Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

A norm that restrains only one side really isn’t a norm – it’s a trap.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

I really should read my own blog.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread: A Little Hope

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread: A Little Hope

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Click on the photo to watch the video. Just watching and listening to these kids lifts me. Doesn’t hurt to see the best President, either.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

170Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    The compare-and-contrast between 44 and 45 is a wee bit…jarring, not unlike plunging into an ice bath from the sauna. The ice bath is filled with raw sewage.

  2. 2.

    efgoldman

    Among the many great, great things about Obama is the way he relates to kids of all ages, how much he obviously enjoys being with them, and how much hope they give him for the future.

  7. 7.

    Thoughtful David

    So, this morning two Baptists came knocking on our front door. My wife answered, and when they told her they were Baptists and did she have a church, she asked them if they had voted for Trump. They said yes, and she replied “You call yourself Christians? You’re godless. Get off my property.” And closed the door.
    She’s been really down on the evangelicals since Trump. She’s right of course.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    @Thoughtful David:
    FTW! We never get Baptists, 90% JWs and the rest are tie-wearing Mormons. I can’t envision the little old black ladies being Trump voters, unless the church told them to of course.

    It does seem as though the weirder the religion the more likely they are to show up at your front door. Where my Lutherans at?

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    Heh. :-) They probably formed a committee to discuss whether, and if, then how to spread the word back in 1964. Their fourth draft final position paper is due in 2021. It may or may not take a position on installing a reader board for possible invitation messages, in front.

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I really hope this is an accurate quote

    A Trump adviser says that after a tumultuous seven months in office, it had finally dawned on the president: “People really f#&%ing hate me.” For someone who has spent his life lapping up adulation, however fake, it was a harsh realization. This is a man with an especially acute need for affirmation.

  25. 25.

    Davis X. Machina

    Did Obama call on them to seize the commanding heights of the economy in the name of the workers? Huh? Huh?

    Don’t be deceived — that’s the next generation of drone pilots and see-no-evil banking regulators and health insurance executives right there.

  27. 27.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Thoughtful David: I tell people all the time that you can’t be a Christian if you are a Republican. Of course they have always heard just the opposite. Some throw out a few highly selective bible verses but between my years attending Episcopal schools and practicing law, I can shut them down very quickly with more and better verses and arguments.

    Fuckers.

  28. 28.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    @trollhattan: One thing I noticed on my recent trip home (full disclosure – I was raised in the Southern Baptist church, AF-AM division). Pastors in the area seem to have taken one of two paths – 1)”We need not be concerned with the world of man.” 2)”Jesus can change his (45’s) mind.” I find the logic in both of these pronouncements to be…flawed.

  31. 31.

    sharculese

    I taught an afterschool SAT class at McKinley Tech once. Great kids. One girl could only ever attend every other session because her family needed her to work so they could pay their bills, but she was so eager and attentive every time she was there.

    About six months later I got an e-mail saying she had set up a GoFundMe because she couldn’t afford to pay for college on her own. You better believe I told everyone I knew who had money to contribute to her education.

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    @Quinerly:
    The Presidency of the United States loses stature almost every day because of this petty, spiteful little coward. He seems to have no idea how to behave like a grownup. I suppose his voters wanted a playground bully, which he showed himself to be, but in their eagerness to have a bully for their proxy forgot that bullies are in fact not strong people.

  36. 36.

    bemused

    @Thoughtful David:

    Your wife is my hero! I almost wish the JW’s would come to my door so I could do the same. Alas, they have only been here once since many years ago when I told them it was pointless to come to our house, I’d never join their club. They did come back a few years ago to check if I was still on the no-visit list. They actually do keep track. Saves on gas, I guess.

    I’ll watch Obama and the kids eventually. Right now I can’t, afraid I’ll burst into tears hearing and seeing him again. Sigh.

    One of the msnbc shows discussed Trump being chummy with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and played a clip of Trump calling Chuck Schumer getting choked up and teary over travel ban “fake tears”. That was the first time I noticed Sarah Huckabee Sanders sitting behind Trump grinning like crazy when Trump said that. She thought that that was so hilarious. I wanted to slap her. These people are all scum.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Steve in the ATL:

    The fifth angel sounded his Trump, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

    Revelations 9:1-6

  38. 38.

    germy

    @MomSense: Our local Unitarians have gotten organized. Marching for progressive issues. Wearing bright yellow Standing On The Side Of Love shirts. Last year we went on the yearly crop walk with them (raised money for hunger relief).

  45. 45.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bemused: Yup, Waiting For Pivot. Hillary Clinton will be on The Rachel Maddow Show next week (also the ObamaBros podcast). I’m sure the Beast will watch it out of a combination of spite and insecurity and then hate-tweet about it the next morning. Then we start waiting for the Pivot 36.0

  47. 47.

    bemused

    @MomSense:

    Ha, I like that. My parents belonged to a Unitarian church so I and my siblings attended it. Thank goodness, no rituals or rules to speak of. I don’t attend any church, not since I was a teen. No way could I abide any “organized” church after that.

  53. 53.

    efgoldman

    @MoxieM:

    Unitarians just ring your doorbell and ask you to join a committee anyway.

