CNN’s Betsy Klein says pivots aren’t just for POTUS — Ivanka gets a reset too. Okay then:
The White House
Office of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate Release
August 02, 2017
Presidential Advisor Ivanka Trump Delegates Duties to Potted Plant
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House announced today that Ivanka Trump, Special Advisor to the President, will relinquish her White House duties to a potted plant of the Dracaena fragrans variety. The plant will reside in the First Daughter’s West Wing office, where it will retain the services of Ms. Trump’s staff.
Aides will be responsible for transporting the plant to White House events, such as medal ceremonies, interviews and symbolic document signings. They will also periodically deliver it to the Oval Office to advise the President on matters related to Ms. Trump’s portfolio.
A staffer who commented on the condition of anonymity reported that the plant selected to take over Ms. Trump’s duties is a “lead plant” that will rely on the services of “auxilliary plants” located outside of Washington, D.C. The expanded roster of plant stand-ins will represent Ms. Trump at events in other regions.
By fielding a team of plants, the White House will eliminate the necessity of passing agricultural inspections that might be required should the D.C.-based plant representing Ms. Trump be transported across state lines — particularly to blue states that are sticklers about environmental regulations.
“The transition won’t have any effect whatsoever on Ivanka’s portfolio, which includes ‘women,’” said the staffer, employing air quotes to emphasize the word “women.”
“The tall, leggy, decorative corn plant is an ideal replacement, given its height, skill set and intellectual capacity. In addition to ably handling Ms. Trump’s portfolio, we expect the plant will be less expensive to maintain since it will only require occasional watering rather than frequent infusions of Iced Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Lattes from Starbucks.”
The mahogany coat rack currently embroiled in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in lieu of Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner offered no comment on the transition.
But seriously, how the fuck do you get a reset when you don’t do anything? It’s like me saying I’m making a comeback as an opera singer. FFS! I was never an opera singer!
Anyhoo. Open thread.
Gin & Tonic
You, Ms. Cracker, are a genius.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Such a passionate tongue bath there in the CNN article – if it was like the pornos I hear about, there will be scissoring later….
cmorenc
The one positive quality Ivanka Trump has over a potted plant is that she is superficially more attractive to look at, at least until she opens her mouth. OTOH, we can reliably count on the potted plant to not spout bullshit about how she can be a positive influence on Trump, or a useful advisor to him about anything beyond telling him when he’s spilled catsup on his shirt. Also, too – the potted plant isn’t the wife of a sociopathic weasel-ly traitor like Kushner.
Major Major Major Major
You’re a national treasure.
The woman in front of me today ordered a “[blah blah] no-sugar latte.” What the heck is a no-sugar latte? There’s no sugar in a latte.
H.E.Wolf
I’m just a sentimental fool, because I feel so sorry for that poor imaginary plant and fictitious coat rack. I want them to fall in love and run away together and live happily ever after.
Now that’s the kind of workplace romance I can applaud! :)
eric
@Gin & Tonic: No plant ever stole another plant’s shoe designs…..so, a bit unfair to the plant here.
NotMax
More than enough fertilizer generated daily in this White House to keep it robust.
Howsoever the pedigree may prove problematic for Bannon, et al.
LAO
Since this is an open thread, may I vent for a moment since people IRL are tired of hearing me complain.
So, my little peagle has been wearing a cone of shame since she had minor surgery on her right hind leg about 10 days ago. And since stitches will not hold, she’ll be in the cone for another 10 days or so. Anyhoo, other than her being the worst patient ever, last night the little imp rolled in poop. It was everywhere — the comfy cone (best cone ever) and herself. Of course, she can’t be fully bathed because of the bandage over her open wound. I can’t even. There was shit everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I felt like I had somehow morphed in John Cole. He’s happy and relaxed and I’m dealing with shit. Lots of shit.
ETA: I do realize that in the scheme of things, Maggie’s behavior is not a really big deal.
Major Major Major Major
My friend retweeted a couple good quips.
Nicole
A few commenters here mentioned a day or so ago that the Kushners’ feelings are being very very hurt by the fact that the NYC elite are now snubbing them (or maybe I read it on Jezebel. It’s hard to remember. I read so many snarky comment threads to keep me sane these days). If anyone has any links, would they post them? I try to stay kind, but I confess I take great satisfaction in the thought that after this nightmare is over, perhaps this disaster of a family will find themselves ostracized from the only people whose approval they actually want. I googled, but couldn’t find anything.
But her emails!!!
@NotMax:
Given all the BS generated in the White House, we’ll probably have to start conducting moon landings again to clean the dead leaves off the moon.
JGabriel
Hmm, Dracaena Fragans is native to Africa.
I was kind of expecting Ivanka’s replacement to be a Russian plant.
Kay
Ivanka is entitled to this job and entitled to love and admiration from everyone and if it isn’t forthcoming she’ll continue to demand it.
You love the Trumps. They know you do.
I miss the Obama’s. They weren’t emotionally needy. You felt like they’d be just fine with or without any of it. Happy, stable people who had their heads on straight and their priorities in order.
JPL
Life with Trump
washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-moment-when-it-really-started-to-feel-insane-an-oral-history-…
After the scout speech
NotMax
@JGabriel
Quota of Russian plants is overfilled as it is.
Obdurodon
“Doctor, will I be able to play piano after this surgery?”
“Of course!”
“Great, I never learned to play it before.”
I think it’s wonderful that Ivanka loves her father so much, and that he seems to love her too. No, I’m not going to go somewhere dirty with that. It’s really a very good thing. The problem is that none of that should have anything whatsoever to do with whether she’s fit to be in any kind of official government role. Maybe if she went out and got some of the relevant degrees/experience (like Chelsea), maybe after *years* of meeting all the people and observing how things work in Washington (ditto), she could be eased into that kind of responsibility. Until then, no. It’s just nepotism, one of the hallmarks of banana republics and petroleum dictatorships. It’s not how the US is supposed to be.
hovercraft
Brava Ms Cracker!
I’d listen to you warble any day if it would rid us of this corrosive family.
Gin & Tonic
@Nicole: Semi-related – look up Mike Bloomberg’s interview with Der Spiegel.
Humboldtblue
Wow, you crazy kids are still here.
The Premier League kicks off on the 12th and Liverpool look good!
This is my new favoritest youtube/cooking channel, the French Cooking Academy.
Yinz need to step back and drink some beers, maybe toke some of that new sour diesel that’s going ’round.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Major Major Major Major:
At MGTOW, those losers simply call that “he finally swallowed the red pill…”
gvg
@LAO: Have you read the descriptions of what happens when a pet poops and it’s people have a rhoomba? I was really thinking about getting one…before.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: in Boston, a “regular” coffee has milk and sugar. A “black” coffee has sugar. If you want just coffee, you have to ask for something like, Medium coffee, black no sugar.”
Maybe she was from Boston?
JPL
@LAO: That really shits!
The late former Miss Moxie was quite sick one time and managed to jump on all three beds and throw up. Fortunately the cleaners were able to remove the stains from the comforters. I didn’t realize until to late, that she saved the best for last and managed to throw up on my sheets. I still miss her.
JGabriel
H.E.Wolf:
But the plant is living while the coat rack is dead wood. I mean, it would be a necrophiliac relationship – though I suppose that’s not much different than Melania’s relationship with Donald.
david spikes
Was going to OT the CNN tongue bath last night this last night, but jeez, sometimes the brain just seizes up in the presence of that much stupid.
But can anything about the Trumps really be OT?
Scouts say there was no call, hmmmm.
At Kelly swearing in Trump claimed that Pres. of Mexico called to tell him how great the wall is, and how great Trump is..
President of Mexico says he hasn’t spoken to Trump lately and certainly not about the wall.
Trump’s imaginary friends are now making imaginary phone calls; is that reason for concern.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@gvg:
Oh, god…
oldster
Betty Cracker–damn, you funny, girl!
Kay
So I have (locally) shocking news. The CEO of the rural hospital here wants to do a fundraiser for Connie Pillich . Ohio governor candidate, D.
I know his wife because we’re in a book club so he called me but I’m doing a conference call with him and the county chair because I’m not actually a Democratic official although I act like I am :)
He’s an R and he said nasty things about Obamacare in the local paper when it passed. Maybe he changed his mind. I’ll ask him what gives with this when we do the call. I bet it’s Medicaid. Another Medicaid lover. I’ll be really welcoming, I promise.
Droppy
“I’m making a comeback as an opera singer. ”
With that as my inspiration, I hereby relaunch my career as international man of wealth, mystery, and influence. If someone could just helicopter me over to my yacht and set a course for my tropical retreat, that would be great. Also, let my girlfriend(s) know I’ll be arriving soon. And don’t forget the scotch. Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
Direct quote from Donald J. Trump’s signing statement for the Russian sanctions bill:
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: she didn’t sound Bostonian. Maybe she was used to Starbucks, they ask if you want sugar.
Amir Khalid
@Humboldtblue:
Auntie Beeb tells me Studge picked up some kind of injury — minor, according to Herr Klopp — while scoring against Bayern München in a friendly. (Yes, beating Bayern 3-0 is grounds for optimism.) Given his injury record, I can’t help but worry.
Mike in NC
Potted plant has a slight edge on Ivanka in the IQ department.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
Whatever. Show us the deal, asshole. Maybe he’d get more done if he’d shut up for 5 minutes. Now that’s he’s bragged for 3 years about these “great deals” and put all the parties on notice that he intends to screw them I’m sure those future meetings will go great. He plans on bullying China? Good luck with that. It’s not as easy as screwing a painting contractor out of wages. His sleazy lawyers will threaten world leaders? Is that the plan?
FlipYrWhig
@Gin & Tonic: “This is what I did on my summer vacation. It was great. I saw great people and did lots of great things. I can make great deals. First-rate. High-quality. In conclusion, great.”
germy
Aleta
It’s basically a repotting, and then moving the leggy ornamental to a shadier location. The bright light was withering its foliage. Perhaps a protected corner of a dim law firm for the next year. Or somewhere ambassadorial, because US subpoenas can deplete the soil.
Heidi Mom
On Monday morning we had to say goodbye to our cat Misty, who was only five years old. She came to us as a skinny six-month-old stray with giant bat ears (and, unfortunately, a heart murmur that didn’t cause any problems until it did), and grew into a big, beautiful cat with a shiny gray coat and a white patch on her chest. She was talkative, adventurous, and loved high places, chicken, and Heidi, our mixed-breed “rotthound.” I know that we gave her a good life and that she was a happy cat, but, as all the pet-lovers here know, we miss her. She is survived by Heidi and also by Elizabeth, a six-year-old “mackerel brown tabby” who liked to wrestle with Misty. Now come the questions of whether and when to get another cat, another two cats (I hear you, WereBear), kittens . . . ? I must admit that it’s nice in some ways to focus our attention on just one cat and one dog for a while, but it seems unfair to Elizabeth (so named for her regal appearance) not to get a companion for her. Advice welcome.
Immanentize
There is so much sweet goodness in this sentence. Thank you!
Major Major Major Major
@Heidi Mom: So sorry to hear that, but good on you for giving her a good home when she needed it.
Cheryl Rofer
Trump has signed the sanctions bill and issued TWO signing statements. The second notes what a successful businessman he is.
