Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When we show up, we win.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

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

Everybody saw this coming.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups and social events / Open Thread: Memphis Mini-Meetup

Open Thread: Memphis Mini-Meetup

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memphis meetup feb 16

From universally beloved commentor SiubhanDuinne:

Attached, L-R, photo of Balloon Juice regulars Dee Lorelei and SiubhanDuinne at the Memphis meet-up. We enjoyed a number of adult beverages at the Peabody and the Kooky Canuck, and some truly delicious tourtiere. Kooky’s waitstaff, manager, and owner all made us feel more than welcome.

We missed Eclare and hope she feels better and that she (and other Memphians) can join in a bigger BJ meetup in May.

Anybody wants a meetup in your area, leave a comment here / send me an email with a tentative date & venue (i.e., ‘Springfield commentor, how about second weekend in March, the Funky Chicken is a great place for a bite or a brew’). If there’s interest, I’ll put up a catch-all post tomorrow, to front-page suggestions…

memphis meetup tortiere feb 16

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  6. 6.

    Aleta

    Was reading about Fred Trump’s arrest (released without charges) at a Klan rally in the 1920’s, and saw this article: Woody Guthrie was a tenant of Fred (Donald’s father). NYT link:

    More than a half-century ago, the folk singer Woody Guthrie signed a lease in an apartment complex in Brooklyn. He soon had bitter words for his landlord: Donald J. Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump. Mr. Guthrie wrote

    I suppose
    Old Man Trump knows
    Just how much
    Racial Hate
    he stirred up
    In the bloodpot of human hearts
    When he drawed
    That color line
    Here at his
    Eighteen hundred family project

    Mr. Guthrie even reworked his song “I Ain’t Got No Home” into a critique of Fred Trump, according to Mr. Kaufman:

    Beach Haven ain’t my home!
    I just can’t pay this rent!
    My money’s down the drain!
    And my soul is badly bent!
    Beach Haven looks like heaven
    Where no black ones come to roam!
    No, no, no! Old Man Trump!
    Old Beach Haven ain’t my home!

    In the 1970s, the Justice Department sued the Trumps, accusing them of discriminating against blacks. (A settlement was eventually reached; at the time, Trump Management noted the agreement did not constitute an admission of guilt.)

    There’s more in an article by Professor Will Kaufman at the site The Conversation.

    For the most part, low-cost housing projects had been left to cash-strapped state and city authorities. But when the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) finally stepped in to issue federal loans and subsidies for urban apartment blocks, one of the first developers in line, with his eye on the main chance, was Fred Trump. He made a fortune not only through the construction of public housing projects but also through collecting the rents on them.

    When Guthrie first signed his lease, it’s unlikely that he was aware of the murky background to the construction of his new home, the massive public complex that Trump had dubbed “Beach Haven.”

    Trump would be investigated by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 for profiteering off of public contracts, not least by overestimating his Beach Haven building charges to the tune of US$3.7 million.

    What Guthrie discovered all too late was Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of the FHA’s guidelines for avoiding “inharmonious uses of housing” – or as Trump biographer Gwenda Blair puts it, “a code phrase for selling homes in white areas to blacks.” As Blair points out, such “restrictive covenants” were common among FHA projects – a betrayal, if ever there was one, of the New Deal vision that had given birth to the agency.

    (Professor Kaufman is the researcher who found these references in Guthrie’s papers.)

  9. 9.

    Aleta

    @JPL: That interview is wild: he confirms something, then immediately denies it, then gives information about it, then attacks the source and the NYT.

  12. 12.

    p.a.

    Nice pic.

    Speaking of adult beverages, This might be available in your area. I had the Kentucky Bourbon Ale today. Very fine, but only available here in bars & restaurants. Ohio Valley-ish available to the public.

  14. 14.

    gene108

    Getting of my butt to do some cooking, so I can stop eating out and work to get my weight down.

    I don’t cook often.

    Wish me luck.

  16. 16.

    PurpleGirl

    Dee Lorelei and SiubhanDuinne: Ladies, you look like you had a good time. SiubhanDuinne, are you a secret purple girl? Love the color of your blouse.

