Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Fight them, without becoming them!

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Everybody saw this coming.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Well, He’s No Donald Trump (Fortunately)

Open Thread: Well, He’s No Donald Trump (Fortunately)

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Well, it’s a solid step above MoDo fanfic, but the idea still sounds more like wouldn’t-it-be-luverly than here’s-our-plan to me. (Even if Dick Harpootlian assures the NYTimes he’s all in!) From the Politico article:

…The anxiety over Clinton’s failure to catch fire so far is less a factor than Biden’s own emerging view that passing on the 2016 race would be another loss to compound on the death of his son earlier this year, the sources said. And if he does go forward with the run, the Biden orbit is counting on tapping into an Obama-specific base reenergized by the president’s recent run of victories — people who will be more interested, they think, in an extension of Obama’s presidency through Biden than what they’d view as more of a Clinton restoration by a candidate that many die-hard Obama-ites still view with suspicion lingering from the 2008 primary.

The read on Biden has changed enough in almost a matter of hours that a level of anxiety has set in among the Obama orbit, who out of personal affection for Biden are hoping he won’t run a race they feel certain he’ll lose, only to get pummeled along the way. There’s also some worry about the position that a Biden run would put Obama in, spending the next few months tangoing around questions of picking sides between his vice president and former secretary of state…

Biden’s advisers have locked into public silence — Kaufman, among others, declined comment on the speculation. And Biden hasn’t come close to any kind of official moves, like reaching out directly to potential supporters: one Democratic senator said Friday that no call from Biden had come into that office or any others that the senator knew of…

Politico has a second article quoting Carl Bernstein:

… “And one thing that I keep hearing about Biden is that if he were to declare and say, because age is such a problem for him if he does, I want to be a one-term president. I want to serve for four years, unite Washington. I’ve dealt with the Republicans in Congress all my public life,” Bernstein told CNN’s “New Day.”…

(Y’know, the more “reporting” Bernstein and Bob Woodward commit, the more I think that Deep Throat really was either a better break than those two deserved, or an RNC-establishment plant looking to oust loose-cannon Nixon before he took the whole party down with him.)

Counterpoint, at Slate:

… The latest silly-season chatter doesn’t tell us a whole lot about Biden, but it does tell us something about the woman he’d need to best for his party’s nomination. Much of the press and public is clearly bored with Clinton. Some of that is due to Hillary herself—it’s unclear if she could run an exciting campaign even if she needed to—and some of that is due to her status as the overwhelming favorite in a nominating contest that won’t officially end for another year. For anyone treating the Democratic nomination as a horse race, there’d be nothing more exciting than a new horse—even if it were an old one. Exhibit B: the short-lived rumor that Al Gore was thinking about making another go of it.

The Democratic Party, though, is just fine with boring. That’s why for all the anybody-but-Hillary chatter this summer, the party’s powerbrokers continue to line up behind Clinton and the major donors continue to cut checks. For the establishment, then, Biden represents little more than a Plan B in the event something unthinkable derails Clinton, be that her email problems, or something else that pops up between now and next summer. And for the rest of us, for now, he’s just something to talk about.

Hey — at least it’s a break from Trump-mentum, right?

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  3. 3.

    Keith G

    Gad Damn. I would like to know what the strategic thinking is in HRC Brooklyn.

    I guess they figured that they would let the children and Bernie play for a while before she actually began behaving in traditional campaign-like mode. But I wonder if that can set up a bit of a weird vibe with the public that she doesn’t want to roll up her sleeves and get into it. Were that the case, it could be harmful for her.

    Maybe they got it figured out. Maybe they don’y.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    @dmsilev: I just read that. My son’s SO was recruited by Amazon last year and she stayed at her current job. She certainly didn’t want to relocate. I already sent the article to her.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    I think I saw where Trump will be exclusive guest of Chuck Toad tomorrow. Chuck will bring a large bag of marshmallows to toss at him.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    Much of the press and public is clearly bored with Clinton.

