.
Lest we forget, at least us Dems aren’t faced with a choice between #1 candidate Gross Evil, #2 candidate Smarmy Evil & #3 candidate Bland Evil. From the Washington Post, “In chaotic GOP race, an intense battle for delegates plays out under the radar”:
FARGO, N.D. — For months, Bette Grande has tapped into her network of fellow conservative activists, pushing them to join her in supporting Ted Cruz for president. She has also laid the groundwork for a campaign of her own — to win a coveted spot as a delegate representing Cruz at this summer’s national party convention.
Grande’s work is coming to a head this weekend at a Ramada hotel and sports center, plastered with campaign merchandise, as North Dakota Republicans meet to choose the 25 delegates they will send to Cleveland in July. The priority for Grande, whether or not she wins a delegate ticket, is to make sure that those who do are committed backers of the senator from Texas.
“Until the slate of delegates is set, we’re calling or emailing everyone,” said Grande, who has juggled her work for Cruz with her duties picking up her grandson at day care.
In any ordinary year, this would be an obscure and suspense-free process, in which local party regulars are rewarded with tickets to the convention in order to focus on partying and casting a pro-forma vote for the presumptive GOP nominee.
But this is no ordinary year. The growing likelihood that front-runner Donald Trump will not secure the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination has forced the candidates to prepare for a once-unimaginable prospect: The nomination could be settled at a contested convention…
Most delegates who arrive in Cleveland will be pledged to certain candidates for the first round of voting, based primarily on the results of primaries and caucuses. But on a second ballot, many of the convention’s 2,472 delegates would be freed up to cast another vote.
The prospect of multiple ballots was an issue Saturday in Tennessee, where tensions flared as the state Republican Party finalized its list of delegates. Trump adviser Barry Bennett said he was “disappointed” that the state party did not follow through on what he thought was an agreement to pick Trump delegates that the campaign recommended. State GOP executive director Brent Leatherwood denied that there was any deal or that the party tried to harm Trump…
***********
Apart from sweet schadenfreude, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?
Baud
I will reiterate for the third time today that I’m starting to believe that the GOP will deny Trump the nomination. Whether it ends up with Cruz or some dark horse, I can’t predict. But unless Trump steamrolls the rest of the primaries (after Wisconsin, which it looks like he will lose to Cruz), I don’t think he’ll end up on top.
Dog Dawg
Okay, I asked this on the last thread, but seriously, no one is covering this.
Why is Donald Trump wearing this strange lapel pin? Why are his closest advisers (all men) wearing it?
It’s like some weird Scientology symbol . . .
http://www.vocativ.com/300916/donald-trump-staff-wear-mysterious-pin/
Baud
@Dog Dawg: That is weird. I hope some journalist picks up on it.
smith
Speaking of Republicans in disarray, Booman has an interesting post up arguing that it’s not the GOP that is splintering, but the conservative movement as a whole. Trump is just widening and accelerating the existing fissures among the social conservatives, the oligarchs, and the hawks. He thinks the shakeup in progress is unstoppable whether Trump is the nominee or not.
A choice quote: “Nuance is the death of right-wing movements, and the Republican voter is getting inundated with nuance these days.”
MomSense
@Baud:
I decided not to hope for any particular outcome in the GOP race. They all seem so atrocious to me but I thought Reagan was a frightening nincompoop.
We better be prepared to win this one.
Baud
@MomSense: I’m ready to win. It’s going to be a slog, however. No getting around it.
Keith P.
Steaming an artichoke and roasting some cauliflower for dinner, and then I will be sitting down to Last Man on Earth and John Oliver.
SiubhanDuinne, Mob Enforcer
@Dog Dawg:
Strangest thing in that article: “So what does the emblem mean? Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign communication director, told Vocativ neither she nor Lewandowski would explain why aides wear the pin.”
“I know, but it’s a SECRET and I’m not telling!!”
Dan
@Baud:
Silver over at 538 said that he thinks that if Trump doesn’t take it on the first ballot, he won’t take it all. and I’m inclined to agree.
Problem for the GOP is, I don’t see how they could then nominate anyone but Cruz and not have their base go completely bugfck.
PsiFighter37
Getting ready for another week in the office. I’ve slept about 12 hours total today (had a bit too much to drink at a birthday party last night and went to sleep much later than usual), so it’s been a relatively sedate day. Very windy / blustery in NYC today, although it was quite sunny.
Have a work trip to Miami later this week…yay(?)
debbie
@Baud:
Yeah, but will he or won’t he go third party?
@Dog Dawg:
Maybe because it makes them easy to spot?
Dog Dawg
@SiubhanDuinne, Mob Enforcer: Perhaps they are titillated by the Fascist symbolism of replacing a standard American Flag with their candidates chosen heraldry.
Baud
@debbie: I think the GOP thinks Trump going third-party won’t lead to a worse result than what they’ll face if he were the nominee.
joes527
@Dog Dawg: more to the point. Who knew that there was an “international society for emblem studies’
chris
@Dog Dawg: OMG! the Illuminated Molepeople! We’re doomed.
Or it’s a stylised T with the sun shining out of its ass. Have you seen T-Rump’s sense of style?
Either explanation works for me.
dr. bloor
@Dan: Ha. Just said the same thing to my son. It has to be one or the other of them, or it’s going to make Thunderdome look like a kiddie birthday party.
Baud
@Dan:
I agree. It’s a conundrum for them.
Mary
@Baud: Trump going third party might actually help with down ticket races.
Mary
@joes527: And they have a newsletter!
PsiFighter37
@Mary: He can’t (sore loser laws, too late to get on the ballot, etc.)
That said, he will have a lot of voters sitting at home, and Trump will be all too happy to stomp on whoever gets selected as the nominee. That’s why I think that the GOP is in a very lose-lose situation – they nominate him and get destroyed, or they wrest the nomination from him and piss off a very large part of their base.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@debbie:
It is a tough call with Drumpf but my first thought is that he would think he would get much more mileage out of playing the victim of theft than a loser. It would depend if he could make money for himself out of the work but he would have to put in the effort so I expect him to play the martyr.
