Want to get Republicans on board with liberal ideas? Attribute them to Trump http://t.co/861aoSv6N2 pic.twitter.com/Okgr13RlTW
— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) September 1, 2015
They don’t know much, but they know what they don’t like.
***********
Apart from the eternal verities, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Wag
If the above graph is to be believed then both the GOP and the axels have significant issues with the cult of personality.
BGinCHI
Another rainy but beautiful day in Norway.
I’ve been up and down a mountain and it’s not even lunchtime.
The big news in Europe right now is refugees and immigration. Even very liberal countries like up here in Scandinavia are having a hard time dealing with changing demographics and people coming into their societies who need a lot of help. Pretty much all of the panhandlers you see (at least here in Bergen) are immigrants, and visible ones at that. In a country that has no history and tradition of heterogeneity and an influx of people from around the world, it is not easy for them to process.
It’s a very different feel from living in a major city in the US.
Baud
I would have difficulty saying I agreed with Trump. I would feel I was being punk’d in some way.
raven
The banging will continue. Tile going in, trim being installed, kitchen paint being applied. Getting close.
Cermet
Have no issue with his liking ACA or his belief (I’ve heard) that medicad/medicare should be expanded. Whether he is a weather vane on these issues is the real question. If thugs turn against it will he? Otherwise, if he supports it, good for him and I’m glad he does and if that convinces some thugs, fine.
Ben Cisco
Trump may very well wind up serving some useful purpose after all…
As for the agenda, a very long summer is winding down, and this one has been longer than most. Mrs. Cisco has been dealing with some bad (and worsening) back issues. A scheduled surgery was nixed by her primary care physician due to elevated liver levels. The plan was to get those levels back to (her) baseline so she could be put back on the surgery schedule. The gastroenterologist that was called in ran tests and determined that the levels are dropping, but that her iron count is high. The gastric surgeon who prescribed the iron supplements has yet to weigh in (although the supplements were stopped anyway). Followup tests are a full month away. And I found out yesterday that the primary care doc may not have seen any of the lab results. All the while, my wife is growing weaker, and I am growing…angrier.
I believe it’s time to have a come to Jebus moment with some folks…
Baud
@Ben Cisco:
How awful and frustrating. Hope things look up soon.
Major Major Major Major
So uh I’m a millionaire.
As of yesterday.
Brain surgery consult in five hours.
Not entirely certain my life is real at this point.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Are you still in the hospital?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: it’s all outpatient, so never really was there. Well you know what I mean. I’ll keep you all posted don’t worry.
That stock sale that just happened has me freaked the fuck out though.
Cermet
For those posting medical issues hope all turns out well!
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Sell high!
And good luck today.
Ben Cisco
@Baud: Thanks. It’s all I can do to keep from going Samuel L on somebody. I’ve tried to be patient, and ranting and raving isn’t my preferred method of dealing, but I don’t feel like I’m being heard, and this is my wife we’re talking about, so…
Zinsky
I, for one, don’t want fascism in America in return for universal health care. My father used to say, “Making a deal with the Devil only ends up getting you halfway to Hell”!
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I uh. I did sell high. The profit starts with a five.
BillinGlendaleCA
@BGinCHI: I climbed Mt. Lee(where the Hollywood sign is) this afternoon.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I always sell low and buy high. I’m not sure why I live in a van down by the river.
BillinGlendaleCA
The back of the Hollywood sign.
Mt. Hollywood is at the far left, Lake Hollywood is on the right.
Thoughtful Today
Trump’s positions depend on what’s profitable.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
So, this means you’ll be voting GOP now? Have to preserve those tax breaks.
Good luck on the other thing.
@Ben Cisco:
I have been mostly lucky, the couple of clunkers I had to deal with were replaced and no real damage done. What bothered me most was the apparent lack of concern for patient well being. Don’t be quiet, let them know. Good luck to you too.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Cool. You can now afford to comment on a more upscale blog.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Nice shot.
Baud
Newsmax
And the knives are out
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: no I couldn’t find one in the three hours before brain bullshit
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks, the final portion of my hike was during late dusk. Towards the end, I saw something moving on the trail, I noticed a white streak on a black animal. I stopped and let it move itself out of the way. I mentioned in an earlier thread that Amir was watering his garden today, I guess news of our water shortage hasn’t reached KL.
ETA: In reality, the city uses recycled water to water everything in Griffith Park.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I tried to reply to you on my phone yesterday but i don’t know if it posted. The wedding trip is going to be wall-to-wall family for the few days we are there. A meetup would be fun but not this time.
How about airbnb experiences???? Whatcha’ll know?
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I saw your reply, no problem.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: When do you get cabinets?
gene108
Mailbox for my condo unit got knocked down in a T-Storm a few weeks ago.