    Well, half right.

    Of course, you don’t sell ads (whether printed, broadcast, or clicked) if no one is watching, so I can’t really blame the press.

  11. 11.

    feebog

    @Keith G:

    I guess they figured that they would let the children and Bernie play for a while before she actually began behaving in traditional campaign-like mode. But I wonder if that can set up a bit of a weird vibe with the public that she doesn’t want to roll up her sleeves and get into it. Were that the case, it could be harmful for her.

    Just exactly what are you expecting at this stage of the campaign? It’s August. 2015. The engaged 2% (that would include BJers) are paying attention. The rest of the country is on vacation or trying to stay out of the heat. I’m not interested in someone going out and making a lot of meaningless promises. Bernie has been very impressive with his packed crowds and impassioned stump speech. If he continues to gain ground, good for him. But frankly no one other than us chickens is paying the slightest attention at this point.

  12. 12.

    Tree With Water

    At least in the Politico article, each of the three reporters cited can later point a finger of blame at the other two. But Carl, come on, man..

  13. 13.

    Hildebrand

    @schrodinger’s cat: Exactly. Summer news cycles are always filled with shark attacks, butter sculptures, NFL pre-season games, dumb weather, heat related outbreaks of violence, and knavish political hackery. People are bored. And hot. And bored. Thus, anything that can break the masses out of their late-summer stupor gets plastered all over the media spectrum. Any news about the presidential campaign at this stage needs to be taken as seriously as the sociological import of the latest doings in the Big Brother house.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodinger’s cat: a-yup

    The real Biden coalition is Amtrak riders, the media, and Democrats who don’t like Hillary Clinton.

    and not in that order, and with a lot of overlap

  17. 17.

    jl

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    That is my question too.
    As soon as the caucuses and primaries start it will be all about delegate counts. What are the candidates doing to get ready for Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada and Carolinas (if I am reading the tentative primary schedule correctly)? The important stuff for that does not make the news as much as the day to day PR battle, most of which will be forgotten. Some stinks will hang around to the general, but not much. I think Jeb! and Walker have managed to do long term damage to their campaigns, and Trump with Hispanics. But they are the exceptions, and it is due to ineptness and dishonesty, extremism and in-your-face-insults, respectively.

    Sanders has shown he can get thousands out to rallies and mobilize an enthusiastic following, which may be important for Democrats whether he gets the nomination or not. If he can build a ground game, he might beat Clinton in a couple of small state primaries. Other than that, if the Democrats keep behaving like they have, nothing else of note will go down in campaign history from the Summer of 2015.

    Has Trump’s GOTV efforts for Iowa made the corporate media radio or TV yet? (serious question).

  19. 19.

    jl

    And for Biden, don’t forget the liberal he-man shot gun and muscle car vote. There must be a few of those around.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    @jl: Who is potentially running, Real Joe Biden or Onion Joe Biden? To be honest, I’m not sure which of the two I’d prefer.

  23. 23.

    raven

    @jl: Sure, I care about one thing, Supreme Court. As far as I’m concerned the rest of it is bullshit.

    ETA Oh, in the primary. Depends on who’s on the ballot here.

  27. 27.

    jl

    @dmsilev: Hey. The he-man shot gun and muscle car talk is right of Biden’s mouth. I didn’t say cray-old-uncle-washing-his-muscle-car-in-the-WH driveway vote. And IIRC Biden smooching with the biker chick was not an Onion story.

    And I believe Biden is he origin of the true aphorism that a sentence by Giuliani is a noun a verb and ‘911’.

    Onion Joe Biden and real Joe Biden intersect a little, I think.

  28. 28.

    Anoniminous

    In 2008 Biden never cracked into the double digits. I’m not sure he ever got above 8%. Most of the time he was around 5%.