But then I expected getting this far would be too much for him so maybe my guesses are no better than a DC pundit’s
starscream
They *hate* us. Whoever their nominee is, they will rally around him to deny Clinton the White House. Fortunately it won’t be enough.
rikyrah
I honestly can’t believe that they are going to go through with it. Telling your primary voters, go phuck yourself -you’ll vote for whomever WE pick. I am still sitting here stunned. I never thought that they were serious.
rikyrah
Let me be on the record : I am in the camp of not believing that Rat-on-top-of-Head Man actually WANTS to be President. But, in order to repair the damage done to his brand, he either:
A) must win the nomination
Or
B) must be in the lead and have it stolen from him.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
He can’t run as an independent, but AFAIK he would be able to get on the ballot with a third party if they were willing to nominate him. I would think a realistic threat of that would be a good approach to mutually assured destruction if the Republicans threaten the nuclear option.
Patricia Kayden
@starscream: Trump’s disapproval rate is over 50% even among non-educated Whites and White men, which is an astounding accomplishment, according to a recent Washington Post article. They hate us but I don’t know if that’s enough for a majority of them to vote for Trump (or even the odious Cruz).
In my opinion, it’s Secretary Clinton’s to lose, if our side comes out in droves as Trump is motivating us to do.
Mary
@Roger Moore: He can also run in those states without sore loser laws just to play spoiler.
Gin & Tonic
@joes527:
/raises hand meekly
Miss Bianca
Well, apart from sweet schadenfreude, there will be frozen coconut milk and more re-watch – or actually, first sit-down watch, as opposed to catching it in reruns – of Star Trek (TOS) Season 2. Just one more episode until “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Can’t wait for the commentary on *that* one!
Iowa Old Lady
OT but is the site running extremely slowly for anyone else?
Viva BrisVegas
@Dog Dawg:
I’m not supposed to say, but it involves lizard people and the Queen.
By the way, is Cruz conservative enough to run as the Republican candidate? Or rather, will he have been on November 9th?
jayboat
Speaking of international societies… anyone notice the absence of any mention of the Panamanian Papers in our illustrious msm? Can’t imagine the reason for this oversight.
Gin & Tonic
@jayboat: NYT had an article earlier today, as did WaPo. Given that neither of them were part of the group that’s doing the research, they’ll be slow with details, but they’ve already started.
Princess
I agree that they are going to try to take it from Trump and will probably succeed.
Even if they nominate Cruz, Trump’s supporters are going to go bugfuck.
Trump won’t run third party but he’ll make speeches and “run” against the GOP nominee from the sidelines and be a huge distraction.
It is lose-lose for the GOP right now. The only way they could have a chance is if Trump dropped dead between now and the convention.
jayboat
@Gin & Tonic:
Good to hear, maybe it will actually get some play.
jayboat
@Princess:
It is lose-lose for the GOP right now. The only way they could have a chance is if Trump dropped dead between now and the convention.
That is the funniest thing I’ve read all week! Thanks for the lulz.
Elie
@rikyrah:
THIS…..
SiubhanDuinne, Mob Enforcer
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
From almost Day One he’s been saying that “THEY” (other candidates, the RNC, the media, the establishment) need to “treat him fairly” or he’ll drop out/run as an independent or third-party or write-in candidate/take some unspecified but devastating action. Of course he’s never defined what he means by “fair” or “unfair treatment” — it’s whatever he decides, on the whim of the moment, will justify whatever he decides to do. I agree that he’ll find some reason not to accept the nomination, and I think it’ll be some version of what he claims is “unfairness.”
Helen
I just read the Trump WAPO interview. It is virtually unreadable because of the questions AND the answers. Both sucked.
Here was one bizarre exchange. Trump is asked what he will do his first 100 days.
Q: What about economic legislation?
A: What I would do – and before I talk about legislation, because frankly this is more important – number one it’s going to be a very big tax cut… I would do a tax cut.
So…. does Trump not know that tax cuts are done through legislation?
Elie
@jayboat: @jayboat:
They COULD do a Putin on him. There was the guy in London who died of Vanadium (?) poisoning or some such. Trump is such a “set up” anyway — overweight, under-conditioned with a rage temperament and tired with poor sleep hygiene — He has catastrophic vascular or cardiac event written all over him. Scalia beat him out by being older, drinking and smoking. Trump does not drink or smoke but has major stress from his exposure during this campaign. It would be entirely plausible that “something” could “happen” to him….
HL_guy
Other than my passing knowledge of Duverger’s law, this election season is so whacked out that doesn’t fit my heuristics for for figuring out how things are going for team (R) and team (D). The GOP seems to have no good options. And most of the interesting action is deep within the bowels of Their Party… I have no influence over a Trump voter- who could? It’s nuts, and kinda interesting, but I’m just waiting for the convention to see how they recover. The Republicans always recover (in my lifetime, anyway).
Zinsky
As I have posted several times before, don’t write off the GOP or underestimate their treachery, underhandedness or deceit. They could still win this election! They could end a brokered convention with a Paul Ryan-John Kasich ticket and engineer some sort of indictment or, God forbid, assassination of Hillary Clinton and we are royally f*cked. Don’t for a minute think that it couldn’t happen! These perfidious reptiles will do anything to win and don’t forget it.
Steve in the ATL
@Princess:
He should avoid flying on small aircraft. Sources told me years ago that any time a small plane crashes with someone important on board, it is most likely foul play (Ron Brown, John Tower, etc.).
@Baud, you should be careful too, of course
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: To me, it was more of a who didn’t know question.
maryQ
Nope. We Dems are faced with a choice of #1 Extremely competent, experienced, and likable to some, candidate who may or may not be indicted for a crime that may or may not be a faux-scandal generated by the right wing noise machine, but we have no way of knowing and #2 the oldest presidential candidate ever who is a self-idemtified socialist with a record history of high praise for dictators and bread lines, and is either liar or delusional.
Sounds great!
Elie
@maryQ:
I hear ya but it aint that bad…. at least not yet —–
PaulWartenberg2016
It’s National Poetry Month. I want Haikus out of each and every one of you by April 12th.
schrodinger's cat
Finished a marathon weekend cooking session and now I am taking a break. I couldn’t care less about Trump, and I have had enough of Bernie and his magical thinking on the economy as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@maryQ: I bet you are fun at parties.
Vhh
@Elie: London case was radioactive polonium. But the recent unexplained death in DC hotel of former Putin associate Mikhail Lesin was due “blunt force trauma”, ie, he was beaten to death.
