Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

People are complicated. Love is not.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This really is a full service blog.

In my day, never was longer.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Republicans in disarray!

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Monday Morning Open Thread: We’re Great Already (Could Always Be Better, Though!)

Monday Morning Open Thread: We’re Great Already (Could Always Be Better, Though!)

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Another Canadian, the editor of TNR:


***********
Apart from all that, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?

Reader Interactions

225Comments

  1. 1.

    workworkwork

    I have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon this morning to see if I can get the staples out of my tummy.

    Next step – find out when I’ll be ready to bring my wife home from respite care.

    Preliminary results from the low-carb pizza crust recipe test:
    – decent flavor and mouth feel but a bit soft. Perhaps longer bake time and/or a pizza stone?
    – I need to put some more thought into toppings. Pesto plus fresh veggies?

  4. 4.

    Central Planning

    I’m trying to find since extra Spanish language help for two of my kids.

    I see a free DuoLingo site which seems to get good reviews.

    I’ve also seen Rosetta Stone, but that’s a little pricey (but if worth it, ok). Reviews on Amazon say it’s OK but to try DuoLingo too.

    Any others to consider, or feedback on those two? Thanks!

  6. 6.

    Wag

    @workworkwork:

    – decent flavor and mouth feel but a bit soft. Perhaps longer bake time and/or a pizza stone?

    I find a really hot oven (500 degrees) combined with placing the pizza (on parchment paper) directly on the rack gives a really crispy crust. Convection setting helps too, but watch the pizza like a hawk so it doesn’t burn

  7. 7.

    Punchy

    HOLY WOW. Offshores odds for Dems to control Senate went from -260 to -365 in 3 days. Thats a ton of money coming in on the Dems to do so. Perhaps too early to call it a “lock”, but damn close.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @workworkwork: One step at a time.

    Today I think I am fixing a toilet. I say ‘think’ because when it comes to plumbing, things never go as I plan. Also finding out if the gophers have left me any sweet potatoes. Probably not a good idea for the shoulder but I figure if I’m careful….

  10. 10.

    workworkwork

    @Central Planning: I tried the DuoLingo app and it’s pretty good but like any other skill you need to stick with it.

    It helps that you can have practice sessions whenever you have a couple of minutes down time plus the app sends you reminders to get back to your lessons.

  13. 13.

    workworkwork

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I’m thinking at least another week or so but I’ll wait until I get sign-off. At least I’m well enough to visit my wife regularly and help out there.

    At any rate, since we’ve already voted, about the only thing I’ve got going is recipe testing (cooking relaxes me), resting and teaching my online class (not a full-time gig). I’m supposed to be developing a course on Web analytics at some point but I haven’t gotten my contract yet.

    Okay, that plus Justice League on Netflix.

  14. 14.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: I met him once. I was at the baggage carousel at Stapleton in Denver in the early ’80’s picking up my roommate and I noticed this guy standing next to me wearing a Detroit Tigers baseball cap. We started talking baseball and the Tigers’ prospects until Jane Fonda walked up to him and said, “Tom, have you seen our bags yet?” That’s when I recognized him. We shook hands, collected our bags, and went on our way.

  15. 15.

    stibbert

    @Central Planning: I did some duolingo in Italian awhile back, & was surprised to find it usable & useful. Short lessons that included verbal, aural & written components, it seemed well-designed & included positive feedback that encouraged me. Also, it was free, & I could use it from my phone.

  18. 18.

    NorthLeft12

    “Donald Trump didn’t start this. He just did what he always does, which is slap his name on it, take credit for it and promote it.”

    Once again, Pres. Obama nails it. Man, I bet the Repubs are going to be glad when he’s gone.

  19. 19.

    prob50

    Hadn’t given it much thought before, but Jane Fonda has certainly been married to an interesting variety of men.

  20. 20.

    Phylllis

    Try to get 3 days of work done in approximately a day and a half before getting back on the road again. I will miss my colleagues from other districts when I retire next year, but I won’t miss this job. There are pluses and definitely minuses when you’re a one-woman show regarding work responsibilities.

  29. 29.

    TS

    Hoot – Mika has swung 180 – so concerned as to how Trump got there in the first place.

    But then – both sides – Dems are not looking after Trump voters – they must look after Trump voters. I give up – when do republicans EVER look after dem voters.

  30. 30.

    satby

    Just over 2 and 1/2 weeks until I go to the wedding in India, and my dogsitter told me he’s not available for the first two days. This is a problem.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @TS: It’s a common political tactic to invent fake rules that Democrats must follow and then blame Democrats for failing to live up to them.

  32. 32.

    Lizzy L

    Still in Michigan. Home today. Good trip, but I’m looking forward to getting back to my house, my dog, and my own bed.

  33. 33.

    TS

    First time the Joke show has started with clips from Hillary’s rallies – usually get 30 minutes of Trump. Oh my – going for the “I told you so” on Election night. Mika and her man are never wrong. Rather like the Rasmussen polls – they turn as the election gets closer. And now they are showing the President.

    Joke having the day off – can’t take the heat in the kitchen.

    Mika is attacking people because they should have known he was bad at the beginning – aha – Mika is DENYING that she & Joke said nice things about Trump. Let’s get the video – cause she says they have never praised him and it will never be found on tape. Lordy be – this is a turn around – I watch to laugh. Michael Steele is calling her on it – very very well.

  34. 34.

    prob50

    @TS:

    Hoot – Mika has swung 180 – so concerned as to how Trump got there in the first place.

    Yeah, but she’s still really annoying.