    It’s early days but there’s no credible challenge to Clinton. This upsets the Beltway: Village, Republicans, Democrats, and so they keep coming up with nonsense like “Reagan Democrats.” (Who are either dead or Republicans.) My best guess is it’s little more than misogyny. Obama will have spent eight years getting Negro cooties all over the White House, their little brains are melting at prospect of eight more years of icky girl cooties.

  30. 30.

    jl

    Much more important to me is that the last couple of actual news stories (as opposed to pundit BS) I have read on the HRC classified email BS scandal is that the supposed scandal is complete and total BS, at least so far.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    @jl: Tomorrow Trey Gowdy is going to bless us with his presence on two Sunday shows. I think Hillary is doing amazingly well considering the media’s attacks.

  33. 33.

    jl

    @raven:

    ‘ Oh, in the primary. Depends on who’s on the ballot here. ‘

    Ah-ha! I know your real agenda now, buddy! I thought so!

  35. 35.

    jl

    @JPL: Trey Gowdy talks with my favorite kind of fundie preacher man accent and cadence, but seems just as trustworthy. So, it’s always fifty-fifty whether I want to endure one of his interviews.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    Feet really, really hurt from the hours spent standing while cooking thus far. Got about another hour still to go.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @Anoniminous:

    … and so they keep coming up with nonsense like “Reagan Democrats.” (Who are either dead or Republicans.)

    And their kids are called (airquote) “Libertarians” or (airquote) “Independents” who mysteriously never vote for Democrats, ever…

  44. 44.

    jl

    @Jeffro: I don’t understand why Biden would appeal to Reagan Democrats. Whatever couple of those who are still hanging on to their Dem registration would go for Webb, right?

  46. 46.

    cckids

    @Benw: I just finished my first Polygamy Porter, (Motto: Why Stop With One?), dinner’s on the grill.

    Been a shitty week, I’m just vegging out.

    ETA: that’s the beer’s motto, not necessarily mine.

  48. 48.

    Tree With Water

    I just saw a new KFC commercial. The colonel looks like a molester as he leers into the camera and walks along a empty, olympic sized swimming pool. In keeping with the vibe this commercial campaign radiates- or rather, as it strikes me- my first thought was, “if the whites have to share with the coloreds, no one swims”. Remember, the pool is empty, and the colonel is dressed all-in-white (of course) with those sunglasses that change shade with different light, the kind that perverts always wear.. for the record, I enjoy a fine bucket of KFC’s chicken on occasion- my critique is no reflection on the birds. But the only way these ads will be forgotten by me is if they hire a new colonel, and he’s black actor. Or, better yet, she’s a black actor…

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    Think my house may be getting tipsy. Cooked down 2 cups Marsala wine for the sauce for the chicken, then ½ cup whiskey for the glazed carrots.

  53. 53.

    ThresherK

    Watching the Canadian Football League, Ottawa and Calgary.

    I just learned that the most Canadian penalty one can imagine (Objectionable Conduct, 15 yards) has a new call. If a receiver makes a flag-throwing motion imploring the officials to call a pass interference or illegal contact, he can be assessed the penalty.

  54. 54.

    jl

    @Anoniminous: Thanks. That is a great website, I will remember it. Your Jeb! link was to HRC again, but it was easy to find younger Dub’s organization page.

    I wonder how you can use that to tell which GOPer is further along in organization. I notice a systematic difference between the Dem (HRC and Sanders) and GOP candidates. The Dems have detailed information about local field offices and operatives. The GOPers have lists of vaguely described ‘leadership teams’, which mostly seem to local bigshots and politicians, not the sort of people who actually do campaign GOTV work. How do we know whether Trump is behind Jeb! in actual GOTV organizing. the WaPo story I linked to the other day (via Wonkette blog) said that Trump had as many actual staffed local field offices as Jeb! did.

    Edit: and thanks to your link, I know what the ‘full Grassley’ means now.

  55. 55.

