In tears, an Iowa voter says she wants @HillaryClinton to shut down cat and puppy mills. Clinton: "I share your concern about these mills."
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) September 6, 2015
More @HillaryClinton on cat/puppy mills: "They really are terrible places." https://t.co/YcRKRybFXJ
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) September 6, 2015
One of the things I find hopeful, at this stage in the electoral cycle, is that people seem to be asking Hillary to fix things that are actually fixable. Whatever you want to argue about the executive powers of the Oval Office, regulating puppy mills is a thing that could be accomplished — you just need to figure out the right levers. While potential GOP voters are demanding their candidates MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN or BRING BACK OUR PRIDE or SHOW THE WORLD OUR MIGHTY POWER, potential Democratic voters have actual goals that are achievable outside of an action movie or an aging neocon’s dreams.
Clinton: "I am going to make sure that some employers go to jail for wage theft and all the other abuses they engage in."
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) September 7, 2015
"I will fight to protect voting rights," Clinton says in Newton, IA, "our most precious citizenship right of all."
— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) September 6, 2015
Ruby Cramer reports, at Buzzfeed:
… [F]or about 20 minutes on Tuesday night, as the sun set over Rockefeller Plaza, before thousands of Ellen fans in the audience, Clinton could do no wrong.
She exchanged quips with Amy Schumer, quizzed a five-year-old “presidential expert,” and briefly rocked back and forth in the style of the “Nae Nae,” during a quick lesson from DeGeneres’s resident DJ, tWitch. (Clinton did not dance, as is the custom on the show, as she walked on stage to U2’s “Beautiful Day.”)…
And almost as soon as Clinton sat down, DeGeneres asked about the email controversy still dogging the campaign. The host quickly dismissed the scandal — suggesting it was a result of an unjust double-standard for women in American politics — and all but offered her endorsement before the crowd of thousands…
“I personally think that women — and I know you’re not gonna say this, because you believe that there should not be a difference between women’s rights and human rights, and I love that you say that because it shouldn’t,” said DeGeneres. “But I will say that I personally believe that women are held to a different standard than men. We are held to a different standard for our weight, for our age, for our looks…”
“Yep. Yep.”
“…for everything.”
“Yep.”
“And it’s not fair,” said DeGeneres, “because you are the smartest, most qualified person for this job. If I’m looking for someone who’s qualified… If I wanna hire a plumber, I want someone who has snaked a drain. You know what I’m saying?”…
“Thank you,” Clinton said. “First of all, look, I think it’s just a reality that we’re held to a higher, different double-standard. And it gets a little old to be honest.”
“But don’t let…” Clinton looked out in the audience. “All these wonderful, beautiful young women who are here — don’t get discouraged, don’t give in, don’t give up, don’t quit.”…
Clinton turns to a line from "A League of Their Own" to get inspiration on the campaign trail http://t.co/rm1SPhadz3 pic.twitter.com/2bWG0Gs5y5
— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) September 8, 2015
Scout211
We have lots of bad news where I live. A small, 150 acre wildfire near Jackson, CA was 30% contained yesterday when the local winds whipped up and spread the fire down the Mokelumne River canyon watershed, jumped the river and roared up the hill on the other side id the canyon and exploded overnight into a 4000+ acre fire that is moving fast and only 20% contained.
We live 25 miles away so we are safe from the flames. But the smoke was everywhere this morning and it was hard to breathe
Last night there were 17,000 people out of power due to downed power lines and at least one power station out. That is currently down to 12,000 customers. But today, the high temperatures in our area are predicted to be between 107 and 109 degrees.
The big worry is the town of Mokelumne Hill. The fire is right outside of the town and already the entire town has been given an evacuation warning. And because the skies now in our area are clearer and you can even see some blue sky, it means the winds have picked up–which not good for fighting the wild fire.
aimai
There’s no crying in baseball!
Why yes,actually, I’m ready for Hillary.
Schlemazel
@Scout211:
People hear about the sorts of things on the news, huge fires thousands of acres but they never think about the individual it’s hard to imagine how awful it would be to be stuck in that situation
Schlemazel
I want to make the joke yes it is fun when it’s hard but I’m not sure if everybody would understand that I was just making a joke
Keith P.
She was serious about going on a listening tour before campaigning in earnest.
low-tech cyclist
I started this year hoping that Liz or Bernie or somebody would challenge Hillary to keep the game honest. But the more I see of her this year, the more pleased I’ve been with the stances she’s taking (though I wish she’d stop dodging on TPP), and I think the main problem these days is that between Trump and the email ‘scandal,’ whatever the hell it is, there’s no room left for anyone to hear her.
That will change when we get into the actual primary season, and it will change even further when the general election campaign gets underway. She’s doing well enough, given the circumstances, and she’ll do even better once we get into 2016.
Plus she’s a very smart, sharp lady, and there isn’t a complete brain among all 17 GOP candidates. A year from now, she will be slicing and dicing the GOP nominee.
So, as the good book says on its cover in large friendly letters, Don’t Panic.
But she does need to do something about the backbiters inside her campaign who shoot their mouths off to Politico and the NYT. They are not doing her any favors. She will be able to win in spite of those people, but her campaign will go much more smoothly if she finds out who they are, and puts them out on the street.
Brachiator
Hey, now. I really don’t want to hear about the Clinton’s sex life.
This may be true, but it is not going to win Clinton either sympathy or votes. I mentioned in an earlier post some comments from a friend who thinks she sees a best approach for Hillary:
That Clinton is smart is not really debatable, though the idea that she is the “most qualified,” well I don’t know about that. But she needs to be able to convince voters that her intelligence and qualifications translates into someone who can get the job done, double standards be damned.
Right now, I assume that she is the Democratic front runner, despite all the outpouring of Bernie love. And maybe it’s the media who are casting her as an imperious, aloof Ms Inevitable, simply waiting to win by acclamation. But she needs to shake off all the insinuations of passivity and defensiveness, and the assumption that Democrats will vote for her. She is not Obama or Bill Clinton, and does not have to be. But she has to do more to seal the deal.
Not That Guy
I too want a President who has “snaked a drain” – whatever you take that to mean.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: It’s September 2015.
Not That Guy
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that those “reporters” just make those people up. You know, to sell papers.
benw
@Schlemazel:
I’d say we’re split about 50/50 between commenters with no sense of humor and those with wildly inappropriate senses of humor.