We have a new mailbox…which is good…but my old mailbox key does not fit…sigh…
Guess I’ll try my front door key and hope I get lucky…
Randy P
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Sounds like your life has potential for a song. Have any Chinese tea or oranges?
rea
Last night I dreamed that I was giving a speech in Russian. I have no idea what I was saying. There were subtitles, but I couldn’t read them, because they were backwards from where I was giving the speech (being frontwards for the audience). Speech received with considerable enthusiasm.
gene108
@gene108:
Did not work. I am not sure what to do and am freaking out a bit. Switched my Rx to mail order and I should be getting a package soon.
gene108
@rea:
Congratulations on the dream speech being well received! Good luck next time ;-)
Major Major Major Major
@Randy P: way to make me laugh out loud and wake up the cat
Thoughtful Today
Tomorrow:
Bernie’s in Iowa Thursday & Friday:
Date & Time IOWA
Sept 3 @ 2:00 pm Grinnell
Sept 3 @ 7:30 pm Burlington
Sept 4 @ 2:00 pm Tama
Sept 4 @ 7:00 pm Cedar Rapids
Des Moines Register journalists will interview Bernie:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/insider/events/2015/09/01/des-moines-register-editorial-board-bernie-sanders/71442826
BillinGlendaleCA
@Randy P: Oranges, yes. Would Korean tea work? Got a bunch of that.
Botsplainer
@rea:
You were probably giving a speech laying out your sexual history in exquisite detail, including every fantasy from puberty onward.
Crowds love that…,
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly:
No new cabinets, we redid the kitchen and moved the existing ones. They are higher but the built shelves under them.
Patricia Kayden
@BGinCHI: Since Europe cannot take in all the Africans and Middle Easterners who want to go there, I hope there is a longterm strategy to help people stay in their own countries. I’ve read that Rightwing parties are becoming more popular in response to the influx of refugees. Things are already getting ugly in some countries with attacks on immigrants.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-01/merkel-concerned-about-right-wing-attacks/6739244
bystander
So CNN reportedly changed its debate rules to get Fiorina into the playpen. How long before she’s called the Affirmative Action Candidate?
Of course, I’m another one who thought that no one would ever vote for Bush Jr. because of his obvious mental deficiencies. I guess Fiorina’s solid history of failing upwards shouldn’t be an impediment anymore than her tiny eyes and vulpine expression.
Another Holocene Human
@BillinGlendaleCA: You and me both, brother.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Cool… When they go in, that’s when you’ll start to get really excited because you can see the finish line.
MomSense
I spent the day weeding in the garden and dealing with brush and undergrowth at the back of the yard where the woods meet the yard. Ended up covered in bumps and doing shots of Benadryl. Can’t wait for my coworkers to see me. Wonder how they will ask about my day off.
Have to clear this up before Friday when I go meet my new great nephew! He’s a little peanut at just six pounds.
Sending healthy wishes to Mrs Cisco and major major major major.
Another Holocene Human
@rea: I dreamed I had rent due and I was late and had to pay a $100 fine. Fuck!
BGinCHI
@Patricia Kayden: Yep, that’s my sense here too. I think it’s great that Germany is taking many refugees (esp from Syria), at last count over 800K. But, and this is a big but, if they don’t have a smart and progressive plan for integrating these people into German society, this can blow up in a major way.
Europe has for a very long time resisted movements of people, despite their colonial adventures, or perhaps because of them. They are now at a point at which they have to reckon with a different kind of world; one without absolute borders and one with less homogeneity.
I think it is going to be a rocky road for the near future. Xenophobia is going to be the next big thing and climate change is going to make it worse, as war has already.
Another Holocene Human
@Patricia Kayden: They’ve been ugly for a while (thanks, austerity) and are only getting uglier.
Fuck CDU.
Another Holocene Human
@MomSense:
Seconded.
I guess this means I have to go to work now. :(
Baud
@BGinCHI:
Agree. I think Europe could make the U.S. look like a racial paradise. Tough time ahead.
Hal
I’m not shitting in Jeb’s Spanish speaking skills, but now having heard him several times, is his Spanish considered good? Maybe it’s what I detect as an American accent, but it seems he knows the words, though there are some lapses back to english, but speaks with no accent. I guess that’s what people speaking any second language they are not masters at night sound like, but I wonder what native speakers think.
Ohio Mom
@Ben Cisco: Oh dear, that’s awful. I always say that you can never really be sure your doctor is any good (maybe they are lucky? maybe you have conditions that are easy to treat?) but you occasionally find out your doctor stinks. Fooey on that PCP who is not following things closely enough.
Can you get a second opinion, preferably from a teaching hospital? The doctors who teach at medical schools are up on the latest. And if they don’t come up with anything different, at least you’ll have confirmation you are doing all you can.
NonyNony
Eh – that graph is pretty meaningless. It basically boils down to “I’m a Democrat, I generally agree with Democrats, Obama is a Democrat therefore I probably agree with Obama”. And the Republican one is the same – “I’m a Republican, I like Trump and agree with him on a lot of things, therefore I probably agree with him on this thing.” Note that the Trump line is right about where Trump’s overall general support is – a little higher because there are people in the GOP who like what Trump’s saying overall, but think he’s a ridiculous reality TV star who really shouldn’t be president (but of course if he gets the nomination they’ll be voting for him and pretending that they never thought he shouldn’t be president).
Actually what the graph tells me is that Trump’s got a ceiling of somewhere south of 40% of the GOP. Because this should be including most of the folks who think Trump’s got good ideas but is the wrong spokesman for them – I would have put that number over 50%. (Maybe the words “universal healthcare” are scaring them off…)
RSA
@Baud:
Exactly. Me, too. This really is one of those “both sides do it” things, in that if you ask people about an issue that’s approved of by someone they trust or don’t trust, that figures into their response.
(By analogy, there are almost half a million Google hits on Hitler being a vegetarian. Apparently a lot of people think that connection deserves study.)
