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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

All hail the time of the bunny!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Bark louder, little dog.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Saturday Morning Clown Show Open Thread: Media Edition

Saturday Morning Clown Show Open Thread: Media Edition

by Anne Laurie|  May 7, 20164:20 am| 329 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hillary Clinton 2016, Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment

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never trust hillary davies

(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

Professor Krugman:

How will the news media handle the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? I suspect I know the answer — and it’s going to be deeply frustrating. But maybe, just maybe, flagging some common journalistic sins in advance can limit the damage. So let’s talk about what can and probably will go wrong in coverage — but doesn’t have to.

First, and least harmful, will be the urge to make the election seem closer than it is, if only because a close race makes a better story… A more important vice in political coverage, which we’ve seen all too often in previous elections — but will be far more damaging if it happens this time — is false equivalence.

You might think that this would be impossible on substantive policy issues, where the asymmetry between the candidates is almost ridiculously obvious. To take the most striking comparison, Mr. Trump has proposed huge tax cuts with no plausible offsetting spending cuts, yet has also promised to pay down U.S. debt; meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton has proposed modest spending increases paid for by specific tax hikes.

That is, one candidate is engaged in wildly irresponsible fantasy while the other is being quite careful with her numbers. But beware of news analyses that, in the name of “balance,” downplay this contrast…

And what about less quantifiable questions about behavior? I’ve already seen pundits suggest that both presumptive nominees fight dirty, that both have taken the “low road” in their campaigns. For the record, Mr. Trump has impugned his rivals’ manhood, called them liars and suggested that Ted Cruz’s father was associated with J.F.K.’s killer. On her side, Mrs. Clinton has suggested that Bernie Sanders hasn’t done his homework on some policy issues. These things are not the same…

Finally, I can almost guarantee that we’ll see attempts to sanitize the positions and motives of Trump supporters, to downplay the racism that is at the heart of the movement and pretend that what voters really care about are the priorities of D.C. insiders — a process I think of as “centrification.”…

Meanwhile, our Very Serious National News Media:

Greatest moments in the WH press briefing room: pic.twitter.com/46fu6TLIp0

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) May 6, 2016


***********
Keep calm and GOTV on. In the interim, apart from Mother’s Day, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?

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Reader Interactions

329Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 7, 2016 at 4:39 am

    Our media needs to be put on a rocket ship, and sent screaming into the heart of the Sun.

    They are beyond useless. They make the old Soviet media seem down right impartial.

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    May 7, 2016 at 4:48 am

    Good Morning ?, Everyone ?.
    Off to swim ? and run errands this morning.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    May 7, 2016 at 5:11 am

    I’m planning a birding hike for later today. Hope to see some roseate spoonbills.

  4. 4.

    amk

    May 7, 2016 at 5:12 am

    dems have always had two opponents – rethugs and their media minions.

    da kenyan showed how to beat them both. twice. #gotv #gotv #gotv

  5. 5.

    lollipopguild

    May 7, 2016 at 5:15 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: We need to hold their feet to fire, we need to call them out when they say stupid stuff and if some of their little feelings get hurt then too bad. Media people need to know that people are paying attention and names will be taken and asses will be kicked.

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    May 7, 2016 at 5:16 am

    Anne Laurie:

    Keep calm and GOTV on.

    Exactly. Once we get past the conventions, get out the vote, engage in:

    Full
    Use of
    Clinton
    Knowledge

    To
    Rustle
    Up
    More
    Peeps

  7. 7.

    JGabriel

    May 7, 2016 at 5:18 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hope to see some roseate spoonbills.

    That sounds dirty.

  8. 8.

    dianne

    May 7, 2016 at 5:19 am

    There was an amazing segment on MSNBC with Kate Snow and a Rep. yesterday right before the Rob Reiner segment. It didn’t come up on the website (too hot, I guess). Her jaw dropped as did mine when she asked him his sense of the feelings of the typical Trump voters. He said he wasn’t voting for Trump and his voters were fools being taken in by a charleton and were bigots and racists. Hope someone can recover this and get it out there. It was the most stark statement from a Republican I’ve heard yet. He spoke with great dignity and in a beautiful voice and I wish
    MSNBC would do their job and not bury this.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 5:25 am

    In the garden this morn. Heading for some friends this afternoon to help celebrate their retirement. Gonna whip up a batch of Settler Beans for the shindig.

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hope to see some roseate spoonbills.

    Jealous.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    May 7, 2016 at 5:26 am

    @JGabriel: Also hope to see limpkins, swallow-tail kites and wood storks! Filthy!

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 5:27 am

    @dianne:

    It was the most stark statement from a Republican I’ve heard yet. He spoke with great dignity and in a beautiful voice

    Obviously it was just a dream.

  12. 12.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 5:30 am

    @Betty Cracker: For the past two years the owls have appeared in our tree this time of year, here’s hoping.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 5:34 am

    I see London has voted for Sharia law.

  14. 14.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 5:36 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Fuckin A!

  15. 15.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 5:38 am

    We’ve got the Kalamazoo Dog Walk AND Kalamazoo Marathon this weekend – don’t you think they would have been more fun combined? :-)

    Anyway I’m tabling on behalf of Vegan Kalamazoo at both.

    I also predict I will be spending lots of time mesmerized by this BENTHIC WEB CAM:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31vNARRU1SU

  16. 16.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 5:40 am

    That WH exchange… The pinned tweet at the top is on-topic, in the larger sense. The internet-of-OMFG.

  17. 17.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 5:44 am

    @Hillary Rettig: My wife is organizing a barkus type doggie parade for the fall and it’s been a pain in the ass for here. At the last meeting two members got into an argument about the school art class drawing contest for an event poster. One person insisted that there be a rule that the woofs in the pictures had leashes on, the other thought that was stupid!

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    May 7, 2016 at 5:49 am

    @Hillary Rettig: Did you see that neon jellyfish?

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 5:59 am

    Actually I don’t see the sarcasm in the tweet question. The reporter is following up on Obama’s observation of the gravity of the office by saying, “Here’s a guy who is running to succeed you being out-and-out racist in social media, as thought this were all a big joke.” It’s really exactly what Obama was talking about.

  20. 20.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:04 am

    @raven: too bad that such a potentially fun event would lead to such acrimony. everyone should chill out just like chill pugs. // still when all is said and done I suspect the Barkus Parade will be a hoot.

    btw, reminds me of one of my favorite Dickens quotes: “Barkis is willing.” (From Copperfield)

  21. 21.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 6:06 am

    @dianne:

    He said he wasn’t voting for Trump and his voters were fools being taken in by a charleton and were bigots and racists.

    I love Trump supporters. Eating a bowl of crackers right now.

  22. 22.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:06 am

    omg yes – so exquisite.

    my childhood ambitions was to to be a marine biologist. I’m not sure where I came up with that except that one of my favorite sf authors, Arthur C. Clarke, was also into marine biology and marine science. Exploring space, exploring the deep – it’s all good!

  23. 23.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 6:07 am

    @Betty Cracker: What, no titmice? No dickcissels? No boobies?

  24. 24.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 6:09 am

    BTW, what the hell are we all doing being up before 6am on a Saturday?

  25. 25.

    Shalimar

    May 7, 2016 at 6:09 am

    I assume we will have to wait until after the Republican convention for the “Did any of you morons actually see Idiocracy? It isn’t entertaining anymore when the world economy gets so bad that no one in your family can find a job.” answer.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 6:09 am

    @raven:

    Those people belong on Twitter.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 6:10 am

    @different-church-lady: It’s after 6.

  28. 28.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 6:12 am

    @Baud: Well sure, if you’re going to use a clock or something…

  29. 29.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:12 am

    @Hillary Rettig: I guess it’s why I only provide logistical support on all this stuff.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 6:15 am

    @different-church-lady: The bagel store opens at 6:30.

  31. 31.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:15 am

    @raven: on an entirely different note do you remember that cool Santa Shroom artwork you posted that your friend did a while back? can you ask your friend if I could use it (w/ link and attribution of course) on a future post? (And if OK please email me the link to it.) thx!

  32. 32.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:17 am

    @raven: ps – probably a wise choice!

  33. 33.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:19 am

    @different-church-lady: insomnia ftw

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 6:19 am

    @different-church-lady: Been up since 3:25. It’s normal for me.

  35. 35.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:24 am

    @Hillary Rettig: I haven’t seen Jimmy in years and don’t know where he is these days.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 6:24 am

    @MattF: And you’re the baker or something?

    @Hillary Rettig: Seems like everyone I know has it lately. I’ve been waking up between 3 and 4 am and can’t get back to sleep.

  37. 37.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:25 am

    @raven: okay thanks

  38. 38.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:25 am

    @Hillary Rettig: Here’s a google.

  39. 39.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    May 7, 2016 at 6:26 am

    @different-church-lady: I get off work in a half hour, then I go get some food, and then go to bed.

    The Ft. McMurray smoke has arrived in the Twin Cities, and it’s been a major pain in the ass tonight. We had a fire in the solar panels here last evening, and I need to check every couple hours to make sure that nothing has started burning again. It would be nice to be able to go by whether or not I smell smoke, but that’s out the window since you can smell smoke everywhere now.

  40. 40.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 6:28 am

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    I get off work in a half hour, then I go get some food, and then go to bed.

    That’s the only reasonable answer anyone should have.

    I love sunrises. I just prefer they come at the end of the day.

  41. 41.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 6:35 am

    @raven: Thank you! He’s really talented.

  42. 42.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:44 am

    @Hillary Rettig: We have a small painting of a clearing in the woods that he did before he got all psychedelic.

  43. 43.

    Punchy

    May 7, 2016 at 6:46 am

    Off to run a 5K. Supposed to be for fun, but my brain cant accept that and must run full speed the whole way. The last half-mile is going to be uber-painful…

  44. 44.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @Hillary Rettig: Ah, here’s his website. They live over near the Outer Banks now.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @different-church-lady: You should consider moving out West. The sun comes up later there.

  46. 46.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @different-church-lady: I’m the eater. As are others– there was a line at the counter of about a half-dozen somewhat dazed-looking bagel aficionados.

    ETA: Also, I happen to be an early riser.

  47. 47.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 6:48 am

    Good morning all! Raining here (again). I’m about to turn into a mushroom myself from it all, but yesterday we did get a nice sunshine break. Lots of work finishing orders today and if there’s time dragging more stuff over to sell at the antique mall.

    I’m in despair over the media in this country, so I don’t have much to say about that.

  48. 48.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:48 am

    @Punchy: It’s the huge Twilight Criterium bike race weekend and there is a 5k running race coming through our neighborhood at 8.

  49. 49.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2016 at 6:48 am

    @different-church-lady:

    I love sunrises. I just prefer they come at the end of the day.

    I believe those are called sunsets.

