Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

This really is a full service blog.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I was promised a recession.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

This fight is for everything.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Infrastructure week. at last.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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Reader Interactions

169Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    because this is who they are.

    ………………………………..

    The Plot to Make Retired Coal Miners Broke

    208 Indiana miners, wives, and widows were promised millions to cover their health care.By Alec MacGillis, ProPublica

    There was plenty in the complex deal to benefit bankers, lawyers, executives and hedge fund managers. Patriot Coal Corp. was bankrupt, but its mines would be auctioned to pay off mounting debts while financial engineering would generate enough cash to cover the cost of the proceedings.

    When the plan was filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Richmond, Virginia, last week, however, one group didn’t come out so well: 208 retired miners, wives, and widows in southern Indiana who have no direct connection to Patriot Coal. Millions of dollars earmarked for their health care as they age would effectively be diverted instead to legal fees and other bills from the bankruptcy.

    As coal companies go bankrupt or shut down throughout Appalachia and parts of the Midwest, the immediate falloutincludes lost jobs and devastated communities. But the Indiana case stands out as an example of how financial deals hatched far from coal country can also endanger the future safety net.

    At issue is health insurance promised to people who worked for the Squaw Creek Coal Co. in Warrick County, Indiana, near Evansville, who, like other retired union miners, counted on coverage after they turned 55.

    “We were assured as miners we would have lifetime health-care benefits—no one ever envisioned that we would have to worry about these other things that were going on,” said Bil Musgrave, 59, one of the retired miners in Indiana. “A lot of them depend entirely on this.”

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/01/the-plot-to-make-retired-coal-miners-broke.html

  4. 4.

    Ripley

    Agenda: go see The Green Inferno on the big screen, followed by a steak dinner. Talk about’too soon.’

  5. 5.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    My outrage glands are in overload. I’ve now been in the State College airport for 9 1/2 hours waiting for my flight that was supposed to leave at 10am. The flight that was originally supposed to leave at 4:30 started boarding at 5:00 and departed at 5:15. Meanwhile, we’re being told that our flight is delayed by stacked traffic in Philadelphia, which is the same destination the people who flew out 45 minutes late are headed to.

    That’s just outrageous.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    Why are they not going after legacy admissions? Why not athletic admissions?.why just Affirmative Action?

    …………………………………………

    The model minority is losing patience

    Asian-Americans are the United States’ most successful minority, but they are complaining ever more vigorously about discrimination, especially in academia

    Oct 3rd 2015

    MICHAEL WANG, a young Californian, came second in his class of 1,002 students; his ACT score was 36, the maximum possible; he sang at Barack Obama’s inauguration; he got third place in a national piano contest; he was in the top 150 of a national maths competition; he was in several national debating-competition finals. But when it came to his university application he faced a serious disappointment for the first time in his glittering career. He was rejected by six of the seven Ivy League colleges to which he applied.

    “I saw people less qualified than me get better offers,” says Mr Wang. “At first I was just angry. Then I decided to turn that anger to productive use.” He wrote to the universities concerned. “I asked: what more could I have done to get into your college? Was it based on race, or what was it based on?” He got vague responses—or none. So he complained to the Department of Education. Nothing came of it. “The department said they needed a smoking gun.

    In May this year Mr Wang joined a group of 64 Asian-American organisations that made a joint complaint to the Department of Education against Harvard, alleging racial discrimination. That follows a lawsuit filed last year against Harvard and the University of North Carolina by a group of Asian-American students making similar charges. The department rejected the claim in July, but another two complaints have since been filed by Asian-Americans, one against Harvard and one against nine other universities.

    ………………………………….

    Racial prejudice of the sort that Jews faced may or may not be part of the problem, but affirmative action certainly is. Top universities tend to admit blacks and Hispanics with lower scores because of their history of disadvantage; and once the legacies, the sports stars, the politically well-connected and the rich people likely to donate new buildings (few of whom tend to be Asian) have been allotted their places, the number for people who are just high achievers is limited. Since the Ivies will not stop giving places to the privileged, because their finances depend on the generosity of the rich, the argument homes in on affirmative action.