Brachiator
@smith:
Sounds like a lot of after-the-fact punditry. No one saw this coming or knows where it will lead.
In many ways Republican voters are driving the revolt, and they don’t much care about nuance. The GOP leadership is scrambling to determine how best to react to and contain what is happening.
The Other Chuck
@Elie:
Polonium. Very radioactive, very obvious, didn’t look like natural causes at all. Putin and/or his people were making a statement with Litvenenko. I don’t quite think the RNC has sunk to that level, much as they might like to.
Gin & Tonic
@PaulWartenberg2016: This I cannot do
Your demands are far too great
Leave me alone now
Cacti
Mitt Romney recently heard saying: Why didn’t I just blame Ann for not releasing my tax returns? Well played, Bernie.
Omnes Omnibus
@PaulWartenberg2016: Bite me, fucking tool
I won’t do it, no fucking way.
Deal with it, ass.
schrodinger's cat
I still can’t get over this brilliantly choreographed number in Haider. Haider is Hamlet in Vishal Bhardwaj’s retelling of the Bard’s tragedy, set in the beautiful but doomed Kashmir valley in the mid 90s. He enacts his suspicions about his uncle and this mother in this song, told with puppets set against the ruins of Markandeya’s temple in Anant Nag in Kashmir.
Translation
Shahid Kapoor is probably one of the best dancers in Bollywood right now. Here he is a more fun song.
* Jhelum is a river in Kashmir.
Brachiator
@jayboat:
The media is global. BBC News and of course, the Guardian is all over this.
A great summary is here: The Panama Papers: what you need to know
This is much hotter and more important than, say, the DC madam list which has been getting a lot of tease on Maddow’s show. It’s wild that people as diverse as Putin and the prime minister of Iceland are caught up in this mess. And there may be a lot more to come:
This should keep investigators busy for days.
And, ahem, I look forward to seeing how the presidential candidates react to this. And obviously, this thing is tailor made for Sanders.
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: You know you can’t escape pedantry here. Technically, a haiku must reference a season. Still, so far you are in first place!
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Chose a more hostile approach, I see.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I tuned out when Wisconsin lost.
@Gin & Tonic: You went with polite. I needed a different angle.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Haikus are easy
To write one is quite simple
Refrigerator
Cacti
@Steve in the ATL:
Haiku of a Mississippi Spring:
That tube top of yours
Sometimes just makes me forget
You are my sister
PsiFighter37
@Cacti: It really does puzzle me as to why Bernie has not released his tax records. I think someone posited this in an earlier thread, but I don’t think it has anything nefarious to hide – I actually think it will show that Sanders and his wife are pretty uncharitable. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing (especially if you aren’t made of money), but perhaps the optics are not great?
Seems like a stupid little thing, but you know that the GOP will whack him with the issue if he were to somehow come back and be the nominee.
Gin & Tonic
@Cacti: Sometimes I just wish
Nantucket was as useful
In haikus as well
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I, at least, managed to convey emotion – spite and viciousness, to be sure – but emotion nonetheless.
schrodinger's cat
@Cacti: Eeww.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL:
I know but to me
The changing seasons challenge
Making my craft weak
Weaselone
@Brachiator:
How do you see this issue as being a good one for Sander’s at this time? This crap makes our politicians and financial system look stellar by comparison. Also, his hammering on this would sort of open him to an attack by Hillary given his lack of transparency with his tax returns.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Fair enough. I often forget that droll is an effect, not an affect.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Droll? I didn’t achieve droll.
Elie
@PsiFighter37:
But you know, that’s the point… we can GUESS about what is or is not in them, but we won’t know…. That he might think that is in his favor is interesting, given his propensity for judging Hillary as evil and less than pure. So lets see ’em — then we can decide whether he is just a modest soul with not much to give charity or whatever…
Honus
@Elie: didn’t you read that letter from his doctor that said he was the healthiest man ever to run for president?
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/images/uploads/trump_health_record.pdf
It was distributed in a recent CLE I attended as an example of unpersuasive writing.
Anne Laurie
@Baud: Hell, I’m old enough to remember when Very Serious People — some of them centrist Republicans — said the same thing about Nixon in 1972. “Everybody knew” that Tricky Dick was too tainted to win the general, so “the men in charge” would quietly persuade him to step down & let his successor put those Watergate rumors firmly behind him. And the same VSPs, four years later, had every confidence that Gerry Ford’s men would shut down that California nutball Reagan before the B-list actor fatally damaged the GOP’s reputation…
drdavechemist
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Haiku poetry
Function is a slave to form
Stupid idea
lamh36
I don’t watch The Walking Dead, but I do follow ALOT of people who do. This is literally everyone on my TL right now who watched the season finale…
https://media3.giphy.com/media/RtqZpccRVNtpm/giphy.gif
Cacti
@Elie:
Yep, time to put up or shut up.
Especially if you’re running on a platform of across the board tax hikes.
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: If this involves zombies eating people, I will be upset with you.
ETA: I am not upset with you.
danielx
Schadenfreude…..mmmmmmm….
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): rofl. :-)
– #53616
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodinger's cat
A cat named Tunch
Ruled a blog with jackals and hyenas
Discussing politics.
Cacti
@drdavechemist:
Form takes discipline
Diarrhea of the pen
Is much easier
seaboogie
This week’s The New Yorker cover art is absolute perfection…..http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/cover-story-2016-03-28
Had to give a URL link because our linky buttons seem to be missing….
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: nope, just a Galaxy Quest gif.
No spoilers at all.
seaboogie
Oh sure, now they’re back….
Enjoy!
lamh36
So anyone seen BvS? The next comment isn’t really spoiler but if you’ve seen the film, I just anted to know….
Posible SPOILER ALERT….
lamh36
BvS SPOILER ALERT….NEXT COMMENT?
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: Tunch just ruled the blog, the blog, and the jackals and hyenas discussed politics.
lamh36
So, am I the only one who didn’t realize until I saw it on twitter that the photographer at the beginning of the movie was supposed to be Jimmy Olsen?
I was already P.O.’d bout the movie, but a week after I saw it and I I’m pissed all over again
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: Please fix your link.