MattF
Let’s see… The ‘Obama – Trump’ gap is about +40 points for Ds and about -25 points for Rs. Since about twice as many Ds as Rs think universal health care is a good thing, the results are not ridiculous. Although the magnitude of the gap is ‘way bigger than I would have expected.
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I once stayed with a friend whose apartment had a picture window facing the sign. I think I like your view better. Much more interesting.
raven
I wonder how it gets decided that Joe won’t be in on the Kerry interview?
Cermet
@RSA: Hitler did eat meat – the vegetarian isn’t true at all. Never understood why this false belief is still stated by so many; maybe because he did eat a lot of veg’s and generally preferred smaller amounts of meat than the average German people try to say he didn’t eat meat at all – thug logic started this incorrect belief, maybe …
Iowa Old Lady
@Ben Cisco: I hope you and your wife get this worked out. It’s good that specialist develop high level skills, but the fragmentation that results can be a real problem.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
If that dream was in any way related to real life, check to see what your state says about such fines. In many tenant-friendly jurisdictions they are not legal, even if they are specified in a rental agreement that you signed.
Cervantes
@Hal:
Many probably think it’s good — that he is trying to speak their language at all.
Cervantes
@Ben Cisco:
I am sad to hear what your wife and you have been put through. Does her condition require urgent care at this point? Is insurance coverage an issue?
For what it’s worth I agree that it’s time to confront these doctors — calmly and with as much information as you can gather.
Matt McIrvin
This poll question is designed to make the people answering it look irrational and stupid. It’s not “X has praised the idea of universal health care; do you like universal health care?” which would truly show the effect of naming the person (though it would already sound a little suspicious). It’s “X has praised the idea of universal health care; do you agree with X about universal health care?” which sounds like you’re being tricked into approving of some detail of X’s plan that wasn’t mentioned in the question. Then they plot the results and, oh, look, everyone’s a dumb partisan.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
This.
Iowa Old Lady
@Cervantes: Yeah, the effort to speak Spanish is taken as a sign of respect, and to some degree it is
JPL
@Cervantes: This
@Ben Cisco: Good luck and hopefully, your wife gets better care soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cervantes: My wife is from Spain and her Spanish is more than a little different from mine (muy poquito) which I picked up in Mexico. If we go to a Mexican diner, she can have trouble ordering and I won’t. An old buddy of mine grew up with a Colombian grandmother who never learned any English and his is different as well.
I’ve never heard JEB!s Spanish but if he can communicate his “ideas” with it, it is just fine.
(“ideas” because I’m not sure JEB! has ever actually had one)
Patricia Kayden
@Ben Cisco: Wowzers. Really hope your wife gets the treatment she needs soon.
@Major Major Major Major: Good luck with your medical procedure and congrats on joining the 1%.
debbie
@Ben Cisco:
Hope your wife’s better soon.
This is why I demand paper copies of tests from specialists, which I then take to my GP on my next visit. That more holistic interpretation of the test is invaluable to me and helps me make better decisions.
A doctor once told me I was too bossy. Screw ’em, it’s my data.
MattF
@Ben Cisco: One thing to bear in mind is that the ‘panel size’ for an average physician, i.e., the total number of patients under his/her care, is typically in the thousands. This means that the person who knows the most about the facts in your case is you. So, make sure you know the facts– and if you get the feeling that your current ‘team’ of Dr. X, Dr. Y, and Dr. Z aren’t really paying attention, find a new one. Also, any Dr. who habitually ignores what other Dr.s do or say should be dropped immediately.
MrSnrub
Wife is currently in surgery to fix a bone in her foot. I’m in the cafeteria eating a decent omelette with a side of overlooked scrapple.
PurpleGirl
@Ben Cisco: I’m sorry for your wife. I hope the doctors can get their acts together, talk to each other and come to an agreement on her treatment. I hope something happens to ease her pain real soon.
ETA: I’ve had back problems myself. The hemi-laminectomy 20-odd years ago resolved the herniated disk but at the same time they chipped out some bone to stop pain from the spinal stenosis and that is the source of current weakness problems.
Peale
@Baud: if I were Italy at the moment, I might just budget for airfare to Paris and London for the Libiyans they are picking up in the ocean. And if Germany, let the Syrians fly free to New York. At some point the U.S. Needs to take more responsibility for the effects of its foreign policy, and one of those effects are lots of refugees. We have a foreign policy that seems designed to create refugee situations.
Cervantes
@debbie:
Excellent procedure.
I imagine you never saw that doctor again.
Cervantes
@MrSnrub:
Good luck — with the surgery, not the scrapple!
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
As I understand it, the extent of speaking a second language with an accent is related to how early the speaker was exposed to and used it. Something about the structure of your neural pathways and the distance between point a and point b.
For instance, our youngest two daughters were cared for as toddlers through age 4 by a Greek woman, they learned to count and learned colors in Greek as well as in English (along with other words and phrases). Youngest daughter had taken no formal Greek before college, and has now taken both ancient and modern – apparently, according to the Greeks she was interacting with, she’s accentless (much to their amazement, it seems), and had super positive interactions even in the countryside, which tends to parochial thinking.
I’m sure that my Spanish, French and Russian come off clumsy and ham handed, but I try. Reading comprehension is good and if I get people to slow down I can understand what I’m hearing enough to get an idea. It is in speaking that I have trouble finding words.