    Several states have banned the use of race as a criterion for admission to their public institutions and there have been several lawsuits against affirmative action. One, brought by Abigail Fisher (who is white) against the University of Texas, has been ricocheting between the Supreme Court and lower courts for seven years; in June the Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal. In September, 117 Asian-American outfits under the umbrella of the Asian-American Coalition for Education filed a brief to back Ms Fisher. That case’s outcome will bear on the one brought by the group of Asian students against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Given that several Supreme Court judges, including John Roberts, the chief justice, are unsympathetic to affirmative action, the court seems quite likely to rule against it.

    http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21669595-asian-americans-are-united-states-most-successful-minority-they-are-complaining-ever

  8. 8.

    jl

    Not sure whether it is my outrage glands for dumbfounded glands, but from what I have seen, Trump is giving more thoughtful and insightful analyses of gun control policy and Syria/ISIL than Jeb? or Rube.

    So… shit. Trump would be just as much or more of a disaster than those two punks. but…

    I guess I find out what I think about it after I sober up tomorrow, or Monday… we’ll see.

    Edit: I’ll need to sober up well before the Democratic debates which is, oh shit… it’s the week after next. OK, I’ll be strong.

  9. 9.

    PaulW

    Am still sick with the flu, unable to do much but sit and rest. My cats are hungry now though, I need to rise and feed.

  10. 10.

    the Conster

    Lying shithead Sharyl Atkisson is going to be back on TV, lying. It’s amazing how these people just never get shamed or punished enough for their lying liar lies to go away and stay away.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    Zimmer accuses Broad charter plan of strategy to ‘bring down’ LAUSD

    Posted on September 22, 2015 9:27 am by Michael Janofsky

    Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.”

    A draft report of the plan appears show how the organizations involved would be creating the equivalent of a parallel school district, one with a defined goal of serving half the number of students attending LA Unified schools within eight years.

    The “Great Public Schools Now Initiative” says the expansion would cost nearly half a billion dollars by 2023, through 260 new charter schools to serve an additional 130,000 students “most in need — low-income students of color.” Currently, about 151,000 students now attend charters in LA Unified, which has more charter schools, 264, than any school district in the country.

    The 54-page report, dated “June 2015,” omits the names of authors or sponsoring organizations. But Eli Broad’s name appears at the end of a cover letter accompanying the report that makes a case for charter schools as “the greatest hope for students in L.A.” And alluding to the number of students on waiting lists to get into existing charters, now about 42,000, the need for more charters, he says, is urgent.

    http://laschoolreport.com/zimmer-accuses-broad-charter-plan-of-strategy-to-bring-down-lausd/

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    I swear, it’s just dust…just dust in the eyes…

    …………………..

    Man weeps uncontrollably as wife surprises him with actual buns in the oven to reveal she is five months pregnant after trying for a baby unsuccessfully for 17 YEARS

    Dana Griffin-Graves and her husband Arkell Graves, both 41, suffered through four miscarriages and a still birth before giving up on having kids

    But when Dana started working out with friends and found that she wasn’t losing weight, she went to a doctor and discovered she was pregnant

    She filmed Arkell’s reaction to learning the news at their home in Dinwiddie County, Virginia

    By VALERIE SIEBERT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 18:03 EST, 1 October 2015

    https://youtu.be/n5Ey6yKmhJw

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3256968/Man-weeps-uncontrollably-wife-surprises-actual-buns-oven-reveal-five-months-pregnant-trying-baby-unsuccessfully-17-YEARS.html

  16. 16.

    Baud

    I’m surprised by this news.

    (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who has been vying with challenger Bernie Sanders for the support of organized labor, scored a win on Saturday with an endorsement from the National Education Association, a huge teachers union.

    The NEA, the largest U.S. labor union with 3 million members, is the latest in a string of unions to support Clinton, including the American Federation of Teachers and the machinists’ union.

    I thought I had the inside track with the teachers.

    I should have gotten Kay involved in the campaign sooner.

  17. 17.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Iowa Old Lady: It’s beyond thin. I absolutely hate it when customer service people in this situation thank me for my patience. I’m not patient, asshole, I just don’t have any choice. Your employer is fucking me over and no one is taking responsibility for it.

  22. 22.

    Fair Economist

    @jl:

    Not sure whether it is my outrage glands for dumbfounded glands, but from what I have seen, Trump is giving more thoughtful and insightful analyses of gun control policy and Syria/ISIL than Jeb? or Rube.