  35. 35.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: I saw that on the news. I saw Tom & Jane speak several times in college, they’d usually bring along Cesar as well.

  36. 36.

    TS

    @prob50:

    Yeah, but she’s still really annoying.

    So much more than annoying – liar extraordinaire – unbelievable in every way.

  37. 37.

    craigie

    @Central Planning:
    I think DuoLingo is a great supplement to a more formal language course – it’s a good way to practice. It could help someone become reasonably comfortable with a language without learning much of the formal structure behind it – much as children are.

  38. 38.

    germy

    Great news!

    Las Vegas Review-Journal Gives Trump His First Major Newspaper Endorsement

    The Review-Journal’s endorsement hardly comes as a surprise. The paper is owned by conservative power-player, Trump supporter, and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

    (nymag)

  39. 39.

    prob50

    @TS:

    So much more than annoying – liar extraordinaire – unbelievable in every way.

    Yeah, I don’t know why, but I was trying to be nice about it. Maybe it’s because I hardly ever watch Morning Joe, but I was wide awake and the saw that the episodes of CSI and Buffy the Vampire Slayer were ones I was fully familiar with.

  40. 40.

    Phylllis

    @Mustang Bobby: Ever explain to someone why xyz can’t be done with certain funds, and have them respond “I don’t know anything about grants.” I recognize that, which is why I just explained it to you.

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TS: You mean “our friend Donald”? I noticed it was 3:15am and I decided to preserve my sanity and not watch Morning Joe. I’ve been having too much fun looking at old pics of LA and old maps*.

    *Old maps make me all hot and bothered. I found and downloaded(thanks U$C) a 1921 Real Estate map of LA. It’s like crack. UCLA is on Vermont in Hollywood and called “Southern California Branch-University of California”.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TS: Just once I wish someone would say that Dems already look after their Republican voters and we do it by not doing to them what Republicans would: dry fuck them up the ass while forcing them to give blow jobs to their corporate overlords.

  43. 43.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Phylllis: Or that you can’t transfer an expenditure into the grant if you don’t have A) an expenditure to transfer or B) the funds to pay for it. It’s not quantum physics, it’s bookkeeping.

  44. 44.

    prob50

    Oh, Key-Rist… now Mika’s reading Ross Douthat’s “The Danger of Hillary Clinton” gibberish from the NY Times and we’re getting lot’s of head nodding from various Repugs and a Rand sycophant. Enuff!! I’m going back to the Buffy episode.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TS:

    Rather like the Rasmussen polls – they turn as the election gets closer.

    In 2012, they actually didn’t–they stayed wrong right up to the end. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this time.

  49. 49.

    TS

    Currently having a “both sides” segment – hitting on the elites in D.C. Too rich, been there too long. So they think Trump would change this?? Michael Steele is hitting back again – he might lose his job before the election. Group of media wonks – paid a fortune – sitting around talking about the “elites” and wages equality. I watch to laugh.

    And our good friend Mark is back with those emails shortly.

  53. 53.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TS: I’m sure that everyone wants to know about those emails that Hillary got from that Nigerian prince.

  54. 54.

    TS

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’ve been having too much fun looking at old pics of LA and old maps*.

    My fun of choice is visiting the ancestors as they rest in peace. They listen to my rants about what has happened since they left – never answer back & provide security in their existence and the thought that all things will pass as long as we stay together as a family. Some good pictures can be had as well.

  57. 57.

    bystander

    @TS: Also, I learned during the few minutes of MJ I could bear to watch, Bernie Sanders is to the Democrats as Trump is to the repubs, presumably because Bernie based all of his policies on racism, laziness, stupidity and misogyny. The idiocy was unbearable so I turned to the “Thriller” binge on Decades. Hit on an episode starring Leslie Howard’s son Ronald, not to be confused with Opie.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    The problem is not so much the favorable coverage of Trump- it’s that the favorable (and constant) coverage of Trump preceded his rise in the polls. Sanders was ignored until he started to draw big crowds and rise in polls. That’s the difference. They were out ahead on Trump. Trump didn’t earn that much coverage.

    The report shows that during the year 2015, major news outlets covered Donald Trump in a way that was unusual given his low initial polling numbers—a high volume of media coverage preceded Trump’s rise in the polls. Trump’s coverage was positive in tone—he received far more “good press” than “bad press.” The volume and tone of the coverage helped propel Trump to the top of Republican polls.
    The Democratic race in 2015 received less than half the coverage of the Republican race. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was largely ignored in the early months but, as it began to get coverage, it was overwhelmingly positive in tone. Sanders’ coverage in 2015 was the most favorable of any of the top candidates, Republican or Democratic. For her part, Hillary Clinton had by far the most negative coverage of any candidate. In 11 of the 12 months, her “bad news” outpaced her “good news,” usually by a wide margin, contributing to the increase in her unfavorable poll ratings in 2015.

  61. 61.

    sherparick

    I wonder how the younger members of this blog feel about the sixties and the way the conflicts and ideologies (Movement Conservatism was the under the radar counter-revolution to the “student movement” which Tom Hayden was so much a part of in 1962, but unfortunately it, not the New Left, became great “Mass Movement” that has dominated the politics in the post-New Deal era.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer

    Thank you Tom Hayden: You fought the good fight, you have finished your race.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Huron_Statement#Reform_of_the_Democratic_Party

  64. 64.

    Emma

    @Central Planning: I have been using Duolingo to revive, so to speak, my Portuguese. It has two features I appreciate. First, it can be done in small bursts. More important, they have a feature that sends you back to previous lessons for more practice on a regular basis. Also, words and phrases from previous lessons are incorporated into the new lessons.