Iowa Old Lady
@Botsplainer: I’m reading FLIRTING WITH FRENCH, which is an entertaining account by a man who decided to learn French in his late 50s. He talks about the research on language acquisition and tries various learning methods, such as Rosetta Stone or night classes. It’s a very lively book.
The research says you have to learn early if you want to have a perfect accent. Babies apparently cry in different rhythms depending on the language around them.
Matt McIrvin
@Hal: Here are a couple of articles about it:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/newsdesk/how-well-does-jeb-bush-habla-espanol
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=20453
It sounds as if his Spanish is not bad aside from a thick AmEnglish accent.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
And even within her Spain there are regional variations.
Language is a mess; a beautiful, glorious mess!
MattF
@Botsplainer: There’s a specific effect of not being able to detect differences between phonemes that make a difference in an acquired language but make no difference in your primary language. A good example are palatalized consonants in Slavic languages– English speakers usually can’t tell the difference but, e.g., Russian speakers can.
RSA
@Cermet:
Thanks; I discovered this only today! (The things you find out Googling for an analogy on BJ.) I don’t get it either, why this should matter.
bystander
I only wish I started Dutch early on. Impossible now. The beginner Rosetta Stone courses were on sale on Amazon this week for $72 apiece, and I was sorely tempted. But we really don’t need anything else collecting dust around here.
Can’t wait to hear from the iron stomached people who dared to watch Darth Cheney and his daughter Medusa this morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer:
That is me in a nutshell. Back when I went to Mexico on a regular basis, it always took a week or so before I started hearing it with out effort.
My wife grew up speaking Mallorcan (a dialect of Catalan) and Spanish, learned French in school and English from the TV when she got over here. Of them all, her native Mallorcan is the one language she has difficulty reading and can not write at all. Thanks, Franco.
boatboy_srq
@Matt McIrvin:
IOW it’s designed to make Republicans look like Republicans. The Dem uncertainty about agreeing with Trump is a lot less significant than the GOTea certainty that agreeing with BHO is bad. Considering the “gotcha” factor in most GOTea/ALEC/AEI/FoF/FRC polling, this is pretty tame: the only thing that stands out as making people look “irrational and stupid” is the evidence that a good portion of the electorate is irrational and (at least, to be generous) uninformed.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone:)
debbie
@Cervantes:
Not only did I not go back to him, I let my GP know about it and suggested she find someone else to recommend to her patients!
Paul in KY
@Ben Cisco: Very sorry to hear that, Ben. Hoping for best for your wife.
Gin & Tonic
@Iowa Old Lady: I think (based on a sample size of one) that being raised multilingually from a young age makes not just (further) language acquisition later in life easier, it also makes the recognition of phonemes and the ability to mimic (or at least recognize) accents easier. At least in languages that have some vague relationship to your primary(ies.)
Paul in KY
@Major Major Major Major: It’s not the great morphine talking, is it? You really got that fat check?
Paul in KY
@Major Major Major Major: Means you now have a legitimate reason to vote Republican.
Paul in KY
@rea: Probably something about the 4th 5 Year Plan being a rousing success, extra beets for all, comrades.
PIGL
@rikyrah: Good morning, good morning, to you.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
You know how raven reacts to the mention of so-and-so’s name?
PurpleGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: My mother learned Spanish from her Ecuadorian (1st) husband. When I was dating a Cuban in college, his mother was very impressed by my mother’s clean, Castillian-sounding Spanish. She wondered how a New York woman could learn such good Spanish and not that Puerto Rican monkey Spanish. (Folks, yes she really said that about Puerto Ricans.)
satby
@Major Major Major Major: what? Good luck with surgery because money is great but your health is priceless!! Wishing you the best outcome ever.
satby
@Ben Cisco: That’s horrible for you both. If there’s a hospital patient care advocate, maybe they can help get all the MDs working off the same playbook.
Elmo
@Ben Cisco: God, do I feel your pain.
About a year and a half ago my wife started having such severe nausea and gastric pain that she could barely eat. She was subsisting on protein shakes and a little cottage cheese from time to time.
GP suggested gallbladder issues and referred to a GI specialist. Tests. Tests inconclusive. More tests. Inconclusive. Scans. Inconclusive. More scans.
Meanwhile she lost 40 lbs in less than three months. Clothes falling off her, literally.
Finally I asked why he didn’t just remove the damn gallbladder to see if it would fix it. He didn’t want to because patients tend to blame the doctor if a procedure doesn’t work, so he wanted to be sure. So come back for the next test in three weeks, he said.
We were in to see a new GI two days later. Her gallbladder was out within two weeks, and she was completely fine within another week. Never had a problem since. But I swear that GI specialist would have watched her starve to death and done nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cervantes: Am I about to find out?
Belafon
@Patricia Kayden: So, do we or don’t we intervene in Africa and the Middle East? Yes, it’s our fuck ups that created a good portion of this, but this is where we find out we can’t sit back and do nothing.
gene108
@Peale:
The U.S. Is in pretty strong anti-immigrant mood right now. We have become very unfriendly for immigration. Legal immigrants face the hurdles of a Byzantine, seemingly arbitrary and capricious government bureaucracy, which makes any guarantee of long term immigration uncertain. Couple this with the backlog for Green Card processing, for certain countries in certain categories (family sponsorship for Mexico and employment based for India) and can be only a matter of time before your number is up.
This is just the official hurdles immigrants face.