    That’s a very low bar.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    If the thread at the top of the front page includes the word evening, that’s the signal to start my day. Workin’ on cuppa joe #1 at the moment, bread mixing and baking to commence after cup #2.

    Might as well get in some virtual drinking at WoW’s Brewfest whilst sippin’ java.

  36. 36.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Baud: We are good as long as the catnip and tuna supply holds.
    Paws up!

    Kittehs are an important constituency since they are the stars of social media and intertoobz in general. Crazy Cat Ladies vote will be a lock!

  40. 40.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    Now it’s a mechanical problem, which means that either this plane was sitting on the ground for six hours and then they found a mechanical problem, or they’ve been lying to us all afternoon when they told it was a weather delay in order to avoid picking up any hotel expenses for people that are stranded. It’s not clear, because the supervisor told me at one point that they’ve been working on the maintenance problem all afternoon, and at another that they didn’t find the maintenance issue until they were ready to board the plane at 5pm.

    And when I lost my temper about this, the supervisor who has spent six hours bullshitting us said that she wouldn’t deal with me until I calmed down. This is not a good way to get me to calm down. Accepting responsibility for the fact that you failed to provide the service I paid you for and covering the extra expenses incurred by that failure is a good way to calm me down.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    The kitten union?

    Isn’t that self-contradictory? I mean, the phrase “like herding cats” didn’t come out of nowhere.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Done. You are my half-wit.

    Gorsh! Thanks!

    But first, I need to tell my village that I’m taking a sabbatical from idioting for about 12 13 14 months. I hope they’ll approve.

  50. 50.

    CaseyL

    Got a nice little chest cold (*cough*) but that didn’t stop me from getting a flu shot. They have “quads” this year – one vaccine with 4 flu strains. Never heard of that before.

    Next, I’ll test the efficacy of my cough syrup by going to a movie. A comedy, no less; so much fun to laugh until you cough over and over again!

    ETA: Fun for the other movie-goers, that is.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    And, just to respond to the post itself: I am highly insulted by Julie DiCaro’s insulting Tweet. Which was an insult. That was also mean and insulting. So there.

  53. 53.

    SFAW

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    They do form alliances of convenience,

    Um, walking in approximately the same direction at approximately the same time is not what most people consider an “alliance.”

  62. 62.

    srv

    Sanders is against WW III, Hillary is for. Where does Baud stand?

    Washington (CNN)Bernie Sanders said Saturday that he opposes an U.S.-implemented no-fly zone in Syria, contrasting himself with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on the issue.

    “I oppose, at this point, a unilateral American no-fly zone in Syria which could get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never-ending U.S. entanglement in that region,” he said in a statement.

  68. 68.

    Crusty Dem

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Call the airline for additional info/help. Complain that the people on the ground aren’t responding to questions or are giving different people different answers. Twitter can get a quick response, too. At the very least you get something to keep you busy.

    Sorry for the experience..

  70. 70.

    Elmo

    Bah. BAH. Overdid a 2kg prime rib roast because my meat thermometer failed and I guessed ever so slightly wrong.
    The broccoli and the potatoes with curry sauce also FAIL.

    I am a really, really good cook and I’m passionate about it. This was a D all around. Just barely passing.

    And I wanted this one to be special because it is the end-of-vacation wedding anniversary meal.

    I was going to take the wife out, but a decent prime rib dinner in the DC area is going to be $150 or so, and I can buy a nice prime rib roast for a third of that and it’ll feed us for two or three meals. But that math doesn’t work if I fuck up the main course. DAMMIT.

  71. 71.

    srv

    Liberal trifecta: thousands unemployed, business owners lose livelyhood and cops have nowhere to go for their donut:

    Dunkin’ Brands, the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, announced Thursday that one of its franchisees plans to close 100 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the United States this year and next.
    …
    Many fast food executives have expressed concerns about higher wages, including Dunkin’ CEO Nigel Travis. He told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in July that a $15 hourly minimum wage would be “outrageous.”

  75. 75.

    Elmo

    @schrodinger’s cat: It’s something my wife dreamed up – it’s amazing with pasta and rice noodles, so we experimented with red potatoes.

    Basically cream based, with cheese and a hot red curry paste, augmented with ground pine nuts and a few other things. Not healthy! But super amazing tasty.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    I love this site

    ………..