  68. 68.

    TS

    @Kay:

    The problem is not so much the favorable coverage of Trump- it’s that the favorable (and constant) coverage of Trump preceded his rise in the polls.

    They built that – but like the GOP – will never admit it. I believe the rise of stubby fingers was more due to the media than anything else. Why recent revelations didn’t come out 12 months ago? Why the attacks on his tax returns, treatment of women, bankruptcies, refusal to pay contractors etc etc just did not happen. It was all reality TV to the media – in all formats. They have no shame.

  70. 70.

    prob50

    @TS:

    I tuned out of the current segment – Wikileaks and Assange could change the election – emails emails emails

    Yeah, that sent me running as well. Actually, I’m now watching “Buffy” and imagining that she’s kicking Mika & the e-mail idiot’s asses instead of the demons on the screen.

  72. 72.

    Ben Cisco

    I have a feeling that this is going to be addressed:

    One of the areas with the longest lines this week — Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County — offered 22 locations for the first day of early voting in 2012. This year, they offered only 10. Voters reported waiting for more than three hours to cast a ballot.
    More sites will open next week, and the county will offer slightly more total early voting hours than it did in 2012. But a federal court found that for many years in the state, “African Americans disproportionately used the first seven days” — a fact legislators knew when they pursued the cuts. More than half of all the votes cast in the 2012 election were cast early and in person, and black voters in particular favor early and in-person voting.
    According to data compiled by the United States Elections Project, the reductions in polling sites — and the long lines that have ensued — may depressing turnout in some counties.

    Source

  75. 75.

    prob50

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Will they fetch the paper? Bring your slippers? Retrieve ducks?

    When I was a kid we used to have a cat that would bring dead & well-mauled gophers up to my Mom when she was catching some rays after a dip in the pool. Mom was suitably horrified and the cat looked very hurt and confused for being chastised for presenting Mom with such a heartfelt gift.

  76. 76.

    JMG

    Mass. early voting starts today. Sometime in late morning, when the school bus runs are over but before lunch hour, I will go to the assigned town building and vote. Then I will await instructions for the next two weeks from my Democratic party cell leader, a/k/a my son.

  77. 77.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: Kay, as someone who lives in a state where folk in the entertainment business have run for high office(Senator, and Governor*), this is pretty SOP. It’s actually something that worried me a bit early one with a Trump-Clinton race. Then it turned out the Trump was batcrap crazy.

    *The Governator and Governor Reagan, wonder what happened to that Reagan guy.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @TS:

    And that’s what promoting him for the financial benefit would look like, right, if that’s what happened? No one is accusing them of loving Donald Trump or his “policies”. The accusation is “Donald Trump” (or some other bombastic celebrity running) was good for business. The accusation is grounded in not caring about who really he is or what his policies are. The same is true of the media bias accusations re:Clinton. The charge is they don’t care what she really did or didn’t do or what kind of person she actually is- the charge is covering “Clinton scandals” is good for business. They’re ignoring the premise of the complaints.

    Covering Clinton scandals is good for business, incidentally. Half of the older ones made their careers off covering Clinton scandals. We laugh about Travelgate and the Christmas card list but these were big news at the time.

  85. 85.

    amk

    The emmessem idjits, especially the morning morons, lost heavily in 2008 and 2012 and will definitely do worse in 2016. These gopee fierce ass kissers are irrelevant as far as prez elections go.

  86. 86.

    TS

    @Kay: All about the business of getting viewers/readers. Latest Mika discussion – No-one is voting for Hillary – it is all voting against Trump. Bring them both down so we can spend the next four years saying “there is no mandate”

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    This to me is one of the most revealing stories of the campaign:

    Trump Tower is no ordinary property: It is the jewel in Donald Trump’s brass crown. He lives at the top in a three-story penthouse with his third wife and third son. But it’s more than just Trump’s home. With its flashy outward image barely concealing a rotting, garbage-filled core, it’s a metaphor for the man. A visit to the building’ public gardens, which he agreed to create in 1979 in exchange for the rights to make his Tower 20 floors higher, reveals the truth. Let’s take a stroll through his messy rest stop for a glimpse of the kind of care and attention that Americans can expect from a President Trump.

    It isn’t’ just the garbage and the dead trees in the “public area” or that the escalators don’t work- it’s the shoddy construction. The terrace area is buckling and it looks like they made cuts-outs with a chain saw. He’s not even good at his single area of claimed competency.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @prob50: I once brought home a dead muskrat and presented it to my mother with great pride. Told her I was going to take it to school the next day to show my teacher. Can’t remember what words my mother used but she managed to convey that that wasn’t such a good idea while still acknowledging my momentous accomplishment and I happily returned it to the creek where I found it.

  91. 91.

    Patricia Kayden

    @TS:

    Mika has swung 180 – so concerned as to how Trump got there in the first place.

    Can someone refresh her memory by showing videos of her and Joe fawning all over Trump during the early phase of his presidential campaign? Her memory must be failing.

  94. 94.

    craigie

    That video is just Canada trying to forestall an American invasion. You know, in case Trump wins.

  95. 95.

    TS

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Can someone refresh her memory by showing videos of her and Joe fawning all over Trump during the early phase of his presidential campaign? Her memory must be failing.

    She suggested that they could look at all the videos – and they will never find her saying good things about Trump.

    Some Dude now saying the media gave mainly negative coverage of Trump – I’ll have what he is drinking.