This does not include the xenophobia of right-wingers and frustration of, even liberal, IT workers as what they see as their job prospects being undercut by H1-b’s.
There was a backlash to kids seeking refugee status last year from Central America, which is screwed up, in part, because of US intervention in the 1980’s. These kids were probably mostly Catholiics.
There’s no way America will let in Muslims. And fron a right-wing view point, especially after we liberated them 10+ years ago from tyranny. It is not our fault they are too savage to not be civilized like us.
PurpleGirl
@Iowa Old Lady: I’ve mentioned that I’ve always stuttered. I took French in Junior High School and tried German in college. Both times I found that I learned the grammar and spelling with few problems. In the early stages I was fine with doing simulataneous translations in my head. But at that point when you should be thinking in the new language and speaking it… well, I’d start to stutter in the new language and that seemed to bring my lnguage learning to an end. May not be true for everyone, but that’s how it was for me.
Belafon
@Matt McIrvin:
But that was the point of the question, to find out how people react if person X has a position. They asked exactly what they were looking for.
satby
@MrSnrub: best wishes for your wife’s swift recovery!
OzarkHillbilly
@PurpleGirl: Interesting.
Germy Shoemangler
@rea:
I dreamt I was in the audience. You made some good points, overall. You earned our applause.
Botsplainer
@PurpleGirl:
Castilian Cubans are some of the most racist motherfuckers on this spinning rock. Castro’s government has spent decades trying to deal with it, and it is still a problem.
Randy P
@PurpleGirl: My mom’s first language was Mexican Spanish. She always said she couldn’t understand Puerto Ricans and Cubans. Her English was pure and accentless, something she prided herself on. I never thought anything of it because it was only very late in life that she told me her only language up till age 5 had been Spanish.
I try very hard to get pronunciation right in other languages, but I can always hear that American accent in fellow tourists, so I’m sure I have it too. But Europeans, while they always peg me for an obvious foreigner, don’t always guess that my language is English. And nobody ever guesses American, but that’s partly from just trying to speak their language at all. Given our reputation for assuming the world speaks English.
PurpleGirl
@Botsplainer: The boyfriend’s family was still very proud of family ancestry going back to when they were in the lower aristocracy in Spain about 300 years ago.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: It’s not just a problem in Cuba, Castilians everywhere think everyone else are just cheap knockoffs.
boatboy_srq
Today I get one box closer to Server 2003 EOL. Forty down, and one more after this one to go. Era, ending [sniff].
boatboy_srq
@Cermet: Seconded.
OzarkHillbilly
@Randy P: My wife has a strong accent. Everybody who hears it the first time thinks it’s Russian. I don’t get that at all.
PurpleGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
My wife has a strong accent. Everybody who hears it the first time thinks it’s Russian. I don’t get that at all.
Huh? I know several native Russian speakers, I don’t think their accents sound Spanish at all.
Botsplainer
@Randy P:
My spoken Spanish or French usually comes off as something I call Spench, which is incomprehensible in both languages. I am generally thanked for my efforts, then instructed politely to speak English. It’s pretty funny when that happens, and everybody is nice about it.
In France, whenever the Roma approach me, I pretend to be Russian.
gelfling545
@Baud: They don’t seem to realize that their traditional “go-to” attacks won’t make any difference. They like Trump because he’s not those other Republicans and they love them some open, bare-faced bigotry.
japa21
I am not alarmed at the thought of agreeing with Trump on anything, because I don’t.
I do find it interesting, however, that there are some things about which he agrees with me.
Betty Cracker
@bystander: I caught a little of the Darth & Medusa show last night on CNN. It was exactly what you’d expect. Stunning lack of self-awareness. Hubris in abundance. I turned it as soon as I was able to extract the remote from the sofa cushions. Watching just 60 seconds or so made me stabby.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Wasn’t one of their remedies getting them to all leave the country, say around 1959?
Cervantes
@Germy Shoemangler:
Nice touch.
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer: In Europe, English is most people’s second language these days, or at least it seems that way to me. So wherever you are, unless you seem fairly fluent in the local language, the default is “let’s switch to English.”
gelfling545
@Randy P: Many (many) years ago when I was a young girl traveling in France we had a conversation with some French girls about accent. We, of course were striving to rid ourselves of an American accent. One of the girls said she found American accented French charming. We expressed major surprise & she said she was aware that many Americans found French accented English charming so, “un peu de logique, hein?” why not vice-versa?
Randy P
@PurpleGirl: I was guessing he meant a strong regional American accent in a language other than English. I have heard something about English and Russian sounding similar to people who don’t speak either. Some overlap in the vowels is my guess.
Redshift
@OzarkHillbilly: My wife learned Spanish in school, and is pretty rusty now. When we were going to visit France, she tried to pick up a bit of French. When she tried to speak it, more than once a French person thought she was Italian.
Debbie
Glenn Beck’s decided he’s done taking the high road and will no longer stand by and do nothing. He’s revamping his news division, having fired them because they wouldn’t send an undercover reporter into a bar to confirm that Boehner is an alcoholic.
Watch out, O’Keefe!
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Exemplified by the notion that their faces and voices are welcome in people’s homes.
bystander
@Betty Cracker: Feeling stabby at home with loved ones, not good. If you’d been in the same studio, not good either but at least CNN could make some “must see TV” claims.