As far as Clinton goes, that quote from “A League of Their Own” is gold. It’s possible that she remembered that line herself, but seems more likely a staffer reminded her of it. That staffer should get a raise.
Roger Moore
@Schlemazel:
What’s the old saying? “A hard man is good to find”
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: I thought it was “a hard man is good to come by.”
Roger Moore
@low-tech cyclist:
I would be more worried if I were convinced those people exist outside the minds of reporters.
BGinCHI
Hilary, will you scratch my back?
BGinCHI
@aimai: Boehner cries every time the Reds lose.
Which, mercifully, is often.
Schlemazel
@benw:
I like the movie and that quote is a winner. By itself it isn’t going to change a lot of minds but as part of a larger image, one where she shows constant calm progress in the face of mud slinging would be a valuable campaign meme.
dedc79
@Scout211: I’m sorry to hear about this and hope the fire can be put out with minimal harm to the people who live there and to their homes.
I pulled up the town of Mokelumne Hill on google maps and zoomed back in satellite view, and my first reaction was “Is this a place where people should be building towns?” My sense is that forest fires aren’t necessarily all that more common then they had been historically (if anything, some of the bigger fires are a result of not allowing smaller fires to clear out underbrush) and thatwhat’s changed is that people are living and building communities in larger numbers in places where they didn’t used to. People want to live in communities where the weather is warm and dry and they are surrounded by beautiful forests. Well, forests in warm, dry climates occasionally catch on fire.
And this isn’t to pick on folks who have built in fire prone areas. I have a similar reaction when I hear about people who built homes right along a shoreline losing those homes during major storms. Our coastline is not a fixed thing, it changes all the time.
RSA
Jeez, enough with the innuendo! You want a sexually experienced male plumber, I get it!
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s a joke mine field when it comes to the big dog. But you have to laugh at some of this stuff
BGinCHI
@RSA: Are there other kinds of plumbers?
schrodinger's cat
Anne Laurie@top
My thoughts on the book on India’s partition whose New Yorker book review you had FPed.
srv
Executive Orders on Puppy Mills. My god, you just can’t make that shit up.
And you people whine about dog whistles.
Schlemazel
@BGinCHI:
I was thinking more of Nixon’s plumbers, the snakes
Scout211
@dedc79:
All good points. “Who could have predicted . . “
Not That Guy
Not when they’re literal
beltane
OT, but right now the Senate is voting on cloture on the Iran deal. It doesn’t look as though the President will even have to issue a veto. Whimper not a bang.
redshirt
I’m sincerely starting to like Hillary – which is different than the “I’ll do my duty and vote for her” mentality I’ve held prior. She’s learned a lot since 2008 and is using that knowledge.
JPL
When Trump disses Hillary will the media cover it or does it just count if you republican.
@Scout211: How awful.
redshirt
@JPL:
You know the answer already.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
And already there are all these insinuations that her staff is trying to do a political image makeover. Today the” shocking news” is about how Sanders is “shockingly” in a virtual tie with Clinton in Iowa. Simply “shocking.”
In theory, Clinton could sit back and do a bunch of nothing (and her disregard of the Republicans is spot on). But perception matters. If the Democratic leadership starts to worry over whatever the polls are supposedly showing, and Biden decides to enter the race, then all bets are off.
jl
I too condemn puppy mills with my whole heart mind and soul.
I think too early to say much about what will happen in Democratic primary, despite the mania for being the first to declare HRC either inevitable or doomed. There is a lot that can happen that will either make the HRC email issue important or fade away, mainly either the security review actually finds a real problem, or the GOP’s ability to make something out of nothing for another 14 months.
There will be Democratic debates before the frist primaries, I do believe. They will have some effect. HRC and Sanders, and O;Malley (if he ever becomes relevant) will respond to developments.
It is NOT too early to watch the GOP primary closely and makes some calls. All of the candidates are awful, and only Kasich promises to be not too more awful than McCain or Romney. Also important to keep noting what complete BSers, nut cases and con people the other GOP candidates are. And of course, what Trumpmentum Carson-mini-bump says about the GOP.
I heard on news that Carson was a liberal Democrat when he was doing his pioneering surgeries. So, more evidence that something went wrong with the guy. Mid life crisis maybe that warped his mind. Something weird must have happened. Was a brilliant accomplished person who had some common sense at one point.
Waldo
Any bets on which GOP candidate first vows to double the size of the puppy mills? I’m taking a flier on Kasich.
Betty Cracker
arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley arglebargleO’Malley
[/askew]
Princess
She’s going to be a great president.
I am a bit surprised to hear myself saying that.
redshirt
@Waldo:
Repubs will outsource the puppy mills to China.
jl
@Waldo: Maybe: puppy mills equals FREEDOM!
And is there a Christian sect that claims to have found something good to say about puppy mills in the Bible? That would be fun.
There is the story of Jacob and the goats in Genesis. Watch for developments.
@redshirt:
No, Trump will pounce on that one. The US will breed the most beautiful fantastic classy dogs you can imagine! US dogs will win all the classy dogs shows, so often we will get tired of it.
SatanicPanic
@dedc79:
go down that road though and pretty soon you’ve eliminated everywhere on earth as unsafe to live
jl
@Scout211: That is terrible news. Those are both beautiful places in the Sierra. I hope they stay safe. Good luck to you. Hope you come out OK.
Amir Khalid
On the basis of substance and her public appearances so far, Hillary seems the most thoroughly-prepared and presidential of the 2016 candidates in either party — the one most able to think on her feet, the most spontaneous, and the most likeable in person. She’s a far stronger candidate than the media seems prepared to credit her for. Why is that?
Belafon
So, by not doing anything major this summer except going around listening, she’s lost a lead in Iowa but still ahead nationally. And that took a lot of work by Sanders, and (not related to Sanders) a lot of shenanigans by Republicans (like Gowdy). She’s starting serious campaigning on a pretty strong footing. We’ll have to see if she does anything with it or if waiting until silly season was over was waiting too long.
As for New Hampshire, that wasn’t hers to lose, it’s Sanders. If he can’t win New Hampshire, his campaign is over. It’s his neighborhood.
dedc79
@SatanicPanic: I don’t think that’s true. There are places to live that are way less fire/flood prone. Many of those places are already pretty heavily settled (there’s little nature left to “ruin) and that still have room for plenty more people if development is done in a sensible way.