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Ben Cisco: Hoping that as soon as McCrory is voted out of office as Governor, NC legislators will start working on a bill to restore voting rights to where they were pre-McCrory and also get rid of that ridiculous anti-transgender bathroom bill.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The most absurd of the faux-scandals involved a Christmas card the Clintons sent out in 1997. It wasn’t the card that caught Burton’s eye so much as the database of contact information the Clintons used to send it, which included the names and addresses of 350,000 of people they had met since moving into the White House.
    “Congressional Republicans knew it was a scandal!” Maddow said, in a mock Columbo voice. “They suspected something nefarious. They thought the Christmas card list was somehow corrupt, criminal, an abuse of power. So Republicans held hearings. Republicans called up thirty-four witnesses to give depositions about the Christmas card list. They demanded more than 40,000 documents about the Christmas card list.

    This was actually my favorite.

    Republicans on the special Senate Whitewater committee released a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation today showing that the fingerprints of the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were found on records discovered in the White House family quarters two years after they were first sought by investigators.
    The F.B.I. report also found that the documents, copies of billing records from Mrs. Clinton’s work as a lawyer in Arkansas, revealed fingerprints of five others. They were Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in July 1993; a personal assistant to the Clintons who had also worked at Mrs. Clinton’s law firm; an aide to the Clintons’ current lawyer, and two other law firm aides. This is clearly important and relevant evidence,” said Michael Chertoff, the counsel for the committee’s Republicans. “It clearly means she touched these records at some point in time.”

    I have a rule. When I read or hear a lawyer preface anything with “clearly” I start looking for bullshit. It’s foolproof.

    I don’t read Greenwald anymore but he did it a lot. If it’s “clear”, it’s clear. You don’t have to order people to believe something or other shows something “clearly” unless you’re not sure it does. It makes me laugh that they think putting that word in front of some bullshit theme they’re trying to promote makes it so.

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @TS:

    Group of media wonks – paid a fortune – sitting around talking about the “elites” and wages equality.

    This is why Villagers have lower tumbrel manifest numbers than most politicians and billionaires.

  99. 99.

    Patricia Kayden

    @TS:

    Some Dude now saying the media gave mainly negative coverage of Trump – I’ll have what he is drinking.

    No indeed. I wouldn’t want what he’s drinking because obviously his mind is completely gone. As Kay pointed out in her comment above, Trump was getting coverage even before his rise in the polls which is contrasted with the media’s refusal to adequately cover Senator Sanders’ rallies.

  100. 100.

    Mary G

    President Barack Obama had sharp words for Rep.Darrell Issa Sunday night, contending the VistaRepublican’s “primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped-up investigations that have led nowhere.”

    Obama’s comments came at a La Jolla event to raise money for Democratic congressional candidates. Among those in attendance was Doug Applegate, who’s in a close race with Issa.

    I’ve been longing for this. Thanks to amk, who linked to the Politico story yesterday.

  103. 103.

    TS

    @Kay: The pictures show more than the words describe. That article shows everything to know about the nominee & his building.

    “This photo was also taken in September, when the temperature in New York City was still in the 90s thanks to the Chinese and their pesky Climate Change hoax. An effective water feature can create a misty, cooling microclimate, but why bother spending that money when the only people who visit are nasty women and bad hombres?”

    My Visit to the Trump Dump….

  105. 105.

    prob50

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Can’t remember what words my mother used but she managed to convey that that wasn’t such a good idea while still acknowledging my momentous accomplishment

    Sounds like your mother showed a great deal of restraint and common sense and sensitivity. I got in Dutch with mine when she found a little ditty I composed about a monkey, his tail and a flagpole in my school workbook. It was to the tune of John Phillip Souza’s “Stars & Stripes” piece. No physical punishment ensued, but a bit more disapproval than the cat got for the gopher.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    @TS: Jeez. I actually find that kind of powerful. We dodged a bullet beating McCain and Romney. With Trump, we’re dodging a thermonuclear weapon.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Hillary Clinton touched files at the law firm where she worked. That was the level of “lock her up!” proof we were dealing with and these were respected Republicans and the NYTimes! They were running around fawning over Starr and Chertoff, even though Chertoff has a brutally partisan history as a GOP hatchet man.

    It wasn’t fringe. You couldn’t even be slightly hesitant on locking her up- “well, she WOULD have touched the records, right, that’s not really determinative, is it …” . It was clear. Lock. Her. Up.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    When kids lie they say “obviously”. “Obviously I wouldn’t do that because I would get suspended!” Obviously. Sorry for bothering you. Now I get it. It’s obvious.

    People have to go to law school to learn “clearly”.

  111. 111.

    Baud

    @Kay: That Chertoff is now supporting Clinton shows just how horrible Trump is.

    @TS: I did click the link. Thanks for posting that.

  112. 112.

    MattF

    @Matt McIrvin: I think the Rasmussen polls are simply marketing– consider, e.g., that no one is sponsoring them. Scott Rasmussen is sending a ‘friend’ message to potential clients.

  113. 113.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: Two things: were those the cards that had a picture of the Christmas tree that Hillary decorated with sex toys; and while they said the records were found “in the family quarters”, they were actually in storage over the north entrance to the White House.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @prob50: Yeah, having 4 kids in 6 years will do that for you. My old man was not so understanding at times. I got into a mudfight with some friends once. We.had.a.blast. So much so I lost complete track of time and came home just as everyone was sitting down for dinner. Covered head to toe in mud. Boy did I get an ass chewing.

    All I could think as I stripped off my mud encrusted clothes in the back yard was, “What does he expect? I’m a boy.“

  116. 116.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TS:

    why bother spending that money when the only people who visit are nasty women and bad hombres?”