Darkrose
@lamh36: My timeline is about 40% Walking Dead, 40% Wrestlemania, 15% leftover Warriors, and 5% Mets/Royals right now,
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: It’ll be Ryan – or at least they’ll try. This is the same kabuki/song and dance he pulled about being Speaker.
schrodinger's cat
@Adam L Silverman: MSM thinks he is cute. NOT.
jibeaux
What I like about all this is that there’s really no outcome that’s not a cluster. Even if Drumpf takes it cleanly, that’s a cluster in and of itself. Then if someone who gets fewer votes than Drumpf is perceived to have stolen it away from him? Buckle up!
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: Didn’t and have no plan to watch the movie. OTOH, I saw the second episode of Luther Friday night. Damn. Just saying.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: FML. I can no longer communicate clearly. I attempted droll, which I forgot is an effect of speech, as opposed to an emotion (affect). I failed on both counts.
Mike J
@Dog Dawg:
It’s a secret service identifier. Other campaigns wear them too. They switch out the colors frequently.
Adam L Silverman
@chris: The few times I’ve seen a reporter refer to it its been as a stylized T for Trump.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You know Bootsy. The cool factor is done. Fuck the haters.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: Correct, he could try to hijack the Constitution Party or the Libertarian Party nomination. I don’t think either would give it to him. The real question everyone should be asking is whether his strategic planning is actually more competent than has been observed. As in the reason it looks like his ground game is pathetic and his staff doesn’t understand how to work the delegate process at the state level is intended to distract from the fact that he’s anticipated what the GOP may be trying to do. So he’s got a third party, almost like a shell corporation, who actually has a third party solution ready for him. While Roger Stone is no longer officially affiliated with the campaign, he understands this stuff and it is quite unclear what they old ratfucker has been doing in the shadows.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: See if you can spot the one that is currently attached to Senator Paul.
lamh36
@Darkrose: yep…that’s about up there with mine too, at least about 30 minutes ago
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: I tried at #90, but it didn’t work. The URL link does work, though.
Adam L Silverman
@maryQ: Read this:
http://prospect.org/article/why-hillary-wont-be-indicted-and-shouldnt-be-objective-legal-analysis
An explanation from someone who wrote the classification protocols for the Department of Homeland Security.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re too sweet; many thanks.
stinger
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Trump, Cruz, and Kasich–
Not the Republican Spring.
Party splits for good.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: I love Luther of course. I don’t know if there will be a new “season” but I do know that Idris Elba has discussed wanting to make a feature film of Luther. I can totally see that.
There is also still talk of an American version of Luther. But I just can’t see it… Idris Elba IS Luther. Having some American version of it without Idirs as Luther just wouldn’t be the same.
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
A bird alights
The Refuge is silent
A Bundy arrives
Central Planning
@drdavechemist:
Form follows function
I once learned in the spring time
Of my forty years
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Snyder is quoting as saying it was a fun thing they decided to do with the character.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman:
A Haiku must have
A reference to seasons
Or it’s not haiku
Adam L Silverman
@schrodinger’s cat: Notice when the rumors/buzz started he suddenly shaved his beard? No one is running for president if they have a beard.
seaboogie
My last shot at The New Yorker’s Trump cover this week…. – It’s a beaut!
Yay, Omnes – it worked!
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: I don’t care.
Central Planning
@Steve in the ATL:
Here in Rochester
Winter rears its ugly head.
We thought spring was here.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Here are the rules:
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/edwall/higginson_guidelines_for_writing_haiku.pdf
No requirement that it has to reference a season.
Brachiator
@Weaselone:
I presume that with a little digging, US plutocrats will be implicated as well. And global financial markets are corrupt It’s not as though Wall Street is bad and the City of London is pure, or that Goldman Sachs does not have international offices.
Right now, Sanders and his tax returns is more a curiosity than a scandal. And I am more curious about Trump’s taxes than Bernie’s.
@PsiFighter37:
I know hard core progressives who believe that government, not individuals, are responsible for all aspects of the social safety net.
Still, if Sanders does not deal with this, he will burn up a lot of good will and give Hillary a target that will be too good to avoid.
Mike J
Mike E
Your nature haiku
Warms my vital inner soul.
Now, get your shinebox!
Lamh36
Said it before I’ll say it again, something I never knew, I never wanted to hear ever again…Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan singing…TOGETHER!
Watching Mamma Mia
Matt McIrvin
@Anne Laurie:
Except if you look at general-election polling from 1972, Nixon was always way ahead of McGovern, and at that point the rumors about Watergate weren’t hurting him at all. With Trump there’s actually polling evidence that he’s a major liability.
LauraPDX
The word haiku
has three syllables, not two
cherry blossoms weep
//pedant
Mike J
@LauraPDX: Pffft. You can prove anything with facts.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Adam L Silverman: You still care.
? Martin
Nice article at NPR on how automation has changed the labor force.
What’s worth noting is that at the same time everyone blamed NAFTA for sweeping away manufacturing jobs, a lot of clerical jobs were vanishing as well, actually to the same forces. Computers knocked a lot of bookkeepers and secretaries out of work.
And if you look carefully, the drop in factory workers started back around 1960. The 1960s is when factory automation really took off. Here’s a 1963 LIFE magazine article about it:
And there were calls for a shorter work week in response. Nixon called for one at that time. My dad’s company reduced to 37.5 hours and bumped pay by 5% to avoid layoffs some time back in the 70s. Some industries lasted longer before feeling the effects – some things were easy to automate (textiles) others harder (auto assembly). Today we can just barely automate small consumer electronic assembly – it’s just a bit too small for robots, but that’s just a matter of time.
Again, we’d be better off acknowledging this trend and looking for ways to help workers in declining industries. Democrats really don’t spend nearly enough time and energy on that.
Lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: I saw that interview…it made me smh about it…sure go ahead and just randomly kill a fairly well known comic sidekick ya know just for fun and then not even mention his name in the actual movie but save it for the DVD…smh
I have no opinion of Synder like some so but that just seems like a ahittu thing to do.
Also he said that Essenborg was up for Olsen at one point but then they thought hey why not Lex…eye rolls. said Bryan Cranston was up for Lex…now they would have been awesome IMHO
Mary
@lamh36: They could pull a Broadchurch and just have Idris Elba do a shot by shot remake with an American accent.
smith
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s what I recall as well. The major befuddlement in that campaign was over Thomas Eagleton, not Watergate. Watergate got sticky sometime after the election.
drdavechemist
@Cacti:
Maybe you are right
Iambic pentameter
Can provide focus
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Been a really funky, but overall good, four days or so. I’ve been meaning to do a post on the Trump anti-doctrine for foreign and defense policy that is emerging from these interviews he’s doing. And I want to do something on the Brussels attack. But I’ve just been busy and frequently overtaken by actual things going on.