Amir Khalid
We’re learning minor chords today, the Girl and I. And getting the hang, as it were, of playing while standing up.
Immanentize
@david spikes: Another possibility — A rotating selection of staffers are ordered to call Trump on his personal line and impersonate the person in question and spend at least 15 minutes flattering Trump. Sadly for the White House, there were no Hispanics on the White House staff to impersonate the President of Mexico. Reaching out to The local Taco Truck driver, who is actually Brazilian and a Portugese rather than Spanish speaker, created some concerns but as no Spanish was spoken, the ruse was successful.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
ITYM the relationship between Melania and Donald’s money, since that’s where the true love is.
sukabi
@cmorenc: the potted plant also contributes to everyone’s well being by converting CO2 to oxygen and cleaning the air. Ms. Trump does the opposite as she provides camo for a poisonous toad.
LAO
@Immanentize: Note to self — don’t read comments while drinking soda.
A keyboard will dry out, right? Asking for a friend.
MaryL
@Major Major Major Major:
Most of the syrups the use for flavored latte have a lot of sugar. I believe that Starbucks offers a sugar-free vanilla, but I imagine that it’s disgusting.
Roger Moore
@david spikes:
Schizophrenics hear voices in their heads. Trump hears imaginary phone calls. Is this a new disorder?
Miss Bianca
@Humboldtblue: So that’s where you’ve been all this time – watching cooking shows, for all love!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
but you play one on TV?
Shell
Is ‘reset’ the new ‘pivot?’
Immanentize
@Heidi Mom:
I so sorry for your lost of Misty. I think taking some time with Elizabeth before adding might be a good thing for all. Maybe especially Lizzie.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: So I’m guessing they never had to cut off your pinkie?
Miss Bianca
@germy: Sammy AND Frank? That sounds suspicious. Maybe that goat is a plant, too!
Immanentize
@LAO: nostril soda is nasty stuff. Keyboard will dry — sticky.
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer:
Truly, we’re being governed by Fredo Corleone.
Laura
@Humboldtblue: Train Wreck or GTFO!
Major Major Major Major
@MaryL: could be, maybe she mentioned a flavor.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
It’s a pity that a President who has the nerve to call the White House a dump doesn’t dare admit that Congress has chosen to feed him a shit sandwich.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: You’re progressing rapidly. That’s good. And playing standing up – great move this early. Because if you’re going to be playing with people or in public, you gotta stand.
Two minor pieces of advice since you seem to have this pretty well under control: 1. learn some songs that you have recordings of and play along with them. Simple is fine, you might not want to jump in straight to Rush tunes like I did back in the day. 2. When you get said song dialed, try to play and sing along. For some people this is easy, for others it’s like learning two completely different instruments at once (I was the latter and it’s still a bit of an issue even after 40+ years of playing). A singing player is an employed player.
This will get your rhythm dialed better than almost any other method I can think of, save for actually going out and getting a drum kit and learning to play drums. Which you don’t need to do unless you want to. You’re doing great, so far as I can tell. Much better than most students.
Major Major Major Major
mai naem mobile
You should have picked either money plant or a Venus Flytrap .
rikyrah
LMAO at this BC.
hilarious
The Moar You Know
@MaryL: They do, it isn’t, but the people who order it invariably are.
I worked Starbucks for a year and a half. I say to people “Tell me what you order and I’ll tell you what kind of asshole you are.” And I’ll be right, every damn time.
Laura
@Heidi Mom: two cats now! I’m sorry that Misty is no longer around, but your heart will ache a little less with a couple of kikis
rikyrah
THIS THREAD
meta @metaquest
My President honored and revered the glorious tradition and history of the White House, it’s iconic splendor and grandeur.
twitter.com/metaquest/status/892540035811033088
bystander
@Major Major Major Major: I was behind a woman at a concession stand in a park who asked for a cappuccino ” but not too creamy”. The person working the coffee maker pressed the cappuccino button, handed the coffee to the woman, who tasted it and said immediately “it’s too creamy.” IT’S CAPPUCCINO FROM A DISPENSING MACHINE, YOU IDIOT!
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know:
Most of the guitar players I know, sit when possible. No, they don’t play Rock**, why do you ask? ;-)
**mostly folk and blues, one classical
LAO
@Immanentize: I have just accepted the fact, that the past 24 hours or so, has just been pretty gross.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know: Erik Mongrain – AirTap! I love this one.
misterpuff
@Miss Bianca: The mythical UniGoat.
Frankie and Sammy usually found with Dino and Joey: The Goat Pack.
Frankensteinbeck
Since it’s sort of on topic, I wish to repeat that every time I get to hear him speak, I realize how profoundly, Trump level stupid Jared Kushner is.
Gin & Tonic
@The Moar You Know: “Grande drip, leave room for milk, please.”
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
“Just a medium coffee, please.”
The Moar You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: Traditional for folkies and blues guys, but the best ones…they stand. Better contact with the audience and far better for your singing and projection.
Classical you have no choice, you gotta sit or you can’t play the piece properly.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Gin & Tonic: Sure, you can make better deals in the sense of deals that are better for, say, Russia, But you’re supposed to care about American interests.
lollipopguild
Soon and very soon I will be going on a Best of all Time(Bigly) world tour with my Kazoo Band. Just as soon as I learn how to play the Kazoo, and find some other band members, who also can play the Kazoo. Soon and Very Soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know: The only time I ever went to a Starbucks (at the airport) I asked for a cup of coffee. What kind of an asshole does that make me?
The Moar You Know
@Gin & Tonic: You are…not an asshole.
@Major Major Major Major: Neither are you. Proud to know you both.
@OzarkHillbilly: Not an asshole either. You guys can maybe see where this is going.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
A snarling jackal.
satby
@Heidi Mom: Condolences on the loss of your dear Misty. If you have room in your home and your heart, there’s always a homeless pet waiting to fill it.
Humboldtblue
@Amir Khalid: Studge said it was fatigue coming off two days of three-a-day training sessions. Of course, it’s Sturridge, he could be out until February.
@Miss Bianca: I had to take a break. I visited my dad in March and he had the cable news on all day (I don’t subscribe) and I was getting legitimately angry at watching what was happening to my country with this gang of Jersey white trash. I have skipped pretty much all the blogs and focused on O’Brian, lots of PBR in the sun on the front stoop and that wonderful cooking channel which has taught me that I am far too impatient with my sauce-making (I suck at making gravy and now I know why) and proper use of herbs. (he also introduced me to the buerre manie)
@Laura: I just got some purple diesel (I think that’s what he called it) the other day.
germy
I just watched Chris Cuomo’s interview with the “Investologist” and holy crap.
We need a better caliber of rich person in this country.
The more I see of these financially successful people; the more I hear them talk, the more I question our entire economic system.
bemused
@Gin & Tonic:
Help Donald? How can anyone do that, ffs? He is insane, unreachable.
ruemara
@Major Major Major Major: If she got a latte with a flavor, then she has to specify if the syrup is normal or sugar free.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: I do occasionally get the impression that the barista is relieved by a simple order.
Barney
The advantage of the plants is that they won’t subvert the media into producing hagiographies of how awesome their photosynthesis is going to be now they’re not shaded by those nasty men in the White House who didn’t let them grow to their full potential.
H.E.Wolf
@JGabriel:
It’s okay, the plant and the coat rack have a fine, healthy relationship – the coat rack is made of Live Oak. (Which I always hear in my head as it was pronounced in TX: Laaaahve Oke.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@The Moar You Know: I believe Bill Maher codified that years ago as a New Rule: The longer it takes to order your drink at Starbucks, the bigger an asshole you are.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know: I know, that’s why I added, also most of them play in smaller venues, (on stools if available) so voice projection is not a worry, altho I gotta say Doc Watson never had a problem with it.
Major Major Major Major
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Bill Maher doesn’t get to weigh in on who is and is not an asshole.
satby
@The Moar You Know: Grande mocha?
Though I have a pretty clear idea of my faults.
Ivana Whisky
@The Moar You Know: Tall bold roast
ruemara
@The Moar You Know: I order sugar free all the time. *eyeroll*
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Bill Maher can’t talk since he doesn’t know he’s a huge, fetid asshole.
The Moar You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: The two-handed tapping thing, as popularized by Eddie Van Halen, of all people, is a quandary. You can play it standing up, but it makes some fingerings difficult. Or you can play it standing up with a Chapman Stick, which doesn’t, but it’s not tuned like a guitar either, so some relearning is in order. You can do the lap thing, which makes it easier but is more boring to the audience as they can’t see your mad skillz.
Great piece.
bemused
@The Moar You Know:
All I want at a coffee joint is a strong black coffee. I’m a purist that way.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know:
I have it on very good authority that you couldn’t be more wrong about me.
MisterForkbeard
@The Moar You Know: Sometimes a medium (Grande?) Coffee. But usually “Medium Latte, please.” :)
@Major Major Major Major: Same. If it takes longer to order your coffee than it does to hand over the $5 to buy it, you’re doing it wrong. And (anecdotally) most baristas I know agree with me.
EDIT: Okay, sometimes when I’ve got the toddler with me I’ll order a “Hot chocolate, but not TOO hot – it’s for the kiddo.” And to their credit, baristas are usually all over that.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
You don’t believe it takes one to know one?
The Moar You Know
@satby: You may be, or at least imagine yourself, as a slight libertine with some insecurity issues. Probably are carrying a few extra pounds.
My usual non-coffee drink, BTW.
@ruemara: We can’t be friends. I’m sorry.
rikyrah
INTRODUCING DONALD TRUMP, THE BIGGEST LOSER
7/31/17 AT 6:20 AM
excerpt:
But that’s not all. Trump doesn’t want his base to perceive him as a loser.
So be prepared for scorched-earth politics from the Oval Office, including more savage verbal attacks on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, more baseless charges of voter fraud in the 2016 election, more specific threats to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, and further escalation of the culture wars.
Most Americans won’t be swayed by these pyrotechnics because they’ve become inured to our unhinged president.
But that’s not the point. The rantings are intended to shore up Trump’s “base” – the third of the country that continues to support him, who still believe they’re “victims” of Obamacare, who are willing to believe Trump himself is the victim of a liberal conspiracy to unseat him.
Trump wants his base to become increasingly angry and politically mobilized so they’ll continue to exert an outsized influence on the Republican Party.
newsweek.com/robert-reich-introducing-donald-trump-biggest-loser-643862
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: thai is a revelation! I love it too.
Two more favorite guitar artists.
satby
@The Moar You Know: libertine? Nailed me on the extra pounds though.
The Moar You Know
@MisterForkbeard: My favorite customers were the hot chocolate drinkers. Not the easiest (that’s plain coffee) but nice people. I LOVE it, but since I’m pretty lactose intolerant, I pay dearly for it afterwards.
Starbucks also will do a chocolate milk, cold, as well. Or iced.
glory b
Word from the mean girls’ cafeteria table, why is her skirt so long? That length isn’t attractive on ANYONE (why, yes, I’ve watched a lot of “What not to Wear,” why do you ask?)!
Although mean girls may use artificial sweetener now and then.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: It takes one to know one.
Humboldtblue
@satby:
Man, they are fantastic. I stumbled across them on Tiny Desk concerts
Matt
Only going to work if Daddy Drumpf really really wants to fuck the plant, tho.
