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This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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It’s the corruption, stupid.

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Shut up, hissy kitty!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: BUUUUUUURN….

Open Thread: BUUUUUUURN….

by Anne Laurie|  June 10, 20156:01 pm| 135 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Readership Capture, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

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Consensus in German press seems to be that Jeb was dull, underwhelming, and "anything but charismatic." http://t.co/QMp7MDC7fa

— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) June 10, 2015

“Berlin-based” Leonid Bershidsky, for Bloomberg View:

When Barack Obama spoke in Berlin in 2008, one could see how and why he would get to be U.S. president. When Jeb Bush made his appearance here Tuesday, he showed how and why he probably won’t.

In 2008, a crowd of 200,000 gathered to hear Obama at the Victory Column in Tiergarten. He started by talking about his father, who herded goats in Kenya and yearned for the freedoms and opportunities of the West. It was an easy transition from there to Berliners’ own such yearnings, and to the U.S. airlift that kept West Berlin alive during the Soviet blockade…

On Tuesday, Bush arranged to speak before a much smaller audience of about 1,000 suits at the annual business conference organized by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party. Bush also referred to his father. George H. W. Bush was no goatherd, but he is respected in Germany for helping to bring about the country’s reunification. For Bush senior’s second son, however, talking about the 41st U.S. president was a way of not bringing up the 43rd, his older brother…

…[T]he audience applauded politely when Jeb Bush spoke of his father’s contribution to German history — and started drifting away. Recalling Bush’s coquettish remark at the beginning of his 30-minute appearance that he knew people had come to hear Merkel, not him, the daily Die Welt wrote that after he finished answering questions “more Christian Democrats came back into the hall. So Bush was right: The chancellor is perhaps more exciting.”

To anyone familiar with Merkel’s sedate, sensible public-speaking style, that line drips with sarcasm. Bush managed to outbore her. In the words of Hubertus Volmer, political commentator for the N-TV station, “he clings to the written text, which he reads hastily, and is anything but charismatic — a stark contrast not only with Obama in 2008 but also with Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who spoke before him.”…

Elitist US liberals in their coastal enclaves were dismissive…

I thought that was pretty much the global consensus. https://t.co/DP9yFt2uxJ

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 10, 2015

GOP presidential contenders face a stark choice on foreign policy: sounding crazy or sounding like Obama. http://t.co/zPQXWNvjD6

— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) June 10, 2015

But the people who’ve made their careers sucking up to the Bush clan remain stalwart:

Jeb Bush nomination strategy shifting from “shock and awe” to “faithful suitor”: I’ll still be here after all those other guys flame out

— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 10, 2015


***********
Apart from the same old same old, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    I was bored just reading this post.

  2. 2.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Is the Bush campaign behind the embarrassing revelations about Rubio’s finances?

    Whenever anything damaging about any of the GOP candidates comes to light, I always find myself wondering if the Bush team is behind it.

  3. 3.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    Glad All Over from a time when real gone cats sang to the ceiling.

  4. 4.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    June 10, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    Whenever anything damaging about any of the GOP candidates comes to light, I always find myself wondering if the Bush team is behind it.

    @Germy Shoemangler: Glad I’m not alone in thinking that. There is no such thing as “too paranoid” when dealing with the Bushes.

  5. 5.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: Like Elvis Costello, their aim is true. They mean to win.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I missed the story. What came out about Rubio?

  7. 7.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    @Baud: It was in the NYTimes. His reckless personal finances. Also numerous traffic violations.

  8. 8.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: And then there were these dudes!

  9. 9.

    Mike J

    June 10, 2015 at 6:16 pm

    I hate having Bush slaughtered this early in the contest. I really think he’s the easiest to beat

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    Need a slow day. I will probably start reading Joseph Ellis’ new book, “The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783 — 1789.” I need a little history fix.

    Earlier today I ran across a cool Gizmodo post about Isaac Newton and the importance of Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation (probably not really a Law if you are a creationist). I loved this explanation of one of the consequences of understanding Newton:

    Mercifully, along came computers—allowing the forces predicted by Netwon’s equation to be crunched in laborious detail why scientists sat around drinking tea. In fact, physicists giddy at the prospect of growing computational power realized that they could combine the forces generated by the biggest bodies in our Solar System to map out where gravity had the greatest effects—and, interestingly, where it cancelled out. Turns out that there are a series of interlinked tubes throughout space of constant—and crucially low—gravitational pull, that are now referred to as the Interplanetary Transport Network. Think of them as contours on a map that are easier to follow than walking uphill. Fire a craft through this network and they can navigate space with very little energy input—making it easy to travel a long way without much fuel.

    http://gizmodo.com/every-satellite-got-into-space-thanks-to-newtons-law-of-1706907868

  11. 11.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Thanks. I’ll take a look.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    June 10, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    Meh.