    THE 10 BLACKEST MOMENTS OF 2015 (…SO FAR, AT LEAST)

    Damon Young, 9/30/15

    Two thoughts came to mind while watching Trevor Noah interview Kevin Hart during his Daily Show debut Monday night:

    1. I feel somewhat unqualified to critique Noah’s performance. Mainly because I never was a huge fan of the Daily Show. I didn’t dislike it at all. It just was never must-see-TV for me. If it’s after 11 and I’m still watching TV, 9o% of the time it’s a basketball game. So it’s difficult for me to compare his performance to Jon Stewart’s — which is what every Noah critique boils down to — become I’m just not familiar enough with Stewart’s to make that assessment. (It’s also an inherently unfair critique, in no small part because it’s comparing a 2015 Stewart to Noah, not a 2000 Stewart.) That said, I thought he did a decent job. I believe he’ll get better. And I also felt while watching it that the interview would have been more interesting if Hart was the host and Noah was the guest.

    2. This was Black as fuck. Was it as Black as Viola Davis quoting Harriet Tubman in a room full of anxious White people; an act that forced at least one to sob a half gallon of salty-ass and delicious-ass White Tears? No. But Trevor Noah having Kevin Hart as his first interview was pretty damn Black. Both literally and, considering how Comedy Central has appointed two Black men (Noah and Larry Wilmore) to follow such beloved cultural figures (Stewart and Steven Colbert), contextually.

    Anyway, it’s apropos that this would happen in 2015, because this year has been filled with public-ass Black-ass moment after public-ass Black-ass moment. It’s a clown car of Blackness. A Blackness turducken swallowed by a Black-ass sperm whale.

    Any other year, this moment with Noah and Hart would easily be one of the five Blackest moments of the year. Nine months into this Black-ass 2015, however, it barely cracks the top 10.

    http://verysmartbrothas.com/the-10-blackest-moments-of-2015-so-far-at-least/

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Executives have no one everyone to blame but themselves.

    Fixed to comport better with Carly Fiorina’s message.

  86. 86.

    shell

    @srv: “would be ”

    So they’re (and you) are claiming they are closing these stores because of something that hasnt even happened yet. That makes sense.

  87. 87.

    burnspbesq

    Nice to see that de Caro’s sense of humor remains intact after the outrageous treatment she has been getting from Chicago Black Hawks fans of late.

  88. 88.

    debbie

    @the Conster:

    The promos they’re running for her show are her interviewing Trump about sending Syrian hostages home. Ought to be a real winning show.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @burnspbesq:

    the outrageous treatment she has been getting from Chicago Black Hawks fans

    Good debate question: Black Hawks fans or Philadelphia fans – which are worse?

    Suggested answer: Yes

  93. 93.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    That’s their stock response: Government isn’t the answer.

    After seeing your post up top, I Googled Don Blankenship to see if his trial for putting “running coal” over 29 human beings had started. He actually said this in an interview:

    In a March 2014 interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Blankenship denounced the federal investigation and specifically the mine safety agency, saying overregulation had taken safety decisions out of the hands of mining executives.

    “What I’m trying to do is prevent other families from suffering,” Blankenship said. “And that is what is going to happen if the government doesn’t quit running roughshod over the coal mines and give people with expertise the opportunity to run their mines.”

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-ceo-don-blankenship-goes-trial-massey-mine-blast-killed-n436471

    I don’t even know what to call these animals anymore (other than the GOP, of course).

  94. 94.

    jeffreyw

    Bah! Bought a chromecast audio thingy and I am very disappointed it it. It refuses to play my music, only wants to play stuff I’ve bought from Google Play or is streamed through their app. I was suckered by the whispers that wifi streaming was superior to bluetooth, and expected to use it as a dongle for my ancient stereo amp and speakers combo to play music from an old phone off the SD card without having to be tethered to it by a wire.

  95. 95.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    Now we’re taking a bus to Philadelphia. But, hey, since it’s now officially a maintenance problem, they’re picking up the hotel. And I’m on a 0730 flight directly from Philly to Minneapolis. So, if tomorrow is a better day than today, I’ll at least make it to work.

  96. 96.

    debbie

    @efgoldman:

    They may pout over minimum wage, but you know it’s the price of eggs that’ll have the real impact on their bottom line.