The Moar You Know
@satby: Mocha drinkers usually look at the mocha as being an indulgence. And then get one every day :)
Might as well keep drinking ’em, because even when I stopped I kept the pounds.
OzarkHillbilly
@The Moar You Know: Now I’ve fallen into an Andy McKee hole and I can’t get up.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: More to the point I don’t believe people should pay attention to Bill Maher.
rikyrah
@Nicole:
HERE YOU GO
politico.com/story/2017/07/30/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-241149
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah:
Phrasing!
GregB
The soft bigotry of no expectations.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Nice.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
Buffoon is the perfect word.
Why couldn’t more people see that?
Elizabelle
@Major Major Major Major: Good catch.
A Ghost To Most
@Laura: As a grower of Trainwreck, I concur.
rikyrah
Joy Reid
✔
@JoyAnnReid
Combined, today’s immigration bill & the anti-affirmative action push at DOJ reveal the GOP’s obsession with this idea that nonwhite people
Joy Reid
✔
@JoyAnnReid
gained unfair advantages from the civil rights and immigration reforms of the 1960s. Repealing the 20th century starts with reversing that.
10:57 AM – Aug 2, 2017 · Manhattan, NY
ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Why not? Bill K. Has first hand knowledge of Assholes, being a major one himself.
NotMax
@The Moar You Know
What, no karsk?
;)
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah:
In gold gilted shoes Daddy’s money bought for them.
Fester Addams
@The Moar You Know:
“I’ll have a half double decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist of lemon”
ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
I know someone who’s wife calls him Mr. Hole. You got that?
eric
@The Moar You Know: also. go to you tube and search for backing tracks. Quist has some for more advanced players, but just take a minor or major pentatonic and play along. More appropriate now, though, is that there are simple drum tracks you can play along with at different tempos with no other instrumentation. there are also songs minus the lead or without the vocals to play along.
ruemara
@MisterForkbeard: I have diet restrictions. I have to specify decaf or half-caf because of my insane hypertension. I have to specify soy, because animal milk makes me nauseous and I have to specify sugar free, because I have to stay on a very low to moderate carbo diet. If all I want is plain coffee, I still have to be specific. It’s not always being an asshole, it’s often things that frankly, you don’t have to discuss with your barista.
The Moar You Know
@Fester Addams: I’m building your gallows right now. Just gotta find a few more pieces of wood and I’ll be ready to “take your order”.
TenguPhule
Trump supporters are racist motherfrackers. Now tell us something we don’t know.
Depressing.
dedc79
According to Quinnipiac, Trump’s approval rating is on a collision course with 27%:
rikyrah
Reuters Top NewsVerified account @Reuters
Trump, senators to unveil bill to cut legal immigration to U.S.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Aww, dang, I get all dusty-eyed when I see pictures of PBO and FLOTUS Michelle O in the White House. How did we end up with this nightmare of a Trump family, it’s actually, literally, painful to me to contrast the two administrations.
OzarkHillbilly
@ruckus: Nah, I got my wife pretty well fooled, it’s all my *lesser enemies* that are onto me.
**lesser enemies- some people call them “friends” but I’m more honest than that.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah:
Cue wails from legal-immigration-advocate Trump supporters upset that the leopard is eating their faces
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
The overnight crew got mad at me for sharing my recent cat poop disaster story. Different crowds, I guess. ?
A Ghost to Most
@TenguPhule:
Yes, but not surprising.
Miss Bianca
@The Moar You Know: What kind of asshole orders a green tea latte, skim (sorry, “nonfat”) milk? Asking for a friend…
eric
@Mnemosyne: i guess that means that there is a time and place for poop…who knew ;)
given the nonsense we talk about coming out of the White House everyday, i welcome our new poop overlords and their stories. YMMV, I suppose.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
But all I wanted was a green tea frappe.
LAO
@Mnemosyne: I missed that, do tell. I’m not quite pooped out.
rikyrah
Gene DembyVerified account @GeeDee215
#housingsegregationineverything
School segregation didn’t go away. It just evolved.
twitter.com/GeeDee215/status/892447786704281601
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: Which they will not dare pass. The Chamber and the tech industry won’t stand for it.
They’ll find a way to torpedo it and blame Dems, their idiot base will believe them, and it’ll be win-win for them.
@rikyrah: They’re called “charter schools”. Sold as being a benefit for minorities “trapped in failing public schools”, actually a benefit for whites trapped in schools with any number of unacceptable non-whites, what a shocker
ETA: yeah, I’ve see the boundary redraw before too, but just chartering out the whole district is easier and also helps cripple the teacher’s union, really a win-win if you’re an asshole
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: @eric: You know, now that I think about it, the overnight crew never gets mad when I talk about vampires… ? ?
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Hoocoodanode?
TriassicSands
@Gin & Tonic:
Trump Dictionary:
many, adj. — more than zero
Example: There were many people at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Miss Bianca
@Humboldtblue: Well, glad to see you back among the jackals!
Marguerite Hill
@cmorenc: Ivanka is not even SUPERFICIALLY attractive. As with her mother and stepmother, plastic surgery did her no favors. Beauty is more than the mere arrangement of facial features, as many who have gone under the knife realized to their dismay post-surgery.
Like her brothers, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivanka is simply unattractive. That’s okay as long as she stays in her lane.
However,the minute she opens her mouth, she reveals her lack of intelligence, her lack of empathy, and her profound ability for self-delusion. She has no qualifications to serve in the upper echelons of the executive branch! None!
Dirge
@The Moar You Know: I want a whole thread dedicated to this.
NotMax
@TenguPhuleTea is not exactly the most popular word at Starbucks HQ.
rikyrah
Eric W. DolanVerified account @EWDolan
Many US scientists answer France’s call to come ‘make our planet great again’
TriassicSands
@Elizabelle:
Too many years of too much TV? Social media are probably contributing as well.
japa21
@dedc79: Let’s add to Trumnp’s misery.
Gallup today has him at 36% approve 60% disapprove, the widest gap since he was inaugurated.
Rasmussen, which had been his favorite poll has him at 38% approve, 63% disapprove. And the strongly approve vs strongly disapprove is at 25-50%.
In all cases it is widest gap.
satby
@The Moar You Know: ???
Tenar Arha
@MaryL: The sugar free hazelnut & vanilla are tolerable but I always ask them to halve the # of pumps because at full strength it’s like stunning yourself with artificial sweetener.
glory b
@rikyrah: Well, darn. I’ve got to conduct a hearing in 5 minutes and now I’m all verklempt.
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: Ordering a cup of coffee these days is effectively saying “this is the way that I consider myself uniquely special, and your indulgence of my whims is my affirmation of that”.
japa21
@Marguerite Hill: Okay, I am a straight white male, and I have always wondered how she has ever been labeled as super attractive. I just don’t see it. IOW, I agree with you all the way.
Major Major Major Major
@seaboogie: Nothing wrong with customized consumption IMO, though you’re right that there is for some a thrill in making another person cater to it.
rikyrah
This thread
T. Fisher King @T_FisherKing
#AffirmativeAction
1. For those who mocked “incremental progress” & swore Bernie would bring utopia, what say u now?
7:51 AM – 2 Aug 2017
twitter.com/T_FisherKing/status/892759759346118658
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
The entire medical insurance and health care industries didn’t want the ACHA.
Republicans ignored them.
Why should this be any different?
OzarkHillbilly
@Marguerite Hill: @japa21: Same here, her bland blondness leaves me flat.
ruemara
@japa21: Straight men (and some women) have either no standards for personality and depth or have a nordic fascination. To me, she and Melania look like squinting weasels. I don’t get it.
@rikyrah: They ain’t saying shit but white nonsense about Kamala Harris & now, Cory Booker. I fucking pissed.
Goddamned revolution paved on the backs and blood of minorities. fucking assholes. I will never trust any of these people again.
The Moar You Know
@Miss Bianca: Wannabe princess who is demanding as hell and way too into being skinny.
@Dirge: I’ve already alienated a few people on this one, I’ll never be able to go to a meetup if we do a whole thread. But you learn things about people behind the counter that you’d never find out any other way. Back before I got married, I’d take women out to Starbucks and watch what they’d order and how they treated the crew. Weeded out a lot of women that way.
The woman I married was and is always great to waitstaff of all sorts, having done the job previously, and when asked what she wanted at Starbucks said “an IV of caffeine, any kind”. And then got regular coffee. That’s a winner :)
@TenguPhule: You’re next on the gallows, it’s done now.
MisterForkbeard
@<@ruemara: Absolutely true. But I don’t really believe that the five people in front of me with very complicated orders all have some kind of medical issue that necessitates their Rube Goldberg caffeinated creation. :)
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Did you ever do the farmers’ market thing you had talked about earlier?
Spanky
Following the sub-thread of asshole high finance types, a CNN Finance article describes how everyone should live:
Why of course! Why didn’t I do that?
(No further comment on the fact that $2.25 million is no great hedge against the next 60+ years of her life.)
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
I can’t help that I don’t like Starbucks coffee.
rikyrah
Clara JefferyVerified account @ClaraJeffery
If universities have to get rid of any remaining affirmative action programs they should have to eliminate legacy preferences too.
6:13 PM – 1 Aug 2017
ruemara
@MisterForkbeard: That’s tough, because they just might. You don’t know and they don’t have to tell you.
Why are y’all so fucking judgmental about it? As long as they’re nice to the servers, that’s all that matters.
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know: Triple Grande Extra Hot Latte
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: Booooo. I liked Teavana quite a bit. Though I haven’t been there in over a year, so I can kind of see why they’re shutting down the stores. :)
ruemara
@Spanky: She’s not going to have 2.5 mil for long if she lives in NYC. And I hate her for stealing my brownstone living dream. Plus, fuck the oligarchy.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Tech sector = deep, deep, bulging pockets.
Roger Moore
@Marguerite Hill:
It’s the gaping holes where there souls should be showing through.
rikyrah
Daniel DaleVerified account @ddale8
Trump issued two statements on the sanctions within one minute. #1 is in “signing statement” legalese. In #2, he brags about his company.
germy
@Marguerite Hill:
Maya Rudolph said
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: but you can help what non-coffee beverage you order, and you picked “green tea frappe”.
ETA: if I’m not getting coffee I usually get iced green or black tea, unsweetened.
Mnemosyne
@Heidi Mom:
Condolences on your loss. As far as the question of a second cat goes, I would wait and see how Elizabeth reacts first. If she seems lonely as an only cat, get her a friend. You’ll know fairly quickly if she’s bored/lonely by herself or if she’s relishing being the sole cat.
sukabi
@Spanky: what do you want to bet she’ll be pushing a shopping cart up 5th Ave looking for handouts in 10 years?
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: well you do comment here, so ….
rikyrah
MikeFarb @mikefarb1
#unhackthevote
Georgia removes over 591,000 registered voters. That is a ton. We need to look into this.
http://www.myajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/georgia-cancels-registration-more-than-591-500-voters/ozSuX227UpNe18YGQ0hYUJ/amp.html
The Moar You Know
@seaboogie: You have nailed the entire reason Starbucks exists in one sentence. And, incidentally, how they think of and treat their employees – as forelock-tugging servants to anyone who has five bucks and the urge to treat someone lower than them on the economic totem pole like shit.