  50. 50.

    raven

    May 7, 2016 at 6:49 am

    @satby: Don’t let it get to ya. Everybody bitches about “the media” all the time. Screw it.

  51. 51.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 6:49 am

    @raven: you got that right!

  52. 52.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2016 at 6:50 am

    @Baud: No it comes up at the same time.

  53. 53.

    Joel

    May 7, 2016 at 6:52 am

    Toddler dad = 6am wakeup on a good day

  54. 54.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 6:54 am

    Just read this at Booman’s place, and I hope he’s right.

  55. 55.

    evodevo

    May 7, 2016 at 6:57 am

    @different-church-lady: Even better in England, where they have Great Tits … lol

  56. 56.

    Punchy

    May 7, 2016 at 6:59 am

    @raven: This race is a part of Corporate Challenge, an Olympic-style series of events taking place in Spring and Summer. So team points are based on finishing place. Ergo, this means something. Or something.

    Lord, here comes the lactic acid.

  57. 57.

    Hillary Rettig

    May 7, 2016 at 7:03 am

    @satby: did someone say mushroom?!!?!?!? :-)

  58. 58.

    Pangloss

    May 7, 2016 at 7:04 am

    Our news media was not totally inept and impotent until The Fairness Doctrine was repealed and the FCC deregulated around 1987. That ruling allowed talk radio to proliferate and conservative buyers to stockpile HUNDREDS of radio stations. These outlets took the place of mimeographed newsletters, and amplified anger and conspiracy theories that once proliferated only though physical means.

    The Nixon White House was really where the concept of the Right Wing creating their own media began, with Ailes making the suggestion in a famous memo. Nixon’s enemies list included many journalists, and the Nixon White House used the IRS and FBI to harass journalists. After Watergate, the right wing tried to brand the media as Liberal. The Washington Times was created in 1982, and served as a launching pad and right wing journalism petri dish until Fox News was founded in 1996.

  59. 59.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 7:08 am

    @Hillary Rettig: and still no morel sales people around here! Maybe with a bit of a warm up they’ll start growing.

  60. 60.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 7:11 am

    @evodevo: Well, we’ve got Grand Teton.

  61. 61.

    Phylllis

    May 7, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @different-church-lady: Fixinta* head out to set up a table at the town yard sale. Cleared out the attice-where there was a lot of crap, but not nearly as much as I’d feared.

    *Yeah, it’s all one word in these here parts.

  62. 62.

    Raven

    May 7, 2016 at 7:21 am

    @Phylllis: there is no X in that, just fikkin

  63. 63.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 7, 2016 at 7:29 am

    Our local farmer’s market opens for the first time this season. Keeping my fingers crossed it doesn’t rain.

  64. 64.

    MomSense

    May 7, 2016 at 7:31 am

    Hoping the weather holds so I can go out in the garden today.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 7:35 am

    Trump.. Hillary is responsible for Bill’s infidelity..
    Hillary… Trump is the presumptive nominee

    Both sides are going negative..
    I might have to turn off the TV until November.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 7:40 am

    @JPL: But do both sides have small fingers?

  67. 67.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 7:48 am

    @Baud: Will Trump end up going hand to hand combat with Hillary? I think not.

  68. 68.

    qwerty42

    May 7, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    The Ft. McMurray smoke has arrived in the Twin Cities, …

    Some years ago there was a big fire in the Okefenokee Swamp, Eventually the smoke got to Athens. None of this nice ‘woodsmoke on a fall day’ stuff. More like the smell of an old house fire.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    May 7, 2016 at 7:51 am

    @JPL: She should challenge him to a thumb wrestling contest.

  70. 70.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    May 7, 2016 at 7:51 am

    It’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY Saturday!

    Geek out at your local comic book store!

    I will. I plan on dressing up for a few hours as a Jedi.

  71. 71.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 7:58 am

    @qwerty42:
    I remember the wildfires in Florida having a very distinctive smell. There was a hint of eucalyptus to it and some other earthy smells, nothing about it was pleasant. In the southwest I thought they smelled of sage & mesquite which is not unpleasant but up here on the frozen tundra next to the big woods they smell like a campfire mostly.

    I didn’t notice the smoke last night but then again I have been so stuffed up this spring I’m not surprised.

  72. 72.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    We met your seatmates for beers at the new taproom in Robbinsdale. They have a couple worth returning for is you ever get a night off!

  73. 73.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 8:07 am

    @PaulWartenberg2016: Hi Paul, you asked a day ago but I was offline by then; I make and sell soap and other skin care items. Got into it because I’m allergic to a lot of stuff in commercial products.

  74. 74.

    Hildebrand

    May 7, 2016 at 8:10 am

    @Hillary Rettig: Need to add those the most important event in Kalamazoo this weekend, the International Congress on Medieval Studies (best academic conference of the year, well, outside of the Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK).

  75. 75.

    Woodrowfan

    May 7, 2016 at 8:17 am

    giving a final exam at 9. ugh. I hate this year’s finals schedule.

  76. 76.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 8:24 am

    @Pangloss: this

  77. 77.

    debbie

    May 7, 2016 at 8:30 am

    @JPL:

    I’m with you. What a laughingstock this has become.

  78. 78.

    Agrippa

    May 7, 2016 at 8:30 am

    The cartoon is very funny.
    The article is true and accurate.
    Well done!!

  79. 79.

    Agrippa

    May 7, 2016 at 8:32 am

    @JGabriel:

    GOTV is first and foremost!

  80. 80.

    Agrippa

    May 7, 2016 at 8:37 am

    @JPL:

    I seldom watch TV. When I decide to try, I go through the channels, and find nothing worth watching.
    As for the news media ( there are no “good old days”): the press are like birds on a wire; when one comes, they all come; when one leaves, they all leave.”

  81. 81.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    May 7, 2016 at 8:42 am

    Just watched the clip of Bill Maher taking down whiny little bitch Trump in epic fashion from last night’s show. Wow, that’s gonna leave a mark. I didn’t realize Trump had sued Maher for saying his father was an orangutan. Trump is so thin skinned, Hillz won’t need to do anything – there are tons of surrogates just waiting to take their shots. Maher said he’d vote for the candidate with balls, not (with apologies to vaginas) a giant pussy.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    May 7, 2016 at 8:43 am

    End of the world for the GOP Oldtimers.

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    May 7, 2016 at 8:43 am

    @PaulWartenberg2016: That sounds like fun ?

  84. 84.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    May 7, 2016 at 8:46 am

    LOL, I’m in moderation again – every discussion of Trump puts me in time out for using all of the words that trips the filter. It’s going to be a long election season. A front pager needs to give us a list of safe words to use.

  85. 85.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    May 7, 2016 at 8:50 am

    Donald J. Trump Verified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump

    Goofy Elizabeth Warren is weak and ineffective. Does nothing. All talk, no action — maybe her Native American name?

    Trump is so easy to troll, it’s ridiculous. A few tweets from Liz and he’s off the rails.

  86. 86.

    Hal

    May 7, 2016 at 8:51 am

    Didn’t the guy Hillary ran against for Senate in NY try some variation on blaming her for Bill’s cheating? I seem to remember him saying she knew about it or some such shit. IIRC, that didn’t go over so well.

  87. 87.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2016 at 8:54 am

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: One of the bad words is casino. The way you can use it without going into moderation hell is to put an empty bold or italic in the middle of the word. What I did here is cas[em][/em]ino.

  88. 88.

    Sloane Ranger

    May 7, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @raven: Yeah! And despite Zac Goldsmith trying to link him with Islamic extremists, which even some Tories found disgusting.

  89. 89.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    May 7, 2016 at 8:57 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    The one I used had to do with the female anatomy – probably tripped the pr0n filter. Bill Maher used it in the context of Trump being a whiny little b!tch.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 9:00 am

    @Sloane Ranger:
    Zac Goldsmith should have known better. His sister Jemima was once married to a Pakistani Muslim, the cricket legend and politician Imran Khan.

  91. 91.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:02 am

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:
    I wrote a comment yesterday that got eaten and I have no idea why. It did not contain a single reference to that parlor of chance or to any body part or any of the 7 words you can’t say on TV. It is the lack of explanation or opportunity to correct the problem that is so frustrating.

  92. 92.

    Elmo

    May 7, 2016 at 9:02 am

    @satby: Hoping you’re still around – which of your products would you recommend for extremely chem-sensitive multiple allergies dry skin?

  93. 93.

    Rolling Along

    May 7, 2016 at 9:04 am

    Check out this morming’s Washington Post. Bill Krisol and another conservative opinion leaders met with none other than Mitt Romney to discuss an independent bid. Hearing again through back channels that the Koch Bros may be on board.

    “ON DEMAND” funding will take care of ballot acces. We’ve been hearing assurances that it’s not an issue, remember many state legislators owe Koch and ALEC their jobs. When the Hedge Fund Boys say “jump” they’ll respond “how high?”

    Trump and Hillary are going to get utterly hammered. The Romney Band is getting back together!

    #TakeItToTheHouse

  94. 94.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 9:09 am

    @Rolling Along: Brinks Trucks are rollin’ again! How’d that work last time?

  95. 95.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:10 am

    This was the comment I want to see if I can figure out what went wrong:

    “RELAX! He doesn’t really mean it, he is only saying these things to get elected. Once he is in power he will be reasonable and we can easily control him. Believe me, you have nothing to worry about”
    – Albert Junker, speaking to the guys at the Berlin Businessman’s club, 1936

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 9:11 am

    @Rolling Along:

    The Romney Band is getting back together!

    After their triumphant 2012 album and tour!

  97. 97.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:12 am

    OK, so the problem was the word spelled R, E, L, A, X — SERIOUSLY WP?
    once I put the magic bits into that word the comment passed. WTH???

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 9:12 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: FYWP. It is just a bug in the system that we all have been bitten by. One FPer (Mayhew?) has taken to copying every comment before he hits ‘POST’. It used to get me all too often, but lately has become a rare occurrence for me.

    @Elmo: If she is not around, click on her name and it will take you to her store. The info you want is probably there.

  99. 99.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 9:12 am

    @MattF: If the Brinks Trucks are rolling again, does that mean Jeb will be anointed VP?

  100. 100.

    Princess

    May 7, 2016 at 9:13 am

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Warren really gets under Trump’s skin. I know and agree with all the good reasons for not choosing her as VP, but man, she’d perfect at the ‘Hillary’s attack dog” part of the role.

  101. 101.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:13 am

    @Rolling Along:
    “back channels”

    Is that what you call your down low top?

  102. 102.

    Hal

    May 7, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @Hal: OK, I blanked on Rick Lazio and was thinking of Tim Russert asking Clinton a trust issues question during the 2000 debate because she initially defended Bill against cheating allegations. Lazio replied something about Hillary blaming others for her own mistakes.