  13. 13.

    maya

    June 10, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    Ich bin ein Billionairer!

  14. 14.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    @raven: Yeah! Lucky there’s no copyrighting song titles.

    The DC5 had a string of nice pop hits. Great drumming, great vocals, but I think they ran out of steam somewhere during the psychedelic period.

    I always thought “Because” was a fine ballad.

  15. 15.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @Mike J:

    I still think he’ll be the nominee.

  16. 16.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Did you catch the special on them that was on PBS a while back? It was wildly entertaining, although very much a puff piece. I had forgotten how many great songs they had. “Because” is my favorite.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    June 10, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    @efgoldman:
    Was going to say, Bush the Umpteenth may not be the most dangerous, he’s certainly not the easiest to beat.

  18. 18.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Yes, I saw it! I grew up with that music. I’m a sucker for short catchy tunes, high harmonies and jangly guitars.

    I was six years old in 1964. I remember the very first records I ever heard were “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly brothers and “Needles and Pins” by the Searchers.

  19. 19.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 6:26 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Did you see the “gold slacks” special too?

  20. 20.

    rando2000

    June 10, 2015 at 6:27 pm

    Wait, were they saying that Bush uses a teleprompter? What will the right wingers doooooo?

  21. 21.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    @gogol’s wife: No, I missed that one.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    June 10, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Oh, sorry, thought you said “Glad All Over.” My bad.

  23. 23.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 10, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    Weird that John E. Bush didn’t talk about his grandfather’s contribution to the German people.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 6:31 pm

    Here’s a weird recent story from The Guardian. There may be some kind of cautionary tale here.

    Al-Qaida ‘cut off and ripped apart by Isis’
    Two of al-Qaida’s most important spiritual leaders have told the Guardian that the terror group is no longer a functioning organisation after being ripped apart by Isis. In a wide-ranging interview, Abu Qatada, a Jordanian preacher who was based in London before being deported in 2013, and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, regarded as the most influential jihadi scholar alive, say the al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is cut off from his commanders and keeping the group afloat through little more than appeals to loyalty….

    But the US has been slow to grasp the implications of al-Qaida’s decline and possible collapse despite extensive study of Isis, according to intelligence community insiders. “There’s such a cadre of people so closely tied to the al-Qaida brand within the IC [intelligence community] that I think they don’t see what else is going on outside the organisation,” said Derek Harvey, a former intelligence analyst who predicted how resilient the Iraq insurgency would be.

    What a mess. I look forward to the inevitable Fox News oversimplifications.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/isis-onslaught-has-broken-al-qaida-its-spiritual-leaders-admit

  25. 25.

    Trentrunner

    June 10, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    As a fifty-something gay dude, I have extensive experience smoking the flesh pole, but damn…

    That David Frum does things with Bush’s balls that I can only dream of.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    June 10, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    @raven:

    Great minds think alike. And so do ours!

  27. 27.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): I like both songs, but Carl’s is my favorite.

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    June 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    JEB! should have consulted with Mitt, whose overseas trip to London, Warsaw, and Jerusalem was a disaster. American wingnuts don’t just play well in front of foreign audiences.

  29. 29.

    Culture of Truth

    June 10, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    Jeb Bush nomination strategy shifting from “shock and awe” to “faithful suitor”

    That DOES sound exciting

  30. 30.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    @Trentrunner:

    On October 11, 2007, Frum announced on his blog that he was joining Rudolph Giuliani’s presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser.

    Frum had previously been a vocal critic of Republican presidential candidate McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate on the ground that Palin was unqualified to assume the presidency. Speaking of Palin’s performance during the campaign, Frum stated, “I think she has pretty thoroughly—and probably irretrievably—proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States.” Nevertheless he ultimately stated his support for Palin, writing “But on Tuesday, I will trust that she can learn.

