used to be stupid, the way he seems now. I credit the Merlot by the gallon. Interestingly, King John I of Ohio came to this end of the state for a Lincoln Day dinner and had to drive through a line of protesters! That is unheard of in Warren County, a traditional GOP stronghold. Cincinnati Enquirer notes that protesters line Kasich’s route. It’s also pretty unusual for that paper to have a headline like that, though of course they had no photos.
Important point being that things are changing on Ohio, after the SB5 thing. Cops are very anti GOP, as are firefighters – they weren’t exempted as in WI, and they are pissed. They will GOTV for a referendum. It’s gonna get interesting.
Jordan
Hmmmm, Finger Lakes riesling? I hope you’re talking about the Hermann J. Wiemer bottlings.
I happened to stop by the place once on a wine region tour with the aunt & uncle, and Wiemer was the highlight of the trip by far. They specialize in white wines, and “world class” understates their output by just a hair.
I don’t recommend the “frost cuvee,” but if you see anything else that’s white and Wiemer in your local wine shop, give it a try if you want to gain new respect for western New York state.
Petorado
This “voyage of the damned” market is screaming to be securitized and turned into some tranches of toxic assets and sold off to conservatives as their economic savior, but in reality their financial ruin. If only the righties would suffer the economic perish they deserve for their completely outmoded ideas. But, alas, that is what, in their Randian wisdom, they invented bailouts for.
p.s. – if you think riesling is soda pop, I give you Eroica.
Comrade DougJ
@Jordan:
That’s it.
Radon Chong
@TenguPhule: Were not in the last days of Rome, just the last days of the Roman Republic. There’s plenty more to come.
Slightly off topic: Has anyone been listening to Dan Carlin’s “Death Throes of the Republic” podcasts?
karen marie
@TheOtherWA: No one electable is going to make it through the GOP primary, Huntsman “worked with the Obama administration.” Who’s Brownback? (Rhetorical question) Their nutjob base will be out in full force splitting the vote between the nutjob candidates.
I predict the 2014 mid terms will be a blowout in favor of Dems.
@MikeJ: Thank you.
karen marie
@karen marie: My edit disappeared!
Anyway, I realize the non sequitur between discussion of 2012 prez election and 2014 may be confusing. I take the outcome of 2012 to be a given, barring a catastrophic event wiping out every Democratic candidate, including Obama, so I’m pinning my hopes on enough voters regaining their sanity after they’ve had their fill of rightwing lunacy for four years.
Radon Chong: And thank you very much.
sukabi
@Mark S.: the thing is, most of ‘our betters’ in the house and senate don’t know shit about the programs they vote to cut or what they vote to fund… they have no idea what someone gets for unemployment, what it’s like to live on social security, minimum wage or just above, and what’s more they don’t care to find out…
Catzmaw
Hah! I don’t DO riesling or any other white wine so am therefore immune to your charms. Now, if you decide to go the red route, perhaps with a decent Cabernet Sauvignon or a Pinot Noir, then you might get my attention.
JR
@Mark S.:
This is total horse shit. It took me just a few minutes to determine that he’s lying in his teeth.
According to Department of Labor statistics, the average weekly unemployment insurance (UI) payment is just under $309/week. For a 52 week year, that’s $16,000.
Further, UI payments aren’t based upon your education, but on your wages you have been paid, so recently graduated college students aren’t eligible to receive UI benefits unless they’ve been working. And most college students work for something around minimum wage…
Wilful Ignorance, or deliberate lie, you decide!
SFAW
Why would anyone over the age of nil drink riesling? Is that what “elitist” has come to mean – someone who doesn’t drink real wine, nor know the difference?
Oh, the humanity!
Incoming in 3 … 2 … 1 …
SFAW
Nah, because whoever runs for Preznit Palin’s open seat (since she’ll quit in April, 2014, of course) will have long coattails.
cdm7
a riesling? Yay!
a Finger Lakes Riesling? I think I’m in love with you. ;)