Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

In my day, never was longer.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

No one could have predicted…

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

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I was promised a recession.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

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In keeping with our occasional “Keep Thor in Thursday” theme, here’s how my high schooler let me know she’d busted yet another goddamn iPhone screen earlier this week:

thor screen

Clever girl — she knows I’m a sucker for Thor. After tomorrow, I won’t be able to refer to the screen-destroyer as “my high schooler” anymore because she’s about to become “my college student.” Figgety fuck, how’d that happen?!?

Among Floridians, it’s customary for kids who graduate to go to the beach for a week; there’s even a catchy name for it: Beach Week. When I graduated from high school (during the Reagan administration!), some classmate’s very gullible parents rented a posh three-story beach house for their kid’s Beach Week. No one could have predicted that a horde of rowdy teenagers would descend to utterly trash it, but that’s what happened.

I woke up early and surveyed the devastation. There were vomit stains on the carpet and curtains. The sofa had huge cigar holes burned in it. The tile was cracked where someone had knocked a keg off the counter. Pictures were broken. A television had been hurled off a deck and was half buried in the sand. Glassware was obliterated.

I had not personally committed any of these atrocities, but I figured it was time to skedaddle. The parents who had been foolish enough to supply the staging ground for that night of mayhem later contacted all the kids who had been there to try to get money to offset the damage. I told them honestly I didn’t have any money. Still feel kind of bad about that.

Now, in the fullness of time, it’s my turn to watch a kid pack up for Beach Week, and I’m supplying the venue, which is the beachfront condominium of a relative. I am confident that my kid and her friends won’t trash the place. These kids today with their stupid broken phones and their responsible behavior — they aren’t assholes like we were. I blame Obama.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    The dental hygienist that I see took eleven lovely male seniors with one other person to Destin for a week, last year. I tried to warn her, but they all came from good families, yadda, yadda, yadda. She’s still recuperating.

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    In Thor news, Natalie Portman will not be returning for the upcoming Thor:Ragnarok movie.

    Also, Kevin Feige has stated that 90% of the movie will be set off-Earth. It’s also been described as a “Thor-Hulk road movie”.

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    Downstairs they’re within 90 comments of yet another TBogg unit. It’s getting to be like those presidential debates where they just go around and around the same questions.

  5. 5.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Congrats to your daughter, Betty, and to you for being able to have such faith in her. What’s a broken screen or two in the big scheme of things?

  7. 7.

    JPL

    @Amir Khalid: I stop checking in around the 160th comment. I was going to write a note asking Betty to open a new thread, but figured it would get lost among the screeds.
    Are some of the trolls actually Drumpf supporters?

  8. 8.

    Annie

    How do you break an iPhone screen? I’ve dropped mine, stepped on it and even nailed it with a rocking chair and it’s still in one piece!

  11. 11.

    Poopyman

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah, for a minute I had a sad that a TBU would not be reached, but I have a suspicion that Some People just Will Not Let It Drop, so we may yet see a TBU.

    @JPL: I’m sure you didn’t mean it that way, but my dirty mind immediately goes there if your story is about a dental hygienist and 11 18 year old guys at a beach house.

  12. 12.

    Poopyman

    @JPL:

    Are some of the trolls actually Drumpf supporters?

    I’m pretty convinced that Jonathan guy is DougJ.

  13. 13.

    aimai

    Congratulations on your graduate! We are heading into senior year for one, and the other just completed sophmore year at Smith. It is all happening very fast, and not fast enough!

  15. 15.

    Haydnseek

    Been waiting for an open thread. Did anybody watch that ridiculous “interview” Megyn of the House of Ailes conducted with Drumpf? For fucks sake, I hope the staff of the facility that was tasked with gathering all of those softballs at the conclusion of this Cialis ad (h/t to Trevor Noah) has solid union representation. The overtime wages, if paid, would materially improve dozens of lives.

  18. 18.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Betty [email protected]:

    I won’t be able to refer to the screen-destroyer as “my high schooler” anymore because she’s about to become “my college student.”

    I a couple of week I’ll have to stop using the term “the nursing student” and go with nurse. The kid’s getting her BSN in a couple of weeks(then she has to study and take her boards).

  20. 20.

    burnspbesq

    Shameless plug: the niece of a good friend of mine is the lead singer and primary songwriter for a great alt-country band from Asheville called the Honeycutters. Their new album comes out tomorrow. If that’s up your alley, check it out.

  21. 21.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I got one of the cheep Windoze Phones to play around with, they’re pretty spiffy.

  23. 23.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    We did a beach week sort of thing in West Michigan where I grew up – on the Lake Michigan shore of course. Think American Pie 2 only not nearly as nice a place and not right on the beach but within walking distance. Also our parties were smaller and lamer.

    What was it about a certain subset of teenagers in the 1980s that thought breaking shit was just a hilarious no consequence activity? I never understood it even back then. If the kids have given that stuff up good on ’em.