Randy P
@Gin & Tonic: Yet I’ve frequently had the experience, when I was afraid I didn’t have the vocabulary and asked the person if they spoke English, that the answer was no. The fallback is frequently French.
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco: Wow, that’s beyond maddening. These are supposed to be professionals!
japa21
I started studying French in 6th grade. When I transferred as a sophomore in HS to a different school district, they didn’t have a French level that would be considered the next step up, so I took Spanish for 2 years. When I was a Senior they added a higher level French so I took both third year Spanish and 4th year French.
The real problem is that I took them back to back and ended up (having been away from French for a couple years) frequently speaking a French Spanish blend. Took me a while to be able to separate them.
sparrow
@BGinCHI: Also, not to state the obvious, but it’s not entirely “up to” Germany whether people integrate. Many will not want to. And those cultural differences (status of women comes to mind particularly) can become stark and painful, quickly.
Redshift
@gelfling545: There’s also a surprising lack of understanding that parts of the conservative agenda are really the agenda of the plutocrats, and only supported by the rank and file because no GOP politician is allowed to deviate from any part of it. (Tax cuts for the rich, cutting Social Security and Medicare, etc.) Apparently someone who can’t be silenced by being cut off by donors and who isn’t interested in maintaining good relations with the establishment can actually undercut those decades of propaganda. Who knew?
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco: Sometimes a very calm anger can be scarier to people than hot anger. Keep trying, you will surely get their attention.
Redshift
@BGinCHI:
And let’s not forget the long-term depressed European economy, aided by austerity. That was already contributing to the rise of right-wing parties in Europe.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
His so-and-so is our 36th president.
Belafon
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/more-than-11000-icelanders-offer-to-house-syrian-refugees-to-help-european-crisis-10480505.html:
Redshift
@Debbie: His “news division”? Bwahahaha!
NotMax
Question for the commentariat:
Mom’s balcony – top (3rd) floor – has some overhanging trees. She mentioned that squirrels come down to dig through her plants and chew on the cushions of the outdoor furniture.
Any advice on squirrel dissuader/repellant to keep them from doing that?
shell
Ugh, made the mistake of turning on CNN this morning; the newsies were, with all gravitas, playing a clip of Cheney pontificating on national security. The usual “Obama’s going to kill us all!” blubbery. With daughter Cheney looking on lovingly of course.
They went on to say Cheney will give a major address…. ” Lady,” I yelled at the screen, “The mans got a book to sell, pure and simple. Why else would he have come out of whatever part of Slytherin he inhabits these days?”
Botsplainer
@Gin & Tonic:
In my experience, most of the Dutch people I ever met speak better English than I do. I tend to colloquialize a lot.
dedc79
@Redshift: Yes xenophobia appears to be on the rise in Europe, but it’s not like there was ever some time in the past when it wasn’t problematic. Europe has never been particularly tolerant of foreigners, or of ethnic/religious/racial minorities. Many of the European countries responsible for the most paternalistic lecturing of foreign countries (including ours) on tolerance were also home to some of the least diverse populations on the planet. The second these same countries saw a significant influx in immigration from Africa and the middle east, their white nationalist parties took off.
ETA: Completely anecdotal of course, but I recently had the creepy experience of being told by a Czech woman visiting the US that it’s not the jews that people there hate anymore, it’s the gypsies. And she said this to reassure me. I didn’t point out that there are virtually no jews left in the Czech republic to hate because nearly all of them were murdered and the remainder fled.
Germy Shoemangler
@NotMax: Put some 70% rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle, and spray the cushions and the perimeter?
And neem oil on the plants?
Botsplainer
@shell:
I’m guessing that she lovingly tongue-cleaned him after he was done. Those two give me a creepy “Flowers in the Attic Gone Exceptionally Wrong” vibe.
Germy Shoemangler
I saw a brief clip of Cheney. I must say I admire and envy his talent for justifying everything about himself.
Question: “Everyone hates you”
Answer: “Heh heh, if people don’t hate you that means you’re not doing your job.”
Gin & Tonic
Since many of us are somewhat on the topic of Europe, can any Londoners give advice on inexpensive but not fleabag lodging near Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, or close enough by DLR/Tube?
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco:
I’ve found that cool and calm works best. Most of the time. But there is a time to go full bore. Some times you just have to get their attention, and then you can revert to cool and calm and logical.
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
A friend used to say he thought it was his lot in life to buy high and sell low. At least that’s how it seemed to always work out.
Gin & Tonic
Barbara Mikulski comes down in favor of Iran deal. That’s 34. Or for those keeping the other score, that’s PBO – 1 and AIPAC – 0.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Remove cushions. Place a cat on deck. Throw squirrel food on neighbor’s deck.
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic: Booyah!
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Yick. Need brain bleach, stat.
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady:
Some of us are lucky and have a facility for languages. Music background may help. I’ve learned a few languages later in life and I’m told that I don’t have an accent although I have the vocabulary of a five year old.
dedc79
@Gin & Tonic: AIPAC is so often depicted as all powerful. But here they started with a strong base of Republicans uniformly against the deal (not because AIPAC was against it but because Obama was for it), and they couldn’t pick off more than a handful of Dems.
AIPAC is no NRA (or Oil Lobby).