    Is that before or after they burn a question mark on your lawn?

    (I broadcast a UU church service for 16 years. That’s a favorite UU minister joke)

  54. 54.

    Chyron HR

    @Davis X. Machina:

    I remember when a 2016 Dem primary candidate explicitly ran against “the failed Obama administration” and when that mysteriously failed to win him acclaim, whined that his opponent was “pandering” to Democrats (In the Democratic primary) by refusing to join him in his folly.

  55. 55.

    bemused

    @efgoldman:

    LOL, never heard that one but love it. I haven’t read Unitarian jokes in years but I remember laughing out loud. Unitarians tell the best jokes on themselves.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @cleek: Neat selection. We must be of similar ages. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who has to get out and start on the yard chores, or would play.)

  57. 57.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Trollhattan referenced old people drinking Rob Roys in the thread below. That got me to thinking of cocktails that old people drank that have fallen into disfavor for generally not being all that good. I admit to drinking “old” – I frequently make both vodka and gin Martinis, I keep cocktail onions for the modified Gibson variation, and I positively adore a rye Manhattan or a bourbon Old Fashioned. If I drink it, by definition, it isn’t passé.

    Drinks that I think definitely have come and gone include the following:

    Stinger, Harvey Wallbanger, Long Island Tea, Pink Lady, Whiskey Sour, Amaretto Sour, Grasshopper, Tequila Sunrise, Brandy Alexander, Rock and Rye

    Anybody got others?

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    @cleek:
    Fun. Nailed the hell out of column 1 but showed my age on the second, one problem is perceiving Journey-Loverboy-Van Halan-Starship et al as an undifferentiated blob of arena rock. A couple sparked no memory whatsoever.

  62. 62.

    Shana

    @trollhattan: Yeah, we’re down the street from a Mormon church. Have a mezzuzah on our front door frame. We used to get them coming by every year until one year I really lit into them, swearing a blue streak and told them if any more came to our door I’d call the police for harassment. Haven’t seen any since then, word must have got out….

  67. 67.

    bystander

    @Baud:

    5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them

    Uncanny resemblance to the Trump era.

  69. 69.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @bemused: What’s the difference between a Unitarian and a Universalist?

    Universalists think God is too good to damn them; Unitarians think they’re too good to be damned.

    (Of course, that’s true both in the original theologies and in the original class distinctions.)

  70. 70.

    Mike in NC

    Good thing I checked my email today. Our flight leaves Boston two hours ahead of schedule on Sunday.

  73. 73.

    bemused

    @Gelfling 545:

    Good one. Now I have a craving to look for more Unitarian jokes. That’s another reason I didn’t mind attending a Unitarian church for awhile. At least they have a sense of humor about the church they attend.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    Deserves some thought. My parents’ go-to was the Manhattan, although with Canadian blended whiskey and not rye (I would sometimes steal the booze-soaked cherry) and in summer lime daiquiris premixed then frozen before serving.

    Currently being revived in our metroplex by hipsters and 30-somethings are tiki bars featuring the Trader Vic stalwarts like zombies, mai tais and the like. I do not know why, other than the tendency for these things to cycle.

  75. 75.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @lgerard:

    They still keep the Negroni on cocktail menus in Europe and Australia. It just been abandoned in North America.

  77. 77.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    been twenty years since I’ve seen my aunt and uncle explain to a bartender what a Presbyterian is

    Oh, god – the Pres. When I tended bar 30 years ago, I never sold one to anybody under the age of 80.

  78. 78.

    efgoldman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’ve never heard of flights being moved up

    Waayyy back in the day, the hourly Boston-NYC-DC shuttle flights would close the doors and leave as soon as the aircraft was full, the theory being that they were going to bring another plane to the gate anyway.
    Of course, in those days there was no security theater. You could walk into the airport and straight to the gate literally within a minute or two of takeoff.
    I have seen wonders, Grasshopper….

  79. 79.

    bemused

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Coffee social, ha. That reminds me of Garrison Keillor from land of coffee socials doing a bit on PHC called “Mystery” when Unitarians were getting raptured while GW Bush, etc weren’t. Keillor did poke fun at Unitarians which I appreciated.

    And I had totally forgot about the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator thing from years ago.

  81. 81.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @trollhattan:

    Currently being revived in our metroplex by hipsters and 30-somethings are tiki bars featuring the Trader Vic stalwarts like zombies, mai tais and the like. I do not know why, other than the tendency for these things to cycle.

    Like chugging sugar.

    I’m with your folks – can’t go wrong with the simplicity and flavor of the Manhattan.

  82. 82.

    japa21

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My favorite is a Rob Roy, But then I am old. Drink it straight with a twist, which is a little out of the ordinary. Way back in the dark ages, when I started drinking, everybody knew exactly what I was talking about when I ordered it. Now, probably around a fourth of the time, the have to ask me how to make it.

    Golden Cadillac is another passe drink. In fact, just about anything with galliano.