  24. 24.

    Eric U.

    @Annie: my daughter just broke hers, she said she dropped it on the end. She has it in a really heavy otterbox, so I guess it’s just a matter of dropping it the right way. Or putting it in your purse with your keys.

  26. 26.

    Loviatar

    Kevin Drum has a piece up on Bernie Sanders’s core supporters, guess what they’re not the white working class, they’re just young. I thought the the key takeaway was the following statement.

    Having missed this peculiar turn of the conventional wisdom, I can now continue believing what the data has always suggested: Bernie’s main core of support is young voters, especially young white voters. Income doesn’t matter all that much, and neither does education. Young people of all stripes like him, and young people of all stripes really don’t like Hillary. Among white voters, the Democratic primary is basically a generational war, and that’s it.

    Imagine, we now have at least 2 voting age generations who’ve grown up steeped in the right wings Clinton fantasies. Propaganda is one hell of a useful tool.

  27. 27.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I bailed on the Argument Clinic. Heading home in 10 for walkies with Doglius.
    Have a pleasant evening.

  28. 28.

    tmflibrarian

    @Poopyman: Because Betty’s in Florida, and it was a response to supervising trips, it took me a second to realize she didn’t mean senior citizen guys. Which is either funnier, or creepier, or both.

  29. 29.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    Among Floridians, it’s customary for kids who graduate to go to the beach for a week; there’s even a catchy name for it: Beach Week. When I graduated from high school (during the Reagan administration!), some classmate’s very gullible parents rented a posh three-story beach house for their kid’s Beach Week. No one could have predicted that a horde of rowdy teenagers would descend to utterly trash it, but that’s what happened.

    That’s odd. My family didn’t do that, and I don’t recall any of my fellow grads from Tarpon Springs to indulge in a Beach Week like that. Then again, we were 30 minutes drive away from Clearwater Beach ONE OF THE BEST F-CKING BEACHES ON THE PLANET.

  30. 30.

    Eric U.

    @Loviatar: I keep telling my kids that they’ve been propagandized against the Clintons. They don’t care. I guess charges of corruption are meant to work with anyone, not just the right wingnuts

  33. 33.

    aimai

    @Loviatar: How does this mesh with the fact that other polls show that the hillary hate vanishes when she becomes nominee and goes up against Trump?

  34. 34.

    Doug R

    My daughter threw her new android phone on the ground, I took it and now she uses my crappy old phone.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve actually heard good things about it as well. But I don’t think it can succeed given the need to have apps. Even Android is far behind iOS on that front.

  38. 38.

    gene108

    I have an Otter Box case for my iPhone. It cost me about $35 dollars. The case has helped my phone survive very many falls and drops, without a scratch.

    It is bulky, but cheaper than replacing my phone due to my carelessness.

  39. 39.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: WinPhones will be able to run Android apps in the next version(the Anniversary version out in a couple of months).

  41. 41.

    scav

    Well, my only excuse is that every so often I need a break from the Wars of the Roses. Need to remember that Warwick was related to the House of York (but then, they all seemed to be related, drat Edward III). Also, George Duke of Clarence certainly deserved something and that sweet lad Edmund? Older than Richard III. Clearly, none of these individuals had a living wage, otherwise they wouldn’t have spent all that time fighting.

  44. 44.

    Loviatar

    @Eric U.:

    Thats the insidious of propaganda, at first you don’t know its being done and even after being told, if its been done long enough it just seems natural to believe. Remember the Arkansas Project started in the early 80s, almost 35 years ago. We have 30 year old Sander’s voters whose never known anything about the Clintons other than propaganda.

  45. 45.

    Cermet

    Congrats on her graduation and fall college!

    Mine is starting her senior year at MIT this fall and leaves soon for Germany as a summer student. She will be working on their new fusion stellarator (a small side project. The machine will produce little radiation – a test bed reactor only but may …may be the big break through for fusion IF everything goes well for the next six-eight years and a real prototype is then funded … not holding my breath. As they say “Fusion energy is the energy of the future and always will be …” lol.)

    Mine also broke her phone glass (I have an insurance plan) but she won’t part with the phone even for the four or five days to express/repair/express back …a bit funny.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @JPL:

    That reminds me of one of my favorite Wodehouse stories, “Tried In The Furnace,” where a member of the Drones Club gets roped into escorting a group of village mothers for a seaside holiday:

    If there’s one thing Barmy hates it’s being conspicuous, and conspicuous is precisely what a fellow cannot fail to be when he’s in a motor coach with sixteen women of mature ages who alternate between singing ribald songs and hurling volleys of homely chaff at passers-by.

  50. 50.

    PhoenixRising

    How does one break that screen?

    8 iPhones used by 3 end users (now aged 52, 44 & 16) over a decade & we agent had a broken screen.