    Most likely it’s broken and Trump’s too poor or has such a bad rep for not paying that he can’t fix it.

  122. 122.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: Wait, you’re saying that Hillary touched the billing records that she had to fill out by hand(I had to do this when I worked in Satan’s legal department).

  123. 123.

    yellowdog

    @Patricia Kayden: The gerrymandered legislature is even worse than McCrory. They passed the bill; he just signed it. I don’t know if they are up for re-election this year. If they are, maybe some can be thrown out if people voting for Clinton vote a straight Dem ticket.

  125. 125.

    germy

    @Villago Delenda Est: Adelson would find work as the conductor.

    @workworkwork: The endorsement is rather tepid. I suspect Sheldon instructed his editors to endorse, they struggled to write something they wouldn’t be too ashamed of, Sheldon skimmed it briefly and saw the word “endorse” and now here we are.

  132. 132.

    SFAW

    @raven:

    Too bad. One hopes his last words were “Fuck LBJ!”

    One of the obits said “after a long illness.” Is that his stroke?

  135. 135.

    Princess

    @MattF: He also uses them to build lists of Republicans which he sells to candidates. I answered a Rasmussen poll once and I was truthful about everything, except I told them I was a Republican. I still get calls and mailings from the GOP. I don’t know much about polling, but my guess is this is highly unethical.

  136. 136.

    Gelfling 545

    @Central Planning: if you have a decent size university in you area & advertise for an Spanish speaking student to converse with your kids a couple of hours a week. A bit pricey but better than most other alternatives. I have not used DuoLingo myself but a friend who has recommends it. I think Rosetta Stone isn’t worth the price, ymmv. Back when I was still teaching BBC used to have a language learning component with good quality videos that I used with my students. Don’t know if the still have it. For cheap, you can use the language selection on your dvd player & let the kids watch videos they already are familiar with in Spanish. It’s more amusing and less intimidating than a lot of other approaches.

  139. 139.

    SFAW

    @MattF:

    ‘After a long illness’ used to be the euphemism for cancer.

    I know. It still is. But since they didn’t specifically mention that, I was wondering if it was something else.

  140. 140.

    bemused

    My son sent text to his brother that his 3 year old daughter saw his Time magazine with meltdown cover of Trump and she asked him, “Is that Donald Trump?”. It’s disturbing to this gramma that even a Trump graphic is so recognizable to the wee ones.

    Then I noticed that the meltdown cover was from Aug issue and Time used the cover again reducing Trump to goop. I have to find out which cover our granddaughter commented on. It seems unlikely that a 3 year old would recognize Trump on the current issue but no one can escape seeing his ugly face everywhere.

  141. 141.

    germy

    @MattF: I always see “died peacefully in his sleep” when I read obits. When my time comes I want to die peacefully in my sleep.

    But I remember the Mel Brooks movie (the one where he played a Donald Trump character who has to live among poor people for a wager); one of the characters says nobody dies peacefully in their sleep. It’s something the obit writers make up.

  147. 147.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Jennifer Jacobs @JenniferJJacobs

    An 11th Trump accuser is coming forward. Lawyer Gloria Allred says she’ll speak at 5p ET today to describe inappropriate sexual conduct.

    Retweets 507 Likes 643

    DonaId J. Trump ‏@realDenaldTrump

    Let me tell u folks, I really hope my 11th sexual assault accuser isn’t Ivanka. That would be BAD!

    0 replies 117 retweets 188 likes

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    When my time comes I want to die peacefully in my sleep.

    Unlike everybody else in your car who are screaming their heads off?

  154. 154.

    Jean

    @Central Planning: I really like DuoLingo. I use it for French refresher. It’s free and very good. Pronunciation, English to French and French to English translation, grammar, and usage. Easy to use.

  155. 155.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “I’m trying to find since extra Spanish language help for two of my kids.”

    Always wondered if it made sense to pair up with a spanish-speaking family with similar age kids….

  156. 156.

    germy

    Make no mistake, a Hillary Clinton administration would indulge the worst instincts of the authoritarian left and continue to swell the bloated regulatory state while running the nation deeper into the red in pursuit of “free” college and health care.

    Mr. Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave. But he promises to be a source of disruption and discomfort to the privileged, back-scratching political elites for whom the nation’s strength and solvency have become subservient to power’s pursuit and preservation. Donald Trump for president.

    Las Vegas Review Journal

  159. 159.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @germy:

    a Hillary Clinton administration would indulge the worst instincts of the authoritarian left and continue to swell the bloated regulatory state while running the nation deeper into the red in pursuit of “free” college and health care.

    Sounds good to me.

  160. 160.

    prob50

    @SFAW:

    Too bad. One hopes his last words were “Fuck LBJ!”

    You know, as much as I hated LBJ over the death and misery that his Viet Nam actions wrought he got a lot of very good things into law. The Civil Rights Act might not have passed and his “Great Society” ideals did a lot of good. And unlike Bush2’s Iraq fiasco I believe he had true regret and suffered for it. His actions also hastened the departure of Strom Thurmond et al from the party, which may have cost the party some elections, but was a truly unholy alliance that would have left the Democratic Party on the wrong side of history. It took decades,but look at what the resulting alliance has done to the Republicans.

    LBJ was a very complex figure whose actions were greatly influenced from his upbringings and early experience as a teacher in poor, rural Texas and later the Cold War. While Vietnam was a tremendous tragedy his legacy needs to include a balance of his career moments, actions and deeds.

    That said, I greatly respected and admired Hayden and am saddened by his passing.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Joel:

    The exposed outlet is definitely not code

    I love, love, love how his response to everything is to threaten to sue. That isn’t “tough guy” to me at all.