    On July 24, 2014, during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Frum issued a series of messages from his Twitter account which labelled as “fake” a photo of two blood-covered and distraught Palestinian youth who had accompanied their father to a Khan Younis hospital after he had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. On July 30, 2014, Frum apologized on his blog on The Atlantic’s website. On July 31, 2014, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows, termed Frum’s claims “…a major journalistic error”

  31. 31.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Here you go, introduced by prevert Jimmy Savile.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCwVT7IY2RQ

  32. 32.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Weird that John E. Bush didn’t talk about his grandfather’s contribution to the German people.

    I see what you did there.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    June 10, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    @Mike J:

    I hate having Bush slaughtered this early in the contest. I really think he’s the easiest to beat

    But imagine how easy he’ll be to beat if he spends the next year being this awful and still manages to get the nomination. That’s a distinct possibility.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    June 10, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    @rando2000:

    Wait, were they saying that Bush uses a teleprompter? What will the right wingers doooooo?

    Ignore it, just like they ignore that Reagan always used one. Just remember: IOKIYAR.

  35. 35.

    dmsilev

    June 10, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    @Roger Moore: Ah, the Romney strategy.

  36. 36.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    @gogol’s wife: What a horrible man.

  37. 37.

    Keith G

    June 10, 2015 at 6:49 pm

    @efgoldman:

    If he can get past the crazies, Kasich is probably their best candidate. If.

    I think this is a very strong supposition. Although, being the best of this pack means stepping over a vanishingly low threshold.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: One of the great things about the InterTubes is the ability to catch early looks at classic acts. Like this 1965 performance of an Irish lad and his friends, “Les Them.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0aHmMfZTEw

  39. 39.

    cahuenga

    June 10, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    @Mike J:

    Agreed. He’ll have a ton of money but damn, that guy can’t seem to get through a single day without punching his own nuts.

    And he was being marketed as the sophisticated one.

  40. 40.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    @Brachiator: Or Jimmy Page and his skiffle group in 1957:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0tAOIQiz-8

  41. 41.

    piratedan

    June 10, 2015 at 6:57 pm

    gotta love the cognitive dissonance in comparing the events, Obama speaks to people about dreams and hopes and the future, Bush speaks to corporatists telling them that their investments are safe with him, never mind the family history.

    Hoping that whoever the Dem candidate is, that they speak to things that that majority of us actually give a shit about, clean water, clean air, safe roads, the ability to get paid an honest wage for an honest day’s labor and the ability to get health care without losing your retirement to do so.

    Because we know what the other side is going to talk about, the poors are too rich and the rich are too poor, and fuck the environment, lets build some more burger kings that Americans, not immigrants can work at and booga booga booga

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 10, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    @efgoldman: Frantically checking the mail….

  43. 43.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    @Brachiator: What really brought home to me the concept that we live in the information age was when I was telling someone about a Sesame Street segment I’d seen decades before; a man with a steel drum. I went on youtube, typed sesame street steel drum player, and saw the clip!

    There was a time when you’d see something once, and then never see it again. Now I can find all sorts of old stuff.

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    June 10, 2015 at 6:58 pm

    @dmsilev: Beat me to it [shakes fist].

    The good news: R-Money’s team is tanned, golfed, rested and ready to RUMBLE. Or, shucks fellows, if “rumble” sounds too…frisky we can have a tickle-fight and ritual hair-cutting.

    Are Y’all ready for eighteen months of unrelenting UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH? Because I’m not. Not at all.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    @piratedan:

    Hoping that whoever the Dem candidate is, that they speak to things that that majority of us actually give a shit about, clean water, clean air, safe roads, the ability to get paid an honest wage for an honest day’s labor and the ability to get health care without losing your retirement to do so.

    And if they do, I hope the majority responds on election day.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    June 10, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    @cahuenga:

    And he was being marketed as the sophisticated one.

    He’s being graded on a very soft curve.

  47. 47.

    Cacti

    June 10, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    Diane Rehm had a weird interview with Bernie Sanders today on NPR, where she not so much asked, but rather declared that the Senator has dual Israeli citizenship.

    A bemused Bernie had to explain to her that this was an internet rumor of unknown origin.

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    June 10, 2015 at 7:02 pm

    @piratedan:
    I don’t suppose Hils is going to excitavate the base, but her recent salvos have been so on target I have a cautiously good feeling about her running an issues campaign, not a safe campaign.

  49. 49.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    @Cacti: She was all “but it’s on a list! It’s on a list I saw!”

    From where? weaselzippers? stormfront?