  103. 103.

    amk

    May 7, 2016 at 9:15 am

    @Rolling Along: better warn turd blossom lest he has another on-the-air fits.

  104. 104.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I copy before posting anytime I have doubts about words but what possible objection could WP have to that word? The only times I can remember getting deleted like this is when I forget and use casino or that socialist has a pham word inside it. But maybe that is the right thing to do, copy before post

  105. 105.

    Cat48

    May 7, 2016 at 9:23 am

    @Amir Khalid: Romney? Time to roll out the 47%’video Romney made & the nasty Bain Capital Ads from ex-employees of Mitts. Once more with feeling, Mr. President!

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 9:25 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: We might be talking about 2 different things. When I use ca$ino, I end up in moderation. WP from time to time just eats comments. There have been times when I just could not comment about anything, no matter how I phrased it, for as much as a half hour or more, and then all of a sudden I can comment again.

    I just blame all software engineers everywhere and wish them an eternity in Hell.

  107. 107.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 9:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s possible that ‘WP ate my comment’ is due to a brief disconnect with the server. I’ve seen that happen just before the site goes down.

  108. 108.

    O. Felix Culpa

    May 7, 2016 at 9:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly

    I just blame all software engineers everywhere and wish them an eternity in Hell.

    I vote for clemency: just half an eternity will do.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    May 7, 2016 at 9:31 am

    @Baud: That there was a thing of beauty I intend to steal.

    Krugman has that recent article on false equivalency… BUT One of my great frustrations is that the elected democrats engage in it too. They are constantly feeding into the narrative that the Republican Party is not plagued by insanity of a particularly racist virulent slant. I love Obama, but he is among the worst offenders. A strategy, I guess. But people really need to start explaining how the Republican Party as a whole has finally driven off a cliff and to be a republican means you are cheering on the bus driver.

  110. 110.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:31 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Well I am sure with you on that last line & not just for FYWP coders!

    I guess I am lucky in I have never had that problem. With the comment above I just inserted the blank formatting stuff in various places and it kept failing until I did it to”relax”

  111. 111.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 9:33 am

    @Elmo: Hi Elmo! I would start with plain, unscented soap or lotion. Send me your IRL addy in a convo at my Etsy shop (link in nym) and I can send you some samples to try (your wife is the sensitive one IIRC?). I list all ingredients, so you can easily see if something is an allergen.

  112. 112.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Well I am sure with you on that last line & not just for FYWP coders!

    I guess I am lucky in I have never had that problem. With the comment above I just inserted the blank formatting stuff in various places and it kept failing until I did it to”relax”

    Just tested it with this comment & yes, relax is a banned word as it failed so I had to redo it

  113. 113.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 7, 2016 at 9:38 am

    @Rolling Along:

    “ON DEMAND” funding will take care of ballot acces.

    You are unaware, presumably, that to run as an independent in Texas you have to file on Monday? Yes, Monday, two days from now. The filing has to have 80,000 signatures.

    But fuck me, why am I talking with you as if you have any understanding of anything?

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 7, 2016 at 9:39 am

    @MattF: I have no idea why it happens, almost anything is possible including the plain and simple fact that all computers everywhere hate me. (I commonly arrive at the register with my groceries only to have it seize up the second after I have put my last item on the belt)

    It’s OK. I hate computers too.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    May 7, 2016 at 9:42 am

    @MattF: It just happened to me, not that my comment was any Pulitzer worthy thing. Still!

  116. 116.

    A Ghost To Most

    May 7, 2016 at 9:44 am

    @MattF:

    Brinks Trucks are rollin’ again! How’d that work last every time?

    Dude has already had more losing tickets than a drunk at the track.

  117. 117.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 9:45 am

    @Gin & Tonic: IMO, the idea would be to win enough delegates, that no one gets to 270. At that point, the house decides our next president. The fallacy in that thinking, is that Ryan could not get enough republicans to agree with him, that Romney would be the best choice. Most republicans in the house are bat shit insane.

  118. 118.

    ThresherK

    May 7, 2016 at 9:48 am

    @Hal: Rick Lazio?

    Oh yeah: He singlehandedly recreated, on a debate stage, every married woman’s experience of a husband shoving a credit card statement in her face and saying “You bought a new dress without asking me?”

  119. 119.

    scav

    May 7, 2016 at 9:49 am

    @A Ghost To Most: One presumably has to work with the strengths and the personality (or tic-based substitute) one has.

  120. 120.

    Jeffro

    May 7, 2016 at 9:49 am

    @PaulWartenberg2016: was just about to say the same thing…y’all don’t forget to check out TaNehisi Coates’ BLACK PANTHER while you’re there, too!

  121. 121.

    chopper

    May 7, 2016 at 9:50 am

    ugh. the 3-year-old decided to wake up at 5:30. on a saturday.

  122. 122.

    satby

    May 7, 2016 at 9:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Immanentize: site hiccuped for a minute, that’s probably what happened.

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 7, 2016 at 9:51 am

    @JPL:

    IMO, the idea would be to win enough delegates, that no one gets to 270.

    The general election voting doesn’t work that way. The third-party candidate would have to actually win some states. Otherwise, a third-part candidate from the Republican side just splits the Republican vote and makes an HRC win even more overwhelming. Show me on a map which state can be won by a third-party-running Romney or equivalent.

  124. 124.

    henqiguai

    May 7, 2016 at 9:52 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA(#86):

    The way you can use it without going into moderation hell is to put an empty bold or italic in the middle of the word. What I did here is cas[em][/em]ino.

    No, you didn’t. You put “cas<em></em>ino” in there. Heh heh, me and my handy dandy lil’ reference book here…

  125. 125.

    chopper

    May 7, 2016 at 9:53 am

    @Rolling Along:

    Check out this morming’s Washington Post. Bill Krisol

    makes sense you’d bring him up, you have the same track record.

  126. 126.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 9:54 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: You mean like as in wall street casino?

  127. 127.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:54 am

    @satby:
    Not in the case I was talking about. It is repeatable. Every time I put the word ‘relax’ in a post it gets eaten unless I trick it

  128. 128.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 9:55 am

    @Gin & Tonic: I meant to say electoral votes, meaning a few states. Romney would win Utah and Jeb might be able to win Florida. After that I’m lost to come up with another state.

  129. 129.

    chopper

    May 7, 2016 at 9:55 am

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    your post is in moderation: too many uses of the phrase “fucking hell! and “fuck me!”

  130. 130.

    Immanentize

    May 7, 2016 at 9:56 am

    @satby: I actually find it comforting that the site gets agita occasionally. Probably the news stories it had for breakfast…

  131. 131.

    Elmo

    May 7, 2016 at 9:56 am

    @satby: thanks!

  132. 132.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 9:57 am

    test

  133. 133.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 7, 2016 at 10:03 am

    @JPL: In a 3-way race Mitt *might* win UT. So what? It’s 6 EV’s. In a 3-way race in FL, Hillary wins. It’s not even close.

  134. 134.

    oldgold

    May 7, 2016 at 10:04 am

    Generally speaking, Krugman is correct that the media almost always goes with the both sides do it coverage.

    But in this case, Trump’s conduct is so egregious and often directed at the press, despite the media’s coolness towards Clinton, he is going to be unmercifully pummeled.

    Plus, the media’s maddening equivalence coverage is most often seen in matters involving policy. This is about character and temperament. These are matters the media is more willing to weigh in on.

  135. 135.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    May 7, 2016 at 10:07 am

    @qwerty42: There was a fire in the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia in 2011 that burned for over 110 days.

    These fires in Alberta aren’t new but do seem to be getting worse. NASA Earth Observatory:

    This temperature anomaly map is based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Observed by satellites uniformly around the world, land surface temperatures (LSTs) are not the same as air temperatures. Instead, they reflect the heating of the land surface by sunlight, and they can sometimes be significantly hotter or cooler than air temperatures. (To learn more about LSTs and air temperatures, read: Where is the Hottest Place on Earth?)

    The intense heat coincided with a weather pattern called an omega block. A large area of high pressure stalled the usual progression of storms from west to east. In Alberta, that left sinking, hot air parked over the region while the block was in place. But even before the omega block emerged, seasonal data show that winter in Alberta was warmer than usual.

    According to Robert Field, a Columbia University scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, El Niño likely played a role in the warmth. The Virginia Hills fire in central Alberta (May 1998) burned under a similar El Niño phase. “That fire occurred under comparable fire danger conditions, part of which you can trace to El Niño,” Field said.

    Fewer people were affected by the Virginia Hills fire, however, because it was located away from a large population center. In contrast, authorities ordered the evacuation more than 80,000 people from Fort McMurray.

    The second image above shows Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016, acquired by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) on the Landsat 7 satellite. This false-color image combines shortwave infrared, near infrared, and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal the hot spots associated with active fires, which appear red. Smoke appears white and burned areas appear brown. On this day the fire spanned about 100 square kilometers (40 square miles); by the morning of May 5, it spanned about 850 square kilometers (330 square miles).

    “There can be bigger fires, but, in Alberta at least, rarely are they so close to so many people,” Field said. He points out that a fire in Kelowna, British Columbia (2003), and a fire in Slave Lake, Alberta (2011), also affected population centers, “but not this severely.”

    Amazing, and scary, graphs and images at the link above.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    May 7, 2016 at 10:11 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: Agreed. Having posts simply disappear is aggravating. It seems to happen most often with me when I include a link and/or a blockquote in the post – FYWP seems less forgiving then.

    Dunno what to do about it, but I do hope things like this are eventually fixed…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    May 7, 2016 at 10:15 am

    Passed by an unusual campaign lawn sign (banner, about 3′ by 5′) yesterday.

    In large letters: Happy Mother’s Day.

    In much smaller letters, at the bottom: candidate’s name.

  138. 138.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 7, 2016 at 10:15 am

    @Immanentize:

    They are constantly feeding into the narrative that the Republican Party is not plagued by insanity of a particularly racist virulent slant.

    Generally — generally — the party that treat an election like a Manichean final battle against the forces of evil looks like a pack of loons. Looking like a pack of loons is a bad look, when you’re running on being the Sane and Competent party otherwise.

    The major exception to this is when an election is in fact a Manichean final battle against the forces of evil.

  139. 139.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:16 am

    Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee, endorsed Donald Trump on Friday after former nominees Mitt Romney, George H.W. Bush and George Bush did not. “The voters of our country have turned out in record numbers to support Mr. Trump. It is important that their votes be honored and it is time that we support the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump,” Dole said in a statement

    Starting to fall in line.

  140. 140.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 7, 2016 at 10:17 am

    @Gin & Tonic: If tipping states away from Trump is your goal, that’s good enough.

  141. 141.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:19 am

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Worst case would be to write the comment in Word then cut and paste to the comment. At least if it gets lost you have it to try and repost. I’ve done it a couple of times on a long post that I did not want to retype. Waste of time for a sentence or two

  142. 142.