JCJ
@Ben Cisco:
@Satby has a great point #93 – find out if there is an advocate or navigator. I interact frequently with the navigators (RN’s) in the clinic and they are very helpful for ensuring the patient’s questions are answered but also that the patient understands the plan. The patients I see all have cancer and are often seen by myself, a surgeon and a medical oncologist. I don’t know if there are navigators for your wife’s situation, but even if there are not often times you can get answers from nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants and other people besides the doctors (and let’s face it, most doctors are at best obnoxious)
WereBear
@NotMax: Since placing ultrasonic rodent repellers into the in-laws summer cabin upon closing it up for the season, we have not had the evidence of a Zombie Apocalypse of rodent invasions when it is opened in the spring. So that’s worth a try.
Especially since I know of nothing else that will work against squirrels (who are rodents.) Squirrels regard repellant and barriers and other, lesser, attempts as simply obstacles for them to overcome, Mission Impossible style.
Capri
@NonyNony: Agreed. It points to one of the key problems with the anti-Trump strategy of the other candidates. Itt looks more and more like they actually believe the crap they say, and not that they are cynically manipulating the rubes. They appear to believe that Obama’s unpopularity with R’s is due to their not agreeing with his positions and actions. So if they just link Trump to Obama policy, the scales will fall off the voter’s eyes and they’ll realize he’s a liberal and hate him too.
But the R’s hate Obama because of who he is, not what he’s done. And they love Trump for who he is (God help us), not what he promises to do.
lurker dean
@Gin & Tonic: just saw this – excellent news.
boatboy_srq
@Gin & Tonic: You’re close to Shoreditch: there are some decent places there. The Re Shoreditch and Shoreditch Inn both look decent with pricing below $200/night. If you’re up for something not quite so close, the Mercure hotels in Greenwich and Southwark are decent-or-better, and the DeVere in Greenwich seems remarkably nice, all at for-London decent rates. If you’re feeling extravagant, there’s always the Andaz Liverpool St., which sometimes offers good discounts. Cheaper than these and you’re looking, not on Tube/DLR lines, but further out of the city on the rail line: Harefield Manor in Romford looks worth investigating, for example.
Patricia Kayden
@Belafon: Intervene financially, not militarily. Those desperately poor countries need financial aid to get their economies working and make them more stable. Military interventions = Iraq, in my opinion.
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: Glad to see that, being a Marylander. I admit I didn’t get to calling her office and would have been mortified if she’d come down against the deal.
Benw
@bystander: I’d pay good money to watch Betty give Big Richard and Liz a piece of her mind on live TV!
Germy Shoemangler
Sony edited a bunch of “controversial” stuff out of their football concussion movie to placate the NFL
Benw
@Gin & Tonic: or in another way of looking at it:
Making the world a better place – 1; lunacy – 0.
Germy Shoemangler
And here is a crow riding someone’s windshield wipers, as this is after all an open thread.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I wouldn’t watch that without a real-time blood pressure monitor. Even contemplating it makes my ears ring.
Cervantes
@NotMax:
You could try Vaseline.
Lots of it.
japa21
@dedc79: I think there will end up being anywhere from 39-41 Dems supporting. If the former, even a couple last minute defections won’t hurt. If the latter, the Senate won’t even be able to vote on it.
MattF
@Cervantes: And ignore the smirk from the check-out clerk at the supermarket when you buy it.
Gin & Tonic
@boatboy_srq: Thanks. Hadn’t thought of Greenwich, but that seems like a good choice; I was there about 10 years ago and liked the area. Looks like a straight shot up the DLR. Shoreditch doesn’t seem terribly close, actually – something over 3 miles according to Google Maps, which is a long walk – and there’s no way in Hell I’ll drive a car in London. Not that easy via Tube, either.
Mike J
@boatboy_srq: I’ve stayed in the one in Southwark (when I’m there I’m usually working in the City) and it’s decent. Two streets over from the Tate Modern, short walk to the City, tube for Jubilee and Northern lines. Downside: I’ve literally had a black cab stop in the middle of Blackfriars bridge and just refuse to take me to Southwark.
BR
Just wanted to share a (perhaps obvious) observation. If you were to inherit about $200 million dollars in 1974 and put it in the S&P 500 and just leave it there, you’d have something like $5 billion today. If you were to inherit about $200 million even later, say in the 1980s and put it in the Nasdaq and just leave it there, you’d have something like $5 billion today. Taking a huge pile of cash and turning it into a even bigger pile of cash was probably the easiest thing someone could have done over the last few decades, so it puts a couple of question marks at the end of Trump’s bank account.
Germy Shoemangler
@BR: But… but… Trump is a financial wizard! (That’s what I was told by a young lady co-worker.)
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Patricia Kayden: He’s not a member of the 1%. That’s not enough money.
Paul in KY
@Germy Shoemangler: Am assuming they didn’t glue the bird to the wipers. Hope it flew off at some point (only watched 1st 10 seconds).
Iowa Old Lady
@MomSense: The guy in Flirting with French also makes the point that accent isn’t everything. We find a French accent charming, for instance. Jorge Ramos is completely fluent with a mild accent. No problem.
Lee
Just got a news flash that the Iran deal passage is ensured with the 34th Senator to endorse.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/iran-nuclear-deal-congress-34th-senator
Cervantes
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Going by annual income (as opposed to wealth) it takes about $500K to be in the top 1% of the distribution these days.
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady:
I don’t think accent is that big a deal, either. People are usually appreciative that I make the effort.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
There is no strategy, long or short term. Many of these people are fleeing war or economic chaos. “Their own countries” are not stable, and the alternative is escape or at best the long term horror of a refugee camp. Aspects of this displacement was seen in Europe after both World Wars, so it is not exactly an unknown.