  50. 50.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 7:06 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: I realized it shortly after college when my friend pointed out that instead of spending a week tracking down the right librarian, filling out the right form, and waiting, you could find a video of a lion hugging somebody (random example he chose) in about ten seconds.

    I’m on the cusp of “digital native” so I certainly remember interlibrary loans and programming the VCR.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @Cacti:

    Via TPM

    On today’s show I made a mistake. Rather than asking Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact.
    He corrected me, saying he did not know where the question came from. I apologized immediately.

    I want to apologize as well to all our listeners for having made an erroneous statement. I am sorry for the mistake. However, I am glad to play a role in putting this rumor to rest.

  52. 52.

    mdblanche

    June 10, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Somebody must have warned him not to mention the war.

  53. 53.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    @efgoldman: I have a friend who loves Applebees and Olive Garden. What I taste is salt, so I always suggest we go to mom and pop restaurants.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    June 10, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Just try explaining a card catalog to somebody who’s never seen one. It’s amazing we could do so much with so little.

  55. 55.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    I’m surprised nobody did this on the “movie villains more popular than GOP candidates” thread so I’ll just drop it here.

    I mean, say what you will about the tenets of the Imperial Senate, dude, at least it’s an ethos.

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    June 10, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    @JPL: I am quote fortunate to have very few chain restaurants where I live. So many of those chains actually have the food frozen and they microwave it.

    I can do that at home.

  57. 57.

    the Conster

    June 10, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    @Baud:

    James Wolcott’s tweet about that: The Day Twitter Turned On Diane Rehm.

  58. 58.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    June 10, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    @mdblanche: Maybe they made him a training video.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    @the Conster:

    Good for Twitter. (For once)

  60. 60.

    the Conster

    June 10, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    @Baud:

    Twitter is why she was forced to back the bus up and apologize, and it’s why the cop resigned. Twitter blew up about McKinney, and people were gathering there to protest while most people were just watching the video.

  61. 61.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    The rude pundit had a haiku contest on his blog.

    Someone named rabbitears came up with:

    Our next president,
    Jeb Bush is just Dubya with
    a gut and pig snout.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    @the Conster:

    I’ve come to appreciate Twitter, even though it has it’s dark side too. Like everything else, I guess.

  63. 63.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    @the Conster:
    I remember this from The Onion back in ’09

    SAN FRANCISCO—Creator Jack Dorsey was shocked and saddened this week after learning that his social networking device, Twitter, was being used to disseminate pertinent and timely information during the recent civil unrest in Iran. “Twitter was intended to be a way for vacant, self-absorbed egotists to share their most banal and idiotic thoughts with anyone pathetic enough to read them,” said a visibly confused Dorsey, claiming that Twitter is at its most powerful when it makes an already attention-starved populace even more needy for constant affirmation. “When I heard how Iranians were using my beloved creation for their own means—such as organizing a political movement and informing the outside world of the actions of a repressive regime—I couldn’t believe they’d ruined something so beautiful, simple, and absolutely pointless.” Dorsey said he is already working on a new website that will be so mind-numbingly useless that Iranians will not even be able to figure out how to operate it.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    Oh Newsmax

    Tiny Trick May Stop Erectile Dysfunction

  65. 65.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 7:29 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Dorsey said he is already working on a new website that will be so mind-numbingly useless that Iranians will not even be able to figure out how to operate it.

    I thought Balloon Juice was older than that.

  66. 66.

    Tree With Water

    June 10, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    “To improve the capabilities and effectiveness of partners on the ground…”.*

    “Partners”, not allies. That’s military nuance for “these people are not our friends”.

    (the damned ingrates- after all we’ve done to bestow freedom on their sorry-ass country).

    *from the White House press release concerning the redeployment of our volunteer army back into Iraq.

  67. 67.

    PurpleGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 7:37 pm

    If you are going to talk about dancers in gold pants… I give you Conrad Birdie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AJigkiRRSs

    An amateur production but I’m continuing to look for the a clip from the movie.

  68. 68.

    bemused

    June 10, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    Jeb Bush is boring but a dangerous dullard. At least msnbc is reporting on the shaming single mothers chapter in his 1995 book. What an ass.

  69. 69.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    @Roger Moore: Where’s my damn Memex

  70. 70.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I MISS CARD CATALOGUES

  71. 71.

    jl

    June 10, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    @Cacti:

    Rehm issued an apology, saying that she read that Sanders had dual citizenship in a comment on Facebook.
    Well, there you go, perfectly understandable.