  97. 97.

    JGabriel

    @Baud:

    I’m surprised by this news.

    (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who has been vying with challenger Bernie Sanders for the support of organized labor, scored a win on Saturday with an endorsement from the National Education Association, a huge teachers union. […]

    I thought I had the inside track with the teachers.

    Bernie? Is that you?

  98. 98.

    bemused

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    We had made Sunday night Masterpiece series watching a must and got hooked on so many of them. However, Indian Summers didn’t grab our interest at all. I think we both dozed off by the end of the episode. I agree it is too soapy but I also thought the characters were too predictable. I doubt we’ll be watching any more of the series.

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    @rikyrah: They’re all denying it, but you KNOW they are letting in more whites than Asians, and it’s exactly like when they had quotas for Jewish students.

    Who says Asians don’t donate buildings?! Bullshit!!

    Affirmative action as it was implemented didn’t really anticipate what happens when a minority group is over-represented.

    Some universities have also resisted admitting “too many” women as well.

    Trying to take down affirmative action programs is pretty gross, but it’s an obvious target as a government thing, whereas legacies and crap like that is totally the school and the trustees’ business.

  105. 105.

    Peale

    @shell: yep. As I stopped in a dunkins today and was the only customer for 1/2 hour, perhaps their strategy of opening outlets every 1/2 mile in some very low traffic areas might not be paying off. Just because an area is “high density” does not mean a particular location can support a donut shop.

  107. 107.

    Peale

    @efgoldman: Exxon used to carry dunkin as well, but many of their locations are are turning their convenience stores into 7-11s which has its own donut brand.

  108. 108.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Iowa Old Lady: We’ll see. We probably won’t get to Philadelphia until about 1am. With a 7am flight out, I’m not sure it’s even worth going to a hotel.

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Sorry for the loss.
    This is connecting to me pretty strongly right now, as I just got off the phone with my best friend who is in the hospital with issues, she was my sister’s significant other 40 yrs ago. It’s been touch and go for a couple of weeks but she seems to be getting better. She’s lived past the average lifetime of some one with the genetic disease that she has, so any major health issues are worrisome.

  112. 112.

    Mike J

    Rory Carroll Verified account
    ‏@rorycarroll72

    Candi Kinney of Roseburg Gun Shop has just ordered more assault rifles. ‘Always a rush after a big shooting.’

  113. 113.

    Another Holocene Human

    Amtrak had fucking awesome coffee in first class but I understand they’re not replacing the old urns as they break. :(

  114. 114.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Mike J: The best part is her sweet smiling face in that pic, in front of the mounted rifles.

    Ghoulish.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    Been in a similar situation before with even less time on the ground and if nothing else a short nap and a nice shower can do wonders for a crappy flight/layover. Doesn’t make up for being in hell all day/night but it does make it better.

  118. 118.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Thanks. My middle son told me that she is not a good dog for attracting young women because she is too pretty. People make a fuss over her and don’t notice her human.

  121. 121.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:
    And on election night, when the teacher’s unions announce they actually supported Baud all along, you will look like a greater campaigning genius than Jeb:( Bush.

    @rikyrah:
    Jesus Christ. Did they really just list all the systematic breaks they could be complaining about, before going ‘But what *I* want to complain about is black people!’

  123. 123.

    Calouste

    @Baud: I guess the teachers realized that they are going to have a significantly lower chance of getting shot on the job with Clinton’s plans than with Bernie “instant background check” Sanders.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    @Elmo

    For future reference.

    Shall never cook prime rib roast any other way than this nearly foolproof high heat/turn off oven method. Best I ever prepared.

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Fairly sure the founding chapter is at the Southern Hampshire Institute of Technology.

  131. 131.

    bk

    @Baud:

    Should have asked Cole to place some bets for the campaign while he was in Vegas. Easy money.

    I know that was tongue in cheek, but Las Vegas doesn’t take these types of bets.

  133. 133.

    Tenar Darell

    I have nothing to be outraged about. I had a very fine Spaten Oktoberfest with my takeout Shrimp & Vegetable Tempura with an order of Wonton soup.

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    @Tenar Darell:
    Will be grilling a Chinook salmon fillet later, on a perfect soft fall evening. Considering two weeks ago it was 106 and so smoky from wildfires you couldn’t see a city block, an incalculable improvement.

    i love fall.