Nor is it a European problem. Obviously, we are seeing a variation of this in the United States, and Australia similarly finds itself being challenged (and largely failing) with respect to how it treats people who are seeking asylum.
This is a mess and seemingly increasingly volatile. It is going to take some creativity to deal with this.
catclub
.@OzarkHillbilly:
I heard a Brazilian speaking Portuguese and I thought it was Russian.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major: Wish you well and congrats on your pile of money
@Ben Cisco: All the best to you and your wife. I understand the frustrations.
catclub
@BR: I agree, but will note that there is a substantial difference between inheriting N hundred rental units in NYC ‘worth’ $300M and inheriting $300M in cash.
J R in WV
Major^4:
Congrats on the stock conversion, probably good timing. As the market “correction” continues, you may have an opportunity to convert some of that income into capital equity are exceptionally good (low) costs.
At least you don’t have to worry about costs much regarding your health issues. And you seem pretty calm about the hallucinations, which is a good thing!
Please do keep us posted on the health issues… we care about our virtual friends!
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
Sometimes we can’t really “find the accent.” I used to laugh at how often celebrity guests would tell Scotsman Craig Ferguson how sexy his “English” accent was.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Highly recommend a pet owl. They’re badass mofos.
The furry tailed rats are hard to dissuade. Folks use pepper-soaked seed in their feeders, which birds can’t taste, but keeping them out of potted plants is tough, since the little bastards like to store stuff in the soil. If it’s not too much work, chicken wire can dissuade the. And an owl.
J R in WV
@Ben Cisco:
Best of luck with your wife’s health problems. When Mrs J was in the hospital she was taking meds with serious/lethal side effects if suddenly stopped as opposed to tapered off slowly. She was also in a medically induced coma and so couldn’t just take the meds.
I had a hell of a time getting the hospital docs to understand the necessity of providing her comatose body with her standard regimen of drugs… all came out well, though, so patient and determined insistence can work out OK. [pun intended] Hang in there!
And keep us posted! We care! Ask anyone!
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
My kid nearly had a hernia stopping me from chatting up our Scottish next-campsite neighbors in Yosemite last week, using my go-to fake Scots accent. And then we went for a hike….
BTW, based on my informal census on the Mist Trail am pretty sure the Germans have already invaded and taken over. Also, too, Amish on the Valley bus!
Cermet
@Randy P: Same happened to my daughter in Paris; she was asked for her EU card. Her French is OK but nowhere good enough to pass except as a second language; so, I think you are correct – sad
Cermet
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Not enough for 1% …lol. Here is a quick google:
Top 1%: $380,354 (remember – that is 1% not 0.5% or higher)
Nor within the 0.1% or higher – then you are starting to talk real money
pluege
that is one sad chart of the American psyche. Good reason why things are as messed up as they are.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
This calls to mind a funny skit from the Scottish comedy show Burnistoun – Voice Recognition Elevator in Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU
Paul in KY
@catclub: He said in ‘The Art of the Deal’ that his dad gave him $20 million. In 1970 dollars.
tybee
@NotMax:
a cat? a big snake?
Lurking Canadian
@japa21: I lived in Japan for about a year. I never got any good at Japanese, but for about a year after my return, anytime I tried to speak French, my brain spat out French words organized using Japanese grammar.
That was weird.
Mike G
@trollhattan:
Our national parks are very international now.
I always hear lots of European languages at the big-name national parks – Yosemite, Zion, Bryce – almost to outnumbering English-speakers in some spots. The economic return to the US economy in tourism dollars must be substantial, which is why it was butt-stupid of the Repukes to shut down the national parks in their last contrived tantrum over the debt they’ve run up.
I’ve seen Mennonites at Old Faithful in Yellowstone, and a fundamentalist muslim family (wives in black abaya and niqab veil) walking a trail in Glacier National Park.
boatboy_srq
@Gin & Tonic: @Mike J: Southwark has had a bad reputation until very recently. Not surprised at the cab. @G&T: my money’s on the DeVere: pleasant-looking place, good rates, very close to DLR and rail, nice booking/cancellation policies. Family in that part of Lunnon – but unfortunately not connected or Interwebz-using family, so while I know it decently well I can’t poll the relations to find out the latest reviews. Last time I asked, I got Claridge’s would-have-been-recommended except that it was expensive – and wound up in the Waldorf which actually would have cost more! Thank FSM for miles/points.
Bill Arnold
@NotMax:
My grandfather used to drill a hole through walnuts and nail them to the porch railing, then laugh at the squirrels trying to chew into spinning walnuts.
daverave
@Mike G:
My most (only?) right wing policy position is that we should be charging foreigners more for entry to our national and state parks. That’s what happens frequently when I go to attractions overseas and to me that makes sense. We pay taxes for these parks, which often a typical American family has trouble affording to visit, while the foreign tourists that are causing an inordinate amount of the impacts do not. The parks are suffering for a lack of funds and monstrous backlogs of deferred maintenance. If the cost were to double for the foreign tourists, they would not bat an eye at paying them. Maybe I’ll suggest this to Rushbo….
I was at Pt Lobos near Monterey over the weekend ($10 entry fee) and heard little English out on the very crowded trails and completely full parking lots. Saw a shitton of whales, also, too!