A Ghost To Most
@The Moar You Know: not to mention that the coffee is over-roasted bitter crap.
Chris
@The Moar You Know:
Tall pike with room for milk, please.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@The Moar You Know: “Small hot chocolate, please. No whipped cream.” (I avoid Starbucks on my own because I don’t like their coffee, but I see no reason to inflict that opinion on either my Starbucks-going family and friends or, G-d forbid, on the actual people who actually work there.)
MisterForkbeard
@ruemara: I’m acting on my brother’s own experience here, since he was a barista to put himself through college about 10 years ago – There are and always have been exceptions to this rule, but the people ordering complicated drinks are much more likely to treat the barista badly, or to be hugely judgmental when their drink doesn’t come out exactly like they had it at a different coffee shop.
Let’s just go with “In general this behavior annoys me, but there are definitely legit reasons for it to exist in some cases.” It kind of reminds me of something my sociology prof told me once – stereotypes exist because they’re useful. They’re often (sometimes usually) are wrong for any specific person, but they provide a general framework or starting point that is often correct. This is true for both positive and negative stereotyping. The key thing is to remember that the stereotype can be wrong and you shouldn’t judge others based off of it when you encounter them.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
I remember one doctor, an orthopaedist, who was all gung-ho to amputate my left pinky to the wrist; fortunately, that turned out to be unnecessary. I can fret strings with it, and bend it far enough to reach the high E string. At my most recent appointment with the rheumatology clinic, another doctor (herself a guitar player, she said) agreed that I was okay to play right-handed. (I’m a southpaw.)
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
You think the Doctors and Seniors and Medical Insurance don’t have that and a highly motivated base to boot?
seaboogie
@JPL: This WH is a high speed oscillating fan placed directly behind an elephant with dysentery.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Elitist.//
eric
@Spanky: that is 11 years of 200k…..um, I think the financial markets are better that she is gone.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@lollipopguild:
My superpower is that I can play the kazoo without actually having a kazoo. Got room for me on tour?
Marguerite Hill
@david spikes: Tangerine Twitler is delusional. I am not a doctor, but I imagine that psychiatrists from Aruba to Zimbabwe are observing carefully checking off boxes, writing notes, and preparing numerous peer reviewed articles for future consumption.
One of my neighbors, a veteran of both the Korean conflict and Vietnam War, used to dress in his military uniform and march for hours up and down our street. When his hallucinations took a turn for the worse, he heard incoming missiles and saw attacking enemy soldiers. Finally, after many years, I was able to convince him to commit himself to the regional VA hospital where he remained until his death.
Who will perform that same act of mercy for Mango Mussolini?
Immanentize
@rikyrah: This has long been an issue because by allowing legacy admits, schools lock in past racist policies. It ends up not being a huge % of the student body in any given year at a University, but it does restrict the slots available for other students.
JanieM
“A reset of her own” (the headline of the linked article)
How does anyone have the goddamned gall to even whisper a hint of a trace of a memory of Virginia Woolf in relation to the bundle of non-entititousness that is Ivanka Trump. Jaysus H.
Harrumph.
ruemara
@MisterForkbeard: And yet, people are judging. I’ve worked retail and in the coffee section of the book store I was at for 3 years. I had to beg for that job. I dealt with some privileged assholes on a regular basis. I find assholery defies all stereotypes, so it’s best to not judge based on a single criteria and let people just prove who they are on an individual basis.
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: You’re a caffeine junkie with no functional taste buds.
Extra hot = burned milk = awful. Starbucks already heats the milk up to the ragged edge of “too much”, because it cools down to a reasonable temp (reasonable as in “safe to carry and sip”) by the time you negotiate the milk bar and get to your car and start sipping as you pull out of your space. You go hotter than that and bad shit starts happening with the flavor.
MisterForkbeard
@ruemara: Fair enough.
Amir Khalid
@Miss Bianca:
Green tea with milk? What kind of heathen orders that?
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Iced green tea, unsweetened.
mai naem mobile
@Kay: buy Cory Lewandowiki said Richard Cordray is just sitting in Ohio 24/7 running for governor instead of running the CFPB. He’s got a primary opponent? I don’t know shit about Ohio politics but Cord ray comes across as a pretty good candidate. I hope this Connie person running isn’t going to create a nasty primary and dampen Dem voter turnout.
pamelabrown53
@rikyrah: @112.
In a way, rikyrah, you isolated the reason why trump’s base defend him so vociferously. They believe they’re snubbed by the elites and their love for trump is he’s “Duck Dynasty” with $$$.
TenguPhule
Yet another clue that Rex Tillerson is a Russian Asset. .
Wow, just wow.
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid: Hey! I’m a heathen, and I wouldn’t drink that,
The Moar You Know
@A Ghost To Most: They used to care and then discovered their customers not only couldn’t tell the difference between good and bad coffee, but like it burned to a fucking crisp.
Something which Peets has taken to the next level, BTW.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
The correct term is heretic.
Heathen would be drinking black tea instead of green.
seaboogie
@The Moar You Know: Our shop had an email inquiry from a woman that was not answered in her very short time frame, to which she followed up “Well, I guess you don’t want my money…” and I texted the staffer on duty “I’ll bet her barista just loves her? and that happened yesterday.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
In terms of sheer scale of lucre, comparing apples and oranges.
Or in this case Apple and syringes.
Marguerite Hill
@Gin & Tonic: No, Dingbat Donnie, you were handed a portfolio of properties in NYC worth millions, you inherited over $200 million, and you STILL ran that car in the ditch, filing bankruptcy FOUR-4!-4! times!
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
If Starbucks designs its coffee for assholes, what did they expect would happen?
schrodingers_cat
@japa21: She is tall and skinny, that’s why.
Gin & Tonic
@Spanky: She’s a moron.
A friend of mine recently sold his business and retired with about the same amount. He expects he’ll be comfortable.
He’s 68 and doesn’t live in NYC.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I turned on MSNBC to check for headlines, to see if some fresh hell has been unleashed, and they were talking about trump and the Russian sanctions bill, and for some reason they froze on a graphic the Rough Beast and Princess Tackycrap air-kissing, Her Selfishness in full pucker. Leaving aside the SMNBC control room’s choice, was she at this signing, and why?
They did say he didn’t do his usual bill signing pantomime, holding the folder up for all the different cameras and making that constipated toddler face that reports have it he imagines is “Churchillian”
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
But of all that money they make over the medical side, how much do they spend on politics? How many of them bitch at the political class on the phone and threaten them with large voting blocks?
The Moar You Know
@Chris: Not an asshole.
@Mnemosyne: You get that at Starbucks? Christ, at least you’re not complicated but you must have money to burn. I’d make that myself at home.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: Heathen here, black tea with milk and sugar, extra strong.
ETA: I can’t order the tea I like out, I have to make it myself.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
Americans also like their beers hopped to the point of undrinkability, as the brewing industry unfortunately discovered. We suck.
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know: That used to be my order, but I have stopped drinking coffee all day long like I used to. I drink coffee at home before I go to work and will now maybe have a short capp. If someone else is treating in the afternoon. So I kicked my caffeine habit mostly. My tastebuds, well they survived.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Speak for yourself, I don’t drink beer.
The Moar You Know
@seaboogie: Non-fat, sugar-free vanilla, caramel macchiato, all foam, extra hot.
danielx
I’m making a reset as an astronaut, cardiac surgeon and theoretical physicist. Oh, and CEO of a Fortune 100 company.
JPL
@seaboogie: Are you related to Betty Cracker? lol
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Should go ahead and play lefty. A picking hand doesn’t necessarily need five fingers (pace Jerry Garcia.)
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Is that a joke or an actual drink order?
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I hate hoppy beer, lager is more my style.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: Me neither.
@schrodingers_cat:
You at least have a cultural excuse.
Spanky
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I used to play kazoo, but could never keep the thing in tune.
mai naem mobile
@The Moar You Know: very berry refresher,light ice. During the holidays iced peppermint mocha with fewer pumps of the mocha(I think normal is 5 and I ask for 3) because it’s too sweet with the normal amount. I don’t do Starbucks during the non holiday winter time. I like Circle K coffee better.
Immanentize
@LAO: I tried but failed to reply earlier. Rolling in shit is one of the chief pleasures in a dog’s life. Sadly.
Cone of shame is what its name implies…. I am happy not to have to do either.
Amir Khalid
@mai naem mobile:
Y’know, I’ve never heard Cory Lewandowski’s surname pronounced. I came across a German football player of that name, which was pronounced “Lev-ahn-dov-ski”. (Germans call the letter W “veh” and typically pronounce it as a V.) Does Cory go by “Lew-and-ow-ski”?
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
Went into my craft room to sit on the couch. Smelled something stinky just in time to save me from sitting in it. Keaton had pooped on the couch, bigly, and then dragged a throw over it to try and pretend it never happened.
Fortunately, I still had an old sheet on top of the seat cushion from when G had bronchitis and I had to sleep in there, so I threw that away, washed the throw with some Nature’s Miracle, and sprayed the same stuff all over the couch cushion.
The cleanup seems to have worked, but I’m still mad. ?
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Drink the tea I brew, before knocking it. The tepid water and a sad bag of Lipton tea that you get at most joints in the United States is not tea.
Miss Bianca
@The Moar You Know: Oh, dear.
rikyrah
thread
Ashley C. FordVerified account @iSmashFizzle
Do you know how many white people truly and genuinely believe that black people get to go to college for free?
6:29 PM – 1 Aug 2017
twitter.com/iSmashFizzle/status/892557827675480064
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: Actual drink order from one of the shittiest human beings I’ve ever met in my life.
Uncle Cosmo
@The Moar You Know:
E.g., “diabetic who wants a latte” = asshole by definition.
Not that I go into a Starbucks more than twice a year, not that I’ve ever ordered a latte anywhere…but it’s good to know I’d have to specifically ask for it without sugar. Minor thing about a metabolism that can’t self-regulate glucose & insulin – & risks blindness, amputation of the extremities, cardiac havoc & other fun&games without a lot of conscious intervention, including avoiding sugar whenever possible.
Some if not most of the clientele here may consider me an asshole, but presumably that isn’t purely due to sugar issues. As Rico (Lee Marvin) so memorably puts it to J. W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) at the very end of The Professionals, I’m “a self-made man.”
danielx
@Major Major Major Major:
This is true. I purchased (by accident) a six pack of Victory Double IPA a few months back, and it both smelled and tasted the way I imagine panther piss smells and tastes. Expensive, too.
eric
With all due respect to the Starbucks bashers, you were obviously not alive pre-Starbucks where the coffee options were over cooked coffee on a burner. Maybe it is not the Dom Perignon of coffees, but it works just fine.
As for the specialty orders, so what? what matters is how you are treated. I am glad there is a place that actually cares what its customers want, and does not demand that you take its product only one way.
rikyrah
Ryan J. ReillyVerified account @ryanjreilly
Rod Rosenstein was given an opportunity to condemn Trump’s endorsement of police brutality. He declined.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
We are in solid agreement here.
Lipton tea is muddy twigs in a bag. Completely Undrinkable. The company should be run out of the planet on a rail.