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    6 reasons Sleepy Hollow is looking up

    BY KELLY CONNOLLY •

    Sleepy Hollow

    Posted October 2 2015 — 2:25 PM EDT

    After an unexpected smash hit of a first season, Sleepy Hollowstumbled in its second, focusing too much on Katrina (Katia Winter) and Henry (John Noble) while the rest of its diverse ensemble waited in purgatory — sometimes literally. But it’s not too late for TV’s only apocalyptic time travel procedural to find its way out of the woods and back onto the highway — to the tune of “Sympathy for the Devil” — and after Thursday’s solid return, it looks like the show is on the right path. Here’s why the season 3 premiere has us fist-bumping again:

    1. Those pilot callbacks

    Series star Tom Mison (Ichabod Crane) says that he wouldn’t necessarily call this a reboot to season 1, and it isn’t. Sleepy doesn’t need to start over entirely. But the echoes of the pilot in Thursday’s episode did send a message that the show is getting back to basics — with a few new twists to honor the characters’ growth. The season 3 premiere found Abbie (Nicole Beharie) bailing Crane out of custody again and taking him to a crime scene uninvited. It also found her doubting every word out of his mouth, but not because she still has questions about the whole apocalypse thing. She just thinks they took care of it already. There’s also the small matter of the fact that Abbie’s mentors keep losing their heads — though this boss worked for the Bureau. Moving on up.

    http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/02/sleepy-hollow-season-3-premiere-six-reasons-optimistic

  139. 139.

    Another Holocene Human

    @rikyrah: Sounds promising. That show was some cheesy goodness right there. Totally empty tv calories that tasted so good.

  141. 141.

    Brachiator

    About 2/3 of the way through it, it suddenly hit me that the xenophobic Donald Trump is going to hate “The Martian.” Just hate it. Most everybody else will thoroughly enjoy it. It helps that Ridley Scott is working from a strong script. The movie is exciting and inspirational, and fun. In some places it obviously panders to the audience, but it does so expertly.

    In an odd way, the movie is a throwback to the movie star filled disaster movies of the 70s. Instead of “Airport!”, you could almost call this “Airlock 2015.” Even though Damon’s character is the only man on Mars (or Wattney’s Red Planet as a punning UK commenter noted), the movie has a large cast of co-stars and secondary characters. I really liked Jessica Chastain and Michael Pena (previously great in Ant Man).

    The music reminds me too much of the soundtrack of hits of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and seems designed to make sure that the movie is audience friendly. The other slight downer is that the direction is anonymous. It could have been directed by anyone. “The Martian” lacks the visual poetry of “Gravity,” or the visual excess of some of Ridley’s earlier films, including the hot mess of “Prometheus.”

    A couple of people in the theater noted how they loved clutching their seats through some of the more tense sequences, but clearly had fun since they talked about coming back to see it again tomorrow. I don’t know if I would go that far, but I understand the sentiment.

    ETA: I try to be spoiler free if I see a movie during its first weeks, but if you read the novel you know how the narrative unfolds.

  143. 143.

    ThresherK

    @efgoldman: As another not-young New Englander, I remember those “time to make the donuts” ads.

    DD don’t fry up the donuts in-store any longer do they? Maybe that’s one of their problems of late.

  145. 145.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman

    There was a DD in the biggest mall when I moved to Maui in ’83. They closed down about a year later, and we’ve been DD-less ever since.

  146. 146.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    I think it would be a good sign if the Mets dumped both Terry Collins and Kevin Long (their hitting “coach”) after the season.

    Congrats to Scherzer, even if he does play for those other guys.

  147. 147.

    NotMax

    Beer/cheddar/bacon bread out of the oven. Looks a teensy bit on the crusty side – may have left it in 1 minute longer than necessary. Was baking 2 large loaves, so added a little more time

    No worries though, will still be yummy.

    3 lbs. of red cabbage braising for the cabbage-apple slaw.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    “They think they don’t count”: The race riot that continues to haunt Oklahoma
    Ninety years after white arsonists torched Tulsa, blacks remain grossly underrepresented in the state’s electorate
    JENN ROLNICK BORCHETTA, DEMOS

    ………………………………..

