It’s a pleasure to be back in this den of Republican Lite neo-liberals.
I arrived home in Sydney from Marrakech at 6 o’clock this morning after a 36 hour slog that was only enlivened by lashings of first class bubbly, and a knee trembler in the dunnies at Dubai airport with Bob Hastings, an insurance executive from Reading.
I spent the whole day today trying not to sleep in order to avoid the jetlag, then left it too long and have passed into being so tired I can’t sleep, so I’m not so much drunk blogging as “have been drunk, insomiac and constipated since the Kennedy administration” blogging.
And tormenting the dog with a tiny, tiny fez, apparently.
So what have I missed, aside from all of you turning your back on the true Democrat party to support some woman who isn’t even a Democrat but is just using the Democratic primary process for her own nefarious purposes?
No, wait. I’m confused. Where’s that fez gone?
Anyway, I also have Halsey’s “New Americana” on a permanent loop in my head, apparently because my ipad got stuck playing it over and over for six hours while I tried to sleep on the plane. There are worse fates, so I’m embedding it in both dance remix and live versions for the purists at each extreme.
MomSense
Even a tiny fez is cool.
Cute puppeh.
joel hanes
You can’t do it without the fez on
Oh no
raven
The Fez
No I’m never gonna do it without the fez on
Oh no
Gian
San Diego paper endorses zombie Reagan:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/san-diego-union-tribune-endorses-reagan-upcoming-gop-primary-article-1.2659674
gogol's wife
You can’t faze me. I looked up “knee trembler” after it was used on Grantchester.
different-church-lady
Likewise, it is a pleasure to have you back.
SteveinSC
Where the fuck are you? Is that the fucking Australia type of Sydney? Have you heard something about the future and Trump? Jesus Christ, I’ve got to pack.
c u n d gulag
Maybe you used the tiny fez as a shot glass?
Missed you!
Just One More Canuck
Did you take and express from Marrakech?
Yutsano
SARAH!!! My dear sweetie! Kiss kiss and all that!
Your trip to Morocco was quite jealousy inducing. And we will certainly share a tea and a biscuit discussing that insurance executive.
Proper authoritahs shall also be alerted to your presence.
Shell
Sarah, you may bring back the fez. Hipsters will abandon their pork-pies!
Keith P.
I suppose the dog is expecting a nice gratuity.
Miss Bianca
I have a feeling this blog is about to get even more entertaining now that S, P & T is back in town (so to speak).
Dog with tiny fez + tongue sticking out = comic genius.
NotMax
Akbar was delicious.
Now where’s Jeff?
Luthe
@Shell: It will be interesting to see if Sarah can succeed where Doctor Who failed: bringing back the fez.
Sarah, you got any good Trump stories for us?
ranchandsyrup
‘Sup girl?
Patricia Kayden
Jealous of anyone who has been to Morocco. Heard nothing but good things about that country and it’s on my bucket list.
MattF
Good to see a front page post from an adult.
MomSense
@Patricia Kayden:
My bucket list, too. sigh.
Tom Levenson
@gogol’s wife: An alternate account of a knee trembler: http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/oct/15/featuresreview.review2
piratedan
@NotMax: still over at Bart and Lisa’s
Patricia Kayden
@MomSense: My Sister-in-Law is from there and keeps inviting me to travel with her so the next time she’s going, I’ll join her (even if it bankrupts me).
@Miss Bianca: I’m trying to figure out if the dog went to Morocco with Sarah and is sticking its tongue out at us in a “I got to go and you didn’t” way. Cute photo.
Paul in KY
@c u n d gulag: That is a great alternate use for a tiny fez.
Paul in KY
@Keith P.: Good one!
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Another good one!
Humdog
@Patricia Kayden: my friends took a short trip to Morocco in during winter break from college in England and at a Marrakech (sp?) souk they were held in the back of a rug shop and had to buy a rug in order to be allowed to leave the souk. I would have been rattled but they made the experience sound like loads of fun. Ah, college days, often surprised we survived our reckless stupid adventures!
ETA not to say Morocco is not a great bucket list destination! Just don’t be a dundering naive college student’ wherever you go!
Mnemosyne
Everyone else beat me to the Dr. Who reference, but I was wondering where his matching bow tie was.
raven
Stupid fucking title but some of you might like it.
rikyrah
I, too, want to go to Morocco one day.
asiangrrlMN
Tiny fez-wearing dog is uh-door-uh-bul! Glad you made it home safely.
MomSense
@Patricia Kayden:
I almost made it once when a gentleman I met while traveling in Egypt invited me to go with him as his guest. I was really close to accepting but then I chickened out. Not sure I made the right choice. He was quite handsome.
J R in WV
Sarah, P&T:
Great to hear from you. Sorry you’re jetlagged, that always happens to me too.
And c u n d gulag, where you been!? I know, I know, those other high-faluting blogs like LGM!
I guess now that the election is getting (getting?) serious, I should have expected you guys to crawl back into the daylight and make us happy to see you!
Don’t be strangers! And mind the troolls! (sic)
raven
Ultraviolet Thunder
Welcome back SPAT. I am truly looking forward to your contributions here. Even if you are Tom Levenson in drag.