Brachiator
@lamh36:
No, it’s not clear at all in the movie itself. I don’t know whether the character has an ID badge or anything.
And yet Snyder is quite proud of himself about the scene. And maybe it will be even more graphic in the R rated DVD release that Snyder promises.
dww44
@smith: Agree with you about Booman’s post “It’s the Conservative Movement That’s Breaking”. However, if one delves into the comments, pretty soon a reader will be convinced that the same thing is happening on the Democrat side. Still, I’m saving that post to revisit after November 8 or post Trump, whichever occurs first.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mike J: Adam’s entry made me feel closer to nature and as I understand the verse form, that counts even without a season.
Adam L Silverman
@Lamh36: I can’t stand Eisenberg either. I don’t find him funny. I don’t think he can do anything but try to be funny. And, again: I don’t find him funny. I find him – in interviews when he’s just Eisenberg, in character, doesn’t matter – to be tediously annoying. The kind of person I’d willingly leave my own wedding before the ceremony to avoid because some idiot brought him as a plus one.
As for Snyder: part of it is his take on the characters and what to do with them is not off, but taken far to far. I have no problem with showing just how much damage would occur should a battle between two Kryptonians occurs in a populated area. But Snyder took it a bit too far. I also don’t have any problem with noirish elements, using shading and lighting for effect. But daytime should look like daytime – not like every camera he has has a cataract. The other problem is he’s stuck with Goyer. Goyer has made it clear he actually doesn’t like these characters. Why they let him write them I have no idea. The only thing I can think is that Geoff Johns is pulling his hair out while the studio folks see dollar signs.
No One You Know
Cherry blossoms fade
Petals and posts whirling
On a voter’s breath
smith
@dww44: Agree about the commentariat over there. It even includes some of the same special people who show up here.
dww44
@rikyrah: Garrison Keillor’s show this weekend has a funny but altogether politically incisive skit on Trump that came down on your side…..that Trump doesn’t WANT to be President. In the skit, his advisors are seeking suggestions on how to deep six his poll numbers.
catclub
@Steve in the ATL: Also Buddy Holly and that golfer.
And Amelia Earhardt!
PurpleGirl
@Dog Dawg: I don’t know what the symbol means but I can say that it isn’t a symbol worn by Star Trek ensigns (as per the vocativ article). They used a picture of Captain Kirk in a gold shirt while ensigns worn red. The badge on Captain Kirk’s shirt is a symbol of the United Federation of Planets/Starfleet.
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): There is no requirement to reference a season:
http://www.thehaikufoundation……_haiku.pdf
I have spent 30 years studying Japanese martial arts, as well as parts of its culture and a lot of its religion. The only thing you have to have is the 17 syllable maximum and a 5-7-5 structure. I’m pretty sure I don’t have either of those, which would be a reason to say I screwed it up. But omitting a seasonal reference is not a disqualifiar for a haiku. And no, I can’t spell disqalifier.
catclub
@dww44: Isn’t that a rerun of a New Yorker article?
Would make perfect sense for keillor to use it.
dogwood
@smith:
After the fact the major befuddlement of that campaign was why, given the near certainty of his re-election, they went ahead with such a cockamamie break-in in the first place.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LauraPDX: I’ll always defer to a better pedant, but can’t I use the English pronunciation? Or is that disrespectful? ( A sincere question). Or just ignorant.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll ask you the same question I asked LauraPDX.
smith
@dogwood: It was totally unnecessary. Not sure if it was more a reflection of Nixon’s enormous paranoia or of his henchmen’s eagerness to play at cloak-and-dagger.
Lamh36
@Mary: right it’s bout the only way that would work
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Okay, what’s the question?
Carolina Dave
I hope there will be an NCAA Championship open thread tomorrow.
Lamh36
ok I’m off to bed…good night BJ
cbear
From the article on Battling Delegates:
Barbara Bookout (a Cruz supporter)….She is already preparing a speech and literature to distribute at the April 8 district meeting where delegates will be selected. Her goal: to show fellow activists how hard she campaigned for Cruz as his third district chair. She said she made 1,300 campaign buttons and raised money for nine digital billboards.
How does one make 1300 campaign buttons? Were they stick-on or with pins? How big were they? Was it a stylized or realistic looking lizard on the pin? How did she not run out of crayons? How did she find the time away from her gooper ladies art group—those needlepoint pictures of Jesus holding the dead fetus don’t just make themselves.
I just have so many questions.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman: I would agree that once there is no first ballot
winner Ryan looks plausible – “because none of the people (bozos) who ran could get a mandate, give it to someone who did not even run.”
But I think this ignores all the delegates at the convention, who are attached to people who DID run.
they will carry more weight at the convention.
Also the ‘there will be riots’ aspect will motivate them to vote in Trump if he comes in close to a majority.
mclaren
@dogwood:
The 1972 campaign was only a near-certain win for Nixon because of all the ratfvcking the Nixon operatives had done up to that point. The DNC Watergate office bugging was merely a continuation of the ratfvcking Nixon was already doing.
It’s a lot like asking why a thrillseeking liquor store robber held up a tenth liquor store and got taken by cops after he had successfully pulled off 9 previous liquor store robberies. When people get away with that kind of sh!t, they tend to get cocky, and eventually it catches up to them.
LauraPDX
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I honestly don’t think there’s any problem with the two syllable pronunciation when writing in English because that’s how we pronounce it (we blend the ai into one sound). I was just being obnoxious. But, if you’ve studied or speak Japanese and use the standard pronunciation of haiku, the lines end up with too many syllables and seems ‘wrong.’
Matt McIrvin
@smith: Now Reagan in 1980 is more interesting: early in the year, Carter was well ahead of him, but when John Anderson jumped in as an independent, he immediately made it a close race by taking away a large chunk of support almost completely from Jimmy Carter. But then Reagan gradually gained support and started taking it away from Anderson, and then Reagan had a big surge right at the end. There seems to have been this Carter->Anderson->Reagan flow of voters, as if Anderson were the gateway drug.