    Poopyman

    May 7, 2016 at 10:21 am

    @D58826:

    Starting to fall in line.

    They always do. Like a lot of folks, I don’t expect the Bush crime family to follow suit. The firewall is Mitt. If he endorses Trump, expect to see a flurry of similar announcements.

  143. 143.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 10:26 am

    @D58826:
    The interesting thing is the false information Sen. Dole used. Despite having more candidates for a longer period of time 2016 is still short of 2008 for number of primary voters. If we allow his fallacy there is a bigger problem, Clinton has received 50% more votes than the Dumpster and only about 20% more than Bernie (so even Bernie has more votes than Drumpf). So, no record numbers and no real groundswell for the short-fingered vulagrian. Bob needs to lay off the Viagra as it is impacting his cognitive abilities

  144. 144.

    cleek

    May 7, 2016 at 10:27 am

    the problem is that Trump is candy for the news media. yesterday i counted 37 stories about Trump on the CBS News front page, vs seven for Clinton. i just counted 25 Trump stories on TPM’s front page, vs 3 for Hillary Clinton (one of which she’s sharing with Sanders).

    people will not stop talking about him. they enjoy talking about him. he’s entertaining.

  145. 145.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:28 am

    @cleek: not candy – catnip to a feline

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    May 7, 2016 at 10:28 am

    In other news –

    A change in martial policy.

    Nigeria appears to have won the confidence of the United States of America (USA) in the fight against Boko Haram with Washington agreeing to sell no fewer than 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Abuja to aid the war against the terror sect. Source

    An aftermath of devastation.

    The scope of the damage is beyond any of the other Iraqi cities recaptured so far from the jihadi group. Photographs provided to The Associated Press by satellite imagery and analytics company DigitalGlobe show more than 3,000 buildings and nearly 400 roads and bridges were damaged or destroyed between May 2015, when Ramadi fell to ISIL, and Jan. 22, after most of the fighting had ended. Over roughly the same period, nearly 800 civilians were killed in clashes, airstrikes and executions.
    [snip]
    The wreckage was caused by ISIL-laid explosives and hundreds of airstrikes by the Iraqi military and the U.S.-led coalition. Besides the fighting itself, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is increasingly using a scorched earth strategy as it loses ground in Iraq. When ISIL fighters withdraw, they leave an empty prize, blowing up buildings and wiring thousands of others with explosives. The bombs are so costly and time-consuming to defuse that much of recently liberated Iraq is now unlivable.

    “All they leave is rubble,” said Maj. Mohammed Hussein, whose counterterrorism battalion was one of the first to move into Ramadi. “You can’t do anything with rubble.” Source

  147. 147.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 7, 2016 at 10:31 am

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: It smells smoky here in northern Iowa today. I wonder if the smoke from Alberta has come this far.

  148. 148.

    smith

    May 7, 2016 at 10:33 am

    @cleek: He can be entertaining and appalling at the same time. Attention paid to him is OK as long as the value placed on the the object of attention is realistic and appropriate. Kind of like all the attention paid to a serial killer. I worry that the press will try to normalize him, but am hoping he will keep reaching for the outer bounds of acceptability so they can’t, really.

    I also wonder if we’re not seeing in Trump the personification of a viral meme. Those things have a relatively short shelf life, and it’s entirely possible that the audience will abandon him when some newer form of titillation appears.

  149. 149.

    NotMax

    May 7, 2016 at 10:33 am

    @D58826

    No need to open up Word (don’t get me started on that piece of crap) when Notepad (or the far superior Metapad) will do just fine, and without gobbling up computer resources.

  150. 150.

    Zinsky

    May 7, 2016 at 10:35 am

    I live in one of the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities and I can tell you, the smoke from the wildfires in Canada and northern Minnesota were choking this morning! I walked outside at 5:45 and I thought one of my neighbors’ couch caught fire on their patio. Haze and a bad stench over our entire neighborhood. I can’t imagine being closer than 100 miles from these fires! It must be apocalyptic!

  151. 151.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 10:37 am

    @Schlemazel Khan:
    I realized too late that I have a small problem with the stats in that post. Hillary has not gotten 20% more votes than Bernie, it is is the mid-teens more votes. Bernie however is a bit more than 20% more votes than Drumpf

  152. 152.

    JPL

    May 7, 2016 at 10:40 am

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: 80,000 people have been evacuated and the fire is not close to being contained. In fact they said it could double in size. Scary indeed!

  153. 153.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:45 am

    @NotMax: Any text editor will do. Same process

  154. 154.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:49 am

    @JPL: Only ‘small mercy’ is it’s in a relatively low density population area. Imagine the same scenario in the hills around LA and having to conduct an evacuation on a proportionately larger scale. This is not meant to minimize the horror and loss for the people involved.

  155. 155.

    Immanentize

    May 7, 2016 at 10:52 am

    @Davis X. Machina: Good point. But can’t this be somehow brought home “more in sadness than in anger?”

  156. 156.

    Shell

    May 7, 2016 at 10:53 am

    And we’ve got six more months of this shit to go thru. Mama Mia!

  157. 157.

    germy

    May 7, 2016 at 10:53 am

    @NotMax: more campaign signs:
    http://liartownusa.tumblr.com/post/143182333235/political-signs-volii-chinook-mammarian-banjolina

  158. 158.

    burnspbesq

    May 7, 2016 at 10:54 am

    Once we get past the conventions, get out the vote

    Why wait? In the states that have onerous voter ID rules, it will take time for the elderly and minority voters that Republicans want to disenfranchise to gather the documents they need to register. Start now.

  159. 159.

    ThresherK

    May 7, 2016 at 10:55 am

    @Zinsky: There are forest fires in northern Minnesota? I didn’t hear.

    But I can understand why. Historically speaking, everyone knows the Great Chicago Fire (so incredible that at least two major league sport teams have been named for it) but on the same day there was the Peshtigo forest fire in Wisconsin, itself no small deal.

  160. 160.

    germy

    May 7, 2016 at 10:55 am

    @Shell: Why is the process so long? Why do other countries elect their leaders in less time than us? This isn’t rhetorical; I honestly don’t know the answer.

  161. 161.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 7, 2016 at 10:58 am

    @germy: Because they have a parliamentary system in which a government is dissolved and must be replaced at points that are often unpredictable. We know when our elections are, so candidates gear up for them. You could run the actual conventions closer to November, but you’d still have people/parties campaigning far ahead because they can’t let someone else get a drop on them.

  162. 162.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 10:59 am

    @germy: 1st amendment. Can’t shut Tail gunner Ted up on 11/9/16 when he throws his scales into the ring for 2020.

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

    May 7, 2016 at 11:00 am

    I’ve got tons of spring cleaning to do, so I will go into master procrastination mode and listen to the second part of the Hamilton cast album.

    Later today I will go see the new Captain America film and then meet up with some people at a place that is supposed to be a fantastic burger and pastrami joint.

    I need a timeout from the political scene because nothing much of significance is happening as various factions figure out their next moves.

    And this anticipatory speculation about the feckless media is pointless. But I guess it’s a time filler.

  164. 164.

    The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016

    May 7, 2016 at 11:00 am

    @cleek: Rubbernecking on an international scale.

  165. 165.

    germy

    May 7, 2016 at 11:01 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: I hadn’t thought of that.

    @D58826: Perpetual campaigning. Like perpetual war.

  166. 166.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:03 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: This also, but 1st amendment would prevent any kind of legislatively imposed start date. Only thing that might work is a ‘gentleperson’s agreement’ (cough, gag, insert politician joke here) on a start date

  167. 167.

    gf120581

    May 7, 2016 at 11:03 am

    Apparently, Hillary just won the Guam caucus as expected and will net 5 delegates according to Benchmark. So the meager gains Bernie made thanks to IN have been wiped out. (Guess Tim Robbins was wrong; Guam does matter.) Just another example of why this primary season is over.

  168. 168.

    Davis X. Machina

    May 7, 2016 at 11:04 am

    @germy, @Iowa Old Lady, et al.:

    Andrew Jackson started running as soon as he was beaten in the House by JQA. The perpetual campaign is as old as the party system.

  169. 169.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:05 am

    @gf120581: Can we make this a national holiday (eyes rolling)

  170. 170.

    gf120581

    May 7, 2016 at 11:08 am

    @D58826: Tomorrow isn’t enough? ;)

  171. 171.

    TriassicSands

    May 7, 2016 at 11:08 am

    From the NY Times:

    Donald J. Trump may find it difficult to raise funds after being shunned by respected party figures.

    My question is: Why or how are there any “respected party figures” in the Republican Party at this point?

  172. 172.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:09 am

    @ThresherK:
    Its pretty small > 500 acres, about 3-4 hours North of Minneapolis/St. Paul so it is not getting much attention. But then neither is the apocalypse being experienced by the folks in Canada

  173. 173.

    max

    May 7, 2016 at 11:09 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Show me on a map which state can be won by a third-party-running Romney or equivalent.

    With Romney? Easy. Utah.

    Of course, any contest in the House that ended with the guy who won one Norman state as President would kick off the Second American Revolution. I suppose Romney would then fulfill the prophecy of a Morman saving America by sacrificing his head.

    max
    [‘Considering the circumstances which would bring about a Romney victory, I say he should go for it.’]

  174. 174.

    Ken

    May 7, 2016 at 11:11 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    If tipping states away from Trump is your goal, that’s good enough.

    The loon’s plan is to prevent a majority in the Electoral College, and tipping Republican states to the third party doesn’t do that. All it would accomplish is a final tally of Hillary 347, Trump 185, ChosenOne 6. They’d need to somehow win a state (or five) that would have gone Democratic otherwise.

    Say what you want about the Koch brothers, but they’re not complete idiots about money. They’d have to see that it would be more cost-effective to figure out how much would be spent on this third-party run, and simply set half that amount on fire.

  175. 175.

    scav

    May 7, 2016 at 11:11 am

    @germy: I’d also imagine to merely suggest there or other viable, let alone perhaps preferable, alternatives is unpatriotic and possibly treasonous. Besides, how else will all the innocent children of the spin-doctors, pr-flunkies and yard-sign printers be fed (on those occasions when bills are not skipped out on).

  176. 176.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:12 am

    @Davis X. Machina: Check out the John Wayne flick ‘The Horse Soldiers”. Col Secord starts the march running for the House and by the time the movie ends he is planning his bid for POTUS. It’s funny because well ‘politicians’!!!

  177. 177.

    Shell

    May 7, 2016 at 11:14 am

    Just another example of why this primary season is over.

    Yet Bernie vows to stay in the race till ‘the last vote is counted’. The River in Egypt gets bigger and bigger.