    But my niece (13) has had 2. Hmm.

  53. 53.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I was mistaken, MS cancelled the Android app bridge and is concentrating on the iOS bridge instead.

  54. 54.

    Loviatar

    @aimai:

    I referring to the Bernie or Busters primarily, however even with the non-nihilist there is a I’ll hold my nose and vote for her vibe. Why? An honest review of her record shows with the exception of her Iraq vote she has been a solid supporter of progressive social causes and pretty much in the middle on economic causes. i.e. not much different than Obama.

    Again, why the hesitation. My opinion, mostly propaganda with a side of sexism (70/30)

  55. 55.

    PhoenixRising

    Also: @aimai: Smith. Does one scrimp and sacrifice to send her girl to the summer science program as a sample? Or just tell her to apply and we can look at the aid package after?

    One lives in New Mexico so a weekend visit isn’t a given.

  58. 58.

    Doug R

    @Mike J: It was a decent new Android to replace her previous phone, a hand-me-down Nokia with the old pre-windoze os. My old Galaxy mini was still a step up. We’re thinking of buying her another phone for this birthday, she’s probably learned her lesson by now.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    If you want to get a TBU for your subject, float the notion that Richard III was guilty. I think we have at least a couple of Ricardians who comment here.

  62. 62.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I think they’re being pretty careful to not infringe on Apple’s tech. It’s more of a port tool.

    The Android bridge became unworkable because of Google API simulation problems(quick search and read on my part).

  64. 64.

    chopper

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m sure once Bob starts accusing the CIA of taking down that egyptair flight we’ll be well on our way to another one.

  67. 67.

    Mike J

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    her voting record and Sanders’s overlapped by something like 93%, which supports your opinion.

    But but but, she didn’t really meeeeeean it, she just voted that way.

  68. 68.

    Anonymous37

    As soon as I got my iPhone 6S for way too much money, I immediately ordered a tempered glass screen protector for the front and a Speck clear case for the rest of it.

    The Speck case, with the consistency of a hard clear rubber, adds significantly to the thickness of the phone. But the glass screen protector does not. I can’t imagine a good excuse for not having one.

  70. 70.

    Eric U.

    yeah, when I see the 93%, I think that means she is obviously 7% impure. Way too much to get a purity pony.

    Of course, it’s certainly possible that a lot of those votes she was on the side of the angels, and Bernie wasn’t, but who is counting?

  72. 72.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: Well, I did manage to generate a single comment along the lines of “Lancaster Good: York Bad” so maybe a micro-TBU could be generated. And I doubt my discovery that they’re using a quote from Troilus and Cressida at the very front of the Hollow Crown II and in the trailer is going to work up any energy. It’s a nice apt quote and, well, Shakespeare did do sort of do that sort of thing.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @Anonymous37: I have never been able to successfully put on a screen protector without significantly diminishing screen quality with bubbles and dust particles.

  76. 76.

    Doug R

    @Loviatar: Well, the young did lead the way with gay rights, but in some things they’re easily lead astray:

    A boy began preaching in either France or Germany claiming that he had been visited by Jesus and told to lead a Crusade to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity. Through a series of supposed portents and miracles he gained a considerable following, including possibly as many as 30,000 children. He led his followers south towards the Mediterranean Sea, in the belief that the sea would part on their arrival, allowing him and his followers to march to Jerusalem, but this did not happen. They were sold to two merchants (Hugh the Iron and William of Posqueres) who gave free passage on boats to as many of the children as were willing, but they were actually either taken to Tunisia and sold into slavery by the cruel merchants, or died in a shipwreck on San Pietro Island off Sardinia during a gale. Some may have failed to reach the sea, dying or giving up from starvation and exhaustion. They were betrayed by some of the adults in their group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Crusade

  77. 77.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Loviatar: I think it’s “she seems like old news” mixed with “she’s not liberal enough for me.” One thing that keeps coming up with the Bernie diehards is that they seem to think that Hillary Clinton actively and vocally promises to _do_ the things that the critique-from-the-left-or-thereabouts always attribute to her. Like they think Hillary Clinton WANTS to get involved in wars, and WANTS to give away money to banks and corporations, etc.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    So many threads have become Bernie spatfests, I may have missed some other stuff. Has there been anything here on Trump’s potential Supremes list?

    I was really taken by this little nugget from Nate Silver’s site:

    The names on the list include justices from five state supreme courts and six federal judges. Six have clerked for current or former Supreme Court justices. Three — Allison Eid, Thomas Lee and Stras — clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, easily the most conservative sitting justice. However, one — Raymond Kethledge — clerked for the moderate, and often swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy.

    Good thing that the Supreme Court isn’t much of an issue in this election, right?

  80. 80.

    Currants

    @Annie: Yeah, me too, until I broke one. Turns out if you don’t have The Right Cover and it falls from enough height and lands on one of its corners at precisely the right angle, WHOOSH. Broken screen.