The Republican convention was in mid-July, right at the point where Reagan was starting to take the lead. But he wasn’t an obvious slam-dunk at that point. The big story was the weird idea that Reagan might choose Gerald Ford as his running mate and govern as “co-Presidents”.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Adam L Silverman: I understand that the Japanese pronunciation of haiku is different from that in English. My question was:
In response to
@LauraPDX:
Brachiator
@? Martin:
That sounds about right. The effect of automation was hidden somewhat by the still booming defense, aerospace and automotive industries, among others in the strong post-war economy.
Software, mini-computers and pcs accelerated things in the 70s and 80s. I saw the spreadsheet eliminate hundreds of clerical jobs.
This was an understandable, but ultimately futile response.
The problem is that the impact of automation is often too broad, too sweeping, and too fast to help workers. As an aside, I think that there are people, especially in the professional class, who think that their jobs are safe, but who are in for a rude shock soon.
Also, what happens when your job still theoretically exists, but your customer base has disappeared because they are all now unemployed?
scav
go old, omit rhymes
all are alliterative
past poetic words
cross-cultural form
what wonders await?
bonsai Beowulf
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): yeah, what looks like “ai” to us and sounds like “I” or “eye” is actually two sounds in Japanese. There’s basically a vocal stop or pause between the “a” and the “i” sounds as opposed to how we blend them into one sound.
smith
@Matt McIrvin: I used to use that election for a not-exactly-serious example of joint probability when I was teaching intro stats. As I recall, less than 2 months before the election, polls showed Carter and Reagan essentially tied, so the probability of either being elected was 50%. Using some very low number to estimate the probability of aliens landing, we could calculate a joint probability of both Reagan being elected and aliens landing.
After the election, though, the probability of Reagan being elected was 100%. Calculating the joint probability again, you could show that the probability of an alien landing had doubled with Reagan’s election.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LauraPDX: Thank you for that kind answer, and I completely get the “just looks wrong” thing. Pedantry is never obnoxious, but of course I would say that as a candidate for Pedant in Chief. My formidable opponents are probably obvious.
@scav:
May I appropriate this. It’s a great band name, though I’m not planning a new band. I will find a use for it if granted permission to copy.
Mary
@Lamh36: At which point you’d hope someone would have the sense to say, “Instead of spending all this money to make a shittier version of this show for Americans, why don’t we just air this excellent and already made version on American television.”
scav
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Appropriate away. I’m now trying to work up Gawain the Green Ninja Knight only to be sidetracked into the complexities of Hawai’ian Haiku in original pronunciantion.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: I have enough trouble with just English these days.
cbear
@efgoldman:
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve been meaning to do a post on the Trump anti-doctrine for foreign and defense policy
Prescott Cactus
@rikyrah:
FTFY
scav
@efgoldman: How far up, could a rat up fuck, if a ret fuck could fuck up?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Trump’s ex-wife Ivana comes forward to help:
What an campaign asset.
Gotta hand it to the Trumps — they say what we’re thinking.
You can see how Susan Sarandon is so attracted to the Trump message.
Ken
@scav:
No, no. Haven’t you been reading? 5-7-5 syllable structure.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@efgoldman: Were you in the thread where I reported that my Jewish acquaintance was totally cracked up by St. Purim’s Day and wants to be reminded to set up a celebration of it next year? He mentioned his mother’s hamantaschen recipe – her dough is thinnish so they are crispy and the filling includes cherry marmalade.
Calouste
@rikyrah: I believe telling the primary voters to go fuck themselves by getting all the super delegates to his side is Sanders’ current plan to get the nomination.
Marc
Anyone see the trailer for ‘The Killing Joke’? Looks good, with the Batman animated team and the voice actors. The idea of giving Barbara a bit more screen time, so the audience gets to know her, was IMHO, excellent. If only the folks who made movies understood how to get this stuff right, it would be great. Hire the folks who live and breathe it, but who also know how to present it – yeah, folks will pay money to see most anything today, but do it right, and it wouldn’t look like you’re just hooking the cash cow up to the milking machine (again, and again, and oh look – another Spiderman reboot…).
Prescott Cactus
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Trumpster by Prescott Cactus;
Misogynistic
Possum headed dumb fucker
Milking the masses
scav
@Ken: You must forgive me — I’m easily distracted. And counting is hard.
Prescott Cactus
@scav: Clap your hands slowly grasshopper.
mclaren
@Brachiator:
Martin is not thinking this through, like all managers. He doesn’t realize that the collapse of aggregate demand as workers’ income declines due to automation means that the economy as a whole enters a vicious cycle. Fewer jobs, less aggregate demand, therefore less sales, so fewer jobs, less aggregate demand…rinse, wash, repeat.
That’s where the world is globally right now. There’s a big debate about how to fix this among serious economists. It’s the issue of secular stagnation.
Martin, like all stupid incompetent managers, thinks that if he shut sticks his fingers in his ears and shouts NEENER NEENER NEENER I CAN’T HEAR YOU! about the rate at which automation is destroying jobs and the consequent rapidity with which aggregate demand is collapsing, everything will work out fine. After all, didn’t everything work out fine in the 1790s when we had the first industrial revolution (Steam power + factories)? And didn’t everything work out fine in the 1930s when we had the second industrial revolution (electricity + assembly line)? And didn’t everything work out fine in the 1950s when we had the third industrial revolution (electronics + cybernetics + computers)? So why should this time be different?
Because of facts like this: “For the first time essentially ever, labor force participation and the stock market have totally and wildly diverged.”
You can see what’s going on right in that one graph. The stock market is skyrocketing because the tiny handful of people who profit from owning all this super-high technology robotic production factory stuff are becoming multi-billionaires. Everyone else is watching their jobs disappear, so the total number of people in the labor forces keeps dropping.
The ordinary person realizes that when you project those two curve on that chart out farther, the stock market goes into the stratosphere and the labor force participation rate approaches zero.
That is not sustainable. Even a small child can grasp that, but ignorant incompetent manages like Martin can’t understand it at all.
Typical.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@efgoldman: Wish to hell I could remember, but probably. Ain’t nothing likely to top the brownies.
@Prescott Cactus: I can’t even compete with that amazing work.
dogwood
@mclaren:
“. . . stupid incompetent manager”
You need a time out.
mclaren
@Marc:
For whatever reason, the Batman animated TV series and films have always been far more awesome than any of the Batman movies.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was incredible. And Mark Hamill’s voicing of The Joker always struck me as definitive.