    I was meeting with local advocates about the state’s voter registration problems. Under Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), public assistance agencies must offer low-income citizens the opportunity to register to vote. Until recently, Oklahoma public assistance agencies were not complying with this law.

    My hotel in downtown Tulsa bustled with people in suits. When I asked what business brought the suits, the hotel staff said simply, “Oil.”

    My meetings were held at the Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League (MTUL), on the other end of town. In chatting with a local about Tulsa neighborhoods, I mentioned my destination.

    “Oh,” he said, “that’s the Black section.”

    ………………………………

    Fiinancial trouble was not new to the area. Oklahoma is a historically impoverished state, with the nation’s 16th highest poverty rate as of 2014. While the state as a whole has a 17% poverty rate, it’s almost double that for Black Oklahomans, who clock in at a staggering 30%.

    I spoke with people who have spent years helping Oklahoma communities and who have struggled to engage low-income Oklahomans in democracy. “They think they don’t count,” explained Lisa Anderson, longtime president of the MTUL Guild.

    There is more to this than a statistical history of poverty, though. During these conversations, more than one person mentioned the Tulsa Race Riot—a dark mark on a region that’s virtually unknown outside of the state.

    To understand the Tulsa Race Riot, you first have to get a sense of the area in the early 1920s. Greenwood District was the wealthiest Black community in the United States. Home to almost all of Tulsa’s Black lawyers, doctors, and other professionals, it was also known as “Black Wall Street,” and it was the model of a successful community. Born of the Oklahoman oil boom and thriving despite the rampant segregation of the area,Greenwood residents had access to Black-run banks, movie theatres, and even—unlike many of their white neighbors at the time—indoor plumbing.

    http://www.salon.com/2015/10/02/they_think_they_dont_count_the_racial_pogrom_that_continues_to_haunt_oklahoma_partner/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

  150. 150.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman

    1983-84. Made ’em on the premises. Had a window one could look through to see them being cooked.

    And when I say “biggest mall,” it was then nowhere near the size that it is now. One could traverse the entire place in under 3 minutes.

  151. 151.

    Mike in NC

    @ThresherK: We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts in the Nashua NH area several years ago and they had no donuts because they hadn’t been delivered from offsite.

  152. 152.

    Amir Khalid

    @ThresherK:
    Dunkin’ Donuts are baked, as I seem to recall from covering in 1987 (as a rookie reporter) the opening of the first Malaysian outlet. That store had an oven on the premises. Nowadays you get stale product trucked in from God knows where.

  153. 153.

    divF

    @ThresherK:

    DD don’t fry up the donuts in-store any longer do they? Maybe that’s one of their problems of late.

    There was a time (1960’s) when the (then) small chains like Krispy Kreme and Winchell’s used to make their own dough and fry their own doughnuts on site. Now that is left to the Mom-and-Pop doughnut shops. Fortunately, there is one such in my town – King Pin Donuts. When I was a freshman here in 1969, I overheard a fellow dorm resident saying “King Pin Donuts? Yeah, my mom used to go there when she was a student”.

  154. 154.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: Although I had heard about about the Tulsa race riots, it wasn’t until I read Dennis Lehane’s, The Given Day, that I did more research.

  157. 157.

    Mike J

    @Amir Khalid:

    Dunkin’ Donuts are baked,

    There are two major families of doughnuts. Cake and the only good kind. Cake doughnuts may be baked, Real doughnuts are deep fried.

  158. 158.

    Amir Khalid

    @efgoldman:
    I wasn’t in the US back then; all my visits were during the presidency of Clinton the Husband. The DD franchise here seems to be in decline too. Stale donuts, croissant sandwiches you wouldn’t feed to your worst enemy, poorly trained staff. I blame the MBAs.

  161. 161.

    mclaren

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    I’ve now been in the State College airport for 9 1/2 hours waiting for my flight that was supposed to leave at 10am.

    You made a conscious choice to grovel before and support America’s unconstitutional National Security State by deciding to agree to have your genitals patted down, your body scanned, your shoes removed and examined, your luggage X-rayed, and all manner of other grotesquely illegal invasive searches performed on your person when you made the choice to fly.

    So you deserve what you get.

    If every American chose to drive instead of fly, America’s airlines would quickly go bankrupt and the federal government would rush to rethink its insanely unconstitutional invasive searches and seizures at airports.