    Hey, NYC and tri-state BJers — anyone up for a meet-up? We haven’t had one in a long time. I’d be glad to look for a place and make the arrangements.

  17. 17.

    J R in WV

    Exactly what is in the skillet? Is that a savory pie, like chicken pot pie, or a sweet pie, like apples with walnuts?

    What is that in the skillet?

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    I’ve been at work this morning, so I’m just getting wind of this..

    Ex-cuse da fuq out of me…but I am one of those Southern Blacks and contrary to Berni-bots beliefs, I’m far from a low info voter and a good majority of my peer group and family are just as “well informed” as Northern Black folks..

    Bernie Sanders: I’ll Do Better With Black Voters Who Don’t Live In The Deep South http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/bernie-sanders-ill-do-better-with-black-voters-who-dont-live?utm_term=.avDqdN6m3G via @evanmcsan @buzzfeednews

  19. 19.

    PsiFighter37

    @PurpleGirl: I feel like DougJ used to be the driving force behind getting those set up. Ironically enough, the only ones I ever attended were when I was traveling (one in LA, the other in Seattle). I would be down for one, being a Manhattan resident and all, but I won’t bring the green balloons…

  21. 21.

    PsiFighter37

    @lamh36: When your candidate has never had to discuss racial issues before, it should not be a surprise that he comes off sounding really, really white (in this case, I think it’s ignorantly unaware, as opposed to being malicious about it).

  23. 23.

    Suzanne

    I’m gonna plan a Phoenix meetup in May, when SiubhanDuinne is visiting. Anyone who lives in the SW or who is visiting should come!

  25. 25.

    PurpleGirl

    @PsiFighter37: I agree, but there are enough BJers in NYC and the tri-state area that we should be able to have a meet-up whether or not DougJ will be there. Now that he’s married and is also in a departmental administration role he probably doesn’t have the same free time frame work as he once had.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    @PsiFighter37: That’s probably true, but it is an excuse that won’t take away from the damage done. Sanders was an activist, fighting for civil rights, and unfortunately that will be lost.
    The only good news is that Trump is making the headlines, because of his support of David Duke.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    “I think you’re going to see us doing — and I think the polls indicated it, much better within the African-American community outside of the Deep South,” Sanders said. “You’re going to see us much better in New York state where I think we have a shot to win, in California and in Michigan.”

    If he can wrest NY State from Hillary, I’ll be impressed.

  29. 29.

    Felonius Monk

    @Baud:

    If he can wrest NY State from Hillary, I’ll be impressed.

    Our beloved governor King Andrew would never allow this to happen.

  30. 30.

    PsiFighter37

    @JPL: I get the impression that Bernie fought for civil rights 50 years ago. I would like to know when he has been on the frontline of racial issues during his time in Congress. Oh, wait…

    @Randy P: Philly has a great blogosphere scene (had? Not sure how much of it exists anymore). Have fond memories of going to Drinking Liberally with Chris Bowers, Atrios, Booman, and others back when I was in school.

    On an unrelated note, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III endorsed Trump tonight. Bet Tailgunner Ted is crying a bunch, given how much he invokes Sessions’ name when talking about immigration. But also not surprising given that Sessions really seems like a nice, genteel Southern racist.

  33. 33.

    Felonius Monk

    @PsiFighter37:

    Sessions really seems like a nice, genteel Southern racist.

    So genteel is the pleasant NY-style code word for Fvckng Foaming at the Mouth Rabid.

  34. 34.

    Gimlet

    Via Reddit

    The Democrat turn out in the South Carolina primary from 2008 is down 31%. The Republicans are up 66%
    2008 was the last election that both parties ran new candidates that were not incumbents.

    The Democrat turn out in SC is down a little fewer than 163,228 votes from 2008 to 2016.

    The Republican turn out in SC is up by exactly 292,240 votes from 2008 to 2016.

    According to New York Daily News: “On the flip side, turnout for Democrats is down 28% in Iowa, 13% in New Hampshire, and an astounding 33% in Nevada”

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    Another thing, If I see one more white Bernie supporter talk about the love for Bill C in the Black community, leading to HRC’s big numbers among Black voters, I will scream.