FWIW, the animated film Justice League War also blew away the current Batman v. Superman film by light-years.
Fair Economist
@PaulWartenberg2016:
To that I will say
National Poetry Month
Includes April 12th
(It’s even got the seasonal reference)
CONGRATULATIONS!
[email protected]Cacti: That is epic. My wife and I are seriously in tears right now. Haven’t laughed this hard in a while.
Prescott Cactus
@mclaren:
“Though the pie to be shared by the next generation will be far larger than today’s (per capita growth), how it will be divided will remain fiercely contentious. Just as is now the case, their will be struggles for the increased output of goods and services between those people in their productive years and retirees, between the healthy and the infirm, between the Horatio Algers, between investors and workers and, in particular, between those with talents that are valued highly by the marketplace and equally hard-working Americans who lack skillsthe market prizes. Clashes of that sort have forever been with us – and will forever continue. Congress will be the battlefield: money and votes will be the weapons. Lobbying will remain a growth industry.”
Warren Buffet 2015 Annual Report
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Funny – Susan Sarandon owns three homes in NYC.
Ivana Trump’s remarks are so crazy I became curious to see if she lived next door to Susan Sarandon. ya know – perhaps their crazy views are due to lead poisoning on their block.
Turns out Sarandon owns at least 3 homes in NYC and set up a home in a million dollar trust for one of her sons. Nothing says Revolution like handing your son a million dollar home, while bidding up prices and making it impossible for the little people.
And while she doesn’t live near Ivana, she does own a weekend home in “horse country” Connecticut next to…. wait for it… none other than The Donald, himself.
No wonder she thinks he would be good for the country – he’s a good neighbor. They probable both on the same neighborhood watch committee.
? Martin
@Brachiator:
You think? That’s definitely true. LegalZoom etc. has knocked out a chunk of the lawyer/paralegal community. There are startups like Zenefits (scandals aside) that are taking out HR professionals. Plenty of automated financial tools out there now like Betterment. Its just a matter of time before education gets more broadly automated – not like MOOCs but there are some seriously good platforms out there that are better than traditional classrooms for at least certain disciplines.
There aren’t many industries that aren’t going to have at least part of their profession knocked off by automation. I’m pretty sure if given the time to do so, I could automate a task that employs about 45 people at my institution and would do a better job in the process (leadership is not sufficiently forward looking to allow me to try) and would only require 2 people to support in an ongoing basis.
Prescott Cactus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
a hip hop artist from Idaho by Prescott Cactus
Gifts are for giving
You raise our minds with your thoughts
Happiness is you
Marc
@mclaren: As seen with some of the stuff out of the studios, they don’t ‘get’ that the story is the picture – there are several graphic novels which will never make it to the screen, since the story and characters are great, but they’re not in the general public’s headspace. Slap ‘Spiderman’, ‘Batman’, or ‘Superman’ on the title, and the cow will produce. Fables and Elephantmen, to name two, won’t get an animated treatment, since they have hard storylines and characters who aren’t something the general public may be comfortable with. I just hope ‘The Killing Joke’ gets enough energy and attention that the folks who make the decisions of who to have as directors and producers for these kinds of movies will think more of who should do it, rather than attaching a ‘name’ just for the cachet.
cbear
@dogwood:
Jeebus, that’s annoying. Try not to be such a delicate flower, woudja.
Martin (who I actually like) is perfectly capable of responding all by himself, and, trust me, is also perfectly capable of slinging his own gratuitous insults.
If you disagree with mclaren, then either move on down the page or come up with a counter argument of some type. Otherwise, fuck off.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@CONGRATULATIONS!: It is delightful. Does it remind you of Choctaw Bingo? (@Cacti – that’s a sincere compliment; I love McMurtry pere et fils)
Prescott Cactus
@? Martin: 3D printers are going to create great upheaval. A plumbing truck carries 1/2 to 3/4 million $ in inventory. Now a laptop, a 3D printer and that arcane broken part will be warm in my hand in 4 minutes.
Fridges, Ranges, Ovens, Washers, Dryers, HVAC . It will spin industry and workers faster than they would believe.
? Martin
@mclaren:
You know, this cycle of automation started about 15,000 years ago with agriculture and the domestication of animals. There has not been any net decline in jobs. Huge shift in jobs, sure, and some restructuring of what constitutes a job (our modern 40 hour work week is pretty luxurious compared to sustenance living a few hundred years ago).
And I think you are confusing what is happening, well, I’m not sure where, but globally things are in the strongest economic expansion for the poor ever in history. Yeah, it probably does suck ass for some Trump supporters in the south, but there’s half a billion people in Africa doing better than they’ve ever done.
The gloom and doom of automation has been with us since long before the Luddites. The heavy industrialization of the start of the 20th century is what allowed us to take kids out of mines and put them in school. Most people see that as a positive. I guess you don’t.
But there is no drop in aggregate demand overall. GDP isn’t contracting. Yes, it’s poorly distributed and that will almost certainly change should demand drop. But it hasn’t yet and it shows no signs of doing so.
PatrickG
@Adam L Silverman:
After casual inspection… has no one called you on the six syllables here? I expected better of Balloon Juice commenters and/or the number of syllables in “Refuge”.
A popular blog
One commenter is a jerk
Quite expected spring
Edited to add improved (yet gratuitous) season reference.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Prescott Cactus:
Do you write for a living?
For Prescott Cactus – by Bella Q
Gifts you have many
You have lightened my spirits
This too darkened night
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PatrickG: I think he called himself on it, but I’m too lazy to look for that comment. I suspect it was a more a thoughtful nod for his Bundy junkies than a technically correct piece of verse.
? Martin
@Prescott Cactus:
It’ll have some effect, but probably not as much in aggregate as you might think. We’ve got one and every few months we print off new versions of the last things we made. We’re actually consuming a fair bit more because we can use it so readily. Yes, there are premade things that we aren’t buying, but we’re replacing that with more buying of 3D printers and consumables, and the majority of what we are making are things that you simply can’t buy off the shelf. For instance, we made custom-fit glides for all of our furniture that didn’t accommodate the stuff in the stores. I did however print a new rear drawer guide when one in the kitchen broke rather than run to the store.