  81. 81.

    Trollhattan

    @Doug R:
    Went with the Droid Turbo2 (and doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?) with its no-glass screen. Sucker is not breaking, no matter what. (CNET caught theirs on fire trying to bust the screen, when they pierced the li-ion battery.)

  83. 83.

    Doug R

    @Eric U.: It’s those gun control votes costing her that 7%. And trusting W to do his job competently without prejudgement.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    @Currants:

    I don’t love my Incipio case, but I think the fact that it covers all of the edges with plastic and is about 1/4″ raised off the screen has saved me from many a potential cracked screen.

  89. 89.

    AkaDad

    @Loviatar:

    There’s a new Harvard poll that just came out that has Hillary crushing Trump with Millenials by 36 points. Over 3,000 youts were surveyed.

  91. 91.

    JPL

    @Brachiator: I didn’t see that article, but the records of some on the list are horrifying. I thought that the court had interns present both sides.

  92. 92.

    ? Martin

    @redshirt:

    In Thor news, Natalie Portman will not be returning for the upcoming Thor:Ragnarok movie.

    Also, Kevin Feige has stated that 90% of the movie will be set off-Earth. It’s also been described as a “Thor-Hulk road movie”.

    Given that the 90% off-Earth and Thor-Hulk road movie imply that it’ll be about 103% CGI, why not just keep Natalie in the film? Not like she’d need to leave her house anyway.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    I thought that the court had interns present both sides.

    LOL. They aren’t interns. They’re the lawyers.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @redshirt:

    Also, Kevin Feige has stated that 90% of the movie will be set off-Earth. It’s also been described as a “Thor-Hulk road movie”.

    Is this the one based on the comic in which the Hulk is forced to play an inter-galactic card game using Thor and other heroes as chips?

    I recall that when the Hulk is defeated and has all his chips taken, he goes on a rampage. One of the galactic aliens admonishes him, “Hey, Hulk, don’t be a Thor loser.”

  98. 98.

    ? Martin

    @PhoenixRising:

    8 iPhones used by 3 end users (now aged 52, 44 & 16) over a decade & we agent had a broken screen.

    Same here. 9 phones, 4 users, two teenagers, no broken screens. Lots of $4 cases, though.

  99. 99.

    Trollhattan

    @A Ghost To Most:
    Yup, that’s what I have. Also takes a microSD card and doesn’t require a goofy connecting cord. Nothing my kid would agree to use, mind, but she’s too busy copying mom with the iphone thing. Their loss.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    Cell phones. Pfui.

    /curmudgeon

    (Although I understand work is slowly progressing on ones that can actually be used to make comprehensible phone calls.)

  103. 103.

    Chyron HR

    Well then why was the FBI whining about how hard it is to crack an iPhone?

  104. 104.

    Gin & Tonic

    @A Ghost To Most: Well, not all Android phones are unbreakable. My wife just let me know that our grand-daughter got hold of my wife’s Samsung Galaxy and dropped it and cracked the screen. Good thing the baby is so damn cute.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    @piratedan:

    these fucktards are apparently in fuck it mode now

    Clearly, impeaching the IRS commissioner is more important than, say, the Senate working to confirm a Supreme Court nominee.

  107. 107.

    Loviatar

    @AkaDad:

    Growing up in NYC, its mine also. I actually spoke like that as a yout, but after my Drill Sgt. made it clear that the next time I axed him something he would kick my ass, I made it a point of americanizing my NYC accent.

  110. 110.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Trollhattan:
    How clear is the screen, and the battery life? The battery on my beloved HTC one is fading after 3 years, so I’m looking at phones

  116. 116.

    Brachiator

    @A Ghost To Most:

    The battery on my beloved HTC one is fading after 3 years, so I’m looking at phones

    Some folks are loving the new HTC 10.

    Battery life appears to be pretty good:

    And if I’m on the run and not on Wi-Fi, I can burn through the HTC 10 battery a good bit faster and need to top up at some point.

    But if I’m on Wi-Fi most of the day, and get a little bit of charge back on the commute home, I’m easily getting 15 hours of actual use, with 30 percent or 40 percent of a charge remaining.

    Might be worth a look, depending on your needs.

  117. 117.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: OK, you just made LOL at work. Careful with that shit! : )

    ETA: Wait a minute…does that mean your J.D. has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?

  118. 118.

    cmorenc

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just down the street from our beach house @Sunset Beach, NC, some naive parents rented a house for his son to have a few friends down for spring break. WELL, the house next door to said house belongs to a 60-ish dude who is a dead ringer for Jerry Garcia, hair, beard, and all, basically a nice guy but his patience wore thin the first night as the crowd at the house grew larger, louder, and the party kept on going later, and his patience wore out as they started peeing off the deck into his yard and throwing beer cans into his shrubbery. Since he rents his house out during summer with the same rental agency as the party house next door, he contacted the agency and got the kids kicked out by noontime the next day. It’s specifically in this agency’s rental contract that the responsible adults who are the listed renters must be present and can’t rent houses out on behalf of someone else, a clause specifically intended to prevent the very kind of scenario involving drunk college kids behaving badly that unfolded next door. The parents were also held liable for the nearly $1000 damage the kids inflicted on the house, including having the carpet cleaned of all the stale beer that got spilled into it.