  178. 178.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 11:19 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: No, silly, sunsets are those marvelous things you have during lunch.

  179. 179.

    dmsilev

    May 7, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @gf120581: As goes Guam, so goes West Virginia.

    Or something like that.

  180. 180.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @Baud:

    You should consider moving out West. The sun comes up later there.

    Not only that, but it goes down over the ocean where it belongs.

  181. 181.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @max:
    I think G&T might have wanted a finer comb. Show him any state the Turd Party could take away from Hillary. The goal of that effluent would be to deny Clinton the 270 votes required. Even assume Drumpf could magically wrest a mid-West state from the blue column the lemons would still need to pull 2 or 3 other clear blue wins to themselves to prevent her from winning. Taking a red state from her does nothing for them. I would gladly balance that potential against the much more likely one that Drumpf and the Turd Blossom Special combined get the majority of votes but lose the state to Clinton because she has more votes than either of them.

    It is much more likely that they would do this not to win the White House but to prevent their not-totally-insane voters from staying home. It would be a fight for the House, just not the White one.

  182. 182.

    Germy

    May 7, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @scav: That’s the part that bugs me. How it’s become a big financial industry rather than a normal part of functioning civics. And why candidates need to beg for $$$ if they want to be competitive.

  183. 183.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 11:21 am

    the word on twitter is that Kristol just wanted to rant at Romney about Ben Sasse. Maybe Our Willard felt he owed Kristol the chance to harangue pointlessly in sympathy to all the people who accidentally let Mormon missionaries past their threshold.

    (anybody know if that’s one syllable or two? not that I imagine I’ll ever need to speak his name, I’m just curious. Is it Sass-SAY? which sounds like a WC Fields character?)

  184. 184.

    Mike R

    May 7, 2016 at 11:21 am

    @chopper: That is just mean, what a wonderful comment.

  185. 185.

    Brachiator

    May 7, 2016 at 11:21 am

    @TriassicSands: These guys look in the mirror and say”Wow. What a respectable figure!”

    Also, NYT earlier reported that Sheldon Adelson said he liked Trump because Trump loves Israel. I suspect that other money men will soon fall into line.

    ETA during an Indiana interview with the Daily Mail UK, Trump noted that he supports wider expansion of settlements in Israel. But he also thinks he would be a great negotiator of a peace settlement.

  186. 186.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 11:21 am

    @gf120581: So, Bernie’s “poised” to win Guam then?

  187. 187.

    Germy

    May 7, 2016 at 11:22 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Eggbert SassSAY, accent grave on the “E”

    His running mate will be Ogg Oggilby, the bubble in the bathtub.

  188. 188.

    ruemara

    May 7, 2016 at 11:23 am

    Getting ready to attend the Whole Earth Festival, or as I call it, Hippy Dippy Fest. This year, the focus is on RAW! Not sure if that’s food, or plutonium. Dragging the camera out to take some shots. Trying to figure out if I’d prefer to take pictures for money and if I can finance the new(er) car thing. The Yaris and the Versa both drive well but I dislike new car smell intensely, how is that enjoyable? Either is a much lighter handling than my Volvo wagon. Or as it should be called now, Spider Home.

    @burnspbesq: yes, please help do this. Votesmart.org and voteriders.org

  189. 189.

    Germy

    May 7, 2016 at 11:24 am

    How does Jeb feel watching Trump take over his family business?

  190. 190.

    Germy

    May 7, 2016 at 11:25 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Bernie’s “poised” to win Guam then?

    I’m poised for my first date with Rihanna. My phone should be ringing any moment now.

  191. 191.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @gf120581:

    Apparently, Hillary just won the Guam caucus as expected and will net 5 delegates according to Benchmark. So the meager gains Bernie made thanks to IN have been wiped out. (Guess Tim Robbins was wrong; Guam does matter.) Just another example of why this primary season is over.

    Nate’s path to Bernie victory required Sanders to win Guam by 43% and pick up 5 delegates. The previous goal for West Virginia was +52%. Wonder what he needs now.

  192. 192.

    Iowa Old Lady

    May 7, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @Shell: I was just reading on MSNBC that if Sanders delays conceding until the convention, planning for it is awkward. I didn’t realize that the candidate usually controls the nature of convention events.

  193. 193.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 11:27 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: Romney running as a third party candidate raises the intriguing (although distant) possiblity of zero EV for Trump. I say ‘go for it’.

  194. 194.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: Yep. At the top it would be the rather forlorn hope of flipping the election into the House. Probably unrealistic but if SCOTUS hadn’t intervened, incorrectly in my view, in 2000 that just might have happened. But the more realistic hope is to prevent a Senate/House and down ballot blood bath.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @Germy: Heh, you’re good. I had to go to IMDB to refresh my memory

  196. 196.

    ThresherK

    May 7, 2016 at 11:30 am

    Sunderland scored twice in two minutes, are up 3-2 on Chelsea in their bid to stave off relegation. Seeing if they can keep the lead for 20 mins.

  197. 197.

    ThresherK

    May 7, 2016 at 11:31 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Really? I had you pegged as a guy who’d want to throw a flowerpot at Baby Leroy, just like W.C.

  198. 198.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 11:32 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: I couldn’t watch the Maddow interview, I’m so tired of that man and his only-virgin-in-the-whorehouse schtick. And given the general silence about it on twitter and the tubes, I’m guessing it was a lot the same old same old. After hearing for three months that the south doesn’t count, we’re supposed to put everything on hold for him because of West Virginia and Kentucky.

    ETA: @ThresherK: You flatter me! and I literally laughed out loud.

    I’m still chuckling just imagining that scene. It’s been at least twenty five years since I saw that movie.

  199. 199.

    Kathleen

    May 7, 2016 at 11:33 am

    @Brachiator: I have cleaning to do also and here I am. I hate to clean but I do it faithfully every weekend. Bleahhh!

  200. 200.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:36 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: I got that out of moderation for you last night. I have no idea why it went in, but if I’m perusing the site or working at my computer, I check to see if anyone is trapped and then I free them. Usually. Most of the time.

  201. 201.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 11:36 am

    @ThresherK: Ah, Baby LeRoy. ‘Chacun à son goo‘.

  202. 202.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 11:37 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: Wasn’t that one of Right to Rise/Rolling Along/Reality Check’s other nyms?

  203. 203.

    dmsilev

    May 7, 2016 at 11:38 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: That may technically be the case, but if we arrive at June 14th and he’s still making noises about continuing on, he’ll fast become irrelevant. Everyone from Barack Obama on downwards will start calling Hillary the presumptive nominee, all of the remaining superdelegates will announce support for her, etc. Maybe there will be a credentials-committee tiff at the convention, but that would be about it.

  204. 204.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 11:38 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I have no idea why it went in

    Because it was one of the always-wrong troll’s previous names-beginning-with-R?

  205. 205.

    El Caganer

    May 7, 2016 at 11:39 am

    Several of the people I hang with at my local bar are avid Trumpsters; they think he’s going to win in a landslide (?) and carry all before him, kind of like “what is best in life” as described by Conan. They also believe in a number of other truly remarkable things, e.g., there are 93,000,000 unemployed in America, Hillary Clinton will be indicted at any minute, and so on. So they’re not just xenophobic racists – they’re nuts, too.

  206. 206.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 11:39 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: Seattle had smoke from a fire in Mongolia a couple of years ago.

  207. 207.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:41 am

    @Adam L Silverman: why is the cas??no word subject to moderation? I can see the seven words you can’t say on TV but with this word could not even review an old James Bond flick that end in Royale w/o going into the penalty box.

  208. 208.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 11:42 am

    @Brachiator:

    ETA during an Indiana interview with the Daily Mail UK, Trump noted that he supports wider expansion of settlements in Israel. But he also thinks he would be a great negotiator of a peace settlement.

    I guess the idea that Trump would be running to Clinton’s left on the Middle East is a non-starter.

  209. 209.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 11:42 am

    @D58826: Spammers often spam for online casinos.

  210. 210.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 11:42 am

    @El Caganer: The barfly constituency. I can believe it. Comes the day that a Faye Dunaway lookalike walks through the door, I’ll pay attention.

  211. 211.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:43 am

    @MattF:
    That would be delicious!

    @D58826:
    I don’t see any other value to the Turd Blossom Special, there is no path for them to create a contested EC

  212. 212.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 11:44 am

    @El Caganer:

    there are 93,000,000 unemployed in America

    If you count children and OAPs that’s probably true.

  213. 213.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:44 am

    @dmsilev: At some point, and very soon, he has to decide if he wants to lose graciously and leave a positive legacy that he can build on from his perch in the Senate (hopefully as a major committee chair) or lose ungraciously and become the next Ralph ’rounding error’ Nader. It’s his choice.

  214. 214.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:44 am

    @germy: Money. Its all about the money. No state, especially the two self proclaimed kickoff states, want to lose the revenue they get from having everyone flock to them for months. The media doesn’t want to lose its revenue. And the consultants, strategists, ad people, etc don’t want to lose their revenue. So that’s not only why it takes so long, but also why its actually been getting longer. This time it was a full two year process. I fully expect the unofficial kickoff of the next one to start even earlier. The longer you can drag it out, the more money you can make.

  215. 215.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:44 am

    @Adam L Silverman:
    it is the word ‘relax’

    no idea why but I tested it here several times & I have to game that one word in order not to get it blocked. Weird

    THANKS BTW

  216. 216.

    scav

    May 7, 2016 at 11:45 am

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s suddenly somehow pleasant to think of that little random spinning refuge of trapped comments fizzing about and suddenly set loose for equally random reasons. A pleasant little snappy bitey circus in the hidden below-decks distinct from the swimming pool of acid where other comments are tossed and the various circles of frozen banning etc. (past incarnations of trolls flying endlessly over the burning sands, whispering to and entwining themselves around the subject of their obsession).

  217. 217.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:45 am

    @Mike J: ah!!!!!! One more brilliant insight from reading BJ. Thanks

  218. 218.

    Calouste

    May 7, 2016 at 11:45 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: In a parliamentary system there is also an explicit leader of the opposition party, which there isn’t in the US.

  219. 219.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 11:46 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: Maybe because of a recreational chemical x?n?x.

  220. 220.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 11:47 am

    @Schlemazel Khan: I think most of the people talking about a third party throwing the election into the House are just making the really simple mistake of confusing the lack of a popular-vote majority with the lack of an electoral-vote majority. The only situation where these things are even likely to coincide is a two-way race. Usually, a third party that gets significant votes just means disaster for whichever major party is closer to it (if one is).

  221. 221.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:48 am

    @Ken: This is a William Kristol, PhD (major field sinecure, minor field nepotism) strategy. The guy does not now, nor has he ever, known anything about anything he has written or spoken about. He has no more understanding of how to force a presidential election into the House of Representatives than he did about why removing Saddam Hussein from power would advance America’s (officially stated reason) and Israel’s (his real interest) interests in the region.