But everyone wants their slice of nature, whether it’s an ocean view, a mountain view, a desert view or a forest view, and there are too many of us on the planet to all have those views without ruining everything for everyone.
jl
@Amir Khalid: I think that the US media is so corrupt and worthless it is hard to say why they do anything. Why does Tiger Beat decide whom to describe as the next great tweener celebrity crush or goat?
dmsilev
@Waldo: A few years ago, Missouri passed a referendum which banned puppy mills. You’ve got just one guess as to which political party decided that this was an affront to Freedom! and went to work gutting the regulation.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Don’t they say Washington is Hollywood for ugly people? I think that misses the mark. I think it’s sports for the dweebs who were too uncoordinated to make the varsity team in anything in high school. They can’t write about the NFL, because those spots were taken by better-connected reporters, so they desperately need to make politics a contest so they can exercise all those metaphors.
Anoniminous
@Amir Khalid:
First off, she’s a Democrat. Second, she’s the first woman in US history to have a solid shot at the Presidency. Third, there is visceral dislike-to-hate for her in the Beltway and Village.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
If anyone but you had posted that I would have assumed it was a troll.
Regardless, I’d far sooner have a beer with Chafee or Sanders or O’Malley. Clinton has many qualities, but being likeable is probably not one that would spring to mind for most people.
Chris
@redshirt:
I had no preconceived ideas, but I’ve really started to like her a lot since she started campaigning.
goblue72
@RSA: Given that it was Ellen, I kinda read it as a butch with a strap-on. But I used to live in SF in the Castro, so every cigar looks like a dildo to me.
trollhattan
@dedc79:
Here’s today’s fire map.
You’ll have to pick a bone with the forty-niners on those town locations because that entire swath of the foothills is a remnant of the Gold Rush. And yeah, it’s dry as a dry thing up there and with enough fuel there’s no stopping fire when it hits the canyons. Locals generally know how to prepare their property to make it fire-resistant, but there’s no such thing as fireproof (short of a concrete yurt on a decomposed granite lot).
I can see smoke from this one from my office, but it’s mixed with smoke from…who knows which fires. In-laws live north of there, but far enough they’re in no danger, at least from this one. October’s first big storm can come early, pretty please?
srv
Churchill was right:
I wonder who translated “The Art of the Deal” into Farsi.
Mack
@Scout211: So terribly sorry to hear. I know that area a little. Stay safe.
L&DinSLT
@Scout211: I Live in South Lake Tahoe. This summer the forest services stationed two Bombadier 415 “super cooper” firefighting aircraft at the airport here. They carry and drop 1600 gallons. I was outside a bit ago, and both took off and banked to fly in your direction. Best of luck to you and everyone in that area of the west slope!
flukebucket
I see we now have the Oath Keepers headed to Kentucky to protect the Oath breaker. Slowly circling the drain we are….
D58826
OT but the Senate just held a cloture vote on the Iran deal. 58-42. The motion failed and Obama wins another one. The Turtle is giving a floor speech about how unfair it is that the democrats are preventing this bill from coming up for a floor vote. This is the same Turtle that refuses to allow a floor vote on Obama’s judicial appointments, among many many other things. Well live by the 60 vote threshold die by thje 60 vote threshold.
Peale
@Waldo: Yeah. Kaisch. If I remember right, Ohio is for some reason the central location for the trade in exotic animals as pets, so it’s not like he’s gonna throw stones at the puppy mills.
Schlemazel
Still working with a 7″ tablet and cannot get the hang of it. Doubled up
Schlemazel
@dmsilev:
Come on, give us a hint.
As if we needed one. Makes one wonder if there are billionaire puppy mill owners or if the idiocy is just reflexive
jl
@Belafon: Thanks. You expressed what I was trying to articulate in my mind about the breathless HRC over analysis. It is too early to say anything definite about HRC’s decision to conduct a low key campaign so early in the campaign cycle, especially compared to others who (for different reasons in D and R parties) have to be active to keep their campaigns alive.
I think a lot of people have been swept up in the media and GOP drive for ever more ridiculously long campaign seasons.
I give Sanders a pass, since he had to start early to build a viable campaign and political movement. But what he has been doing is nothing compared to the GOP mud show. Basically, Sanders has been going around the country giving the same stump speech organizing and trying to build state primary election and caucus ground operations. Sanders is doing what he has to do. And one reason he has not been in the news as much as some people think he should be.
Gin & Tonic
@Mandalay: I’ve met Chafee, twice. I’d consider do-it-yourself root canal more appealing. On the likeability scale, Hillary is Mr. Rogers compared to him.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
Speaking of O’Malley and Chafee, where have they been lately? I haven’t heard a peep from either one in a while.
jl
@trollhattan: I’m kind of in between on this. Yes, they are historical locales and in normal years most of the fire danger comes the fact that the center of those Gold Rush towns are lot of closely packed old historical buidlings.
But many of them have had extensive suburban development recently. Edit: and the danger from forest fire in normal years comes mainly from the suburban sprawl up there, not the towns themselves. But unfair to judge from a what might be a one in a thousand year drought.
Other than fire danger, they are not particularly resource intensive or unsustainable places to live compared to many other urban and suburban areas in the US, though. I agree with you there.
Gin & Tonic
The Internet is a strange place.
Mandalay
@Gin & Tonic: Really? Bummer; everything I’d read suggested he was a really nice person, if a little dull. Live and learn.
But I’ll still take Bernie over Hillary for likeability.
jl
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks, I used it to make a Trump TRUMP sign. A TRUMP of Trumps, as it were.
Schlemazel
@Belafon:
But if you are not on the news every cycle then you are not doing anything . . . the new rules from our media mast
urbatorsmindsredshirt
@dedc79:
Plenty of room in Maine and few forest fires! Do you like ice and snow?
Gin & Tonic
@Mandalay: He’s not dislikeable, he just has negative charisma. You know, how the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference? You don’t hate the guy, you’re just bored beyond words in a matter of minutes and would rather be anywhere else.
Schlemazel
@Mandalay:
We suffered 8 years with an asshole from Texas whose only claim to office was that people wanted to have a beer with him. Please spare me more likable candidates!
Hal
I mentioned in a thread below how that Obummer/Iran rally was a real call for revolution.