I’m chilling at GSP for a few hours, trying to get out of the Palmetto State. I should be working, and I probably will. But my expenses are up to date and it’s Friday afternoon so I’m gong to people watch and catch up on blogs.
Mike J
Is Vox now calling for more violence? Shame, Ezra, shame.
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I haven’t been there, nor drank, in years. Do they still sell booze in little bottles at the airport bars?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@raven:
I abide by the firm rule of never spending a dime in an airport except to tip the deserving. And I’m not a drinker either. They’ve torn the hell out of this airport to rehab it. With more TSA lanes I hope. went through precheck with about 30 pairs of eye-beam sized holes bored through me from the long regular line.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Trust your instincts!
rikyrah
Political Animal Blog
June 03, 2016 1:00 PM
Obama’s Anti-Trump Secret Weapon
By Steven Waldman
President Obama just put Trump In a very-classy-and-beauitful-gold-plated box with his announcement that he now supports an increase in Social Security benefits.
If Trump supports the idea he pisses off mainstream Republicans at a time he’s trying to court them. If he opposes it, he annoys his own base of crotchety white seniors.
Most of the time when Democrats ruminate on how to appeal to potential Trump voters they think about income inequality, raising the minimum wage or maybe tweaking trade laws.
But that forgets one fact: Trump’s base is old. The latest Quinnepiac poll had Trump beating Hillary among those over 50 and losing among those who are younger.
It was considered a sign of his daring heterodoxy when Trump earlier this year came out against cutting Social Security. But Obama upped the ante, and Hillary has already come out for an increase. Trump already had some vulnerabilities because he had suggested privatizing the program in one of his books.
In this year of surprises, the newest wedge issue might be a golden oldie.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: *waves at wifey*
Anyone else wanna road trip?
HinTN
@raven: Clearly, it has been years. They got over the little bottles long ago. Still have the red dots, tho.
A Ghost To Most
Welcome Back! Please send an emergency supply of Victoria Bitters, and don’t mind the mess we’ve made of the place.
HinTN
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Three in front of me in the Pre line at MCO; thousands in the ten (+) other lines. No glares that I noticed but they were mostly preoccupied with their kids.
dr. luba
@raven: A friend of mine had a son who decided to do the same, but with wife and 2 small children. One of the kids got sick in Turkey, didn’t get adequate medical care, and by the time they managed to get her back to Canada she had permanent brain/neurological damage from encephalitis or meningitis (Grandma wasn’t clear on the details).
So, yes, it is risky, in many ways.
hovercraft
Fair Economist
@Gian:
Once again, their reality laps our parody.
Patricia Kayden
Can’t stop laughing at this tweet about Trump and his Oompa Loompa coloring.
https://twitter.com/KagroX/status/738473421957304320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Is it racist to laugh at orange people?
Seanly
Fezzes were cool long before Dr Who wore one. See Matt Groening’s Life In Hell comic Jeff & Akbar FTW.
Now I want lil’ fezzes for my pups. Escape artist Cricket in driver’s seat and Maggie at this link.
raven
@dr. luba: Ugh
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
No.
But it is mean to laugh at the emotionally stunted, narcissistic, petty, vulgar, misogynistic, racist, stupid, pathological liar, delusional, needy, short fingered , person. A person like that should be pitied.
Mike J
It appears that sometime this evening, somebody may well get a chance to use the line, “the smartest man in the world just took my backpack.”
Luthe
@Patricia Kayden: As the only orange people I’ve ever seen have been white people who didn’t know where to stop with the fake tans, no it is not racist to mock them.
(Pro-tip: if your tan clashes with your natural hair color, it’s time to stop. Love, an olive-skinned Latinx)
...now I try to be amused
@rikyrah:
Good, but not enough. When will President Obama come out in favor of breathing?
John Revolta
STIMPY! YOU EEEDIOT!!!
hovercraft
From the Washington Post Plum Line
Poopyman
@rikyrah: OhPleaseOhPleaseOhPlease.
(SS-eligible as of Wednesday)
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Last time I flew from there to DC my buddy had a Kabar in his carry on and it wasn’t even illegal.
John Revolta
@hovercraft: You left out “thin-skinned”.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Used to fly in/out of CAE a lot; I recall the mini-bottles, too. But then again I was in RDU when Wake County was “dry” and you had to go to a private club to get a drink.
Fuck, I hated Columbia.
Paul in KY
@Poopyman: Best wishes on getting it. Just several years behind you.
Also, Happy Birthday!
Iowa Old Lady
I didn’t know what a knee trembler was, so I had hopes it would involve sex on the luggage belt. As always, I’m doomed to disappointment.
Bob In Portland
Who is most likely to continue the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan?
Oh, that’s right. No one here cares. Dead people, but they’re over there.
PurpleGirl
@Patricia Kayden: Not if it comes from a spray can and using it leaves those weird white circles around the eyes. I first learned about pray-on tans when I accidentally watched one of those reality shows about children’s beauty pageants.
Anyway, I think spray-on tans look gross.
Origuy
@Gian: I have to admit, “The Great Excommunicator” is pretty good.
raven
STOP! Don’t fucking reply to it.