    You foolishly chose convenience over basic civil rights, and predictably you got neither.

    Deal with it.

  162. 162.

    mclaren

    @efgoldman:

    In answer to the question “Why are they not going after the legacy admissions?” you claimed:

    Since the Ivies will not stop giving places to the privileged, because their finances depend on the generosity of the rich, the argument homes in on affirmative action.

    That’s horseshit.

    Harvard has a 38 billion dollar endowment. Harvard pays its fund managers more than it spends annually on all its faculty and facilities, by an order of magnitude.

    Who do you think received more cash from Yale’s endowment last year: Yale students, or the private equity fund managers hired to invest the university’s money?

    It’s not even close.

    Last year, Yale paid about $480 million to private equity fund managers as compensation — about $137 million in annual management fees, and another $343 million in performance fees, also known as carried interest — to manage about $8 billion, one-third of Yale’s endowment.

    In contrast, of the $1 billion the endowment contributed to the university’s operating budget, only $170 million was earmarked for tuition assistance, fellowships and prizes. Private equity fund managers also received more than students at four other endowments I researched: Harvard, the University of Texas, Stanford and Princeton.

    Source: “Stop Universities From Hoarding Money,” The New York Times, 19 August 2015.

    Harvard only improved its standing during the successful American postwar decades, and by its 350th anniversary in 1986 was almost universally recognized as the leader of the world’s academic community. But over the decade or two which followed, it quietly embarked upon a late-life career change, transforming itself into one of the world’s largest hedge funds, with some sort of school or college or something attached off to one side for tax reasons.

    The numbers tell the story. Each September, Harvard’s 6,600 undergraduates begin their classes at the Ivy-covered walls of its traditional Cambridge campus owing annual tuition of around $37,000 for the privilege, up from just $13,000 in 1990. Thus, over the last two decades, total tuition income (in current dollars) has increased from about $150 million to almost $250 million, with a substantial fraction of this list-price amount being discounted in the form of the university’s own financial aid to the families of its less wealthy students.

    Meanwhile, during most of these years, Harvard’s own endowment has annually grown by five or ten or even twenty times that figure, rendering net tuition from those thousands of students a mere financial bagatelle, having almost no impact on the university’s cash-flow or balance-sheet position. If all the students disappeared tomorrow—or were forced to pay double their current tuition—the impact would be negligible compared to the crucial fluctuations in the mortgage-derivatives market or the international cost-of-funds index.

    Source: “Paying Tuition To A Giant Hedge Fund,” The American Conservative, 4 December 2012.

    Like everything else in Shithole America, the Ivy League universities have grown into bloated superwealthy monstrosities utterly uninterested in anything but power, cash, and social class. These grotesque institutions now serve as nothing more than elaborate means of signaling birth into the elite, like a bone through the nose worn by the family of the chief in an African tribe.

    The obvious solution, selecting students for the Ivy League universities by random lottery, cannot be mentioned in polite company.

    And so we wind up with a country run by graduates of these “elite” universities who turn out to be slope-browed slackjaws like George W. Bush and John Kerry and Condoleeza Rice. Larry, Moe and Curly would do a better job.

  163. 163.

    PurpleGirl

    @mclaren: Some of us don’t drive and can’t drive (for medical reasons). I either have to fly or take a train, depending on how far I’m traveling.

  164. 164.

    yodecat

    Heh. I excised my ‘outrage glands’ long ago. I decided not to give idiots any satisfaction at all.

  165. 165.

    Another Holocene Human

    @rikyrah: White people in OK have an animus against Indians and Blacks–especially Blacks in Tulsa–that is hard to describe.

    OK is fucked in the head.

  167. 167.

    gian

    @ThresherK:
    Yeah the middle aged guy getting up before dawn. I remember those ads and as a child I liked their donuts. They even had a store (franchise?) In huntington beach CA in the 80s before they went back to north-east regional. Now I think they have repeated krispy kreme’s mistake over too rapid expansion

  168. 168.

    Denali

    @McClaren,

    Explain how one gets to Europe or Asia by rail or car. Sometimes there is no choice but to fly.

  169. 169.

    Regnad Kcin

    @efgoldman: There really is *nothing* like the treatment of the *big* reunion classes (25, 40, 50) — shutting down traffic in Cambridge and Boston to get buses of potential givers from one place to another.

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