    FORTUNATELY, so far we have neither wanted nor needed to rent out our house in the 20 years we’ve had it – we do let some friends and family use it without us there, but the ironclad rule we’re quite frankly up-front with is – you’re welcome to use anything there while you’re there – but before you leave, clean it up so we couldn’t tell you were ever there except for the fact that we lent you a key to get in – don’t leave us ANY work where we have to clean up or neaten up after you if you want to be invited back. We’ve had to invoke that clause to put someone on the “disinvited” list only once so far in 20 years.

  121. 121.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Brachiator:

    Some folks are loving the new HTC 10.

    Yea, it looks like HTC has finally gone back to the things that made
    the original htc one great. The m8 and m9 were not good phones.

    Not sure I’m ready to pay $650 for a smartphone, even one as nice
    as the 10.

  123. 123.

    Trollhattan

    @A Ghost To Most:
    The display seems nice, a big step up from my previous phone but not as crisp as the latest Samsungs (which are the nicest I’ve seen). It’s also faintly matte, not high-gloss, due to the plastic skin. Battery life is very, very good–two days easily if I’m not using it for a lot of web stuff or car navigation. It comes with a fast charger and can also use both types of wireless charger.

  124. 124.

    slag

    I blame the phone. This thing is supposed to go everywhere with you and do almost everything for you, and you’re never allowed to drop it? Bad design.

    I had two different Android phones that I could do almost anything to and never worry. Now I have an iPhone, and I constantly worry. Apple can–and should–do better.

  125. 125.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Did you? Probably not, since you never made a habit of barging in, repeating bullshit ad nauseum, and acting like a complete ass and/or fool.

    Did you have the interview yet?

  127. 127.

    Gian

    @Mnemosyne:

    I was poking fun. Were I inclined to think about it (and I really have no great love for either Sanders or Clinton) I’d be inclined to think that maybe pitching policies right at a major issue for the youth (cost of college) early just might have helped Bernie get traction there.

    One of my pet peeves is when people complain about how the youth today are just so much more decadent, or stupid than when the complainer was young. No, they’re not. Not even the generation that brought us the band that sang the kid are alright – and my generation.

  128. 128.

    MomSense

    Congratulations to Betty’s daughter and to your family. I hope they have a fun beach week.

    2016 needs to stop sucking for me asap.

    Dear friend in ICU and I am going to my cousin’s funeral tomorrow morning.

    Fuck you fucking cancer. UGH.

  129. 129.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Baud:
    yes, but you say consistently amusing things. With Cole as blogfather, that is an asset. Thank goodness for Betty as well. We are sort of full of curmudgeons.

  131. 131.

    Major Major Major Major

    @A Ghost To Most: Yeah, I figured. Weird how these new folks seem to bounce between whiny/petulant/stupid and actually interesting and personable with fun interests.

    Also I mean there are the obvious trolls.

    I think the interview went really well! And I almost never feel that way, so, whatever that means. Thanks for asking.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gian:

    I think today’s kids are actually pretty good. Most of the ones I know seem to be nice, smart, responsible, liberal people. That’s why the whole they’ll only vote for Bernie! thing seemed unlikely to me. They’re way smarter than I was at their age.

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Good thing the baby is so damn cute.

    I can see it now — you and efgoldman have a throw-down over whose grandchild is cuter. You kids should post pictures of your kids’ kids. (Actually, probably not, in no small part because efg’s daughter has nixed that idea, privacy and all that, if my memory is correct.)

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    How psychologists used these doctored Obama photos to get white people to support conservative politics
    By Max Ehrenfreund May 13

    American politics always has surprises, but things have been
    especially unpredictable since President Obama took office. First, few observers were prepared for the tea party movement, which ousted several veteran GOP lawmakers, replaced them with more radically conservative newcomers, and helped the Republican Party win control of the House of Representatives in 2010.

    “That left a lot of analysts slack-jawed, wondering: What was this latent force that drove the emergence of this movement?” said Robb Willer, a sociologist at Stanford University.

    Then, of course, there was Donald Trump.

    Willer speculates that one thing connecting these two political earthquakes might be white voters’ unconscious racial biases. In a series of psychological experiments between 2011 and 2015,
    he showed how hostility toward people with darker skin and perceived racial threats can influence white support for the tea party. He and his colleagues published a draft of a paper on their findings onlinelast week — some of the most direct evidence of the importance of race to the conservative resurgence during Obama’s presidency.