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/10/1420001/-Sarah-Palin-confounds-Rachel-Maddow-Tell-me-what-this-means?detail=email
Mandalay
I have some news for those here who were considering sending some money to Rick Scott since he doesn’t accept a salary for being governor: he doesn’t need your charity:
– Rick Scott blind trust value in 2012: $72 million
– Rick Scott blind trust value in 2015: $128 million
That’s a hell of an increase in three years.
What they want you to believe about blind trusts: They are a wonderful thing because a politician has no direct control over the trust.
What they don’t tell you about blind trusts: nobody can see what’s going on, and the politician can still influence trust. investments.
redshirt
@Hal: Most confusing call for revolution in history.
Amir Khalid
@srv:
Shrug. At any time before they got to the negotiating table, you’d have heard the Ayatollah say there was no fricking way Iran would EVAH! do any deal with the Great Satan Amerika. Those guys bluster too.
As for Israel not existing in another 25 or so years — well yes, there is indeed a fear among Jewish Israelis that they might be outnumbered by the non-Jewish in a couple of generations. As I understand, it has to do with the birth rates not being in their favour. It might someday put strain on Israel’s identity as a nation of Jews if the Jews there are outnumbered by Gentiles, but that would have nothing to do with malevolent action by Iran or anyone else.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
I suspect you would be surprised if you actually met her. From what I’ve seen, she’s pleasant when she lets her guard down, but that rarely happens when she’s being interviewed by the media. The result is that the public’s perception of her is skewed.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Well done description of the situation. Sadly it is wasted on it’s intended target who is either incapable or unwilling to understand.
trollhattan
@jl:
Yeah, it’s a peculiar swath of the state. The foothill economies are mostly boom-bust extraction-based with some tourism mixed in, far less than needed to sustain their populations. This makes them a mix of locals, well-heeled retirees, super-commuters and preppers. The retirees are a real pain in the ass because they want services(!) but they also don’t want anybody else moving up there, so are actively anti-growth, anti-school, anti-affordable housing, etc.
Cervantes
@srv:
You have that backwards, at best.
Agriculture, thus trade, thus bargaining and bluster, have (at least) a ten-thousand-year history in Iran.
Gin & Tonic
@Hal: There is a Russian name for that. And it is called ‘fortushka.’
Um, no.
Amir Khalid
@Hal:
I take my hat off to Sarah Palin. I just don’t have the inspiration to come up with a sentence like that.
Scout211
@trollhattan:
Don’t forget all the cash-basis agribusiness back up in the hills.
SatanicPanic
@Hal: that made my brain hurt. she must have been high as a kite
Schlemazel
The new Orleans paper has a good take on everyone’s favorite county clerk
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2015/09/kim_davis_mike_huckabee_ted_cr.html#incart_m-rpt-2
trollhattan
@Schlemazel:
Fake-likable. It was all an act, which we found out pretty damn fast once he assumed the throne. The 2000-edition McCain was much more “likable” and we know how prickly he can be (have long felt the shit Rove & Co. pulled on him in that campaign should be prosecutable).
dedc79
@Amir Khalid: I think we should be able to simultaneously recognize that (1) srv is a moron and (2) the Ayatollah’s quote is more sinister than a mere expression of his understanding of Israeli/Palesitinian demographics
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: Yeah, I always figured Scott viewed buying the governorship as an investment. It’s paying off big time.
PS: I think Hillary is likable in a Leslie Knope kinda way. I don’t think that’s a freakishly outlier view either, at least among Democrats.
Gin & Tonic
Finally figured out a part of what Palin meant. Not “fortushka” which is meaningless, but “fortochka” or форточка, which is a small vent window. Actually just a Russianized German word, Pförtchen. If you have a large window, say like a bay window, which is mostly immovable glass, but it has one or two leaves which open to let in air, that’s what it means.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
Maybe so, and I still like her more than all of the Republican candidates (with the possible exception of the deluded Ben Carson).
But 99.9% of voters aren’t ever going to meet her, and we have to form our opinions based on what we can glean in other ways, especially length interviews. And those are where she both shines and bombs for me, especially in this interview with Terry Gross, who is about as threatening as a newborn kitten. Maybe Clinton was already frazzled, but she did not come across as a nice person at all.
trollhattan
@Scout211:
Sssh, ixnay on the opcrays….Besides, it’s medical!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
So, I got called into work for the 14th shift in 14 days. (I’ve had three days off, but enough 12 and 16 hour shifts to cancel them out.) I’m at the post I don’t like, and the supervisor I have refused to work with here is back from his military duty. I’m tired, I don’t feel well, I’m in panic mode about being behind on getting the final draft of the novel done, and they can’t solve this manpower crisis fast enough.
dedc79
@trollhattan: I don’t know that the fact that some of these places were once gold rush towns changes the calculus any. It was irresponsible and destructive then and it is now too. And we have less of an excuse than they did, because we know a lot more about how the world works, weather patterns/cycles, aquifers, etc…
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
I am unable to find “fortuska” or anything close to it. Did she just pull that right out of her ass?
@Gin & Tonic:
Oh thanks
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic:
The transcript is misleading. What she actually said was fortochka.
Who knew her Russian is better than her English?
Emma
@srv: You mean the guy who said “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war”. Yep. He was right.
Schlemazel
@trollhattan:
All sociopaths can appear very likable.
Amir Khalid
@dedc79:
Yes, the Ayatollah is a hardliner openly hostile to Israel, and he contemplates its end with relish. Everyone gets that. But his words seem no worse to me than the things that many in America thought and said about the USSR and its people, back in the Cold War.
catclub
@jl:
I learned at some time that the least resource intensive place to live is in a big city. Suburbs are terrible, so is the country – if you ever drive in to town to shop.
Gin & Tonic
@Cervantes: You listened to her? I admire your fortitude.
catclub
@Amir Khalid: It is code phrase bingo all the way down with Palin. I hate that I catch the meaning of far too many of them.
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, experience teaches that if one is going to criticize a speech, then depending on a transcript can be (and therefore is) … inadequate.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Well there you go! Proof that Iran wants to destroy Israel!