Mike E
@HinTN: Sign inside every bathroom stall at NC State’s stadium during football season: Don’t put airplane bottles in toilet!
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Ha!
raven
@Mike E: Cool!
raven
Ok geniuses, how is it I’m having gastro distress but I’m still hungry??
John Revolta
@Poopyman: Lordy. I’m just about to become eligible and now I’m wondering what to do…………….if/when they raise benefits, are they gonna go “Well, too bad guy, we’re just raising them for future claimees…………………..ya shoulda waited heh heh”. Yes I worry about stuff a lot, why do you ask??
Mike E
@raven: LEOs have a spotter on the roof, radio security when they see somebody toss back a nip…kids get hammered anyway. What can ya do?
raven
@Mike E: It’s WAY worse at Georgia games.
Mike E
@raven: In the Race To The Bottom, last one standing
winspays the billMomSense
@raven:
The heart wants what it wants and the way to a man’s heart is via his stomach. At least that’s how the story goes.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike E: Is Raleigh on mini-bottles? Haven’t been there in ages.
raven
@MomSense: I do all the shopping and cooking in this house. I also catch and clean big ass fish!
raven
@Mike E: Woof!
Mike E
@Gin & Tonic: Raleigh is quite un-dry,seems to be our business model lately. Last of NC’s dry counties gave in a few years back…liquor-by-the-drink is 30 years old now in Charlotte
raven
Watching the video of the poor woman in San Jose who was “attacked” by the crowd just for exercising her rights was asking for it at best and was part of a set up at worst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCx3ov55tUw
Yutsano
@raven: Just keep swimming…Just keep swimming…Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming…What do we do? We swim, swim, swim.
raven
@Yutsano: I’m in the midst of a small break.
Gravenstone
@PurpleGirl:
So that explains Jimmy Swaggart…
MomSense
@raven:
Nice! My son texted me a picture of a 100lb halibut that he had to clean and prepare at the restaurant where he works. Unbelievable. So beautiful.
WaterGirl
@Iowa Old Lady: The definition I found was “sex while standing up”. As long as you are standing up on a luggage belt, you scenario could work!
Iowa Old Lady
@WaterGirl: It would be more trembly on a luggage belt.
raven
@MomSense: Whoa, they say they are like pulling a refrigerator off the bottom!
Kay
Pretty good stuff on the “new voters” line Trump uses:
The search for the missing white voters continues…. :)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: He’s orange by choice, so no.
MomSense
@raven:
I thought it was a picture of a sting ray at first because it was so wide.
Fester Addams
@…now I try to be amused:
Shh… don’t talk about the secret weapon. (Just between us, I heard it’s going to be: Presidential Directive to all Americans – do not drink Clorox.)
Felanius Kootea
@asiangrrlMN: Haven’t seen you here in ages! Good to see you :-).
Patricia Kayden
@hovercraft:
So only when Trump directly attacks journalists do other journalists get the bright idea to do their actual jobs and challenge his claims? Alrighty then. Anyways, kudos to the Washington Post journalist for actually doing his job and researching Trump’s claim that he had donated millions to veterans’ groups. That’s a step in the right direction.
Mnemosyne
@asiangrrlMN:
Hello, you! Hope all is well. Everything turned out fine with my biopsy — yay!
Another Holocene Human
@Patricia Kayden:
They arrest men for having sex with each other. There, you’ve heard something bad.
The Blog Dahlia
@Patricia Kayden:
Orange is the new blech.
raven
@MomSense: Yup, they lie flat on the bottom.
Patricia Kayden
Gawker has an interesting story about Trump supporters pepper spraying anti-Trump protesters. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.
http://gawker.com/photographs-show-trump-supporters-pepper-spraying-prote-1780399845
Patricia Kayden
@Another Holocene Human: Sadly, as someone of Jamaican descent, I’m not sure if that still doesn’t happen in Jamaica. But of course, that is one bad thing.
Phylllis
@raven: Did away with mini bottles here several years ago.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I got that impression from the short bit I saw on the TV machine since she was smiling while being egged. That video and the comments of the observers inside the hotel really confirms that impression.
Mike in NC
@Patricia Kayden: They call it Making America Great Again, apparently.
Another Holocene Human
@Patricia Kayden: I know owning a dildo used to be illegal there. Think they have bigger problems right now. :(
Another Holocene Human
To be fair I love Moroccan architecture, food, and textiles, all the Moroccans I’ve ever met were gracious and I’d love to visit myself. Just that one little problem.
Villago Delenda Est
Your keen observations on the lifestyles of the short fingered and vulgar have been sorely missed, SPT.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Interesting analysis, but it is still worrisome:
And yes, what happens in the primaries does not cleanly predict what happens in the general election, but the Democrats have their work cut out for them getting out the vote in general, and pushing younger voters toward Hillary.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
I assume he turned himself orange for National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Gravenstone
@Patricia Kayden: I’m afraid there will be a shooting before this is all over. This is ramping up too quickly.
hovercraft
Hopefully this is the start of a trendClinton now has a big lead over Trump
Hopefully the link works, fingers crossed.