    He sends stern letters. What a joke of a tough guy.

  162. 162.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Jon Ralston ‏@RalstonReports

    BREAKING: Democrats massacre Republicans on first day of early voting in Clark County. 11,000 raw vote lead. 55 percent to 27 percent.

    0 replies 1,600 retweets 2,855 likes

    John Harwood @JohnJHarwood

    senior GOP Senate strategist: “Trump now tied in Indiana. down 11 in PA and 14 in NH. going down hard”

    10:24 AM – 22 Oct 2016
    0 replies 2,275 retweets 3,502 likes

    Kyle Kondik ‏@kkondik

    ABC poll finds declining R interest in voting. If that persists it represents the doomsday scenario for R down-ballot candidates

    0 replies 424 retweets 645 likes

    #RIGED

  163. 163.

    Another Scott

    @Raven: Good for you.

    I voted a few weeks ago.

    Everyone who is able to should vote early to take the load off the lines for those who can’t. We need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone is able to vote without standing in line for hours on end…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  164. 164.

    cosima

    @Central Planning: My 11 year old likes the duolingo app for French. It’s good, but it moves along pretty quickly, so kids miss out on the repetition piece that I think is key to learning a new language.

  165. 165.

    prob50

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Unlike everybody else in your car who are screaming their heads off?

    Now THAT line truly had me Laughing Out Loud. Hell, I’m STILL chuckling as I’m typing this out.

  167. 167.

    MomSense

    Here’s a pro tip. Never apply hand lotion (liberally – is there any other way?) before pouring yourself a hot cup of coffee.

  168. 168.

    prob50

    @MomSense:

    Here’s a pro tip. Never apply hand lotion (liberally – is there any other way?) before pouring yourself a hot cup of coffee.

    OUCH! Hope you’re not too badly damaged.

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    I love, love, love how his response to everything is to threaten to sue. That isn’t “tough guy” to me at all.

    That’s “My big brother is gonna beat you up!”

  170. 170.

    MomSense

    @prob50:

    I’m fine. My pants and socks are a bit coffee soaked but I did a sort of samba juggling act with dramatic faces that delighted the people in the office.

  171. 171.

    JPL

    @Another Scott: I voted last week and I had several options where to vote early. Unfortunately, in Gwinnett County, where there is a large minority community, they only had one location last week.
    Democracies should not work like this.

  172. 172.

    prob50

    but I did a sort of samba juggling act with dramatic faces that delighted the people in the office.

    Well, the entertainment was almost certainly good for office morale, especially on a Monday morning.

  173. 173.

    greennotGreen

    @MomSense: In my new house I had oval doorknobs installed, but my old house had round ones. In the bathroom I would wash my hands, put on some lotion, and then be unable to turn the doorknob to get out.

  174. 174.

    Ian

    @TS:
    Never. ever ever ever. You have to remember that we care about everyone while they view us as un-American.

  177. 177.

    prob50

    Oh,oh. I made the mistake of tuning back into MorningJoe only to catch Mika reading a really negative editorial bashing Hillary from some Las Vegas paper.

    Gawd, Mika is such a tool.

  178. 178.

    Starfish

    @Central Planning: Duolingo is a vocabulary builder. They do some sentences, but they are really weird sentences. I have gotten half way through Duolingo in Spanish, and I feel stuck.

    Someone I know likes the Notes in Spanish podcast. That is obviously not going to help with spelling the words and remembering where all the diacritical marks go.

    Pimsleur is another one like Rosetta Stone.

  181. 181.

    hueyplong

    Just left the polls, where I did my bit to put the wood to Trump, Burr, and McCrory. Entire process took about 20 minutes and half that time was spent blackening ovals.

    My county is probably 60-40 (or worse) in favor of the GOP and not at all urban, so I didn’t expect problems.

  182. 182.

    AnneW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s an old joke, don’t remember when I first heard it (80s?), but the best lines never go stale.

    I first read it in Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey.

  184. 184.

    germy

    I saw a preview of the latest episode of SUPERGIRL. Lynda Carter plays the president of the United States.

    The show often addresses real issues (like immigration) by framing it with actual aliens from Krypton and elsewhere. In the clip I saw, the President tells the head of the anti-alien taskforce (who is an alien from Mars himself) that she wants to welcome refugees from other planets, not turn them away.

    “I disagree!” he tells her, and she tells him about hope. “But it’s false hope!” he says. “It’s hope,” she replies.

  186. 186.

    amk

    Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1

    Wow—Today’s @nytimes features a 2-page spread of all the people, places & things Trump has insulted on Twitter since declaring his candidacy.

    Retweets 3,101 Likes 2,645

    5:27 PM – 24 Oct 2016 · Brooklyn, NY, U

  187. 187.

    prob50

    More MSNBC morning twaddle (stephanie tuhle, er ‘ruhle” this time), Hedge fund mgr. Anthony Scarramucci pimping for Trump.

    YEEECCCHHHH!

  189. 189.

    Mark B

    @prob50: Scaramucci was pretty pathetic, papering over all of Trump’s incoherent and dangerous blathering by reciting over and over that he was an ‘authentic’ person that average americans identified with. It’s like he’s expecting vast hordes of slack-jawed yokels to climb out from under rocks where they’ve been hiding for years to propel Donald into office. It sounds like a post-apocalyptic nightmare.

  190. 190.

    prob50

    @amk:

    did the ass kisser mention it is effing adelson’s paper?

    Probably not, though I can’t answer that definitively because I tuned in a sentence or two into her reading. She certainly didn’t mention it after the reading.