Peale
@dedc79: Yep. I do think the Iranian government needs to make it clear to its own people that the fact that it caved and is allowing inspections doesn’t mean that it has surrendered. Iran has its own hard liners, too. If the so-called Zionist regime disappears, however, it won’t be because of a mushroom cloud sourced to Iran. That was the point of the negotiations, and so what if there aren’t going to be any others. Israel isn’t liked…any more or any less than it was before the sanctions that were put on the country at its request (using the US as a proxy). In fact, surprise, putting economic sanctions on a country for a few years probably wouldn’t make anyone happier. I only think that the feelings of Iran for Israel haven’t deteriorated because the opinion was so low to begin with.
boatboy_srq
Correlates pretty closely with the expectation Democrats maintain of elected officials actually governing. The converse – that the Reichwingnutty Teahadis expect the GOTea to Make Ahmurrca Great Again or some such vague nonsensical goal – goes hand in hand with their overt expectation that the GOTea will be elected to not govern.
dedc79
@Amir Khalid:
Maybe so, but I don’t find the Cold War comparison (that’s how the soviets talked about us, too) reassuring at all.
boatboy_srq
@Scout211: Horrible thing happening in such a beautiful part of the world. Here’s to lower winds and speedy containment.
Schlemazel
Anybody here up on pre-WWII England? I have no solid evidence but a sense that Chamberlain might have believed (rightly) that England was not prepared for war and made a deal to buy time. His public statements about peace in our time was simply the “nice doggy” while he reached for a bigger stick. Is there any documentation to support this theory?
jl
@dedc79:
Does air conditioning for a few months use more energy than heating a place with a cold winter in the NE or air conditioning much hotter places with longer hot seasons in AZ and Inland Empire CA? Does letting water run down hill from Sierra to towns in foothills use more energy than pumping it through the Central Valley and over the Tehachapi Mountains to LA area (Edit: or to SF Bay? Does running a 20 mile shopping trip once a week use more fuel than commuting the same distance every workday?
Those are the questions you have to ask for living in Gold Rush towns and their suburbs in the Sierra.
Except for the fire hazard, I don’t see how it is a horribly wasteful place to live.
I think nicer without all the suburbs, but then there would be more weekend gold miners up there when the price is high.
@catclub:
I thought the comparison was not between suburbs and urban cores, but different geographic regions in the US.
dedc79
@Peale: Yeah, my take on it is similar. I’m not surprised at what he’s said – it’s no different than what he and his predecessors have been saying for decades, and there was no way the agreement was going to result in some cooling off w/ respect to Israel. If the Ayatollah wants to keep on with the bluster, by all means go ahead. If anything this reinforces the importance of the deal that will soon be finalized, which is something the moron Srv can’t (or doesn’t want to) understand. .
boatboy_srq
@Hal:
Didn’t her momjeans burst into flame with that one line alone?
workworkwork
@RSA: I don’t think Ellen is looking for an experienced *male* plumber, IYKWIMAITYD.
jl
@Schlemazel: About as much proof that Walker would really start bombing Iran his first day in office.
Cervantes
@Schlemazel:
Here you can find an excerpt from Churchill’s eulogy for Chamberlain.
SatanicPanic
@dedc79: I agree that we should all be living in denser cities, but then when LA, SF, or Seattle gets hit with an earthquake then it’s “you should have built somewhere else duh”. We should live in cities because it’s better for the planet, not because it’s necessarily safer is all I’m saying.
dedc79
@jl: All fair questions to ask, and there are tons more where they came from (the environmental costs of travel, of supplying fuel and food, the uniqueness of the habitat and loss of biodiversity). I don’t claim to know the answer to what I think is your overall question – is there some kind of metric we can all agree on for evaluating the environmental sustainability of development in a particular ecosystem?
Whenever I go down this road, it tends to lead me to my core view on environmental sustainability – which is that environmental sustainability will be impossible unless/until we get population growth under control.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Schlemazel: Sort of. Chamberlain really did want to give peace a chance, but he also was buying time for the Anglo-French military buildup. He believed that time was on the side of the Allies and the longer war could be put off, the better the chances of winning.
That said, he was probably wrong about not being sufficiently ready for a war in 1938. The way it played out was the result of two huge and mutually reinforcing military intelligence errors: the Allies badly overestimated how ready the Germans were for war, and the Germans badly underestimated Allied military capabilities. The result was Hitler being more willing to engage in brinksmanship than he should have been, and the Allies being too willing to back down.
Aside from that intelligence failure, the Czechoslovaks would have been a more valuable ally in 1938 than Poland was in 1939. They had modern arms factories (indeed, one of the benefits to Germany of swallowing Czechoslovakia was getting ahold of the very fine Skoda factories and the very fine tanks they had already produced) and much more defensible frontiers. The entire purpose of letting Czechoslovakia retain the Sudetenland in 1919 was because they provided a naturally fortified frontier.
And given what we know about what actually happened in 1939-40, the Allies couldn’t have been any worse off by forcing war in 1938. But that outcome was more the product of another Anglo-French intelligence failure, Belgian perfidy, and the Germans getting amazingly lucky than it was the Allies being insufficiently prepared.
kc
When y’all say “puppy mill,” what do you mean?
Cacti
@Amir Khalid:
Aside from the interlude known as the Obama Presidency, the US media has a gigantic hate-on for the Clintons. Only when Obama became president did they discover any fondness for Bill’s Presidency. And now that Obama’s on his way out, it’s back to hating the Clintons.
Mandalay
@jl:
Meh….taking on Iran is for gutless wimps. President Christie wants to fuck with China:
If you wanted to vote for Christie but you were concerned that he seemed a bit too normal, don’t worry; he is every bit as batshit insane as the rest of the Republican candidates.
Peale
@dedc79: Yeah. I think running around telling the world that Iran is always six months away from getting a bomb so we need to act NOW! Is just as inflammatory. But that doesn’t count, since it’s our studied neocons who’ve been to good schools who do that. Boo hoo hoo! Iran still think’s we’re the “Great Satan!” I think I can get over that threat..
Amir Khalid
@kc:
Backyard operators who breed puppies in mass quantities for the retail pet trade.
trollhattan
@kc:
Indiscriminate breeding of dogs for the pet store trade in conditions barely suitable for cattle. Big in parts of the Midwest. Females are bred as soon as they’re able and are basically kept pregnant until they wear out. My understanding, anyway.
Peale
@Mandalay: If the President’s plane gets shot down and has to make an emergency landing, will they send in Kurt Russel to save him?
dedc79
@SatanicPanic: Understood, and I agree completely. As a general manner, people who live in cities (New York type cities, not Phoenix-type cities) have far smaller environmental footprints than those who do not.
And on the safety side, we have our share of cities that were built in pretty unsafe places (New Orleans, I’m looking at you).
redshirt
@Mandalay:
Amusingly, they’re all trying to out-Trump Trump.