    Yatsuno

    @schrodinger’s cat: Anything you would normally use a green pepper for you could use a poblano instead. Soups, stews, stir frys, curries, pretty much anything. They’re my normal stand-in for anything that normally calls for a green pepper. And since I can’t STAND green peppers.

    One note of caution: like any chile, poblanos are usually very mild. But there will be that one that ate its Wheaties that morning that will set your mouth ablaze!

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    @Yatsuno:

    I’m with you. Green peppers have a bizarre aftertaste so I use poblanos or Anaheim instead. They are tasty roasted, too.

  62. 62.

    Benw

    @cckids: sorry you had a bad week, my friend. I’ve never heard of Polygamy Porter; sounds good (based on the name I assumed the motto referred to the beer)!

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Biden doesn’t do anything for me as a candidate, but it wouldn’t harm Clinton and might help her if he came in.

    She has 17 (or 18?) Republican candidates attacking her every day, plus the NYTimes. He would immediately get half of that coming his way. There would be two of them out there and Biden would be covered extensively, right away. I don’t think it’s a BAD idea.

  64. 64.

    Anoniminous

    @jl:

    Figure the political endorsements, big shots, & etc. means the state and local party organizations trail along behind and is the endorsed’s GOTV operation. That’s usually the way it works. And it works well enough in the primary.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodinger’s cat: Poblano peppers? I put them in my summertime garden stir fry – zucchini, onions, red peppers and other spicy peppers – and add rice.

    I also get the tiny yukon gold potatoes, roll them in a bit of olive oil, add squares of onion and Poblano peppers, add salt and pepper and cook them in a covered casserole for an hour at 400 degrees. They are so good, people can’t believe the dish is that simple and always ask me for the recipe.

    Also, instead of just stuffing the Poblano peppers, you can chop them up and stir fry them with other veggies and then you have stuffing to put into a zucchini.

    And if you have too many to eat fresh, just thrown them whole (unwashed) on a cookie sheet in the freezer for one hour, then put the peppers in a ziplock bag to use all winter. (see recipes above)

    Hope that helps!

    Edit: Oh, and I LOVE to add them to corn chowder or vegetable chowder. It makes the soup 10x better.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: @Yatsuno: Have you guys tried Krimson Lee peppers? I grow them and then use them in anything where I would have used a red bell pepper. They have the best flavor, sometimes they bring some heat and sometimes they don’t, but I put them in everything. Love love love them.

  71. 71.

    cckids

    @Benw:

    I’ve never heard of Polygamy Porter; sounds good (based on the name I assumed the motto referred to the beer)!

    Yes, it’s from the Wasatch Brewing Co (Utah, natch). Take some home to the wives!!

  73. 73.

    jl

    Aw double dangit. I forgot that if you messed with your handle, you got moderated.
    OK, never mind, I will behave from now on.

    Edit: I mingbatted jl and it is in moderation.

  74. 74.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    I don’t think so. I’m going to look them up. Just picked up a bunch of peppers from the CSA and there were some smallish red peppers in the box but I don’t know what they are.

  75. 75.

    Mike in NC

    @Tree With Water: The new KFC ads are insanely bad. The nadir of Darrell Hammond’s career. As bad as the New Coke and Pepsi Clear garbage from 20+ years ago. What were they thinking?

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @barbequebob: @efgoldman: My 1967-ish dodge dart was my first car. Loved that car. When the engine blew out on the highway I got the Dodge Dart Swinger, which I didn’t love as much as my regular dodge dart.

    But the Swinger made for fun conversations with the car repair guy – your Swinger needs a new diaphragm, ha ha ha.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: This is my third year growing them. The organic guy at the farmer’s market told me they were his favorite peppers, so I tried them. I have not yet met a person who tried one and didn’t love it. I may have to send in some photos for the Sunday Garden Chat.