  222. 222.

    dianne

    May 7, 2016 at 11:48 am

    Nope, just delusional. I paid more attention to the stately demeanor than to the R after his name. He is Mac Stepanovich and is a politico from Fl and a supporter of Bush. He was an advisor in 2000 in the theft of the election for Jeb!s brother. Had no problem then with a low IQ President. I’m sure he was all in for McCain and was ok, I bet when Palin could not even name one newspaper she read daily. The newest nominee says he has the best words, huge words! Only now, does he come out from under his bushel with a candle to light the way for all the uneducated GOP voters.
    Even that I suspect, was not the catalyst for his sudden appearance on the scene. The Trump states that he will negotiate with the holders of US Treasuries and will make them take a “haircut” to reduce debt. Oh, the horror!
    And his supporters are gleeful to see the country club Republicans squirm. When they find out that social securiy is also held in Treasuries, oops. The demographics continue to fall like dominos.

  223. 223.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:48 am

    @scav:
    That is poetry, man!

  224. 224.

    Amaranthine RBG

    May 7, 2016 at 11:48 am

    The key to the election will be who can come up with the best punny insults.

    Hillary launched her latest by calling Donald the “presumptuous” nominee instead of the “presumptive” nominee. Get it?

    They’re words that sound kind of the same and they’re both words most voters never utter.

  225. 225.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 11:50 am

    @MattF: Nah, I think it’s because RtR called himself that for a while.

  226. 226.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 11:50 am

    @ThresherK:
    Don’t have anything against Guus Hiddink (who’s a pretty decent bloke — then again, compared to Jose Mourinho, who isn’t?) but I hope Sundlund hang on and climb out of the relegation zone.

  227. 227.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 11:50 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Really? I guess I don’t remember that. That would explain it, thanks

    Of course now he calls himself ‘rolling a schlong’ or something so it didn’t really do what needs to be done. But that is illegal.

  228. 228.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:53 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Could be. I do not understand how WP works anymore than anyone else around here. I’m assuming it has something to do with arcane mutterings and the entrails of small animals roasted on a dark altar to some abhorrent deity.

  229. 229.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 11:53 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Kristol’s a Straussian. He thinks the main use of lesser breeds is cannon fodder– and if they survive that, enlistment for garrison duty in the colonies. It’s pretty clear from looking at the few times he’s sorta lost his temper, but he’ll never say it publicly.

  230. 230.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 11:53 am

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I suppose the logical conclusion would be the presidential cycle starting around, or even a little before, Election Day of the previous cycle.

  231. 231.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:53 am

    @Matt McIrvin: 2000 almost made it to the EC with a three way race, in some states. But there were a lot of other factors outside of Fla that helped push it to the limit. Clinton won a plurality in a three way raced with Perot. Without Perot 1992 might have gone for Bush. EC was never an issue however.

    For political junkies gaming out the possibilities is like the theologians arguing about the number of angels on the head of a pin. Or baseball fans on why there are no more .400 hitters

  232. 232.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:54 am

    @D58826: I don’t know and have never had that issue. It may be because I’m logged into the site so I can access the dashboard, but I do not know why casino puts some people into moderation.

  233. 233.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 11:54 am

    Benjy Sarlin ‏@ BenjySarlin 6m6 minutes ago
    Joins Utah and Mississippi as red states where a poll has shown Clinton competitive vs Trump
    –Taegan Goddard @ politicalwire
    — New poll shows Georgia is up for grabs in the 2016 election: Trump 41%, Clinton 40%

    Missi-fucking-sippi?

  234. 234.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 11:55 am

    @D58826: That made me curious about whether a certain someone was still on time-out.

    Certain someone is. You know by the fact that if you type certain someone’s name in your comment, it simply evaporates wthout the usual “moderation” warning.

  235. 235.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:56 am

    @scav: that was a great comment. It was a hoot to read! The only time I don’t free something in moderation is if its obvious spam, in which case I hit the spam button or if I can’t tell whether its over the edge and I then leave it for one of the Front Pagers that have been here longer to adjudicate.

  236. 236.

    Gelfling 545

    May 7, 2016 at 11:56 am

    @Betty Cracker: hope to see phoenixes and griffons. Probably won’t though.

  237. 237.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 11:57 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    arcane mutterings and the entrails of small animals roasted on a dark altar to some abhorrent deity.

    ah now your blaming it all on Ted Cruz

  238. 238.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 11:59 am

    @MattF: I know he’s a Straussian. People who never paid attention when Socrates explained that: fine, I’ll theoretically sketch out a polis that is more exciting for you, but its not the ideal one that I just explained and you found too boring.

  239. 239.

    Ken

    May 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is a William Kristol strategy.

    I did call it a loony plan…

    So wait, is Right/Rolling a Bill Kristol sock puppet?

  240. 240.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @D58826:
    It would have only made it to the House in 2000 if Florida had been taken out of play. The 5 thugs solved that issue by putting it back in play to their advantage. How would they remove Florida from Drumpf or Clinton? It is not very likely that the Turd Blossom Special could win it no matter who that is and there are now only 4 thugs living in the USSC so that path is not available to the bastards

  241. 241.

    El Caganer

    May 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @MattF: FWIW, “barfly” and “barf lie” sound alike if said quickly. I suppose both apply to The Donald, though.

  242. 242.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @Gelfling 545: They migrate later in the spring.

  243. 243.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I fully expect that too happen. Its the same reason that Halloween candy now seems to go on sale the day after Labor Day and Christmas decorations are now going up the day after Halloween. By 2020 I expect Halloween and Easter to have merged – they both have candy, right?

  244. 244.

    gf120581

    May 7, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That is unexpected. I assume really high African-American turnout brought on by Trump’s bigotry would be the reason.

    The other two are not surprising. Georgia’s been talked about as a potential sleeper state for a while (Hispanic voting may be a major factor there) and Utah had polling recently that showed both Hillary and Sanders beating Trump while losing to Cruz and Kasich. Apparently Mormons really don’t like Trump and Romney shunning him won’t help there at all.

  245. 245.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @Ken: Could be. Not sure how we’d prove it.

  246. 246.

    Ken

    May 7, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Missi-fucking-sippi?

    I blame the 19th Amendment.

  247. 247.

    The Lodger

    May 7, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    @different-church-lady: I never heard of a Tequila Sunset.

  248. 248.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Mr Sasse pronounces it as “sass” but I say Sassy! I knew a pretty large family with that name and that’s how they pronounced it, and I would just bet he’s kin to them. Besides, Sassy! is more fun.

  249. 249.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    @Amir Khalid: “I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed…”

  250. 250.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 12:06 pm

    seems like the 2020 GOP primary started when Trump won Indiana

  251. 251.

    debbie

    May 7, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    No wonder Trump’s winning biggly

    Menzio had been on the first leg of a connecting flight to Ontario, where he would give a talk at Queen’s University on a working paper he co-authored about menu costs and price dispersion. His nosy neighbor had spied him trying to work out some properties of the model of price-setting he was about to present. Perhaps she couldn’t differentiate between differential equations and Arabic.…Menzio showed the authorities his calculations and was allowed to return to his seat, he told me by email. He said the pilot seemed embarrassed.

    Wish they could track down the woman and interview her again.

  252. 252.

    Ken

    May 7, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, has Right/Rolling ever made a correct prediction? If so, he can’t be Kristol.

    I vaguely remember R/R switched support several times this primary season, as his favored candidates (Jeb! Carson! Fiorina! Jeb! Rubio! Cruz! Romney!) kept dropping out, or never getting in. I suppose those all count as failed predictions.

  253. 253.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    @Schlemazel Khan: right, but if SCOTUS had not acted, and FLA didnot have it’s act together then that was a possible outcome at some point. As I said there were a number of other things that happened (like Gore losing his home state) that year that made it even a possible outcome.

  254. 254.

    MattF

    May 7, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    @debbie: He used Arabic numerals! He used algebra! He used algorithms!

  255. 255.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    May 7, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    @D58826: Chrome on Winders lets one do “alt-leftarrowkey” to get the previous page back and the edit window is still populated. There have been times when I’ve tried about a dozen times to get past whatever FYWP was choking on and I eventually had to give up.

    First world problems, but still…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  256. 256.

    Miss Bianca

    May 7, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    @Phylllis: @Raven:

    Fixinta* head out to set up a table at the town yard sale…

    *Yeah, it’s all one word in these here parts.

    In Detroit, that expression has been reduced to “finna”. “Finna go to the store” etc. Yard sale sounds good…got a lot of crap that needs cleaned out. But today is grocery shopping and continued resume burnishing, maybe a hike in there with the pups if I’m very good.

  257. 257.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 12:14 pm

    @debbie: there was a similar case a few years ago, a woman got a group of (mostly) American Islamic scholars booted off a flight because they were speaking Arabic with a non-USIan colleague at the gate. When they interviewed her she said that all she could think of when she heard them (and saw them, I assume someone had to be dressed in traditional clothes for this woman to guess the language they were speaking was Arabic) all she could think of was “9/11 and my little family”. That last phrase stayed with me because I imagine this woman’s home was decorated with Thomas Kincaid paintings and a lot of big eyed children

    and yes I am a member of the club that’s procrastinating on a day I swore would be devoted to spring cleaning and organizing.

  258. 258.

    The Lodger

    May 7, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    @scav: For some reason, I’m reminded of the waste beaker in my high school chemistry lab. Some of us used to toss potassium hydroxide tablets into it and watch them ricochet off the surface.

  259. 259.

    amk

    May 7, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Will applejinx weigh in today telling us how it is all a clinton conspiracy that she won in Guam without campaigning there?

  260. 260.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 12:21 pm

    Cole retweeted something from Meghan McCain so I looked at her twitter feed (yes, that is how badly I want to avoid cleaning) in the vain hope of seeing some response when half the tweeting world points out to her that her father helped create Trump. Of course she didn’t but I did see this

    Meghan McCain ‏@ MeghanMcCain May 5
    Keep it gangster Paul Ryan.

    she is amazing in her own way.

    ETA: I hope Fox gives her and MacArdle a McMeghan show, where they can share McThoughts about a world they don’t know confuses them very badly.

  261. 261.

    Miss Bianca

    May 7, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    By 2020 I expect Halloween and Easter to have merged – they both have candy, right?

    Revenants are also a popular mutual theme.

  262. 262.

    Eric U.

    May 7, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: well, the republican party leadership was confused about that same issue, only in the “winner takes all” format vs. popular vote. Romney was the establishment choice, and he won the old way, so I don’t know why they had to make these stupid changes and throw it to Trump. But they aren’t exactly the smartest people in politics. Lots of confused people out there.