Origuy
@Scout211: Some friends of mine live in Twain Harte, where there was a big fire a few years ago. They had firefighters camped on their property; their daughters baked cookies for them. The fire didn’t come onto their land, but it was a near thing. Best of luck!
Amir Khalid
@Peale:
Trick question! That only applies to New York City.
Turgidson
Hillary needs to crack down on the loose lips in her campaign (if there actually are any and it’s not just Beltway “reporters” talking repeatedly to Dick Morris and passing him off as a Clinton “insider” or some such bullshit), but otherwise I think all this drama is over nothing. Her campaign seems devoted to the organizing/infrastructure phase right now, with Hillary campaigning in small venues. Losing some news cycles at this point in the campaign isn’t going to make any difference and they should just stick to that plan.
I think her recent attempt to quash the email story should have either been done immediately or not at all, but I don’t think it’ll end up mattering in the long haul.
trollhattan
@Mandalay:
My suggestion: massively upscale Jetman’s jet suit, outfit Christie in an “America, Fuck Yeah!” jumpsuit and send him over the damn islands his ownself. AF1 is too expensive to splash in the Pacific.
mclaren
But Omnes Omnibus and the tax avoidance lawyer burnspbesq and other lawyers have already assured us this is impossible.
Change, you see, can never happen in America, because we just don’t have the laws to send white collar criminals to jail.
And what about all those CEOs and brokers and bankers who got sent to prison during FDR’s presidency?
They don’t count.
Because SHUT UP, that’s why.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled dose of learned helplessness at the balloon juice commentariat, where things are terrible but nothing can be changed and we must vote for HIllary as president because anyone who dissents is a troll and we just have to learn to like hot-bunking with 3 other schumcks on the sofa in a $4500-per-month studio apartment in a major city where employers hire with zero-hours contracts and phone employees 10 minutes before their shift begins to tell them whether they’ll come in today for their 4 hours of part-time work.
raven
@trollhattan: We think Lil Bit was a pound mama.
SRW1
@srv:
The Ayatollah is right. The state of Israel might not have a Zionist regime in 25 years if it insists on going down the path of the one-state solution.
trollhattan
@raven:
Having seen pictures of some of those poor girls my heart just aches for them. So great yours got her forever home.
Schlemazel
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Fywp ate my reply and I hate typing it again on this damn thing.
Thanks, that makes sense
redshirt
@mclaren: Preach it sister!
Anne Laurie
@Peale:
Because if you can’t sell tiger cubs to people who are convinced they’re both Siegfried and Roy, where is your FREEEDUMB?!?
It’s not a big money-spinner, as far as I can tell, but the idiots & profiteers who make money off it are ideologically dedicated, and know all the right buttons to push to angry up the other Free Market Absolutists.
@Schlemazel:
Again, both. There’s certainly some people making a nice dollar off treating dogs the way we’re trying to stop people treating chickens, but that’s not where most of the money to fund the anti-puppy-miller money came from in Missouri, IIRC. The agricorps and egg factories in places like Iowa and Tennessee didn’t want bunny-huggers getting a foot in the legislature’s door, however puny. So they were willing to throw some couch-cushion change at Misery’s lobbyists to make sure that the Free Marketeers, and their hosanna chorus from the “dominion over all his creatures” Jeebus-botherers, could threaten enough legislators to ensure that no “anti-agricultural” bills setting even minimal standards for dog breeders would be enacted.
raven
@trollhattan: She was a mess when we got her so we are thankful the squirt landed here.
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid:
Or much of the rhetoric here in the US after 9/11. Glass parking lots comes to mind.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not just the retail trade either. I learned the show breeders can do the same thing sometimes. I saw petagree papers with 18-20 pups in a litter, that only happens when you sneak puppies into a batch with expensive genes from a puppy mill litter.
Some breeders are good and honest but only some
dedc79
@Peale: Iran and Israel are already in a proxy-war via Hezbollah and Hamas and that’s not about to change. So I don’t fault the Israelis for being worried about Iran – I fault them for not recognizing/appreciating that Obama just gave them a wonderful gift and for undermining American efforts to facilitate a two state solution and a resolution of the I-P conflict.
jl
@Amir Khalid:
” Backyard operators who breed puppies in mass quantities for the retail pet trade. ”
Oh uh. I thought it was a place where they grind flour, but powered by teams of puppies in harnesses.
daverave
“In a new survey by YouGov, 29 percent of respondents said they can imagine a situation in which they would support the military taking control of the federal government – that translates into over 70 million American adults.”
70 milllion OK with an American military coup… within the margin of error for the 27% crazification factor.
catclub
But how does he differ from Jindal or Cruz or Santorum?
HumboldtBlue
Just what we fucking need, another triangulating, word-parsing, corporate whore of a Clinton in the White House.
We’ve imprisoned more than a million people since her fucking husband decided that prison was a great fucking way to make a profit and she’s concerned about fucking puppy mills. What a fucking clown show this farce will be.
geg6
@raven:
Ginger, too. That’s how Cole and I ended up with Hurricane Lovey and Typhoon Thurston. I was led to understand that they came from Pennsylvania Dutch country, which is rife with puppy mills.
Emma
@mclaren: Would you please get off the high horse before it throws you? There are things that cannot be legally done NOW. A president can work to change things, as Obama has (new overtime rules, anyone?) Burnsie might be a tad annoying but he’s an experienced lawyer and understands the process. I’ve never gotten the impression that he believes change can’t happen, only that as things stand now, some things can’t be done.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: Link or fuck off.
jl
@Mandalay:
” I would make sure the Navy sails through those artificial islands, and I’d take Air Force One and fly over it myself. ”
I would not want Christie to do that, out of concern for his personal safety, and that of the crew.
But, it is a free country and if Christie wants to lead an attack on China in Air Force 1 at the lead, well, I guess his VP pick will be very important. Or, will he force the VP to come along to show 100 percent executive branch thoughguyness?
MomSense
@Scout211:
I’m so sorry.
Betty Cracker
@raven: My mom had a toy poodle that was a puppy mill refugee, also in bad shape initially from the experience. The weirdest thing about that poodle is that she would do a handstand to pee rather than squatting. I shit you not. I didn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. It was the damnedest thing…
dedc79
@mclaren:
While i’m sure the folks you called out above can speak for themselves, i’d just note that Clinton referred to throwing “employees” in jail, not necessarily execs. You wanted the execs in jail and some lawyers pointed out how difficult it is to tie criminal conduct to the execs b/c these operations are set up with the express purpose of presenting those same execs with plausible deniability. But you just gloss over all that.