    If you told me I had to have only one kind of pepper for the rest of my life, I would be sad, but I would choose Krimson Lee without even having to think about it.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    as Nate Silver points out in another tweet, the inclusion of “Reagan Democrats” kind of flies in the face that Biden is gonna be another liberal challenger– and as much as I like Biden, he also supported the Iraq War, and in ’08 the Senator from MBNA was yet another example of how Obama was a big closet conservative who was gonna betray all that was true and good in the Democratic Party. Also, what Jewish voters are gonna be against HRC and for Biden, and why?

    (also, I know/knew a lot of “Reagan Democrats”, in my family and old acquaintances of my parents– ethnic Irish, working-class, if they were too young to vote for FDR their parents did, Kennedy was an icon, social security and medicare are/were essential to their survival, and “Nixon Democrat” is more accurate, but that wouldn’t be nice. And most of them are, like Archie Bunker, dead.)

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @jl: the funny thing is, by saying “Reagan Democrats” and “Rust Belt voters”, the author clearly would like for it to be true that there is this big, unfulfilled group of Dems out there waiting for Biden (or perhaps Webb as you say)…when in point(s) of fact, a) Obama won OH, PA, MI, WI, and IL in 2012 – he didn’t appear to have to much trouble with “Rust Belt voters” and b) Clinton and Sanders are doing quite well addressing working-class whites’ concerns (because they are addressing ALL working peoples’ concerns)

    You almost have to wonder if by “Reagan Democrats” the media uses that as shorthand for “whites who would align with the Dems on a lot of issues – especially economically – if the party weren’t perceived as having a lot of non-white and/or non-male and/or non-straight groups within it.” In that case, sure, Webb would be their guy. Biden has no special or extra appeal to that group that Webb doesn’t (perhaps less, being so close to Obama). But I guess they’ve got to stir the pot…

  81. 81.

    Yatsuno

    @WaterGirl: Never heard of them, but I wonder if I can find those around here. Will do some research on them. Hopefully they aren’t too regional!

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @efgoldman: Yes, slant 6! My Swinger was V-8, and I much preferred the Slant 6.

    As it turns out, when your oil light keeps coming on and the car guy can’t find a problem with it and tells you it’s fine, it is NOT a good idea to just position a sticky note so you don’t have to look at the light.

    That was a sad, teachable moment for me, and I lost the car that I loved.

  83. 83.

    Mike J

    @barbequebob:

    miss my 1967 dodge dart. my first car, and one well suited for DIY repairs and learning how cars work.

    I learned to drive a stick on one. Used to race down Cheyenne Canyon in the dad of night. Fun.

  85. 85.

    Benw

    @efgoldman: counterpoint: I don’t care if they make the flag-throwing motion. I noticed that it was only mentioned about receivers; occasionally the QB will also do it on pass plays when he thinks his receiver was interfered with. Can it be called on any player?

    Which made me wonder why do only QBs and WR do it for pass interference? Why hasn’t it spread to other position players like DL who think they got held or tripped? Given how much underhanded crap happens on every football play, imagine if after every play every player on the field made the flag-throwing motion?

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Yatsuno: I hope you are able to find them, you won’t be sorry. The only place I have ever see them available for purchase is the farmer’s market. But it looks like you can order plants on-line for next year.

  88. 88.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @MomSense: Yes, that…coppery aftertaste. I swear the green peppers were better when I was a kid. And since my wife has no capacity for capsaicin, we end up with the red bells.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: High hopes for you! If they are Carmen, they are kind of bell pepper-ish taste-wise but with a different shape. If they are Krimson Lee, they won’t taste like a bell pepper. Carmen are a lighter red, the Krimson Lee are deep red.

  91. 91.

    different-church-lady

    the short-lived rumor that Al Gore was thinking about making another go of it.

    That one’s been squashed already? How boring…

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    @efgoldman: Yeah, not my finest moment. If we can have a moment of silence in honor of the slant 6 dodge dart, that would seem an appropriate honor.