    I know there are a batch of liberals that don’t want to vote for the compromise candidates we always get for president, so then they help the republicans win or at least keep it close. These are nominally intelligent people, so I don’t get it. If we elect only purity pony candidates to minor local offices, eventually there will only be purity pony candidates at the presidential level, and so we will not have to sully our principles to vote for them. But since the purity pony people only run third party at the local level, they never get elected and the dems are at a severe disadvantage at those levels of government too. In one Dem-friendly election around here, there was a green candidate and he pulled in more than the margin of victory between the incumbent republican and the democrat. Infuriating.

  263. 263.

    Applejinx

    May 7, 2016 at 12:25 pm

    @amk: Don’t read this site much, do you?

    My major beef with Hillary lately, is trying to get money from disenchanted Jeb? people. I can see it’s part of ‘win at absolutely any cost against Trump’ but at a stroke she made it 1000 times harder to persuade any berniacs that she’s going to continue running to the left. It validates the whole ‘massively right for the general’ suspicion.

    I think it might be ‘get money from them NOW before continuing to swing left and then grabbing all the hippie votes at the convention through ceding the platform to the Bernie wing’. She does actually like a lot of that platform, and if she’s at all smart she knows it’s time to turn against the oligarchs. So, logically, now is the ONLY possible time to hit up anti-Trump Republicans for money.

    Doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I don’t.

  264. 264.

    Brachiator

    May 7, 2016 at 12:26 pm

    @Germy:

    How does Jeb feel watching Trump take over his family business?

    Now there’s a Godfather movie I’d like to see.

  265. 265.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I see where John thinks that having Drumpf at the head of the ticket killed his re-election chances. I think the worse hit was his son posting a picture of himself and his wife. My guess is more than a few McCain supporters heads exploded when they discovered who (or more in their parlance, what) his DIL is.

  266. 266.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    Guam supes pledge to follow the will of the people, vote Hillary.

    And Leicester are picking up their silverware.

  267. 267.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We have a poorly informed citizenry that has been fed a constant diet of fear and paranoia for the past 15 years. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the US lost its mind on 9-11 and has yet to fully come back to its senses.

  268. 268.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Oy…

  269. 269.

    Schlemazel Khan

    May 7, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    @Brachiator:
    I’d be completely OK if they would settle all their scores the way it was done in the movies.

  270. 270.

    Poopyman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    yes I am a member of the club that’s procrastinating on a day I swore would be devoted to spring cleaning and organizing.

    Damn, this must be a huge club. I’m still here. Actually, I’m back. At least I showered, people!

  271. 271.

    Keith P.

    May 7, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    Just got back in my cats’ good graces. They like dry fancy feast between moist food (with variances between the two cats as to how much of each and which if each they like…it’s ridiculous keeping track), but that’s all I’ve had since yesterday morning. The old male has been bitching up a storm all morning, so I finally went to PetSmart and got Nutro egg scrambles and duck/rabbit pate cans along with a cardboard & catnip bed. My final task is to move the leftover food outside for the feral out back before my female cat comes in to bug me to do it.

  272. 272.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    @Eric U.: They made the change because they thought it would serve the forcing function of getting the large number of obviously not going to be the nominee candidates out of the primary much sooner than in 2012. Not only didn’t it work, it helped create the conditions that allowed Trump to rise to the top with only a plurality – often not much more than 1/3 – of the primary voters in the states that he won.

  273. 273.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    @Schlemazel Khan: I’m confused: McCain’s daughter in law or Trump’s daughter in law? You lost me in the second sentence.

  274. 274.

    Miss Bianca

    May 7, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Remember my motto: No Laugh Too Cheap.

  275. 275.

    gene108

    May 7, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: u

    MS is 40% African-American. Republicans get 90% of the white vote usually.

    Drop the percentage of whites voting Republican by 6-7% and you flip the state.

  276. 276.

    gene108

    May 7, 2016 at 12:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the US lost its mind on 9-11 and has yet to fully come back to its senses.

    Sad part is the biggest scaredy cats are in places terrorists are not going to bother attacking.

    The places that got attacked or are likely targets, i.e. big cities, are the folks keeping it together.

  277. 277.

    Miss Bianca

    May 7, 2016 at 12:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I think this is very true, actually. I think there was a mass psychosis that manifested on a personal as well as national level. I remember very clearly getting into the worst fight of my life with my ex on the very day that GWB announced that we were going into Afghanistan – just the stupidest, scariest, most pointless and exhausting kind of fight imaginable – boiling up out of the blue and then slipping into darkness – and thinking, as I heard the announcement on the radio, “Of course. We’re both crazy right now. The whole country is crazy right now. This is how madness begins.”

  278. 278.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    @gene108: London just elected a Muslim mayor, and if Ben Sasse is any guide, the people of Nebraska think every breath is a victory they bravely snatched from the encroaching Moose-lim hordes.

  279. 279.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    @Schlemazel Khan:
    They have something against USAF Reserve captains?

    @Adam L Silverman:
    He means Senator McCain’s DIL, the wife of John Sidney McCain IV.

  280. 280.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: My only quibble is the date. The slide into national dementia started with Reagan

  281. 281.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: McCain’s DIL.

  282. 282.

    Citizen Alan

    May 7, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    In 2008, Barack Obama got 11% of the white vote in Mississippi. If he’d gotten 15% he’d have carried the state. We have, I believe, the largest percentage of black voters in the nation, so ironically, Hillary wouldn’t really need to peel off that many white women disgusted by Drumpf’s misogyny or even religious types horrified by his moral bankruptcy to carry the state. I would faint if it happened, but it’s not utterly impossible.

  283. 283.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    @Applejinx: Oh please. Lenin/Marx are supposed to have said the capitalist will sell the proletariat the rope which will be used to hang him.

    If Hillary can convince big GOP donors to help her cut the throat of the republican party then I say go for it. Purity pony politicians are bad enough but why expand that to purity dollars. If GOOPER dollars help dilute the Koch money then great. As far as what will she have to give up for that money, I would suspect very little. When she started a year ago, the plan had to be that she would face a ‘sane’ republican, probably ‘!” (Jeb). Her campaign fund raising plan was probably built around that. Trump is simply a gift from what ever list of gods you wish to chose and any money she can get from the GOP is like winning the power ball jackpot.

  284. 284.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Actually one election projection on Kos has Mississippi, Utah, and Arizona flipping blue at the presidential level ,

  285. 285.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    @D58826:

    If Hillary can convince big GOP donors to help her cut the throat of the republican party then I say go for it. Purity pony politicians are bad enough but why expand that to purity dollars.

    Also keep in mind where Bernie or Busters would play into this. I believe they are a tiny, tiny minority that won’t actually have any influence whatsoever on the election. BUT, if it looked like there really were a fair number of people on the left who refused to vote for Hillary, those votes will have to be made up somewhere.

  286. 286.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    @D58826: trying not to restart the fight, really, but… I’m fascinated by the spectacle of indignant Berniacs complaining that the Evil Witch of Wall St hasn’t done more to win over the people who’ve spent the last three months calling her a corrupt whore and declaring that we’re all better off if Trump brings the Revolution.

    Also by the seemingly fixed idea that campaign rhetoric and party platforms are more important than down-ticket races and legislation.

    ETA: : I saw video this morning of the anti-HRC demos in LA, not all the signs were visible but one was calling her an assassin and another talking about the blood on her hands

  287. 287.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 1:06 pm

    @Amir Khalid: @opiejeanne: gotcha, now I’m tracking.

  288. 288.

    Citizen Alan

    May 7, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    DIL?!? He has an adopted black daughter!

  289. 289.

    Mike J

    May 7, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Bush said the daughter was from his affair with a black prostitute.

  290. 290.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    @Amir Khalid: @opiejeanne: Just googled it. She’s stunning.

  291. 291.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:10 pm

    @Citizen Alan: The wife of his Naval officer son is african american. I think she is military also. And yes there is an african american adopted daughter. Was a Bush slime tactic in S. Carolina in 2000 if i remember. Trump comes by his slime naturally as a republican.

  292. 292.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    @Mike J: one of McCain’s allied PACs hired the guy who started that rumor. the old man didn’t literally sign the checks, nor did he tell the guy and his paymasters to go pound sand.

  293. 293.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    @Mike J: True but given the general ‘Hillary is responsible for everything bad since the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and that Obama missed destroying) going after the GOP money is just a bit more icing on the cake for them.

  294. 294.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    @Citizen Alan:
    The adopted daughter is not African-American, but from Bangladesh.

  295. 295.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    I’m in the same boat with cleaning this morning, and after sweeping just the stairs and the entry I can understand the appeal of dirt floors.

  296. 296.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 7, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    @Schlemazel Khan: It’s a mixed marriage, after all. He’s Navy, she’s Air Force.

  297. 297.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: the link was more direct than I remembered, though I think there was a campaign operative more directly involved in the slime in 2000 working for a PAC in ’08. Man of Honor my ass

    Seven years later, who is running McCain’s South Carolina campaign? Charlie Condon, the former State Attorney General who in 2000 helped spread the innuendo targeting Bridget. If you can’t beat them, hire them–even if they’ve launched racist attacks against your own daughter.
    Bridget McCain was a seriously ill baby in Mother Teresa’s orphanage when Cindy McCain visited and decided to bring her back to the United States for medical treatment in 1991. John and Cindy adopted her not long after. Now 16, Bridget learned of her role in the 2000 campaign only when she Googled herself. According to the New York Times, when McCain entered the current race, Bridget summoned his aides and asked them to pledge that this campaign would be different.
    We can’t know what reassurances were offered, but Condon doesn’t seem to have repented for his role in the 2000 slander. He told the New York Times reporter that he wasn’t surprised about the downward spiral of the Bush-McCain race. “Our primaries have a way of doing that,” Condon said. “There is a tradition of it, it is accepted behavior, and frankly it works.”
    John McCain is now favored to win in South Carolina. The personal attacks of the 2000 election season, he recently told an interviewer, were “long ago and far away.” “I had to get over it…. I don’t ever think about them or dwell on them.” Cindy McCain agrees. “We’re past that. We’ve moved on.”

  298. 298.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 7, 2016 at 1:17 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Brown is brown, to vile American racist fucks. Asian Indians get confused with Mexicans in parts of the country. The stupid is real, and it’s pervasive.

  299. 299.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: She is.

  300. 300.

    Miss Bianca

    May 7, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Honestly, from the little I know about both services, I should think *that* would cause more strife than any racial issue! ; )

  301. 301.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: And Sikhs as Muslims because of the turban. If it isn’t white as snow then it isn’t a true Murkin.