    Now we know how media news divas do their research.

    BJers should tell Fox News to look for interesting true science act-nuggets about the GOP presidential candidates on this here blog.
    Who knows, one of the comments might show up. Write all the true facts about the GOPers in the comments that you can think up!

    ‘As I Had Read In A Comment On Facebook—’ Diane Rehm Responds To Sanders Furor
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/diane-rehm-bernie-sanders

  72. 72.

    PurpleGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 7:44 pm

    Talk about a man dancing in a gold lame outfit.

    Jesse Pearson and Ann Margaret: The Honestly Sincere number from the movie.

    This is really it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIJkGUBy77U

  73. 73.

    Pogonip

    June 10, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Me too! Interlibrary loans were a Godsend if you had eclectic reading tastes.

  74. 74.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    @PurpleGirl: Dick Gautier (Hymie the Robot from Get Smart) originated the role of Conrad Birdie on Broadway.

  75. 75.

    VOR

    June 10, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    @efgoldman: Yes, because current management was cooking pasta noodles without any salt in the water. Their reasoning was that adding salt to the water would shorten the life of the cooking pots – which were almost certainly designed with boiling salted water in mind. The MBAs claimed salting the water would improve the taste which would improve sales.

  76. 76.

    cmorenc

    June 10, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Was going to say, Bush the Umpteenth may not be the most dangerous, he’s certainly not the easiest to beat.

    In part, because it won’t be easy to dislodge the MSM’s deeply seated meme that Jeb is a “moderate” mainstream Republican who, while still on the conservative side of the middle, can reach across the aisle and work in bipartisan fashion. Whereas the MSM will repeatedly bleat that Hillary is a polarizing figure, who also won’t make herself accessible to the media (so they can indulge in the game of asking “gotcha” questions about whatever shiny-object talking points GOP operatives plant.)

  77. 77.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @VOR: I boil noodles in salted water. I’m pretty sure it’s a best practice.

    I also boil potatoes in salted water, but that’s just because it makes it faster.

  78. 78.

    Bex

    June 10, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    @efgoldman: @David Frum You are beyond pathetic.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    June 10, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    @Mike J: All of them are easy to beat. Which one has a chance of coming close to Secretary Clinton? She should go after the prevailing GOP candidate with a scorched earth strategy.

  80. 80.

    jl

    June 10, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    @Bex:

    Some one needs to keep track. I remember the neocons, before and after they went into the the W administration trying to gin up a war with China. Then the 911 attacks ruined all the new Cold War fun.

    Jeb sending signals he would plot through his borther’s foot steps if he won? That would not be fun.
    And Jeb! is supposed to be the smart one?

  81. 81.

    Tree With Water

    June 10, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    @bemused: I remember when then Governor Pete Wilson (R-Ca.) was being ballyhooed as the GOP’s great white hope (1992?). I didn’t understand it, but I don’t understand those people to begin with. Wilson wanted to be president, too. There came a point where he made what was billed as “a major speech” to introduce himself to the D.C. press, prelude to a future presidential candidacy. And that was that. Like Jeb Bush, the man was a walking, talking plate of mashed potatoes.

    Fun Fact: It was only after Wilson’s White House dream was dashed that the stupid SOB threw-in with the Know Nothing wing of the state’s republican party. The rest is history, and that history is colored blue.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    June 10, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Just try explaining a card catalog to somebody who’s never seen one. It’s amazing we could do so much with so little.

    When I was a part-time student worker at the university library in the early 1970s, our when-all-other-chores-are-done job was erasing deleted catalog cards (with an eletric eraser! cutting-edge tech), after which the other sides were re-used. Not so much for recycling, but because the federal government would pay for student salaries, but not for mere supplies.

    One more artisan task made redundant by the interwebs :)

  83. 83.

    scav

    June 10, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    @efgoldman: I think salt added earlier often does different things while cooking, over and beyond taste. There’s a fair bit of chemistry in cooking.

  84. 84.

    Tree With Water

    June 10, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    @jl: There’s not a rolling paper’s worth of difference between GW and any of the republican candidates. That, of course, includes his brother.

  85. 85.

    Major Major Major Major

    June 10, 2015 at 8:13 pm

    @efgoldman: Ah, right, you’re sodium-sensitive. (You exist! Despite my cavalier attitude the other day :)

    If I’m cooking for a party or potluck or if I know one of the guests is the same I don’t salt the water. Results in a less savory noodle–there’s something about doing it during the boiling process that is different from just salting it afterwards?–but there’s no reason to risk it.