    First, the researchers randomly sorted subjects into two groups and showed them a series of pictures of celebrities, including digitally altered images of the commander in chief. One group saw a version in which Obama’s skin had been lightened, while in the other version, his skin had been darkened.

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler:

    Al Franken will be on Jeopardy tonight.

    I hope he turns in a better performance than the Tuesday crew. It’s not often that I yell “Moron!”, repeatedly, at the TV. (Unless I’m watching a Rethug spouting talking points, of course.) But Cooper, Logan, and Steele were embarrassing in the depth of their cluelessness.

    But I might pay good money to see Wolf Blitzer’s “performance.”

  139. 139.

    singfoom

    @SFAW: Wolf Blitzer playing Jeopardy would be a thing of beauty.

    “What is catering to the lowest common denominator?”
    “What is making it seem like there are two sides to every issue?”

    God I despise Wolf Blitzer.

  140. 140.

    Baud

    @A Ghost To Most:

    A Ghost To Most: Just… ya know… you’re funny.

    Baud: You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it’s me, I’m a little fucked up maybe, but I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?

    A Ghost To Most: Just… you know, how you tell the story, what?

    Baud: No, no, I don’t know, you said it. How do I know? You said I’m funny. How the fuck am I funny, what the fuck is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what’s funny!

  141. 141.

    redshirt

    On another Thor note, if he can control the weather, shouldn’t he be using that power a lot more? Seems like it would come in handy quite often.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Not sure I’m ready to pay $650 for a smartphone, even one as nice
    as the 10.

    Yeah. Makes sense. I’ve also been hearing things about the upcoming Moto Gs. The price should be lower, but I haven’t seen formal reviews yet.

    ETA: I’m currently using a Nexus 6P, which I love. But I won a gift card that I used to subsidize my purchase, so I didn’t have to worry as much about the price.

  144. 144.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chopper:

    Is it my imagination, or are our news media covering this Egyptair story a bit more responsibly than usual? There doesn’t seem to have been as much coverage, certainly not the wall-to-wall of past missing and crashed planes, and what I’ve heard and seen comes across as less breathless, less willing to indulge in wild speculation.

    IZ R MEDIA LURNING??

  145. 145.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler:

    Yeah. Well, I’m not convinced Kate Bolduan is “professional” or a “journalist” — she was pretty dim. Souter the longest-serving? And appointed by Reagan? I guess that’s better than if she had put Rehnquist or Abe Fortas.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    Donald Trump took advantage of program designed to help small businesses after 9/11 — one of many times he’s used public funds for private gain
    May 18, 2016, 9:15 PM

    Donald Trump made a pretty penny off a program to help small businesses hurt by 9/11, one of many times where The Donald took advantage of government programs to save or make money off the taxpayer.

    The self-proclaimed billionaire, who has so far refused to release his tax returns, was one of many wealthy individuals and businesses who used a loophole in a program intended to help smaller companies in lower Manhattan recover after the Sept. 11 tragedy.

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Oh, MomSense. I am so very sorry.

    Fuck cancer. Too fucking many good people taken too fucking soon.

  152. 152.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Not sure adopting that persona will be a good strategy with respect to your run in 2020, if you know what I mean. Especially if you get the ‘phone call that you’re now a “made man.”

  153. 153.

    Tom Q

    @Gian: That’s my feeling, too. Back when I was a yoot, I was all-in for McGovern, and, though I definitely thought of him as “the only genuine guy/the rest are all phonies”, at root it was the existential threat of the draft/McGovern’s promise to end the war that made him the universal choice of my age group (the guys who didn’t want to go, and the women who liked/loved them). Though it’s obviously not as life-and-death, I wonder if the crush of student loan debt/Sanders’ promise of free college has a similar effect on those young voters, and the “I just don’t trust Hillary” thing is more a tribal feeling brought about by a year of campaign rhetoric. Recall: Hillary had GREAT approvals two years ago, and solid ones even a year ago, when the Pub portion of her fans had drifted away.

  154. 154.

    germy shoemangler

    @SFAW: I took a sharpie to all my Baud lawn signs and changed “2016” to “2020”

    We’re good to go.

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler:

    She is a journalamist.

    Yeah, and I even read it that way the first time, but what’s left of my brain didn’t engage properly. Thanks for reminding me.

  156. 156.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler:

    Might be premature. You do know what film’s dialogue he’s quoting, right? And what happened to the character whose lines he was quoting? Not a good long-term outlook.

  157. 157.

    scav

    @Annie: Unproven, but not unlikely, especially seeing the general treatment of dangerous heirs and threats to regal stability, and the distrust of minors as heirs (unless you could control them). But digging through the lack of evidence covered by propaganda? But, THAT won’t get me a TBU. How about, they were actually girls and escaped from the tower using Ninja techniques (their very long hair serving as both ropes, garrotes and eventually longbow strings) and were actually the ones that stole Richard’s horse from under him at that battle, thus completing their revenge?