Roger Moore
@Spanky:
$2.25 million is enough that you should be able to retire on it at any age, provided you’re willing to live frugally. Or it could be a really nice nest egg if your idea of “retirement” is to quit the rat race and take the job you really want without having to worry too much about how well it pays. Unfortunately, I don’t think the kind of person who’s thinking about retiring in their 20s is planning on either kind of retirement.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: It must be the same people that believe that immigrating to the United States is easy
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid: Thought of that myself. I grew up in an area with a lot of people of Polish origin, and my brother’s best friend was named Lewandowski (lev-n-du-ski).
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: Nope. No it is not.
@rikyrah: that thread was infuriating. Of course, then you have the good folks who don’t believe blacks go to college. Usually liberals (sorry, I’m stereotyping as a short hand for having lived in blue states around liberals who often make this judgement). It’s two sides of the same dumb coin.
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid: errr…(looks around, dumps green tea latte into nearest potted plant)…no one *I* know!
Marguerite Hill
@FlipYrWhig: Teacher (marking secret calendar showing years to full retirement): Thank you, Donald, for that insightful summer vacation essay. Boys and girls, do you remember what makes a good essay? Yes, do tell us, Hillary.
Hillary (top student in the entire school): A good writer uses detailed sentences to express a complete i…ouch!!!
Teacher (secretly sips from hidden flask): Remember, Donald, no throwing rocks on school property.
Donald (holding hands up, palms out, lips pouting fishily): I didn’t throw anything. See? Besides, I beat her last year for student council president, so there! It was the greatest victory this school has ever seen!
Heywood J.
@The Moar You Know: Dirty chai.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
Cordray would be the automatic front runner but I like Pillioch and I like primaries. I know I shouldn’t after 2016- I was wrong about the D primary in 2016 being good for turnout and you guys were right about it depressing turnout- but I still think a varied group of candidates is a good thing. Still.
It’ll be fine. There will be about 27 Republicans running too. I think the one to beat there will be Jon Husted-he’s the current sec of state.
Hoodie
@Major Major Major Major: a unique American trait, take something interesting, make it a fetish and ultimately ruin it. Pisses me off that when you go to a place selling microbrews, it’s nothing but IPAs. I like IPA fine, but not all the freaking time. And some of them are absolute skunk piss.
NonyNony
@The Moar You Know:
Medium coffee, usually the blonde roast if they have it, light roast otherwise. Room for milk, but only because I don’t really want it filled to the brim (I take it black). I can never remember which name is which for the different sizes so I just say “the middle one” and the barristas indulge me because I’m an old man.
That’s when I order Starbucks – which is generally only if I don’t have a convenient alternative and am looking for a coffee. Like if I’m in a Barnes and Noble or a Target and am looking for a hot drink. I’ve noticed that for some inexplicable reason, the “Starbucks that are not actually Starbucks” serve coffee that isn’t nearly as burned as the stand-alone Starbucks tend to. I have no idea why this might be but it generally works out. I think the only stand-alone Starbucks I’ve been to in the last 5 years are ones that are in airports, come to think of it.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Dunno if you saw this regarding India in an earlier thread.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: I wasn’t knocking it, I was saying that you get a pass for a complicated order.
Just One More Canuck
@Major Major Major Major: There are a lot of good drinkable beers around, unfortunately, a lot of the breweries (this is especially the case for craft breweries here in Ontario) spend more money on marketing and labelling than they do on the actual beer.
Just One More Canuck
@schrodingers_cat: Lipton is more like factory floor sweepings and random twigs
Mnemosyne
@pamelabrown53:
Don’t let the ZZ Top beards fool you — the “Duck Dynasty” assholes made a fortune on duck calls. They dress and act the way they do to fool the rubes into handing over their cash.
Major Major Major Major
Wow, and I seriously just wanted to know why somebody would order a no-sugar latte.
@rikyrah: @ruemara: I saw a thing yesterday, white people are all in favor of “college admissions should be based on test scores” until you prime them by first noting how Asians have higher scores than whites.
GregB
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, loo-an-dowski.
germy
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry, my bad, I misunderstood you. I never order it out, I make it myself. I usually just get coffee when I am not at home. Most tea in the United States is a sorry imitation of the real thing and don’t get me started on the chai this and chai that. That milky and sugary stuff is like chocolate milk for little kids.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Sometimes I need an afternoon break, Mr. Judgy Judgmental. Plus I don’t like hot drinks.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
Pillioch sort of won my admiration the year of Kasich’s re-elect. Democrats had a horrible candidate for governor, the whole thing was a disaster and she was everywhere. The rest of them were like “fuck it, this is a waste of time” :)
I saw her gamely trying to gin up enthusiasm at an event in a HUGE hall with like 30 people. Not a good turnout.
It was both tragic and inspiring :)
LAO
@Mnemosyne:
I can’t tell you how much I admire this, but I’m also pleased to report that Maggie is not quite that smart.
TenguPhule
@eric:
And you would be wrong. There were a bunch of small places that made decent coffee and other drinks.
Marguerite Hill
@TenguPhule: Inspector Clouseau can see these clues. Mr Magoo can see these clues. Stevie Wonder has seen these clues and written a modern symphony, “Isn’t He Russian?” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Putin – I’m Yours!” “I Was Made to Love Russia” and “Part-Time Russian Stooge.”
Spanky
Oh geez! I. will. not. read. beyond the title of David F’ing Brooks’ latest:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trump is bragging about the run up in the Dow (et al) and predicting it will go higher
that is not something I would do if I were a politician, for reasons beyond the fact that the idea of the market aves as economic indicators is really, really dumb (as I was pleasantly surprised to see Ali Velshi and Stephanie and Ruhle saying today)
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Heh. G complains about that all the time, and he likes hoppy IPAs.
Apparently the problem is especially bad on the West Coast since Oregon and Washington have ideal hop-growing climates.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: I almost never get hot tea from a non-tea-place because they don’t put the boiling water straight on the bag. Yech.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
It is, if you’re a Republican supporting Cuban.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Lucky you live someplace where one can purchase Anchor Steam without handing an arm and a leg to the cashier.
@Amir Khalid
Hoary humor:
(question to a native) “Is it pronounced Ha-wai-ee or Ha-vai-ee?”
“Ha-vai-ee.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re velcome.”
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: They should stick to growing pot like everybody else.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: Didn’t President O change that?
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: This has been an ongoing problem for years. Cash crops like sugarcane etc that are water intensive, grown in semi arid regions, exacerbates the problems. Think California’s central valley and nuts.
* Copied from the original thread.
A Ghost To Most
@Marguerite Hill: Good Luck! I am at the point where I can draw SS next summer, but am increasingly realizing that I might not make it that long. The culture at my company is mostly coal-humpers and Rump supporters, and the “process” people are overwhelming the techies. Time to get out!
eric
@TenguPhule: to which, if you lived any place other than right next to those small places of coffee, you got nothing and liked it. That is rubbish. Punching starbucks is fun but leaves me empty. I get my quad espresso and I am relatively happy.
The Moar You Know
@Heywood J.: Pretentious. But from the guy working the bar, easy to make. You just cut open the bag, dump the concentrate into a bucket, add some water, pump some into a cup.
Ain’t like anyone’s brewing that shit themselves in-store!
@Hoodie: My pet peeve with my local breweries. I used to be a big brewpub guy when I lived in NorCal. Moved back down here, and microbreweries had arrived! Hoorah! Until I went to one.
If I can find one beer that hasn’t been hopped to the point of undrinkability I consider myself lucky. San Diego seems particularly bad in that respect, not sure why.
Mnemosyne
@Uncle Cosmo:
Unless you want a specific flavor, like vanilla or pumpkin, it’s easiest to just tell them you want it unsweetened and then add your own sweetener. Here in California, they make it easy to tell if something comes with some kind of syrup because they post the calorie counts.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I’ve been given two plausible explanation for why Charbucks burns their coffee:
1) They mostly make cappuccino/latte-style drinks that dilute the coffee flavor with milk. They want a strong bitter profile to stand out through that, and nobody would be able to taste the subtle nuances of fancy varietals anyway.
2) They can’t get enough good quality beans to keep up with demand, and burning the crap out of it masks the individual beans’ flaws.
I think they’re both true, but I notice the second one more the more often I think about Starbucks. When I started going there many years ago, they were proud of all their regional coffees and showed them off by rotating through them as the coffee of the day. That was when they were still at least as focused on selling people beans in the stores as in selling them coffee drinks. Their business model has shifted much more heavily toward selling drinks in their stores, with merchandise an important side-line and beans an afterthought*. As part of turning into the McDonald’s of coffee, they’ve focused on standardization, which means selling only blends rather than varietals.
*Though they obviously still focus on selling beans outside their retail outlets.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Americans just felt deprived after generations of drinking mass-produced piss-water like Bud, so when they discovered hops, they went nuts with it. Perhaps they’ll settle down again someday. I wish our local brew pubs hadn’t discovered gueuze, which tastes like old bar-rag squeezings to me — ugh! Give me a good old-fashioned cream ale, imperial stout, kolsch, etc., any day. Or better yet, wine. Or even better yet, bourbon and branch water.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Affirmative action for the not quite smart enough white students. I recall there was a dust up in CA where colleges were discriminating against Asians to let enough white kids get in otherwise.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Lipton is good over ice, but terrible when it’s hot. Kind of like how Miller High Life makes the best beer and cheese soup, but is otherwise undrinkable.
A Ghost To Most
@Just One More Canuck: My wife says the same thing, and carries Red Rose with her everywhere. She even has me buy it online, because you get can’t get in grocery stores here.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
The thing with state races is you can’t have a “bench” – a group of younger people – without chaos and risk. They want to try things. We have a D primary for a state senate seat which is ridiculous in a 65% R area like this- one should be running for the lower chamber instead of both for senate- but they both wanted to run for state senate. I know it’s sort of inefficient but the individuals don’t look at it like that.
mai naem mobile
@Amir Khalid: I have no idea what he goes by but on teevee they say Loo(haha)wahn-daau-skee
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s the way I generally drink it, or did until I gave up caffeine. I learned the proper way to make it from my London-born grandmother.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: Tetley’s British blend is not bad. My personal preference is Assam or Darjeeling tea.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
He did, Naturally I expect it be changed right back as part of the Republican efforts to shit on his legacy.
The Moar You Know
@Spanky: Oh no, you need to, because it has the best line from Brooks I’ve ever read:
Closet door handle is right there, David. The are paens to the ancient Greeks and John McCain to complete what I suspect is a cry for help.
Marguerite Hill
@rikyrah: If they only knew! But they don’t have a clue! My mother’s oldest brother (of 9 siblings) was the only one who didn’t go to college, but he helped his 8 younger siblings, all of whom finished with degrees and all of whom worked while attending college. My father’s oldest sister attended college, and helped her 6 younger siblings receive a college education, all of whom worked while in school. Some white people seem so out of touch with reality. They need therapy, at the very least!
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Genny Cream Ale?
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Brits can make a good cup of chai!
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I guess my junior year roommate didn’t really exist as far as those people are concerned. Or my two senior year roommates. Or my BFF’s freshman year roommate. Or, y’know, all the people I knew socially or in classes. And I haven’t even mentioned the international students and teaching assistants from places like Ghana.
And this was at the University of Spoiled Children in the late 1980s, fer chrissakes!