    Same reason I don’t add MSG to anything under the same circumstances; people’s reactions vary from nothing (most common) to flushed (me) to migraine and worse.

  86. 86.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    Yes, I love him in that. He didn’t do much else!

  87. 87.

    JustRuss

    June 10, 2015 at 8:21 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Dick Gautier (Hymie the Robot from Get Smart) originated the role of Conrad Birdie on Broadway

    Learning that has justified all the hours I’ve wasted on this site.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 8:28 pm

    @JustRuss:

    Learning that has justified all the hours I’ve wasted on this site.

    If you think of it as investing your time, you will be less likely to go into a shame spiral.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 8:29 pm

    @Roger Moore: Using the card catalog and becoming familiar with library resources actually helped me understand computer search. I am sometimes surprised at people who don’t know how to do search or how to evaluate search results.

  90. 90.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: thanks

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 8:35 pm

    @WereBear: There are upscale restaurants that microwave frozen selections as well, maybe as a way of keeping costs down.

  92. 92.

    WereBear

    June 10, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    The latest on our kitten, Mithrandir, now 15 months old.

    Still a giant mutant kitten.

    With pics to prove it!

  93. 93.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 8:37 pm

    Anyone watching Chris Hayes? Another awful story just now about a cop killing two years ago.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 8:37 pm

    @raven: I do my best to keep the morale up.

  95. 95.

    Germy Shoemangler

    June 10, 2015 at 8:39 pm

    @JustRuss: If you want to waste even more time, you can read this interview with Dick Gautier, where he describes the experience.

    http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2014/12/an-interview-with-dick-gautier-part-one.html

    http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2015/04/an-interview-with-dick-gautier-part-two.html

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    June 10, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Yep, being able to find stuff is amazing. And also being able to do it from home or where ever you are with a mobile device.

  97. 97.

    MomSense

    June 10, 2015 at 8:45 pm

    @maya:

    Win!!

    I think these Republican candidates, their handlers, and the pundits all underestimate how skilled our President is. They think they are superior and so they cannot figure out why they are screwing up so spectacularly. Not only are their policies brutal and cruel but they are a thoroughly untalented bunch.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 10, 2015 at 8:45 pm

    In other foreign policy faux pas, Vladimir Putin showed up to his scheduled meeting with Pope Francis an hour late.

  99. 99.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 8:47 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: I don’t think there’s any question that Bush will kneecap the rest of the field, and especially Rubio. FSM knows he has the money to do it. That’s why I laugh at people paying attention to current GOP polls.

  100. 100.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 8:53 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Big shocker, given what happened with him and the Florida Republican Party.

    GOPers don’t care about stuff like that, since it’s “old news”. But I haven’t forgotten.

  101. 101.

    srv

    June 10, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    To the victors go the spoil

    Son of Scott Walker’s former campaign chairman appointed to UW Board of Regents

  102. 102.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    @gogol’s wife: It appears that is who the MSM want cuz he’s a moderate after all..
    I’m beginning to think it’s Walker.

  103. 103.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    @cahuenga: compared to his primary competition, he is the sophisticated one.

  104. 104.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:04 pm

    @efgoldman: Hey hey, now, if you’re at Chili’s–the Arby’s of sit-down chains–and you’re well into their top-shelf margarita, literally the only reason to go to Chili’s, you’re going to need all that salt to dry to stave off that EPIC HANGOVER you have coming.

    Edited. Pared down. Tailored? Curated.

  105. 105.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:06 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: I loved that steel drum!

  106. 106.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:09 pm

    @JPL: They use brine to make their chicken breasts tender. Among other things.

    Never order the rice, it’s like pure salt with some starch inclusions.

  107. 107.

    Anne Laurie

    June 10, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    @Brachiator:

    There are upscale restaurants that microwave frozen selections as well, maybe as a way of keeping costs down.

    You can’t make a living serving dishes which require hours of simmering or slow-roasting to customers who want their meal served by the time they’ve finished their salad. Honest restaurants “pre-prep” the base ingredients for finishing upon order; chains & other low-rent houses pull pre-portioned bricks out of the freezer, run them through the oven, and leave them under the heat lamps. Someone with a refined palate would know the difference, but how many modern American diners would even want to claim they could tell?