    How’s about we don’t speak for the entire Black community. So Bill C is “well loved”…first of all, the 90s are a long way away from today. Secondly, the Bill C voters in the Black community are older voters who HRC was gonna have no problem with either way. Bill Clinton was the first Prez I voted for when I was 18. I’m almost 40 now…my peer group are NOT Bill Clinton lovers, we are NOT millenials…our political coming of age was more closely influenced by the GWB years if anything else

    Finally…Black folk like Bill C, sure, but they to a person, “love” PBO more, they consider PBO family…and the PBO shine is what is giving HRC that boost with the biggest block of Black voters, Black females like myself, NOT Bill C.

    Bernie Sanders big idea to send PBO haters like Cornel West into SC (and who’s still acting a jackass afterwards) and poo-poo on the PBO legacy, legitimate or not (and there is a way to critic w/o outright shitting on it) is Bernie’s biggest problem with majority of Black voters who CONSISTENTLY vote in primaries and general.

  39. 39.

    sharl

    @lamh36: I saw that; yikes!

    On matters of race, there are apparently lots of tin ears and sociopolitically glaucomic eyes in Vermont, if this account from a self-described biracial Vermonter is any indication (from here; via Khan’s twitter feed):

    “I think minorities have had a pretty rough go of it in Vermont over the last couple months,” the freelance journalist says, referring to a racially charged protest in St. Albans last December and Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyers that appeared in Burlington last November. “Vermont is not this liberal bastion of egalitarian society. There are a lot of race issues here, and the fact that a white supremacist group is targeting Vermont with this kind of ad is pretty telling.”

    ~
    *Sultana Khan was briefly with Gawker, brought on to help William Arkin with his short-lived national security vertical there. As I recall, she once discussed her grandfather as a high-ranking muckety-muck with the newly constituted nation of Pakistan.

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    But, but, what’s inna skillet?

    Politics, politics, politics, and no one is talking about the food!!! What’s in the skillet?

    We want to know what that skillet contains!?!?

    Balloon-Juice inhabitants want to know about the FOOD~!

  42. 42.

    sharl

    Oh, my manners done deserted me (again). I’ve met both of these women in person (DC meet-up), and they are as lovely as the photo suggests.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @J R in WV:

    That is tourtière, various meats (traditionally whatever’s on hand) finely minced, mixed with diced root vegetables, onions, and herbs/spices, and baked as a pie. Traditional Québec fare, and it was as delicious as it looks.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    @PsiFighter37: Oddly, it’s as deeply offensive and insulting, whether intended to be malicious or not. And considering he’s a Jewish man from Brooklyn, I’d think that he’d be a wee bit more aware of what he’s saying.

  45. 45.

    Anya

    @lamh36: I think what he said was a bit tone deaf but he didn’t say anything about southern voters being ignorant or less informed. Maybe he’s alluding to the fact that the Clintons started out as southern politicians so they have more connections in the south than in the north.

  47. 47.

    Dee Loralei

    @J R in WV: @J R in WV: it was a meat pie. I forgot the French name, some Montreal recipe and ’twas nummy. I was drinking a Labatt whiskey barrel beer and it was wonderful. Suibhann is a charming dinner companion, we chatted for about 4 hours and had a really good time, and yea, the pic was taken at the end of the evening. And I can’t wait to see her again in May for the international bbq fest! We got invited to hang out in the Kooky Canuck tent, so that will make the weekend even more fun, that’s a huge party! Y’all need to make plans to attend too!

  48. 48.

    Gex

    @lamh36: I’m sorry. This shit is driving me crazy, and I’m not black. I can’t imagine how infuriating it is for you.

    So they simultaneously claim that black people shouldn’t like Hillary because of Bill’s crime bill while they say that Hillary’s support all comes from black people’s love of Bill? Sure why not. When you’re trying to fling whatever bullshit you can at the wall to see what sticks, you’re going to make contradictory arguments.