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    Matt Murphy
    ‏@MattMurph24
    Senate Republicans passed that $1.1B Zika funding with NO offsets because they know they have vulnerable Senators up for reelection.

  161. 161.

    germy shoemangler

    @SFAW: Yes, but since Baud is our first virtual candidate we don’t have to worry about his corporeal body. Once his thoughts and opinions are uploaded to The Cloud, the physical husk he leaves behind can vacation in Aruba for the duration of his term.

  162. 162.

    Shana

    @Mnemosyne: You must join the Wodehouse Society and come to the convention in October 2017 here in DC. It’s a very fun weekend full of, mostly liberal, Wodehouse fans, including several who come from England, one guy from Norway, and this wonderful Japanese woman who writes Wodehouse manga. The vast majority are American. Amusing talks (I’m trying to find a politician who will come speak – any leads much appreciated), a banquet (costumes optional) and a Sunday brunch.

    Congrats to all the parents of graduates. We head out tomorrow to watch our older daughter graduate from UVA Law. Then we send off younger daughter in August to start her Masters program in Art History at Williams.

    Can I just say, we have an amazing group of kids in our group.

  163. 163.

    germy shoemangler

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    But isn’t it pretty to think so?

    Yes. And for the briefest of moments I thought maybe they were reluctant to give Trump any talking points.

  164. 164.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy shoemangler:

    Louis is a pretty smart guy, so I’m not surprised. One of the best “Celebrity Jeopardy” rounds I ever saw was Stephen King vs David Duchovny. DD was an ABD PhD candidate in American literature at Harvard before he went into acting, so he’s smarter than he looks. King still beat him on a Truman Capote question — particularly embarrassing since that’s who DD’s uncompleted dissertation was about.

  165. 165.

    germy shoemangler

    @Shana: There is a connection between Woodhouse and Robert Benchley. I believe Woodhouse praised the young Benchley when some of his work first appeared, and they corresponded for a time.

  166. 166.

    scav

    @scav: Cont. I mean, there’s simply not enough meta cross-dressing in the histories and besides, the English crown needs some really good transgendered heirs to go up against Versailles and Monsieur during the rating sweeps.

  167. 167.

    YellowDog

    A few years ago, having a cracked screen was a thing. But a few years is an eternity in teenage years.

  168. 168.

    germy shoemangler

    @Mnemosyne: One of the worst performances I’ve ever seen was Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” from Sharktank. It was appalling how little general information he possessed.

    Apparently billionaires are laser-focused on one thing and one thing only: the acquisition of wealth.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    Some people REALLY hate Alison Weir’s theory, but it seemed pretty plausible and she had a decent amount of evidence for it. Some of it came from contemporary but non-English sources, which kind of put the kibosh on the idea that it was all after-the-fact propaganda by the Tudors.

  170. 170.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    Donald Trump is a disgusting blob of phlegm. He surely didn’t need the money — $150,000 is pocket change to him, but quite likely the whole difference between a mom and pop being able to reopen a small shop or having to shutter it forever. He effectively stole that money, twice — once from the taxpayers, and again from the small business owner who didn’t get it.

  171. 171.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    I love Monsieur (in that platonic, across the ages way that a straight woman can love a gay man). Wasn’t the line about him something like, He was more afraid of a stain on his coat than he was of bullets and cannonballs?

  172. 172.

    rikyrah

    But, what about the kid who doesn’t have a nurse for a parent?

    GARNER STUDENT VINDICATED OF SCHOOL’S POT ACCUSATION

    Thursday, May 19, 2016 12:18PM
    GARNER (WTVD) — A four-hour-long appeal hearing inside Wake County Public School Headquarters resolved what’s been an agonizing few weeks for one Garner high-schooler.

    Jakayla Johnson, 15, was accused of drug possession on campus at Garner Magnet High School in April, and she was kicked out of school.

    Johnson’s ordeal began April 21 with an encounter with the school resource officer at Garner Magnet. The officer stopped Johnson’s Chinese class to announce he smelled marijuana.

    “They came, they walked around the class; tried to sniff where the scent was at,” Johnson said.

    Soon after, Johnson was hauled to the assistant principal’s office — there were more sniff tests.

    “(The assistant principal) says he smells marijuana. … He said ‘why do your hands smell like marijuana?’ I said I don’t know,” Johnson recalled.

    Then Johnson said she was patted down, her shoes checked for contraband. Nothing was found.

    Later, Johnson’s mom, Tameka got a phone call: The school suspended Jakayla for five days. The offense: drug possession.

    “I just wanted to prove to the school they had the wrong kid,” Tameka said. “She doesn’t do drugs.”

    Tameka is a nurse, so she took her daughter for a drug test the next day. Johnson tested drug- and alcohol-free.