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major:
Lattes don’t have sugar until you order flavored syrups (e.g. vanilla), and then it becomes a rather slippery slope.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: that’s how my Irish-born grandmothers drank it, except one didn’t take sugar. We never discussed it, but I’m sure she thought The Lord didn’t approve of sugar, and she and He quietly disapproved of people who used sugar together.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Gotta disagree. Its terrible no matter how its served. The tea leaves they use are grade Z quality which would normally get thrown into the trash by any self-respecting tea brewer. It literally tastes nothing like actual tea.
mai naem mobile
@Kay: that’s why the old times where they had party bosses who just ordered people around worked better. At least within their smaller geographic areas.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Primaries are great as long as the candidates don’t take it as an opportunity to trash each other with attacks that the Republicans will be able to use.
You can be tough and get your points across without claiming that your opponent and the party she belongs to are corrupt to the core and that’s the only reason you’re not winning.
Ahem.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Mnemosyne:
One hopes Keaton is not your husband….
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Non-Starbucks coffee comment.
Properly roasted Jamaica Blue Mountain is worth every last shekel.
(Sadly, also way beyond anything my budget will allow.)
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Guitar dealers here, if they carry lefty guitars at all, charge extra for them. So fuck that. And you don’t get a lot of choices in lefty guitars: far fewer model options, and fewer (or no) colour options within a model. And if I become a lefty player, I won’t be able to play righty guitars. Whereas I could still someday buy a lefty guitar when I see one I like that isn’t a Tele (wouldn’t want the Girl to get jealous), and make myself an ambidextrous player. Besides, when I imagined myself playing the guitar before now, I only ever imagined doing it right-handed.
Heywood J.
@The Moar You Know:
Probably. My wife turned me on to them a couple years ago, and they are surprisingly addictive. Two shots seems to be about the right balance with the chai flavor.
Oddly, when we go to Peet’s instead of Starbucks, I get either their summer iced tea or the green tea frappe, both of which are way better in flavor than Starbucks’ blend (though it’s probably some weird psychological trick most of us play on ourselves with consumer choices).
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
A fine brandy or a few shots of rum. Liquor is quicker.
lollipopguild
@Betty Cracker: What is your favorite Bourbon?
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: I’ve tried it, since my husband is from Buffalo, but while Genny will do in a pinch, it’s not my favorite; I find it kinda bland and can-flavored. There are some micro-breweries that make a decent cream ale, and I brew up a batch myself from time to time (I favor honey cream ale).
Marguerite Hill
@A Ghost To Most: I’m in a Red Sea of Trumpanistas, but I still have a few more years to put up with their crap! The local GOP have quietened down recently, so things have become somewhat bearable. Tolerable, anyway!
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
Keaton is seriously the Einstein of cats. He’s really smart. That can be the problem sometimes.
Morzer
thehill.com/homenews/administration/344966-poll-trump-hits-new-low-at-33-percent-approval
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
The thing about over-hopping beer is that it lets you cover up a multitude of mistakes, so brewers who don’t know how to make good beer consistently love to make IPA. Some of the double IPAs are great- I love me some Pliny the Elder- but they’re generally the ones that balance the hops and focus at least as much on the fragrance of the hops as the bitterness.
schrodingers_cat
@lollipopguild: Is that what tastes like burnt charcoal?
The Moar You Know
@Roger Moore: It’s mostly #2, but that’s not an availability issue so much as a profitability one. The most expensive component in a Starbucks cup of regular coffee is the paper cup. Seriously.
schrodingers_cat
I also like Trader Joe’s Irish Tea.
NotMax
Betty Cracker
Gen. Ripper on line 1.
LAO
@Morzer: Yet, we are treated to a never ending supply of “Trump voters are sticking with their man” stories in the media.
mai naem mobile
@schrodingers_cat: PG tips is good as is Brooke Bond. Cost Plus has their tea on sale on Black Friday 2 for 1 which works out relatively cheap. They have PG and Tetley.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule:
The situation with Asian-Americans and affirmative action is pretty complex, by my understanding.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Bosscat does that too, he will try to cover up his barfs by putting something over it, like a newspaper.
Mnemosyne
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Fortunately, no. ? These are pet stories, not human stories.
Jeffro
Rest of the media: STILL no comment from Trumpov re: Russia kicking out hundreds of our personnel
Fox News dot com: HUGE screaming headline and 10 accompanying articles about MS-13
fearFearFEAR all the time with these guys, while a traitor runs the country. Unbelievable…
schrodingers_cat
@mai naem mobile: Brooke Bond Red Label, and Taj Mahal is what I stock up on if I go to an Indian grocery
store.
ETA: Never had PG tips, but I have seen it recommended over here before. It is very expensive at the grocery store I frequent. Like 3 times the price of Tetley.
The Moar You Know
@NotMax: Oh, let me agree. Even at the batshit crazy prices it goes for. I’ve only had one better: Kona coffee, while staying on the Big Island, from a local plantation. I’d take that trip again just for the coffee. And sadly, the good shit does not leave the island. The locals know what they have and enjoy it very, very much.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
Assam all the way. Fortunately, there’s a nice Indian market not too far from me where I can get quality tea (and spices) for cheaper than the crap they sell in the big chain supermarkets.
mai naem mobile
Circle K(local convenience store chain) had Kona coffee as one of their coffee flavors a couple of times,several years ago. Never had it again. I figure they must have lost an arm and leg over it because it’s so expensive. I love Kona coffee.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Many WNYers, including me, cut their drinking teeth on Genny Cream Ale. I doubt I would care for it now, even if I did still drink (much).
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
We think what happened is that Charlotte trapped him in the room by glaring at him, and he had an accident. He managed to barf up a hairball at the same time, which can sometimes trigger a whole chain on unpleasant events.
He’s still mad at her and keeps hissing at her if she gets too close.
Heywood J.
@Morzer: That’s good news. I still can’t help wondering just who these 33% are, how we can all be watching, reading, listening to the same person, and get such wildly different interpretations.
Clownstick has been a part of the ‘murkin media landscape since the 1980’s, and I seriously cannot think of a single instance in all that time where he didn’t come off as a jabbering dunce. And he’s only gotten worse as age, time, and that cheeto-colored chemical he marinates in have combined to addle his synapses.
Living in an area where most of the people I know are ardent Clownstickers, I have to be creative with my epithets, in order not to simply be ignored. The one I’ve found most effective, since we are all working-class dogs, is if he was your employee, you’d fire him; if he was your boss, you’d quit, and probably deck him and dent his car on your way out. Especially lately, as he shows no signs of learning or improving, that seems to register with them. Mostly it just revolves around the fact that they didn’t like her, and are not quite ready yet to admit they screwed up.
SiubhanDuinne
Wildly off-topic, to the extent that’s even possible on a Betty Cracker Open Thread, but I’ve been listening to “Fresh Air,” and it is such a pleasure to hear Terry Gross conversing with Al Gore (his new movie, An Inconvenient Sequel, opens in wide distribution this Friday).
Say what you will about his 2000 campaign — distancing himself from Bill, picking Holy Joe as his running mate, taking advice from the “earth tones” woman — he is a very intelligent and well-read man. I’m glad he’s devoted his post-political life to educating people on global climate change. He’s a wonderful advocate. Am looking forward to seeing the new film.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
I’ve been home-roasting coffee for about a year now. It’s easier than you’d think. The best part is that the green beans are way cheaper than the roasted stuff, so I can afford much better quality than I would otherwise. That and it’s guaranteed fresh.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
We do ship it out you know.
Just saying….
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: I like PG Tips a lot. It’s like $8 for a box of 40 at the Whole Foods by me.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
The Langham in Pasadena has their own blend that’s mostly Assam — I had it when we did afternoon tea and liked it so much that I bought a container.
And my tea-addicted work friend swears by Bird Pick in Old Town.
Marguerite Hill
@germy: LOL! And her eyes look like the glass beads in a doll’s eyes. She offends me because nepotism & hereditary dictatorships are anathema to democracy!
Betty Cracker
@lollipopguild: I like to try different kinds. Booker’s is a go-to favorite.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
it is, which makes it no less infuriating at times.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: My MIL roasts her own beans, I think she also roasts chicory. Where do you get your beans from. She makes some damn good coffee.
Mike in NC
The closest Starbucks around here is at least 20 miles away, yet we know some addicts who simply must get their fix.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I usually buy a pound of tea leaves (BB or Taj Mahal) for $6 at the Indian store. Whole Paycheck are too pricey.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Bad Charlotte!
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: You can get it for considerably less on Amazon.
@TenguPhule: I don’t know why you’d expect something being complicated to make it less infuriating…
Mike J
@Hoodie:
I assure you, this is not an American trait. Humans all over do it.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: There are some advantages to having the dominant hand be the fretting hand. It’s usually stronger, so your articulation and bending is both easier and cleaner.
You won’t be an ambidextrous player and frankly trying to do so will fuck up your playing. You’ll understand why in a few years.
In addition to playing I built high-end acoustics for about five years, and learned WHY there’s so few lefty guitars and why they cost more. We told our customers that left-handed guitars had to be ordered at least one year in advance and here’s what we had to do:
-pre-build all the small parts, like bridges, which have to be done backwards
-decide when we were going to build the lefties
-close regular production on Thursday
-work three days straight through the weekend to flip over every jig in the entire shop
-bash out every order within two weeks
-close lefty production on Thursday
-work three days through the weekend to put all the jigs back to where they were originally
-put them into the finish cycle and precut a bunch of left-handed bone nuts
-six weeks later, put ’em together, string them backwards, and ship them out
I had the wonderful privilege of getting to sit with Douglas Adams in our otherwise empty shop one weekend day (I always ended up working weekends) and talk him through the lefty process and about guitar building in general. I wanted so badly to ask him a BUNCH of stuff about his writing, but he was there to talk to me and the owner instead about guitars. One of the neater experiences of my life.
Gin & Tonic
@lollipopguild: I’ve got quite a few, but Weller’s 12 is essentially the same as van Winkle, and you can actually buy it. Highly recommended.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: A bit strong to drink straight, though.
rikyrah
Trump Administration To Tackle Affirmative Action And Keep White Women Out Of College
Damon Young, 8/2/17
I thought of her this morning when learning that Darth Cheeto plans to have the Justice Department look into and possibly end affirmative action in college admissions; the latest attempt to reverse a policy that many very stupid (White) people believe props Black people up by planting our Timberlands on hard-working White people’s necks. It, like literally everything else Donald Trump has done and said in the last 18 months, is an unambiguous dog whistle to his base, who seem to believe that niggers are running free in the city — eating chicken in late model Cadillacs and using free government cell phones to order crack and White women from Seamless — while good White folks foot the bill. To them, cutting affirmative action would mean that (plantation) daddy is home, and the darkies have a curfew. And they’re so happy to end these non-existent free rides for Blacks that they’re willing to throw White women under the bus too.
From “Affirmative Action Has Helped White Women More Than Anyone”
Origuy
@The Moar You Know: Apparently the new thing at *$S is “chai, no water”. Some people think it’s better with just the concentrate and milk. Starbucks says the water opens up the flavor (like whisky?) I think people who order it this way think that they’re sticking it to Starbucks by getting more milk instead of water.
I like IPAs, but the double and triple ones are just insane. I’ll take a good amber ale over one of those.