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @ThresherK (GPad):

    And since my wife has no capacity for capsaicin, we end up with the red bells.

    I thought red bells were just green peppers allowed to ripen?

    My mouth used to be moderately heat-tolerant, but I’ve been living for 35 years with a supertaster of Norwegian heritage who grew up so far back in the Midwestern boonies that the town’s first “foreign restaurant” was… a pizzeria. Which arrived, according to him, when he was in high school. I’ve gradually accustomed him to garlic, but even the smell of a chili pepper cooking will drive him out of the house. We don’t eat a lot of the same dishes anyways, but since anything hotter than chain-restaurant Tex-Mex has become a rare treat I’ve lost a lot of my own tolerance for spicy food.

  95. 95.

    PurpleGirl

    @schrodinger’s cat: I read your comments and look forward to other posts on the status of India and the history of the Raj. I played a couple of other versions of the national anthem and agree that the instrumental one you linked to is good.

  100. 100.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @efgoldman: It gets even crazier. The flagged player was signalling to his coach asking them to challenge the play. In the CFL pass interference is a reviewable / challengeable call via video. For doing this, he was penalised. I’d a let that flag slide, finding out that was the intent.

  101. 101.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman:

    Does he have a blandness newsletter to which I can subscribe?

    Want a copy of a cookbook put out by a Wisconsin Lutheran church?

  102. 102.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    @mingobat_jl: Sorry. I grabbed it near the end of the original thread. (I’m at least a day late to every other interesting thing that happens here, though, so there’s that.)

    @MomSense: They’re well, thanks. Muppet is enjoying whacking her potty bells like they owe her money, thereby making us take her outside so she can burrow for grubs instead of doing the potty thing that we got the bells for in the first place.

    And yes, I did wonder if it was too late to change her name to Mingobat.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: It’s a German Lutheran church. No lutefisk. Lots of mayo and cream of something soup. I have never made a single recipe out of it, but it is my mom’s church so I keep the book.

  104. 104.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Anne Laurie: You are right about the green ripening to red. Sweetening gets rid of the aftertaste, maybe. I’m sure the Cooks Country folks can geek it out.

    I have to work to maintain my heat range, seeing that my wife can deal with only a whisper of powdered ancho in a pot of chili with mild salsa.

  105. 105.

    Peale

    I wouldn’t get mad at Biden for running. But I don’t feel much reason to vote for someone who wants to make lame duck “only one term” promises. Also, while the “reach across the aisle” idea seems nice, he’s just reminding me that his presence in 08 on the ticket was supposed to help bridge relations with the senate and that power evaporated during the stimulus battle. Why does he think he could twist arms now?

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    Pepper people: have you ever tried Marconi peppers? I never heard of them until my husband started growing them a few years back. Now they’re my favorite non-hot pepper. Really nice flavor. Can be used in any recipe that calls for bell peppers.

  107. 107.

    Mike J

    @ThresherK (GPad):

    Sweetening gets rid of the aftertaste, maybe. I’m sure the Cooks Country folks can geek it out.

    As New Englanders, the ATK staff seem to be allergic to flavor. They have great techniques, but their spices usually have to be multiplied for people used to more flavor than boiled beef.

  112. 112.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: When I was a tiny tot, one of my friend’s grandfather looked exactly like the Colonel.

  113. 113.

    Citizen Alan

    @David Koch:

    Oh. My. God. And to think there are GOoPers who still insist we should ignore everything Al Franken says or does because the Stuart Smalley movie bombed.

  115. 115.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: I actually tried growing a rootpouch of miniature yellow bell peppers last year, just to see if I could. They turned out perfectly fine, except I realized that I only find peppers interesting when they’re cooked & I’m mostly too lazy to cook.