  193. 193.

    bystander

    When I entered Washington U in 1968, SDS was the biggest organization on campus. When I graduated in 1972, the biggest organization was Hillel. So, yes, I doubt that many Millenials have devoted a lot of thought to Tom Hayden and the Port Huron statement. I hope they do engage intellectually, tho.

  194. 194.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @AnneW: The way I heard it was “I want to die in my sleep, just like Grandpa, and unlike everyone else in his car.”

  196. 196.

    Elizabelle

    @Starfish:

    Duolingo is a vocabulary builder. They do some sentences, but they are really weird sentences.

    Yeah. Because we all need to know how to say “my dog drinks milk.”

  197. 197.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Albert Woodfox-

    It was, he says, “so disappointing when I got out to find that conditions when I left 45 years ago are still here. With the first black president, everyone thought we had reached a milestone, but it just looked different.” If, he continues “America has nothing else to thank Donald Trump for, it is to show that racism is very much alive. He didn’t come out of nowhere. I thought the battle would be economic, not sick-assed philosophy about racism 45 years later.”

  198. 198.

    prob50

    Oh, and NOW they’re talking with that toad Hugh Hewitt.

    I’m seriously close to losing my oatmeal.

  199. 199.

    Original Lee

    @Central Planning: Maybe a little late to the party, but my son uses Duolingo for Spanish and it has been hugely helpful. My daughter has been using it for French, but she is less dedicated to it and is not also taking a French class right now, so she’s not seeing the same results as my son.

  201. 201.

    ET

    Boy, the NY Daily News really, really doesn’t want Trump to win.

    “Bury Trump in a Landslide.” liar, thief, bully, hypocrite, sexual victimizer and unhinged, self-adoring demagogue. They even chaptered their anti-editorial!

  203. 203.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Central Planning: DuoLingo is mostly for vocabulary, but it’s fun enough. Rosetta Stone is pretty meh IMO, and Pimsleur is good as a crash course if you’re really needing the whole “donde esta la biblioteca” level stuff but it won’t teach you grammar. Nothing can replace talking to somebody. I don’t know where you live, but Meetup has language-exchange things on it in most cities that can be very helpful.

    And seconding the ‘coffee break’ videos.

  204. 204.

    Tenar Darell

    @TS: For our viewing pleasure I bet somebody’s already put those clips together, of the fawning, & posted it in the comments on MJ’s website. ?

  205. 205.

    JR in WV

    @workworkwork:

    Too many toppings will keep it from getting crispy on the bottom. But pesto is a good sub for tomato sauce, which can also make it soggy. Or use olive oil with garlic in it, I use a cup to heat olive oil with crushed garlic in it, just 20 seconds at first, it goes pretty quick.

    If you need to, you can use a skillet to brown the bottom of 2 or 3 slices, either use the skillet dry to toast the bottom or a tiny dollop of olive oil to fry the bottom. This is how I make take-out pizza more tolerable. We’re an hour from good pizza, so getting it hot and crisp on arrival is critical, which is why I invented frying servings, will be as new.

    Never use a microwave for the actual pizza, guaranteed soggy terrible crust. But you can pre-cook veggies and stuff in a microwave to help keep the crust crisp.

  209. 209.

    Barbara

    Last night, someone was looking for a fried chicken recipe. I was unable to post, but I made this recipe for my in laws one year after Thanksgiving and it was agreed to be really special. It doesn’t take more work, but it requires a certain amount of planning because it calls for overnight brining followed by a period of soaking in buttermilk. I did not use lard as the recipe calls for. I used vegetable oil, which was fine. I also did not use the ham hocks, but instead cut a chunk of bacon and added it to the cooking oil, which imparts that salty sweet flavor. Also, cooking times suggest that she was using smaller pieces. If you buy a package of thighs or breasts, they are usually bigger. You can get smaller pieces by buying a whole chicken and cutting it up, which is also a lot cheaper and lets you make chicken stock with the remnants. I would post the link but it always ends up being moderated. In modified form, it’s: cooking (dot) nytimes (dot) com/recipes/1016127-southern-pan-fried-chicken. Or try searching Edna Lewis and fried chicken recipes.

  210. 210.

    geg6

    @Another Scott:

    It really pisses me off that there is no early voting in my state. I could have gotten my ballot in and taken that one burden off. It would give me a huge sense of relief just to get it out of the way.

  211. 211.

    Stella B.

    @Central Planning: There are tons of (mostly free) Spanish resources on line that you can find with a little digging. Duolingo is free and fun, but it relies on the belief that people can guess grammar rules, because that’s how they learned their native language (over a course of many, many years, while immersed for many hours per day). Rosetta uses the same mistaken premise, but is slow and tedious compared to Duolingo, however, it does go further than Duolingo. Mango (free through your public library) uses an older style dialog memorization approach. Pimsleur, Rocket Spanish, Fluenz are other courses you can purchase or borrow from the library. They all have their partisans. Veintemundos.com is a free website with a lot of material, but the beginner stuff is a little hard to find. The Practice Makes Perfect workbook series does a good job of explaining grammar and providing workbook activities, but might be dry for kids. Watching cartoons or familiar videos in Spanish (no subtitles) is usually a slower method, but it might hold their interest. Tutors are the most effective and there are also multiple websites, like italki.com, that will set you up with a live on-line tutor. In all likelihood, you can also find a local tutor.

    My husband has been doing Duolingo, but I haven’t managed to interest him in any of the next possible steps.

  212. 212.