    But, it wasn’t enough to change the school’s decision. Until Wednesday.

    Two community activists, Diana Powell and Geraldine Alshamy, represented the teen at her appeal hearing inside district headquarters. The pair was concerned Johnson’s case was another example of an issue both are fighting to correct: the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.”

    “Innocent kids are being accused of something they did not do,” Alshamy said. “But they don’t know how to defend that.”

    “(The school system) charged this girl with possession. When they openly admit they didn’t find anything.”

    The argument worked. The district overturned Johnson’s suspension — wiping it off her record.

    “I was happy because it’s about time they know they’re wrong,” Johnson said. “And they should’ve just owned up to their actions when they had the point.”

    Johnson’s mom says she was told the drug possession allegation will also be cleared from her daughter’s record. And she’ll no longer be penalized for the missing school days. Johnson was concerned about the impact with potential colleges where she may apply

  173. 173.

    scuffletuffle

    @PhoenixRising: Apply and look at the aid package. Smith has a beautiful campus and is a dream school. She will be very fortunate to go there.

    Smith’87 and would go back in a heartbeat.

  175. 175.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    WTF? A school can suspend you for something they think they SMELL on you?

    What I “smell” there is an administration that wanted to get rid of that girl. I wonder if she had actually “made trouble” (like by complaining about a teacher or administrator) or if they just felt like being assholes that day.

  176. 176.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve not really been impressed by Allison Weir in general, nor Carolly Erickson’s take on certain things (although she’s generally later, Tudor, no? I just somehow link the two). But I’ve certain never dug this far into this particular period before and I’m cerainly not ruling anything out.

  177. 177.

    Elie

    Hillary supporter and delegate here but I was surprised and disappointed when Hillary said that Bill would be her economy improvement appointee. REALLY???? Bill should be given a ceremonial role in say, Bangladesh in my opinion. She cannot appear to be “the little woman” or that she is just going to replicate his administration! Palm to forehead — NO — this sends exactly the WRONG message! You are the President and he is — your spouse and maybe something symbolic and innocuous but you must not give any sense that this is a Clinton do-over! Honestly, whenever I think she finally “gets it”, she does/says something like this. Bill is not exactly poison, but in an important way he detracts from her and distracts from her strength. For effing pete’s sake, Hilz!!!

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    Weir also writes (not very good) novels based on history, so I think some people think she speculates too much. Her research and conclusions seem solid to me, but I’m a fiction writer, not a historian.

  180. 180.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: Whereas my bias is to leave a lot in the gray more or less probable zones when wearing my amateur historian hat while letting rip in different headgear. I’ve a special red crown ready to go for just those occasions. In any case, the question certainly won’t tip me one way or the other when evaluating Richard (or the general Floral Wars) so I’m fine with gray.

    Eta: We are SO failing a TBogg here. Maybe later when everyone can get their dander up about CumberRichard.

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    @Shana:

    I should probably do it one of these days. I’ll have to check the dates closely, though, because our “Hamilton” tickets are for the fall of 2017! We see it the third week of its run at the Pantages.

  184. 184.

    scav

    @redshirt: But the cross-over!! We could all rip flowers off digital web-sites and display them as emojis! Change the colors of banners and fonts in solidarity. The quality of polysyllabic invective would be nice, and there’s still room for accusations of whoresom mis-shapen lumpish bastardy etc. Would be a change at least.

  187. 187.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Buckingham was nowhere near, and his eventual rebellion against R3 and support of Henry Tudor may have been because he found out for sure that R3 had killed them.

    I’m blanking on the name of the guy Weir claims did it under R3’s orders, but there is evidence he made a deathbed confession.

    ETA: Found it — James Tyrrell.

  188. 188.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: What makes you think that they died in the tower in June of 1483? We know that is the last time they were seen in public.

  189. 189.

    SFAW

    @germy shoemangler:

    Yes, but since Baud is our first virtual candidate we don’t have to worry about his corporeal body. Once his thoughts and opinions are uploaded to The Cloud, the physical husk he leaves behind can vacation in Aruba for the duration of his term.

    Yeah, I saw that X-Files, too.

  190. 190.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Elie:

    There was much more context to it than that – he was in West Virginia talking about revitalizing the coal based economy. Not the Obama economy. Calm down. and yes, Bill needs to say the minimum, because the press can’t be trusted to characterize anything he says correctly.

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    Sorry about your friends.
    And yes I am going to repeat this here. Again.

    Fuck Fucking Cancer.
    This needs to be said every day by everyone of us. I do for sure. It won’t make any difference but at least it’s a valid opinion.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:
    Have a Moto X Pure Edition and it’s a pretty nice phone. Battery life is OK but not exceptional but you don’t need to purchase the large mem version as the micro card can be used as internal storage. I have a 128G card I got on sale, was less than a 64G card. So I’m never running out of room.

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