    I may pester you for the link next February, just on the off-chance they’re “adaptable” to our New England climate.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    MoDo talks to Trump

    On Climate Change
    And Bill Maher’s fear that Trump believes global warming is a Chinese hoax to destroy American manufacturing
    Well I don’t actually think it’s a Chinese hoax but I’m not a believer in man-made climate change. And again I had uncles at M.I.T. and stuff. By the way many smart people agree with me.”

    I had uncles at MIT and stuff.

  119. 119.

    Frankensteinbeck

    All I read, from all of these clips including the last, is that the media really does not like Hillary Clinton. I heard the same bullshit ‘Democrats are having doubts about Obama’ and the polls said exactly the opposite. The ‘anybody-but-Hillary chatter’ is coming from the media, not the voters. These stories also have an amazing tendency to cite the private thoughts of Clinton, Obama, their closest friends and advisers, and Biden himself, presumably through the use of the journalist’s fabulous crystal ball.

    @Tree With Water:
    I heard that the Colonel eventually moved to Canada, too pissed off at what had been done to his company to stay in America.

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Frankensteinbeck: HRC seems to be doing what BHO did. Ignoring the win the day game and setting up offices in county after county. Moi, I think that is a good strategy to adopt.

  121. 121.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @jl:

    G and I both have a pretty good-sized chunk of Irish heritage, so I’m thinking that I’ve finally found people slightly paler than I am, and he’s thinking that he finally understands his hair.

    The video comments are funny, too.

  122. 122.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Also, too, this may be because I was +1, but there’s a guy named Neil Holmes who’s a college graduate, champion bull rider and, oh yeah, the only African-American currently on the professional bull riding tour:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-dagnalmyron/bull-rider-neil-holmes-ma_b_5890670.html

    I can’t remember if it’s in this particular story or not, but apparently the Brazilians have been coming in and kicking American ass in bull riding circles for a few years now. The more you know ….

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Frankensteinbeck: this is a subhead from Politico on Clinton v Sanders

    With signs that Sanders is eclipsing Clinton in New Hampshire, Bernie’s campaign is looking more like the real deal.

    The “signs” are that one poll with the small sample (less than 500 people) and the huge margin of error, and they’ve moved to a bigger office.

    and have you ever read a Biden story that didn’t mention Dick Harpootlian, who I’m sure is a fine gentleman, but he’s always billed as a “South Carolina Democrat”. How the hell did he get in to the rolodex (yeah, I’m old) of every reporter in Washington? When did South Carolina become a stronghold of the Democratic Party (at least in this century)?

  124. 124.

    Yatsuno

    @Betty Cracker: Italian sweet peppers! Any Italian recipe that calls for bell peppers should really be using these. And yeah delicious and REALLY hard to find unless you grow your own.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: almost total whiteness.
    I think it ‘s a fine thing that the Dems are gonna downplay Andrew Jackson as a… whatever, but I’d really like to see them say “we’re gonna change our primary system so that states that reflect the country as a whole have a stronger voice…”.

  126. 126.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Lamh36: White House Down was such a terrible movie.

    I’m embarrassed to write the foregoing because I just admitted to watching White House Down.

  128. 128.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Frankensteinbeck: I don’t know about moving to Canada but my grandfather did meet The Colonel on an airplane flight in the 70s (I think) and he spent the whole flight bitching about what had been done to his company.

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: Pepper person, that’s me! Bookmarked for spring.

    Edit: If I get italian beef in Chicago with “sweet peppers”, is that what I am getting?

  132. 132.

    schrodinger's cat

    @PurpleGirl: Thanks Purple girl for your comment! Indian colonial history is far away from our current politics but the neocons and their war drums remind me of the self serving excuses for Empire.

    As for this version of Jana Gana Mana, the artists playing the various instruments are the best of the best, like Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.

    There are 4 Muslims in the ensemble, people from Kashmir (Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor) as well as the deep south (Rajam on the violin). I have had the good fortune of hearing both Amjad Ali Khan on the Sarod and Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor, when I lived in Maryland, near DC.

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