Oh and aren’t you the one who was ready to throw Jamie Dimon, the head of Chase JP Morgan, in jail for Goldman Sachs’ crimes?
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
While I would love to blame that on Rick Scott being a dishonest bastard, there has been a hell of a bull market during the Obama years. Those results for Scott aren’t drastically better than he could have gotten by putting his money in index funds.
geg6
@Emma:
Mclaren is above pedestrian things like “process.” She is all for a dictatorship with her being the “dic”.
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
This is true. The famous Palestinian singer Jim Morrison pointed it out almost 40 years ago:
(Actually his lyrics were allegedly about zombies, but they encapsulate one of Israel’s long term problems.)
Cervantes
But to see that potential GOP voters have “actual goals that are achievable,” and are being achieved, one needs only to look as far as, say, the number of abortion clinics still operating in various states.
Most regulations on the subject are state or local. There is an old federal law that attempts some nation-wide regulation; it deals with “wholesalers” only but it could be enforced better. I don’t know of any proposed federal legislation, but there may be some.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I was gonna say something similar, but I like the way you phrased it.
Cervantes
@Scout211:
Sorry to hear that. Can anyone help?
JPL
@Betty Cracker: As you know, Finch does that but sometimes he’ll walk on his hind legs. The first time was when I was cooking bacon, but it happened again last night. Walked down the hall sniffing up towards the ceiling. I haven’t heard a critter in the attic, but I trust his instincts. ugh
MomSense
@geg6:
How is Miss Lovey with the sweetest ears ever? It’s kind of amazing to think of all the twists of fate that lead to these creatures coming into our lives. I think about my pup’s mom who was sick with heartworm, pregnant, and a stray but managed to find a human who would help her. So this sick, pregnant mama went from Alabama to Maine, all her puppies are happily in their forever homes, and she is now healthy and living with a family on an island where she can run and play.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
A return of ~77% after three years? Slightly higher than that actually, since he pulled out over $6m to fund his campaign last year. Hmmm…..
He’s accused of investing in companies that are then being given business in Florida.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
It’s somewhat misleading to compare the resource intensiveness of city dwelling vs. country dwelling, at least for people who are dwelling in the country because that’s where their jobs are. It’s certainly fair to compare urban and suburban living when the people are working at similar jobs. But urban and suburban dwellers depend on food and other stuff from the hinterlands that more or less must come from people living a rural life, and that means much of the responsibility for rural inefficiency reflects back on urban and suburban dwellers. Similar logic suggests it’s foolish for city folk to complain about their taxes subsidizing roads out in the boonies; those roads are built primarily for our benefit, since that’s how our food gets to us.
SRW1
@geg6:
You forgot the letter k there.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@mclaren:
Shorter mclaren: I’m not really sure what “wage theft” is, so I’m going to pretend it has something to do with banks.
Schlemazel
@Roger Moore:
Just checked 3 years of the S&P 500. Just slightly better than 33%. 77> 33 so, no
daverave
@Scout211:
Good luck Scout. That’s some wonderful country you’ve got up there especially in those years we get some rain in the winter/spring. I made a lot of runs on the Moke while I was learning to kayak. I always loved that little stretch of river.
Joel
@Brachiator:
No offense, but your friend’s campaigning advice sounds like a recipe for absolute failure.
geg6
@MomSense:
Lovey is very bad. It’s a good thing she’s very cute and loving. She is going to go to a trainer. Can’t start yet because the trainer and his dog are heading to Europe for some huge competition there. But when he comes back, he guarantees results in four sessions, one hour each, for $125. A bargain if it works. She has already cost me about $700 in glasses.
Citizen Alan
@low-tech cyclist:
I don’t. There’s nothing she could say either way on TPP that wouldn’t undermine Pres. Obama with whom the decision rests until January 2017.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
Nasdaq 100, 06 Jan 2013: 2356.17
Nasdaq 100, 10 Sep 2015: 4296.30
That’s an 82% gain since the earliest date in 2013 I could easily find a quote for. So yes, he could have gotten similar results by investing in an index fund.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: What’s that about? Askew hasn’t even posted on this thread.
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: None of that sounds like much fun. When you’re ready to scream, maybe try thinking about the fact that you are publishing your novel, which is a pretty awesome thing. Hope your shift flies by.
Gin & Tonic
@Cervantes: Yeah, maybe. But it’s far simpler to let somebody else do the work and then jump in with cheap shots.
MomSense
@geg6:
I hear you about the glasses. I brought in a trainer for just one session and it helped a lot. My problem is that my definition of supervising a puppy varies dramatically from my kids’ version.
Capri
@trollhattan: Also known as commercial dog breeding. The USDA is all ready in the process of ramping up oversight of the industry in a big way.
Origuy
@jl:
They’re extinct, but have you ever heard of turnspit dogs?
Cervantes
@Gin & Tonic:
To each her own.
Thoughtful Today
[sigh]
I remember thinking CLINTON would eliminate this in 1993, Clinton II: “I am going to make sure that some employers go to jail for wage theft and all the other abuses they engage in.”
22 years later my FOUR votes for Clinton, Clinton, Obama, and Obama still hasn’t changed the fact that employers are stealing from employees.
And people wonder why so many Americans are ready for real change.
Southern Goth
@jl: I thought it was how they made gluten-free flour substitutes.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
You ask why are the media treating Hillary the way they do? Here goes:
When Bill Clinton was elected, he and his wife, the new First Lady, were the first presidential couple from Arkansas, which is a very rural southern state. Bill, for all of his educational achievements and academic success and native brilliance, had a southern accent. He was not a sophisticated and suave person. His mom was a trailer park resident, no one had been to college ever in his family, IIRC.
The cocktail circuit in Washington DC was horrified that the most important person in DC was going to be an unsophisticated southern redneck. And they have never gotten over that, in all the decades since. Washington is a southern town, with rigid class lines between the old money, old influence, and the new rich people without family history.
Then, when those old money families relented and invited Bill and Hillary to their parties, The Clintons didn’t come to the right parties, and went to the wrong parties, and didn’t bow to the old monied society queens, as they were expected to. They didn’t act like the old society people wanted them to act.