AI will be vastly more disruptive. Self-driving semis that are only going from port/airport to distribution center (easy routing) will displace a million jobs. And that is coming much faster than people realize.
Plumbers need to worry more about PEX catching on.
Brachiator
@mclaren:
Yeh, it is a problem, but after a while even billionaires will be affected. Unless you can find a way to get robots to spend money and to consume products.
By the way, I think that Martin can probably defend himself, but you might be more effective if you didn’t toss out gratuitous insults. I also think that there are managers and business people who are not soulless vipers and who want to see people thrive as workers and citizens as much as anyone.
By the way, there is another side to this that has interesting ramifications. Piracy and the insistence that things be cheap, but high quality. So, for example, you have Spotify and Netflix, and the demand by consumers that they be able to get an infinite amount of entertainment for only 9 bucks a month. 3D printing may create a mini revolution in manufacturing, where items can be duplicated independent of what the holders of patents and trademarks might demand in royalties.
In any event, if I had to guess, I would bet that a new wave of technological disruption will occur in the near future that might make what’s happening now look mild by comparison. But maybe it will take another generation or so before there are people who can see past the fear of technology or simple faith in an optimistic future to come up with new solutions.
? Martin
@efgoldman: We’re printing organs in the lab now. Just as interesting are composite materials that are otherwise impossible to make – titanium/carbon fiber weaves, and parts that can’t be machined traditionally such as Koenigsegg’s turbo.
There are a lot of industries with low volume part runs that traditional tooling is too expensive to get running (spaceflight, aircraft, military, pro sports, etc.) which these techniques are perfect for. The combustion chamber on SpaceXs SuperDraco rocket is 3D printed – printed as a single piece rather than multiple pieces to be assembled with more failure points and challenges with thermal effects.
A really good example is the industry that is most dependent on 3D printing. Almost all modern hearing aids are 3D printed. They take a mold or scan of your ear and print a hearing aid that will fit perfectly just to you. Over a million 3D printed hearing aids every year. Now, these advances don’t eliminate jobs – in fact they generally create more by opening up opportunities that traditional manufacturing either couldn’t meet or couldn’t meet at reasonable cost.
Prescott Cactus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
***Living, no. I have a book inside me that has yearned to be tossed upon paper. Life always doesn’t accept yearning as a high priority. Much pre work (time line, characters, plot) has been done, but only a handful of pages. It is meant for my wife, but not about her. She likes a good book and I would like to make her one. Like a carpenter build a credenza, I hope to craft a good book.
Start time begins next week, with one to two year completion. If you would like a chapter as they leave the keyboard I would oblige.
Reply to Bella Q by Prescott Cactus
Your spirits are higher
Because of your gifting nature
Your heart shine very warm
*** I wrote for 5 years, but instructional tasks combined into packages for workers to complete. Each had a beginning, middle and an end…
Origuy
Since I’m learning Russian, I tried to do a haiku in that language. I don’t think you can say anything in Russian in seventeen syllables.
tastytone
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Tylenol and L’Oreal pay really good. Viva La Revolution.
Marc
My non-seasonal entry:
Boom child, dreams future
Living in the future
Eighties yearning, I
Prescott Cactus
@? Martin: Pex is all Habitat for Humanity uses. It’ll kill the plumbers on initial build. It will be great for propriety parts that say. . . Maytag. . . or Sub Zero own. No more factory, no more inventory. Part# 248UYT and it’s kicked out in minutes. Murders the supply chain.
PatrickG
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
It’s quite possible (i.e. mistakes were made) that I missed a self-admission/correction, but I couldn’t resist the lure of scansion correction*. Heartfelt mea culpas all around if so. :)
* Word probably used incorrectly. I’m no linguist!
Prescott Cactus
@efgoldman:
Marc
Three Important Dates this month (at least for me):
April 5th – National Deep Dish Pizza Day
April 7th – National Beer Day
April 12th – D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything And Read)
jl
I heard some poll analyst on the news claim that Sanders and Trump need to win almost 60 percent of the vote in remaining primaries and caucuses to get a majority of pledged delegates going in to the convention.
I don’t think Sanders can do that, but whoever wins, Democrats will emerge from the convention united and enthusiastic.
Looking more and more like Trump will have a harder time than expected doing that, and the GOP convention will be a mess. And the GOP will emerge split and angry.
Sounds like a win-win to me.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@tastytone: wow – she works for corporatist pigs Johnson & Johnson and L’Oreal. L’Oreal, who also harms women by objectifying them and promoting unrealistic female body images. It’s shocking to discover a revolutionary like Sanders is using such a surrogate.
Anne Laurie
@cbear:
I appreciate your sarcasm, but as someone who’s got souvenir pinbacks going back 50 years (Make something happy – kiss an orc today!), button-making machines are one of those consumer goods that have gotten a lot more affordable in the past 25 years!
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: My linguistics-major Spousal Unit is studying Japanese, which makes watching (subtitled) anime with him interesting. I know the general rule that every godsdamned letter in a Japanese word is there to be pronounced is an artifact of transliteration, but I still find it amusing to see how translators deal with all those vowels!
cbear
@Anne Laurie: Lol. We all have our hobbies, and I think your collection sounds pretty cool.
As for the redoubtable Ms Bookout from the article—I’m always struck by the utter banality of people in service of obvious evil.
Oh Doctor Mengele, I’d love to volunteer at your clinic, and, look, I knitted these nice doilies for your patient’s waiting room!
NobodySpecial
I’d write a poem
But It’s bad for my body
they give me rashes
qwerty42
@Miss Bianca: … Just one more episode until “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Can’t wait for the commentary on *that* one!
That episode was revisited on TNG.
maryQ
@Adam L Silverman: thank you!
Central Planning
@? Martin:
There will always be a need for people to snake toilets.
Uncle Cosmo
@stinger: Mind if I edit that just a tad?
Steve in the ATL
@catclub:
I almost mentioned Payne Stewart, but I wasn’t sure who would have had him killed
stinger
@Uncle Cosmo: Works for me!
? Martin
@Central Planning:
Good luck keeping your hourly rate if that’s all you are doing.
Miss Bianca
@qwerty42:
And also Deep Space Nine – that episode was part of the “Tribble” special features and it was awesome!
@Adam L Silverman:
You! Stop making me –
Whatever the danged season –
Laugh so hard at work.