    Sitting back and listening to white Bernie supporters’ “appeals” to the black vote reveals a deep sense of white supremacy, paternalism, and white saviorism. Of course white liberals don’t believe they can’t be racist because they’re better than Republicans. Ugh.

  49. 49.

    Felonius Monk

    @PurpleGirl:

    The Donald thinks he’s going to win NY.

    I have a hard time imagining him winning the Repug primary in NY and I see no way he would ever carry NY State in the General. But these are strange times, so I guess anything is possible.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano:
    @ruemara:

    The pie is classic Québec tourtière. I described it more fully in #43 to JRinWV, as he seemed wildly insistent on Getting An Answer NAOW.

    @PurpleGirl:

    SiubhanDuinne, are you a secret purple girl? Love the color of your blouse.

    I do love purple and find myself wearing it more and more as I age. I find it a very forgiving colour. But really, put me in just about any bright or deep colour and keep the pastels far away, and I’m happy.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Aleta:

    Travel is fun; at least, I find it so. One of my pleasures is meeting people I know only virtually, and I’m always grateful to Anne Laurie for sharing itineraries and meetup details as FP posts.

    Today, though, I stupidly left my iPad (read: my brains and memory) in my hotel room, and didn’t discover the loss until I was a good hour out of Memphis. So, around I turned and drove all the way back to the hotel, retrieved it (happily, the housekeeper found it and left it at the front desk, for which she received an extra $10 tip from me), and then headed out again. The whole thing meant I was at least two hours behind schedule, and around Murfreesboro I knew I’d never make it to Atlanta tonight, so I’m spending one more night on the road. And guess what I’m packing FIRST tomorrow morning!?

  54. 54.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @lamh36:

    So, his strategic outreach to blacks seems to be to separate young blacks from old, and northern blacks from southern. Leadery!

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    I’m always so happy to find out that Juicers are as interesting and intelligent and articulate in person as they are in blog commentary. Dee Lorelei did not disappoint! Just one of those great, rambling, off-on-tangents conversations that is nevertheless about ideas instead of people.

    Well, mostly :-)

  63. 63.

    ruemara

    I’d really love it if liberals who love Bernie don’t attempt to explain what is meant by his words about black folk, to black folk. You’d do much better to explain to St. Bernie, that his words are deeply offensive and are pushing away a demographic he needs to win the primaries.

    Shorter:
    Telling us what it means: bad.
    Telling him not to say that: good.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tas:

    Mine, do you mean?

    If so: I really love these glasses, and am terrified of the inevitable day I drop them and they break right across the nosepiece or something. I’ve had them now for five or six years. Ever since I got them, strangers literally have walked up to me on the street to tell me they love my glasses. I’ve never had a frame I liked better.

    (If you meant something else, well, never mind.)

    Those are some of the dopest glasses I seen anyone rock.

    And I’m not sure, because Old, but this is a compliment, right?

  65. 65.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SFAW:

    There’s probably some mild joke to be made here about a pie filter, but I’ll be damned if I’m smart enough to figure it out.

    You will, the good Lord willin’ and the Cleek don’t rise.

  67. 67.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Aleta: Your comment needs to be front pages. It’s very important for us to know exactly who Trump is and how he was raised. His father grew him up on anti-Black hatred and Trump has not changed.

  72. 72.

    Scamp Dog

    @Miss Bianca: What part of CO are you in? I’m in Thornton (north Denver), and TaMara, our Friday Food goddess, is up around Longmont IIRC. Does a mid- to late-March meetup sound good? We can figure out a place once we know where everybody interested lives.

  76. 76.

    Paul in KY

    Always wanted to get a Louisville meetup going sometime…

    Glad y’all had a great time. 2 beautiful Juicers right there!

  77. 77.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scamp Dog: @SiubhanDuinne:

    That sounds marvellous, I am in the Central CO mountains and Front Range only a few hours away (always praying that those spring snowstorms don’t come squalling in!). Keep me posted! Slainte!

    ETA: And to tempt TaMara the food goddess, my Ginger Buzz mead should be bottled and ready for consumption by then. I’d love to see what kind of recipe she could come up with to feature it!

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