They weren’t willing to socialize with the in crowd, perhaps didn’t care enough about people who thought they should be important to the new president – there was a lot of wailing in the society pages of the Post at the time. It wasn’t blatant, it wasn’t over done, but no mistake it was there. And you know how “upper crust” folks are when they feel slighted. There is no getting around that slight easily.
They have been hating the Clintons seriously ever since. Most of the social mavens in DC are Republicans. FDR had much the same happen when he came to town, and he was from a family full of heritage, and wealth after all his cousin Teddy Roosevelt had been president back in the day!
The Republicans and the Society snobs worked together with media folks who were willing to truckle to the Society snobs to undercut President Clinton. Then when he was accused of having an adult relationship with an adult woman intern, he lied about it to protect his family, was caught out in the lie, they had the gall to impeach President Clinton for an honorable attempt to protect Mrs Clinton and his daughter Chelsea.
It backfired on them pretty much.
Then Hillary Rodham Clinton had the audacity to stand by her man in that white heat of impeachment and in effect say to the Republicans and the Society mavens “Screw you monsters for making this stew of hatred out of a family matter!” She didn’t say those words, but that was her attitude, and well it should have been!
And that is why the media still hates Hillary, because she stood by President and Husband Clinton. I thought at the time that Bill Clinton must be one hell of a good husband for Hillary to stick with him through all of that outrageous nonsense, and to still be right beside him.
Just wait until the general election campaign starts, and Big Dog Clinton hit the road for Hillary. I hope he makes an introduction speech for her at every appearance, gets the crowd fired up as only Bill can, and then the crowd blows the roof off the rafters when Hillary comes out, hugs him, kisses him, and tells the crowd “Isn’t he something? I think I’ll keep him!” Which isn’t Politically Correct, but who will care at that point?
I’m hoping it will be a landslide.
And that’s the long story of how come the media is hating on Hillary. Any other opinions or additions welcome, but I think I got most of the story down right.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
And you a linguist.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Just anticipating the inevitable, if she sees this thread. But that is catty, so I apologize. Sorry, Askew!
Cervantes
@J R in WV:
Only part I’d question is this:
Don’t you think his wife was inured to this aspect of his behavior by then? (Granted, she and many who knew him well enough were still stunned by how stupidly he behaved with Lewinsky.)
Would you say he lied about the affair partly to protect his daughter and partly to protect himself in the eyes of his daughter?
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: Here is the classic Sally Quinn column.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
At a party in DC attended by, among others, a teenaged Sally Quinn and her mother, Bette, Strom Thurmond came up behind them and, well, came up behind them. “Strom, you old devil!” said the mother — and the daughter years later allowed as how they were both flattered by the attention and “thought it terribly funny and wicked.”
SiubhanDuinne
@daverave:
Sounds like one of those scary Cold War novels from the 1960s.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore: Fair enough. Thanks.
Kay
@Peale:
This is bizarre, and it’s really complicated, but Kasich wasn’t allowed to regulate wild, captive animals because of agricultural interests. It’s this huge thing with farmers. They think the Humane Society wants to eventually outlaw confining animals raised for meat- maybe outlaw raising animals for meat completely? I don’t listen to the whole rant, but that’s the basic idea.
They’re kind of like gun nuts. Any regulation on anyone owning any animal is a slippery slope.
Kay
@Peale:
I never followed it, but puppy mills are actually a big deal because it’s all connected:
J R in WV
@Cervantes:
I would not disagree strongly about what you say. Clearly he wanted to avoid embarrassment of and for all of his family.
@Omnes Omnibus:
I read that back in the day, thanks for the link. Quinn pretends that Clinton was well liked until that blow job became public, which is the biggest lie in her story. All those people she quoted had their own axes to grind. The one that I especially liked is this:
Broder is dead now, but I think he said this long before the Blow Job scandal. This is part and parcel of the “society” circles in DC calling the Clintons trailer trash, because his mom lived in a trailer park, and so did he. The fact that he worked his way out of the trailer park and into the Oval Office just burns their ass so bad they couldn’t believe they had to at least pretend to respect him, as President of the United States.
And Hillary as First Lady at all those state banquets in the White House. Think of that, southern trailer trash having the Marine Corp Band playing Hail to the Chief and Ruffles and Flourishes for trailer trash. That was what the whole scandal was about.
And the poor young woman confided in a woman she thought was a friend, but who turned out to have been playing Ms Lewenski all along, She was a Republican political operative, and the moment she knew about the infamous blue dress with DNA evidence – that was the spark the ignited DC’s fury. And they all claimed that it was the lying that they hated.
They hated Bill and Hillary for 6 years before the sex scandal was even a rumor. Rush Limbaugh called Chelsea ugly on the air – imagine a young teen girl being given the full Rushbaugh treatment. Didn’t he make some cruel remark about her father was Janet Reno? The man has no honor, no morals, the ethics of a street pimp.
I’m from West Virginia, where people don’t hesitate to make jokes about cousins and trailers, and I know the kind of jokes the upper crust DC socialites were telling the day after the election. Maybe they were telling the jokes before the election, and stopped after… until they were sure they weren’t being listened to… I don’t know.
But I know their hatred was because they had to pose as respectful of President Clinton while they thought he was trash, in spite of his Rhodes Scholarship, his legal degree, his electoral successes. Trailer Trash – trashing the White House, and it wasn’t his house. But it was his house, and he took good care of it.
The stories later about the White House being torn apart when the Bush people showed up were all lies, just like all the rest of the Bush administration. All lies, from start to finish.
I’m glad Chelsea grew up to be a beautiful, bright, ambitious woman. And Hillary is gonna be President, if FSM smiles upon our nation. Take that Sally Quinn! Or would you really rather President Don Trump / Rafael Cruz / John Elliot Bush / pick one? Not me.
Thoughtful Today
Erm…
There were, and still are, a lot of legitimate criticisms of both Bill and Hillary.
A lot of those legitimate criticisms were drowned out be ridiculous attacks by the rise of right-wing media, particularly right-wing radio.
Right-wing media outlets were, and still are, grossly underestimated.
Matt McIrvin
@Schlemazel: I have no idea, but I remember being surprised when I read the 1920s Soviet satirical novel The Twelve Chairs that all the characters liked to say nasty things about Neville Chamberlain… for completely different reasons than people bash Neville Chamberlain today. He was the great anti-Soviet monster!