  108. 108.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    @efgoldman: They’re not weasels, graceful and fast, they’re more like perpetually confused dogs digging up rose bushes instead of moles. They obsess about buying the right lettuce or broccoli but turn all the food to shit by hiring cooks (not chefs, not anybody who’s been to culinary school) to boil and microwave everything to death.

    Statute of limitations is probably out on this one so, Olive Garden in this general area had their few-cents-above-min-wage cook sub skim milk for cream in Alfredo sauce when he ran out and didn’t see what the problem was.

    Same store also locked employees in the kitchen (I guess to stop smoke breaks? or stuff walking out the back?) in violation of fire code and common fucking sense.

    It’s an attempt to do sit-down along the McDonald’s model (“K.I.S.S.”) but it’s a complete failure.

  109. 109.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: was he wearing a shirt at least?

  110. 110.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 9:19 pm

    @JPL: I used to think that too but he seems to be embracing positions so to the right I don’t know how it will play in the general.

  111. 111.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    @efgoldman: Salt is used to dehydrate Italian eggplant. Some great tutorials on youtube if you’re interested.

    I agree, though, Tuscan food and even actual Sicilian food are a far cry from US-Italian garbage food or even the “nice” take on Sicilian we probably all grew up with in the Northeast. Where are the beans, the vegetables, squash blossoms, artichokes, fish dishes, arugula salads?

  112. 112.

    MomSense

    June 10, 2015 at 9:21 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t use much salt when I cook and I notice that when I eat out I often can’t taste the food- just the salt. I’m ways ridiculously thirsty after eating out. It’s as if I’ve been walking for days across the desert.

    I think if you cook with tasty ingredients, fresh herbs, and some care you can create wonderful flavor without all the salt.

    I also avoid MSG which is used in store bought soup mixes and flavorings.

  113. 113.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 10, 2015 at 9:25 pm

    @Valdivia: From the photos I saw, not only a shirt, but a tie and jacket as well. But if he had chosen not to, that’d be no biggie either. As Vlad said in an interview in Corriere della Sera, “Clearly God has built my life in a way that I won’t have anything to regret.”

    Clearly.

  114. 114.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    @Brachiator: Gordon Ramsey keeps saying it costs more and nobody on Kitchen Nightmares has contradicted him on that point so I’m inclined to believe him.

    He calls it laziness although sometimes owners are swayed by those prepared products sales reps who promise them increased sales.

    IMO the only product it’s really worth it to bring in are those frozen cheesecakes and stuff, and of course hiring a pastry chef in the area to do that for you part time is better. Don’t buy raviolis with squid ink, or pre-battered frozen pickles, or any of it. Unless it’s something that you can’t prepare in your kitchen but people will line up to buy. And realize that they won’t actually line up. I worked at a place that had real steak for subs but bought-in frozen chicken that was fry-o-lated. There was also homemade marinated grilled chicken. The grilled chicken was a best seller and so was the steak. The lame chicken was basically there so if a large party all wanted different subs the person who had to have chicken parm would get one. The local papers rated us and all our competitors and people who liked chicken went elsewhere. Basically anything we made that was better sold like hotcakes and anything that the owner went cheap or was out of our wheelhouse or sucked sold infrequently if at all. (Don’t ask about that seafood salad.)

  115. 115.

    Another Holocene Human

    June 10, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: He has Patriarchs eating out of his hand. What does he care for a mere Pope?

  116. 116.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 9:41 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Wow. Only missing in that quote was a Russian creepy version of I’ll Do it My Way with my apologies to Sinatra

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: The Pope! How many divisions has he got?

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    June 10, 2015 at 9:58 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: I might have chosen a different anatomical analogy for the relationship between Kirill and Putin.

  119. 119.

    gogol's wife

    June 10, 2015 at 9:59 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    He’ll be burning in hell. You can take that to the bank.

  120. 120.

    lol

    June 10, 2015 at 10:04 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Jeb is the best because he neutralizes Clinton’s two primary weaknesses – the Iraq War clusterfuck and any accusations of her being a “dynasty”. It’s just a bonus that he’s a shit as a candidate.

    Walker is the scariest because he has decent charisma, good political instincts, billionaires backing him and will absolutely positively run the United States the same way he’s run Wisconsin – into the fucking ground by any means necessary, legal or not.

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    @lol: You may well be right about Walker being the scariest, but you are wrong about him having decent charisma. He is a charisma void.