    AxelFoley

    @TS:

    First time the Joke show has started with clips from Hillary’s rallies – usually get 30 minutes of Trump. Oh my – going for the “I told you so” on Election night. Mika and her man are never wrong. Rather like the Rasmussen polls – they turn as the election gets closer. And now they are showing the President.

    Joke having the day off – can’t take the heat in the kitchen.

    Mika is attacking people because they should have known he was bad at the beginning – aha – Mika is DENYING that she & Joke said nice things about Trump. Let’s get the video – cause she says they have never praised him and it will never be found on tape. Lordy be – this is a turn around – I watch to laugh. Michael Steele is calling her on it – very very well.

    I was cracking up last week when Bill Kristol called Joe and Mika out last week on their Trump support early in the campaign when they acted like they weren’t slobbering on Trump’s nuts back then. And then they doubled-teamed Kristol. Shit was amazing.

    I love seeing GOPers and their enablers eat each other.

  213. 213.

    Barbara

    @Central Planning: I think this is the successor to the website I used when my kids were in an immersion program. It is oriented more towards traditional learning with exercises that help in understanding Spanish grammar, especially verbs.

    learn-spanish-online (dot) de/grammar/content/table_of_content (dot) htm

    I don’t know how much of it is free.

  216. 216.

    TS

    @AxelFoley:

    I was cracking up last week when Bill Kristol called Joe and Mika out last week on their Trump support early in the campaign when they acted like they weren’t slobbering on Trump’s nuts back then. And then they doubled-teamed Kristol.

    I saw that also. Ole “never right” Kristol couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They didn’t give him a chance to say anything. Be interesting to see if he makes it back before the election (many folks would say he will not be missed)

  217. 217.

    workworkwork

    @JR in WV: That was what I was thinking. Go with pesto (or just garlic + olive oil) for a sharper flavor base then use fresh veggies (tomatoes, baby spinach, peppers. etc.) for topping.

    It was an experiment but the results were decent enough that I’m looking forward to tweaking the recipe.

  218. 218.

    Chris

    @TS:

    But then – both sides – Dems are not looking after Trump voters – they must look after Trump voters. I give up – when do republicans EVER look after dem voters.

    Worse than that, when does the media or anyone for that matter even bother to ask Republicans whether maybe they should look after Dem voters, or at least suggest it out loud on a talk show, the way they incessantly do for Dem candidates? It’s not just Trump, whom everyone understands is a loony. When did they ever ask Romney how he intended to reach across the aisle and appeal to Dems who’d fallen on hard times? Or McCain? Or Bush?

  219. 219.

    Chris

    @sherparick:

    I wonder how the younger members of this blog feel about the sixties and the way the conflicts and ideologies (Movement Conservatism was the under the radar counter-revolution to the “student movement” which Tom Hayden was so much a part of in 1962, but unfortunately it, not the New Left, became great “Mass Movement” that has dominated the politics in the post-New Deal era.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer

    Mostly sympathetic (to the New Left), honestly. For all the shit they get for supposedly tearing up the political consensus of the times, it’s pretty clear that 1) there were at least a few things in the post-WW2 consensus that badly needed tearing up and 2) the lion’s share of the blame goes on the people who would become “movement conservatives.”

    Honestly, the thing that always strikes me about the sixties is that everybody hates the New Left, yet nobody actually disagrees with it (or at least is willing to say so openly). Most people don’t disagree (at least in public) that segregation needed to go. Most people don’t disagree (at least in public) that women deserved to be in the workforce. Most people don’t disagree (at least in public) that gay people at the very least deserve not to be jailed or killed for having gay sex or being out of the closet. Certainly most people don’t disagree that the draft was a bad idea.

    (And for all the “at least in public,” I think Trump’s numbers are showing that most people don’t, in fact, disagree – that once you remove the dog-whistle, tear the mask off, and have an out-of-the-closet fascist preaching open racism and sexism, most voters aren’t willing to follow that, even if the number of voters who are is still much higher than the pundits want to pretend).

    But most people aren’t willing to take the obvious step of admitting “so, yeah, really, the dirty fucking hippies were right about everything.” The DFHs in the New Left are still the bad guys. Reminds me of nothing so much as the abolitionists and Radical Republicans from the previous century’s sixties – where everyone theoretically agreed that okay, yeah, ending slavery was the right thing to do, but also insisted for decades on portraying the abolitionists (i.e. the faction that was actually right all along) as wide eyed fanatics and criminals.

  220. 220.

    catclub

    @Joel:

    The exposed outlet is definitely not code. Surprised that it doesn’t trip whenever it rains.

    So you think there is power going to that outlet?

  222. 222.

    Chris

    @Starfish:

    Never used Rosetta Stone myself, but Pimsleur, yes. As I recall, it’s more audio while RS I’m told is more visual.

    Unfortunately, the only thing I’ve found that really works in studying a new language is intensive, not necessarily total, but intensive, immersion. Which doesn’t really help in this case.

  223. 223.

    Chris

    @hueyplong: I am heading that way myself. I am excited to help humiliate the orange shitgibbon and run McCrory and his fellow travelers out of town on a rail…

  224. 224.

    Origuy

    @Central Planning: One thing I liked about Duolingo is that it does provide some explanation of the grammar and other quirks of the language. Rosetta Stone holds to the “learn like a child does” so tightly that it never explains anything, expecting you to pick up the rules by osmosis. My brain is no longer a child’s, you need to supplement RS with a text that gives the details of why things work the way they do.

  225. 225.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @TS:

    That article is eye-opening. Trump is not just a fraud, he’s a complete and utter fraud. Every time you think you’ve seen the bottom another trapdoor opens.

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