Hoodie
@Roger Moore: some of my colleagues work with small breweries and they say quality control is a big challenge. The irony is that the big brewers have that part down, they just choose to tune their stuff to lowest common denominator and max profit. I imagine the main reason the bugs are buying up craft brewers is branding, because they could probably make the same beers as the craft brewers, but with more consistent quality.
HeleninEire
So about Trump signing the sanctions bill. He attached 2 signing statements. Signing statements are for the President to say “yeah this part I’m not gonna follow cuz I don’t think it’s legal.” Trump had a signing statement telling us how effing great he is.
Oh Hai people smarter than me. WTF? Thanks.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Have a friend here who does that, using beans he grows himself on his small lot.
@Roger Moore
Loathe to admit it, but one of Mom’s most glaring imperfections is that to this day she re-uses Lipton tea bags over 2, 3 or even 4 days.
That child of the Depression thing is deeply ingrained.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Feature not a bug.
Two for one white boy special.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: You ship out the leftovers. I tried getting it by mail. Many times. NOT THE SAME.
jimmiraybob
I think that the important thing is whether the plant can Architect. Architecting is vital to success. Does anybody know if Dracaena fragrans know how to Architect?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been trying to work up the will to go exercise, now I wonder if I shouldn’t just go have a cheeseburger, and a few IPAs
Amir Khalid
When I drank coffee many years ago, it was for the sole purpose of getting caffeine into my system. The coffee was usually Nescafé from the vending machine outside the editorial floor of The Star. I took it black, no sugar, sometimes with a drowned ant for protein. (I didn’t care for Nestlé’s ghastly non-dairy creamer, which was the machine’s only “milk” option, and I have never liked sugar in hot drinks.)
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Try Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, if you can find it in Florida. To die for.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Of non-sky high brands, have become partial to Bulleit when it comes to sippin’.
Redolent but not overwhelming smokiness, nice balance, smooth aftertaste.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@germy:
Warren’s not running for POTUS. And what what has this asshole done but aid a traitor?
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Indeed. I like lots of ice and fizzy water with mine.
@NotMax: I am also a fan. A friend who lives out West introduced me to Stranahan’s, which is also decent stuff.
germy
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: He’s very skillfully creating a false narrative around Warren. The “ambitious woman” who is “unfaithful” to her suffering constituents.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: Ohh, good catch.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We’ll just use mercenaries and privateers! I’m sure Erik Prince is just dying to be Viceroy of Afghanistan. All he needs is Emperor Trump’s go-ahead!
sphex
@rikyrah: It just got really onion-y in here. Sigh. I am so happy for those memories, and miss feeling like that. MY President.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@germy:
But isn’t Warren extremely popular?
Heywood J.
@danielx: Old Rasputin is awesome. We were at North Coast Brewery a few weeks ago, and I always get some when I’m there.
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic: Oh. Good to hear that he signed the Russian sanctions bill. To be honest, I never thought he would do that.
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: Nescafe, for coffee is worse than Lipton for tea.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: She can do wrong in my neck of the woods. I have never heard of her challenger.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m about to go exercise myself and walk off the food I gulped down at the office picnic (too many deserts). So Republicans are cool with a crazy President having the power to start unnecessary wars at will? Good to know.
germy
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
He’s a republican. If he keeps saying she’s unpopular, over and over again, eventually his lie will be an accepted fact.
Or so he believes.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden: He was forced to. Congress had veto-proof majorities and I think was planning on staying in session so he couldn’t pocket veto.
RinaX
OMG Stephen Miller is going nuclear! What a dick wipe!
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Know that many folks turn up their noses at rye in general, however the Bulleit rye is also a quite, quite pleasant sippin’ likker.
schrodingers_cat
@RinaX: When T has nothing he falls back on immigrant bashing.
Felonius Monk
@germy:
Sammy and Frank? No wonder he went awol — he’s having an identity crisis.
NotMax
@germy
Guess he’s (currently) too circumspect to come right out and call her an “Indian giver.”
SenyorDave
@dedc79: White men are divided 47 – 48 percent
White males are truly stupid shits, and I say that as a white male. But I am Jewish, so I assume among a large segment of Trump voters I’m not really considered white. Also I don’t own a gun, so the male part is also probably in doubt among Trump voters.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@RinaX:
Yikes!
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Who did you try from? Which brand?
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
A kick in the gut.
How did we fall so far so fast???????
Walker
@rikyrah:
I read admissions at my (private) University. I can guarantee that if we had to cut AA, it would hurt white women the most. For race, we just do what we always do: students are evaluated in the context of their school and background. A student with 2 APs at a school that only offers that will get in over a student from a fancy school that took an easier class senior year. Modern segregation pretty much guarantees that helps (some) with racial diversity.
But white women at fancy schools would be toast.
zhena gogolia
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
The rootless cosmopolitans! We’re getting the band back together!
Слава Великому Сталину! УРА!
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This is technically true.
They don’t need one to start something. Just to keep it going after 30 days.
ETA: Yes, I realize its not comforting.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Dunkin Donuts has good coffee in my opinion. I always get a latte
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@zhena gogolia:
Since all of the original band members of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact are dead, Stephen Miller will be filling in for Adolf Hitler and Steve Bannon for Stalin.
NotMax
@Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe)
Long-winded convolution to shout “Fag!”
Mike in DC
@SenyorDave:
I’d expect the support level among white men to vary by education, income, age and region of the country. E.g., Non college educated whites earning 80k+, southern, over 50, probably strong trump support there. Millenial northeastern and west coast whites with college degrees, probably not strong support for Trump.
Spanky
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I don’t even know which dogwhistle that’s supposed to be.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mnemosyne: I’m used to doing that when ordering cappucino – I recognize that the default version is sugared & I specifically have to request none to be added. Now I know to do the same with latte. Fair enough.
I was “moar” reacting to the assertion that anyone who asks for one without sugar is a rectal orifice. (That’s not even necessarily true if the customer orders a sticky bun with it – IMO most of us stray from time to time & the idea is to keep the cheating under control.)
The Moar You Know
@zhena gogolia: An awful thing that I don’t like to admit to myself: America was a house of cards, built on top of a seismically unstable swamp. Comparatively, we had it good for a really long time. But it turns out all our institutions were not just weak but useless, because in a country that is strong, that is good, that has good citizens who care about and obey the rule of law, this could not have happened. And it has. And the worst is yet to come.
SenyorDave
@Mike in DC: I agree completely, but I am stunned that white males, which are one of the most highly educated demos, could break 50% for Trump at this point (but I am continually astonsihed that any thinking person could approve of Trump at this point).
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Spanky:
I think “rootless cosmopolitan” used to be code for Jews and other non-reactionary uber-nationalistic types
schrodingers_cat
@SenyorDave: What’s the geographical distribution of that 50% anyone know?
Spanky
@SenyorDave: Listen to your census bureau:
Edited for blockquote fail.
ETA2:
And down in the data I found that 33% of White Males had Bachelor’s degrees or higher.
NotMax
@The Moar You Knowhouse of cards
Very non-PC contraction that rhymes with that last word comes to mind but shall not commit it to print.
Suzanne
@Nicole:
I feel exactly the same way. I think the only thing that will really, REALLY hurt is complete and utter rejection by everybody but the deplorables. I want to see them uninvited to society events, the grandkids not admitted to any private schools, can’t get a table at anywhere but the KFC.
I will enjoy that.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Black women are the most educated group in the country. I don’t know where people got the idea that we don’t go to college.
Also, Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Although my fave is a good lapsang souchong, No milk, please, that’s simply repulsive. But in my homemade chai mix, milk & stevia are very good.
@NotMax: We’re glad you like it. Sadly, I can’t find an affordable decaf version.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Come sit by me.
Yutsano
@ Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) :
HE’S FROM FUCKING SANTA MONICA!!!
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: No, it means Jewish/Jew-lover/etc., as @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ? notes.
@Yutsano: Why, it’s almost as though ‘cosmopolitan’ doesn’t mean ‘of or pertaining to a big city’.
@Suzanne: Hey! I live across the seat from a Taco Bell/KFC, I don’t want them getting a damn table there!
Spanky
@Spanky: That’s from a Census Bureau pdf found here.
More data to delve into than I have so far.
germy
@NotMax:
I assume his supporters will do the “war whoop” thing that Brown’s fans did.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Have heard “the Jews” called or being accused of a multitude of things over the decades but cosmopolitan is not one of them.
Guess I run in the right circles.
TenguPhule
Well this doesn’t sound good.
Of course, we have no functioning State Dept, so there is that problem.
Not seeing this ending well.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
It has to do with that too. People who live in cities tend to be more accepting of other peoples/cultures. That was verboten to the Nazis.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
After KFC dropped wings and breasts from their fried chicken menu, its never been the same.
Popeyes just eats their lunch now.
ruckus
@seaboogie:
Best description I’ve heard.
Suzanne
@jimmiraybob:
Those of us who are actual architects (it is a legal term referring to someone who has a license) absolutely HAAAAAATE how the name of our profession has been co-opted by IT and others. And we NEVER refer to what we do as a verb (unless we’re joking about the tools that actually do this and mean it). We plan or design, draw and specify, and rarely engineer. WORDS MEAN THINGS FFS!!!
lollipopguild
@schrodingers_cat: If the Bourbon you have tried tastes that bad you need to get a better Bourbon.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: “Rootless cosmopolitan” is an old Soviet… it wasn’t really even a dog whistle, just an insult they hurled at Jews.
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major:
How about Del Taco? Or one of the many restaurants that ends in -berto’s? (Is this just a southwest thing?)
Both of those restaurants are reliable diarrhea producers. Seems appropriate.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: To be fair, nothing insults us Yids like a kapo. Especially one that looks like a shitheel.
TenguPhule
Remember Bowling Green! Actually, I wish we could forget these people.
So much fail in so few sentences.
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: Now I’m trying to imagine a crotchety old programmer who gets upset when ‘bug’ is used to refer to any problem other than a moth in a relay.
@Suzanne: As long as it’s not across the street from me!
Spanky
@TenguPhule: Just remember, when you punctuate “Popeyes” it becomes “Pope? Yes!”
Tell that to a wingnut.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Fuck. I can’t imagine full-born war with China going well. Maybe Homefront wasn’t completely full of shit:
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Leapin’ lizards, Rex, if only there were a governmental department with an institutionalized focus on diplomacy.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
It was the slogan of Stalin’s post-WWII anti-Semitic campaigns.
ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t drink coffee in any style or flavor. It makes me vomit. That’s what would happen again if I ever tried to drink it again. I can drink hot tea, but I have to have the flu, or be out to sea in the winter.
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major: It’s irritating! No one is a “systems architect”! That’s not a thing! They’re systems designers, not architects! I realize that that doesn’t sound as pretentious, but it does have the benefit of being true. A friend of mine was asked by an IT person what kind of architect he was, to which he replied, “An actual architect”. I approve.
Another bullshit title I once heard when a marketing dude handed me his business card: “Director of Influence”. I could not help but give him shit.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
It would go badly for them at sea. No chance of them invading while the US Navy rules the waves.
Doesn’t mean they can’t make our lives miserable.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Because nothing screams “cosmopolitan” like a shtetl.