  122. 122.

    Mike in NC

    June 10, 2015 at 10:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Exactly. Saw the photos: what sort of douchebag shows up in Iowa and eats ribs wearing rubber gloves? Dukakis in a tank was less cringe inducing.

  123. 123.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    @efgoldman: Walker is basically a human blank slate on whom his sponsors can write whatever they want. But he can’t inspire, he can’t lead. He does as he’s told and he is well financed. That obvoiusly have been able to work here, but Wisconsin in not the big stage. I agree with you that he won’t do well in the national limelight. Also, I think he is dirty, criminally dirty, and someone as well funded as Jeb who also has the Bush instinct for gutter fighting will find whatever Walker has done and shiv him.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    @efgoldman: I agree with Pierce. The dirt that has come out of the John Doe investigations has piled up just down the hall from Walker’s office in Milwaukee County Executive offices. I would be truly shocked if it didn’t get tracked into his office too.

  125. 125.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    @lol: I have never been in a room when he speaks but from the little I have seen of him he does not strike me as charismatic at all. Then again I also don’t get the constant gushing over Rubio. A girl has to have standards!

  126. 126.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    @efgoldman: I know the Village™ are really a bunch of tweens and write about politics exactly like that. But a few of the political reporters I think are half serious, like Alec McGillis, were saying over the top things about his wonderfulness. I go with my gut every time and he just seems….meh.

  127. 127.

    joel hanes

    June 11, 2015 at 12:21 am

    The dirt that has come out of the John Doe investigations has piled up just down the hall from Walker’s office in Milwaukee County Executive offices

    Wisconsin Republicans have made it abundantly clear that They Don’t Care and It Ain’t Beanbag, It’s Hardball. Hard-line Republicans utterly control all three branches of WI’s state government, and are Ruling with an iron hand. Hundreds of millions cut from that Liberal-Spawning gem, UWMadtown. Vacating tenure Attempts to whore off state lands to mining interests.

    Used to be maybe my favorite state.
    Still awesome in parts, like the curate’s egg.

    The people who vote in Republican primaries and caucuses and straw polls and hog rides Don’t Care.

    It’s going to be a very very interesting year — and I say that as only a man with six weeks to move to a new residence, as yet unidentified, and a bum foot can say.

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 11, 2015 at 12:27 am

    @joel hanes:

    Wisconsin Republicans have made it abundantly clear that They Don’t Care and It Ain’t Beanbag, It’s Hardball. Hard-line Republicans utterly control all three branches of WI’s state government.

    I was utterly unaware of that.

    Seriously though, do you not think that the dirt on Walker (whatever it turns out to be) won’t be used against him by his fellow ogres in the primaries?

  129. 129.

    Elie

    June 11, 2015 at 12:39 am

    Unless Jeb is doing some sort of rope-A-dope its hard to see how the boy could get it up to respond or project any message effectively, if what we have seen is real. Dude, its hard to see how someone could fake being that bad. He actually makes Romney, who I thought was the all time worst candidate ever, look passably sincere and warm.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    June 11, 2015 at 2:00 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    More like a charisma black hole.

  131. 131.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 11, 2015 at 2:01 am

    @Ruckus: I won’t quibble.

  132. 132.

    Gracie10

    June 11, 2015 at 2:07 am

    I think I’m gonna make “George H.W. Bush was no goatherd” my ringtone. Just feels right, you know?

    If I could only get an esteemed voiceover artist to record it, I’d be all set.

  133. 133.

    Gravenstone

    June 11, 2015 at 5:32 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Walker is basically a human blank slate…

    I originally read that as blank stare, which has the added advantage of also being true.

  134. 134.

    AxelFoley

    June 11, 2015 at 6:45 am

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    @Brachiator: What really brought home to me the concept that we live in the information age was when I was telling someone about a Sesame Street segment I’d seen decades before; a man with a steel drum. I went on youtube, typed sesame street steel drum player, and saw the clip!

    There was a time when you’d see something once, and then never see it again. Now I can find all sorts of old stuff.

    Oh, man, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I love that we can find all kinds of old stuff we remember when we were growing up on the internet today. Especially the stuff you can remember seeing only once, like you said.

  135. 135.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    June 11, 2015 at 9:02 am

    Mara Liasson from NPR said glowing things about that speech – that Bush sounded well informed and articulate. But then Liasson often mistakes boring for charismatic.

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