  302. 302.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    @opiejeanne: credit where it’s due, I became aware of them when they twitter shamed some racists who lost sleep over a clothing ad

    I think the reason I dislike McCain so intensely is because inside of him is the decent, honorable man he and the Village think he is, if he could just get past his bitterness and megalomaniacal ego

  303. 303.

    patroclus

    May 7, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    The Romney case would be that Trump flips (from Clinton) blue/purple states like Florida, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin etc… and that Romney wins Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, thus preventing Clinton from getting to 270, but also preventing Trump from doing it either. Like Bernie’s superdelegate argument, that’s the stated case – everyone realizes it’s unlikely and the real goal is just to prevent Trump from winning, but at least it is “plausible” and prevents the media from treating it as completely irrelevant. It would also presuppose that Trump either attracts Bernie votes or that Bernie (or someone similar) runs 4th party or that Bernie voters don’t vote at all. It’s like what David Frum said about a joke reportedly told by Lincoln (you offer a temperance-supporting teetotaler some whiskey in his lemonade and he declines, but if somehow the whiskey was added “unbeknownst” to the teetotaler, it might be okay). It gives the Romney supporting Republicans a place to vote and they are therefore helping Clinton in an unbeknownst fashion. It’s ridiculous – it’s coming from Kristol, but that’s the theory.

  304. 304.

    ruemara

    May 7, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    @Applejinx: Dude, Sanders has been claiming that he would bring in independents and republicans. That he had that crossover appeal. That this was why primaries should be open. Why is it that if HRC is saying, “hey, Republican person who isn’t that fucking nuts, you can vote for me in the general”, that’s a negative?

  305. 305.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    I wonder if Renee Swift McCain and her FIL talk a lot of politics…

    Renee Swift McCain Retweeted
    Jenny Jaffe ‏@ j nnyjaffe Apr 27
    Historically the #womancard is the most effective way to win the Presidency so I get the frustration

    Renee Swift McCain ‏@ Reneeitchka Apr 27
    Love @ BarbaraBoxer mean & meaner quote re #CarlyFiorina #TedCruz ticket. He wants to throw ppl out of the country/she threw 1000s jobs out
    Renee Swift McCain ‏@ Reneeitchka Apr 12
    I’ve been a victim of wage discrimination myself. Was told I didn’t need/get the job because I wasn’t the head of a household. #EqualPayDay

    Okay, getting to work now. Really. I mean it.

  306. 306.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 7, 2016 at 1:31 pm

    Renee Swift McCain ‏@ Reneeitchka 27 Sep 2015
    My father told me many such stories-he was an OBGYN MD in the 60s. Horrifying abortion reality before it was legal

    Okay, seriously, I’m out…

  307. 307.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    @D58826:

    Then, for unknown reasons, the plane turned around and headed back to the gate. The woman was soon escorted off the plane. On the intercom a crew member announced that there was paperwork to fill out, or fuel to refill, or some other flimsy excuse; the curly-haired passenger could not later recall exactly what it was.
    The wait continued.
    Finally the pilot came by, and approached the real culprit behind the delay: that darkly-complected foreign man. He was now escorted off the plane, too, and taken to meet some sort of agent, though he wasn’t entirely sure of the agent’s affiliation, he would later say.
    Finally the pilot came by, and approached the real culprit behind the delay: that darkly-complected foreign man. He was now escorted off the plane, too, and taken to meet some sort of agent, though he wasn’t entirely sure of the agent’s affiliation, he would later say.
    What do know about your seatmate? The agent asked the foreign-sounding man.
    Well, she acted a bit funny, he replied, but she didn’t seem visibly ill. Maybe, he thought, they wanted his help in piecing together what was wrong with her.
    And then the big reveal: The woman wasn’t really sick at all! Instead this quick-thinking traveler had Seen Something, and so she had Said Something.
    That Something she’d seen had been her seatmate’s cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didn’t recognize. Maybe it was code, or some foreign lettering, possibly the details of a plot to destroy the dozens of innocent lives aboard American Airlines Flight 3950. She may have felt it her duty to alert the authorities just to be safe. The curly-haired man was, the agent informed him politely, suspected of terrorism.
    The curly-haired man laughed.
    He laughed because those scribbles weren’t Arabic, or some other terrorist code. They were math.
    Yes, math. A differential equation, to be exact.
    Had the crew or security members perhaps quickly googled this good-natured, bespectacled passenger before waylaying everyone for several hours, they might have learned that he — Guido Menzio — is a young but decorated Ivy League economist. And that he’s best known for his relatively technical work on search theory, which helped earn him a tenured associate professorship at the University of Pennsylvania as well as stints at Princeton and Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

    Paranoia.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ivy-league-economist-ethnically-profiled-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/ar-BBsK6RQ?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

  308. 308.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    @ruemara: I think we have to add a new tag to the ‘ ‘its ok if your bernie’. Just like ‘it’s ok if your a republican’

  309. 309.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    May 7, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    @ruemara: It’s only a negative if the Hilbeast does it, otherwise totally cool.

  310. 310.

    The Lodger

    May 7, 2016 at 1:54 pm

    @opiejeanne: Also, it’s disconcerting to hear, “I’m Ben’s ass and I approved this message.”

  311. 311.

    Bob In Portland

    May 7, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    Some propaganda for you.

  312. 312.

    cleek

    May 7, 2016 at 2:03 pm

    @Applejinx:

    It validates the whole ‘massively right for the general’ suspicion.

    you should probably ask yourself if perhaps you’re simply primed to see everything she does in the most negative way possible.

    in other words: confirmation bias.

  313. 313.

    NotMax

    May 7, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    @Adam L. Silverman

    He died in 2010 but his blog is still there.

    You might well find some of the archived posts informative/enjoyable/incisive.

    The Quakers’ Colonel by Col. Dan Smith, USA (Ret.).

  314. 314.

    Bob In Portland

    May 7, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    @gene108: Mississippi is 35% black.

  315. 315.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    @Bob In Portland: Race baiter says what?

  316. 316.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 2:13 pm

    @ruemara: It’s a bit more than that, actually: there’s the subtle implication that Sanders and Trump supporters are natural allies in their outsider qualities.

    It’s something we saw floated a lot earlier in the campaign. Thankfully that nonsense has receded.

  317. 317.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 7, 2016 at 2:37 pm

    @different-church-lady: Villager vermin trying to fit the “both sides do it meme” onto a couple of insurgencies from very different directions.

  318. 318.

    Applejinx

    May 7, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    @cleek: I’m surrounded by Facebook peeps including in my own family who are just like that.

    So have some patience. I’m trying to think big picture here, but this country is CRAZY. :/

  319. 319.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Maybe, but I’ve seen it directly from Bernie-folk too. Certainly not a lot of them, but a handful.

    I propose that if you want to know the exact percentage of the electorate in the “hipsters who are politically incoherent” category, just measure who out there is willing to go Sanders or Trump.

  320. 320.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    from huffington

    Donald Trump on Tuesday night assumed the mantle of presumptive nominee and declared: “We want to bring unity to the Republican Party. We have to bring unity.”

    Three days later, the GOP is tearing itself apart.

    Story Continued Below

    .

    .
    Friday brought another day of incredible division and revolt with Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham falling in line not behind Trump, but behind House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said a day earlier that he cannot yet support the brash real estate mogul as his party’s standard-bearer.
    Trump, instead of trying to make peace, lashed out.

    While I think Trump will be the nominee, there are still 6-8 weeks to go and Trump could finally talk his way out of the nomination or lightening could strike (him or someone else) and the GOP figures out a way to select someone else w/o totally destroying the party on national TV.

    AH there is the ‘delivery of popcorn by the truck load’ at my door with this weeks supply

  321. 321.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 2:51 pm

    @different-church-lady: Maybe the Ron Paul platoon. I doubt if there are enough to make a full company,

  322. 322.

    different-church-lady

    May 7, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    @D58826: I’m going with critically wounded in an attack by wolverines.

  323. 323.

    Keith G

    May 7, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    @Applejinx:

    but at a stroke she [Hillary] made it 1000 times harder to persuade any berniacs that she’s going to continue running to the left.

    Persuasion? Really?

    Listen to yesterday’s Domestic Hour of The Diane Rehm Show. A “berniac” called in, mid show. He will not be happy until Hillary is burned at the stake.

    The berniacs, by size, are a smaller group than the politically experienced and rational, regular ol’ supporters of Bernie Sanders. That group, well acquainted with the way the world tends to work, understands the compromises that are required to successfully run a campaign for president. Hillary will reach out to them and they will step up and become part of Hillary’s coalition and will have influence in the Democratic Party.

    The “berniacs” who choose to remain truculent will end up isolated, playing in puddles of their own purity poo and jizz of sanctimony.

    Maybe you should try to talk some sense into those of that group whom you know.

  324. 324.

    D58826

    May 7, 2016 at 3:34 pm

    @different-church-lady: poor wolverines.

  325. 325.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 7, 2016 at 3:48 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    I propose that if you want to know the exact percentage of the electorate in the “hipsters who are politically incoherent” category, just measure who out there is willing to go Sanders or Trump.

    They could just be sexists. That’s fairly coherent.

  326. 326.

    opiejeanne

    May 7, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    @The Lodger: Hehhehehehe. Ben’s ass. I had not thought of that.
    After reading his little speech, it’s apparent that he really is an ass.

  327. 327.

    Vor

    May 7, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: yep. I have a friend who was born in Malaysia but has lived in the US almost all her life. People routinely assume she is a Latino. Back a couple presidential elections she was manning a GOTV table just outside the forbidden zone at a polling place. Someone actually reported her as intimidating voters and called the police. Cop walked up and saw her sitting with her toddler alongside another woman who also had a toddler there and just rolled his eyes.

  328. 328.

    J R in WV

    May 7, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Late to a dead thread, but as USN vet I wanted to say that McCain was a terrible sailor. Read his auto-biography about the Forrestal fire and his behavior in that disaster. He did not comport himself as an officer and a gentleman at all. He didn’t become an admiral, as his father and grandfather did, for that reason.

    He was shot down and captured because he wasn’t flying the orders for the mission.

    Not a good man, treats his wife terrible, called her a “c**t” out loud in front of reporters, when it is her money that won him all those senate elections. A prick.

    And my experience is that using the seven dirty words doesn’t seem to have any effect on moderation, but anything associated with spam will. Don’t know about relax, maybe that’s an adjective in spam?

  329. 329.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    May 7, 2016 at 7:16 pm

    @J R in WV: Yup.

    McCain could have been someone who used his horrible life experiences as a learning experience and as a genuine moral example for others. But he seemed to treat his captivity and torture as a golden ticket to get whatever he wanted. He really let his legacy (what was left of it by then) down by not arguing forcefully and interminably against Bush’s torture policies. Yeah, he made some comments saying he opposed waterboarding, but when it came time for important votes he sided with W. When you’ve been tortured yourself, but you’re unable to side with Christopher Hitchens on an unambiguous condemnation of torture, there’s something wrong.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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