Coming soon: Stradivarius on the Roof.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
I remember reading stories of assholes like the Oaf Keepers trying to intimidate protesters (people living in the towns around Malheur) with their guns. They don’t care about real freedom, they just want to be dicators, themselves, and oppress those they disagree with.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
I remember reading stories of assholes like the Oaf Keepers trying to intimidate protesters (people living in the towns around Malheur) with their guns. They don’t care about real freedom, they just want to be on top themselves, and oppress those they disagree with.
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid: Funny – I’m a lefty, play guitar (and fiddle) right-handed, yet whenever I play air guitar, I naturally and automatically assume a left-handed position! (and no…I will never play guitar left-handed. I tried, and it absolutely doens’t work for me).
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@rikyrah: I’m with you.
Also, too, SO embarrassed to be a white person today.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
The irony is that they keep planning for an event which would require them all to kill each other as competition for resources.
Central Planning
@Betty Cracker: Tequila! Casa Noble is currently my favorite. The single barrel bottle is too expensive for regular drinking. The triple-distilled anejo, or just their anejo is excellent. It’s a little pricey, but I rationalize it by saying it’s cheaper per serving than wine.
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: The worst conceivable title is ‘thought leader’ though, I’m sure we can agree.
Gelfling 545
@david spikes: I feel reasonably certain that his staff are making up these calls to pacify him. “Sure, Mexico called. They thing you’re wonderful. Boy Scouts called. Greatest speech ever.” I don’t judge. If I had to work for a fool like that, I’d lie like the parlor carpet to keep him from throwing tantrums all over the place.
TenguPhule
@Central Planning:
Any drink can be rationalized that way when compared against some wines.
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major: Grace Hopper would not be amused (or maybe she would).
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: The term “безродный космополит” was originated by Stalin. You may think it’s foolish or not fact-based, and you’re welcome to disagree with Stalin about usage, but the etymology is inarguable.
Central Planning
@A Ghost To Most: My uncle from England would buy cases of Utica Club when he came for a visit. Genesee Brewing is nearby, and they brew for others as well. I know some Honey Brown is made there, and I think Kirin might be as well.
Gin & Tonic
Live TV is wonderful.
glory b
@Mnemosyne:
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major:
Also not big on “futurist” or “cultural influencer”.
Miss Bianca
@Heywood J.: Ooh, I just saw some Old Rasputin on the shelf at my favorite liquor store in Canon City. Almost picked it up, but opted for the Anchor Steam variety pack instead, since my brew buddy had never tasted Liberty Ale.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I get a tasty loose lapsang souchong blend from Adagio Teas called Loch Ness Lapsang. They add a small amount of cocoa nibs and dried blueberries to round out the taste.
My coworkers call it “the campfire tea” because it makes them worried that something is burning nearby. ?
Central Planning
@TenguPhule:
True. We had moved our was up from ~$12 wines to the ~$22 bottles – mostly because that was the cheapest barolo/nebbiolo wines we could find
A Ghost To Most
@Central Planning: I never cared for the beer, but I loved the beer stein commercials they ran way back in the day.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost To Most: I bet she would.
Gin & Tonic
@Central Planning: The F.X. Matt brewery in downtown Utica made the now-defunct Utica Club. They now brew Saranac and a number of other beers on a contract basis. The Genessee Brewing Company in Rochester makes Genessee and some other brands (including Honey Brown and some revolting varieties of Labatt.) But those two are a couple of hours’ drive apart and are unrelated businesses.
Or so I’ve heard.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Live and learn.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Have you tried green tea with roasted brown rice?
Its smooth and nutty, with the sharpness cut back on the tea itself.
Central Planning
@Gin & Tonic:
True, and I bet true. Was just pointing out there was other *cough* ‘beer’ relatively close by.
Worst thing I ever did in high school when my mom was out of town was to have a party (that wasn’t the bad part). The bad part was raiding the fridge after we ran out of beer and drank her one can of Schlitz. Replacing it sucked. Do you know how hard it is to buy a single can of Schlitz when you are an underage drinker?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Same brewery cranked out Maximius Super, IIRC.
ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
I worked in the bottle making industry for a long time and pretty much any beverage in the supermarket costs less than the container.
A Ghost To Most
@NotMax: yep. Maximus Super was awful stuff.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
I order them from Sweet Maria’s in Oakland.
Bess
@Gin & Tonic:
Put $2.5 million in an index fund and very safely spend 4% per year. That’s $100,000 per year.
Be very slightly risky and spend 6% per year and you’ll have $150,000 per year. The amounts will ratchet up with stock market growth.
That’s not enough to live a big life in NYC but it could make for a sweet, sweet life in many very nice parts of nation. And would be a veritable fortune in some nice places around the globe.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Ooh, I forgot about that, mercifully.
Gin & Tonic
@Bess: She’s 29. What’s $100k/yr going to be worth in 40 years? In NYC?
Bess
@The Moar You Know:
I miss the chai that used to be sold in unbaked clay cups through Indian train windows. The mixture of flavors, chai and mud, was unique and memorable.
Large numbers of people used to be employed molding one-use cups along river banks and drying the cups in the sunshine. When you finished your chai you just threw your cup out the window, knowing that it would be fully recycled with the next rain.
Now it’s chai in little flimsy plastic cups that burn your fingers and litter the train tracks.
sphex
@NotMax: It’s true, but alas it appears that the family is homophobic and awful. (Redundant, I know.) Article here
Roger Moore
@Hoodie:
There’s some about branding, and probably also some about buying up potential competitors before they get too expensive. Overall, though, I think it’s not a terrible outcome. The big brewer gets a new brand and a chance to sell to the craft brew market, and the craft brewer gets capital and expertise to improve their operation. As long as they focus on keeping up quality and diversity of brews, drinkers should benefit. The worry is that the big brewers will gradually homogenize the craft brewers they buy up.
TenguPhule
@Bess:
Okay then.
Bess
@Gin & Tonic:
The market grows. Based on historical data you should be able to take out 4% (or 6%) and your income should rise, on average, with the rate of inflation.
The old rule of thumb was 6%. You could take your dividends and cash out enough of your capital to equal 6% of your capital and never run out of money.
Someone ran a ‘worst case’ study. They assumed you bought into the market at the very worst times (at the tops of bubbles) and sold out at the very worst (during the deepest downturns). If you were that poor a manager you would run out using the 6% guideline. But at 4% you never run out of money.
The hedge against have to sell at the bottom is to keep roughly two years worth of cash in a much less volatile fund. The market pretty much makes most of its recovery in a couple of years following a really bad collapse.
—-
Now, obviously, there is no guarantee that the investment world won’t change. We could also be hit by meteor.
schrodingers_cat
@lollipopguild: Jack Daniels.
TenguPhule
@Bess:
You are confusing the market with owned funds & stocks.
One can see the market rise and your investments tread water or tank.
A Ghost to Most
@schrodingers_cat: Jack isn’t considered bourbon, is it?
Roger Moore
@Spanky:
I had a coworker who pronounced it that way; you will not be surprised to hear that she wasn’t a native English speaker. Now we always joke that it’s the Catholic chicken place.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost to Most: I thought it was, but I am no expert.
Gin & Tonic
@Bess: Would *you* quit working for good with $2.25 mil at age 29 living in NYC?
I know what the numbers purportedly indicate, believe me. I still submit she’s an idiot. Sure, she could move to Dubuque and buy food in bulk at Costco and do all her own cooking and be comfortable. But she won’t, and she’ll be dead broke *long* before the first AARP flyer comes in the mail.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
Pundit. Any blogger who uses “pundit” in their name unironically should be ignored.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: That is an ugly dress. She is thin and tall, yes, but not particularly pretty.
Bess
@TenguPhule:
Non-managed index funds. Learn about them.
Highly, highly recommended – A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Your library probably as a copy or two. You can get a used early volume copy on Amazon for less than $7 (incl shipping). The basic philosophy/facts one needs to grasp are in the first edition so any edition is fine for the basics.
Bess
@Gin & Tonic:
I have no opinion about the wisdom of the woman in question. I am replying to one’s ability to live comfortably for the rest of their life on what some would consider far too little money.
One million dollars gives you a $40k (4%) to $60k (6%) inflation-growing income.
Ecuador? Thailand? A couple of places one could live very nicely on $40k a year.
You could probably have a very nice life in a small town similar to where John lives with that sort of income. Not your own private helicopter to fly you to your 500 foot yacht, but a life of good food and friends, a reasonable amount of travel, and nice flowers in your yard.
Roger Moore
@Bess:
And she has $2.25 million, so she should be getting $90-135K/year. That won’t put you in a penthouse in Manhattan, but you should be able to live comfortably in any major metro area in the US on that kind of money as long as you’re willing to live outside the most expensive areas within the metro.
TenguPhule
@Bess:
I know about them. But you’d be surprised how many people don’t invest in them.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
The trouble you have with tea isn’t only the not really boiling water, it’s also that the “tea” is in a bag. Darjeeling tea by the spoonful, warmed tea pot, boiling water, one cup per spoonful of tea. 5 minutes to steep, remove the tea/strain the tea whatever.
Drink. Enjoy. No bags!
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes!! Real tea!! Chinese wu-lang is good too.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
We ( I ) buy a lightly roasted Ethiopean coffee, and a good all Kona coffee, and mix it to keep it affordable. Blue Mountain is good, but I prefer Kona. Have seen Kona once, visiting cousin and friends in that area.
J R in WV
@lollipopguild:
There are several nearly equally good bourbons. Weller’s is probably my favorite. I’ve had a couple bottles of Pappy van Winkles’s (very high $$$) which were good, but it’s hard to come by, limited volume bottled, and hard to spend $100/bottle on something you plan to drink.
Buffalo Trace was really good, but demand far exceeded supply, and now it isn’t what it was. That said, when it shows up at the local shop, I buy some. In fact, I’m going to get a finger or two right now!
JanieM
@schrodingers_cat: @J R in WV: My preference is oolong as well, although after I first had it I had to learn the hard way that there are lots of kinds of oolong. My son lived in China for several long stretches and used to bring me tea from there, but that phase is over. My favorite supplier in the US went out of business when both proprietors died. I’ve got to find a new soource, but I’m in a frugal phase, so torn, and drinking oolong from teabags at the moment. (But organic!)
When I visited my son in China we got teased about the fact that westerners can’t pronounce “wu-lang” and that’s how we got “oolong.” Eh, I just like to drink it. :-)
No One You Know
I don’t follow approval ratings closely enough, I guess. For months I hear that Trumps approval rate is dropping, and when we get to the numbers, he’s at 36%. Maybe what matters is who’s reporting it.
Who cares about a few percentage points? Is there some magic threshold? I doubt it. The fact is that a minority of people were enough to overrule, and continue to overrule, the majority will, and their leader is breaking American institutions as casually as you or I change clothes. Approval ratings mean nothing.
Slouches away to make Kahlua and coffee with brandy, whipped cream from a can, finished with espresso sugar and a mint leaf.
I don’t want to know.
jimmiraybob
@Suzanne: I hope that you caught that I was paraphrasing Ivanka’s use of “to architect.”
hugely
@The Moar You Know: ooh thats a fun game, i get a medium americano. I make sure i use the english word medium rather than vente or grande or minimo or some other italian word. So im some kind of asshole i guess
hugely
@Dirge: agreed