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @efgoldman:

    I miss the Hari Krishnas in airports, those cheesy “flight insurance” kiosks, the shitty terminal bar service and food vending…

  84. 84.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @japa21:

    Forgot the Golden Cadillac – I don’t think I ever sold one, but my bar book had it.

  86. 86.

    efgoldman

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I miss the Hari Krishnas in airports, those cheesy “flight insurance” kiosks, the shitty terminal bar service and food vending…

    Open observation decks; various airlines competing over food, including which one made the best cooked-to-order steaks on board; real meals aboard, often multiple choices.

    ETA: Related, I also remember and miss real dining cars on trains, complete with heavy porcelain dinner ware and heavy flatware.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @japa21: my aunt and uncle (not the presbyterian drinkers) were big entertainers with a very boozy circle of friends– compared to my parents and their friends who were no slouches back in the 70s and 80s. Their fully stocked bar always included Galliano– that tall bottle fascinated me as a kid– and clamato, for one of their friends who liked (I think?) his bloody marys made with them. Somebody must’ve died or moved because when my cousins and I were sampling in high school we couldn’t get the Galiano open. The cork in the Grand Marnier also put up a fight but we got it out. I was never tempted by the clamato.

  91. 91.

    Geeno

    Adding to this and any open thread I find for the next few days.
    COI FISH FREE TO GOOD HOME IN THE ROCHESTER,NY AREA!!!

    Our coi pond sprung a leak during the last winter, we’ve been maintaining them in a tub in the basement. It is clear now (a variety of unanticipated debts) that we will not able to recreate the pond this year. Between the fish growing and our resources shrinking, we have to give them away now, or “dispense” with them. We don’t want to kill these fish we’ve been caring for, but we’ve contacted the local coi fish clubs and pet stores. No one wants coi fish, and it’s starting to look like there’s no other option.

  94. 94.

    Geeno

    Adding to this and any open thread I find for the next few days.
    COI FISH FREE TO GOOD HOME IN THE ROCHESTER,NY AREA!!!

    Our coi pond sprung a leak during the last winter, we’ve been maintaining them in a tub in the basement. It is clear now (a variety of unanticipated debts) that we will not able to recreate the pond this year. Between the fish growing and our resources shrinking, we have to give them away now, or “dispense” with them. We don’t want to kill these fish we’ve been caring for, but we’ve contacted the local coi fish clubs and pet stores. No one wants coi fish, and it’s starting to look like there’s no other option.

  100. 100.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Chyron HR: Which candidate was that? Jim Webb?

    I’ve been slowly trying to digest Ta-Nehisi Coates recent essay on Trump. Especially this part:

    According to Edison Research, Trump won whites making less than $50,000 by 20 points, whites making $50,000 to $99,999 by 28 points, and whites making $100,000 or more by 14 points. This shows that Trump assembled a broad white coalition that ran the gamut from Joe the Dishwasher to Joe the Plumber to Joe the Banker. So when white pundits cast the elevation of Trump as the handiwork of an inscrutable white working class, they are being too modest, declining to claim credit for their own economic class. Trump’s dominance among whites across class lines is of a piece with his larger dominance across nearly every white demographic. Trump won white women (+9) and white men (+31). He won white people with college degrees (+3) and white people without them (+37). He won whites ages 18–29 (+4), 30–44 (+17), 45–64 (+28), and 65 and older (+19). Trump won whites in midwestern Illinois (+11), whites in mid-Atlantic New Jersey (+12), and whites in the Sun Belt’s New Mexico (+5). In no state that Edison polled did Trump’s white support dip below 40 percent. Hillary Clinton’s did, in states as disparate as Florida, Utah, Indiana, and Kentucky. From the beer track to the wine track, from soccer moms to nascar dads, Trump’s performance among whites was dominant. According to Mother Jones, based on preelection polling data, if you tallied the popular vote of only white America to derive 2016 electoral votes, Trump would have defeated Clinton 389 to 81, with the remaining 68 votes either a toss-up or unknown.

    I know that Obama successfully cobbled together a coalition and I also know that the Democratic Party began losing white voters once the Civil Rights Act passed. Now that Trump has normalized explicit race baiting and white supremacy in politics, does this mean Democrats always have to get a rock star candidate to eke out an electoral college win? I believe that Democrats will continue to win the popular vote, but how do we avoid the next candidate winning the popular vote by 5 million votes but still losing the election?

  101. 101.

    MoxieM

    @efgoldman: Yah! Alternate version: they ring your doorbell and ask you why they’re there.

    This one is another oldie but goodie: A little Unitarian Universalist girl was sitting on the curb in front of her house with a sad look on her face. An older lady happened upon her and asked her why she looked so sad. The girl replied, “My kitty cat died.”

    The older woman, trying to be helpful, said to the little girl, “I know you’re sad, but right now your kitty cat is with Jesus.”

    The girl crinkled her nose for a second and replied, “What would Jesus want with a dead cat?”

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    I’ve had one (or two) back in the day and don’t particularly recall, other than they seemed to go with BBQ ribs in some perverse fashion.

    Would be curious as to how many Uber calls are to Poor Red’s for folks who had too many. El Dorado is about the size of the period ending this sentence.

  105. 105.

    germy

    Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil’s Dictionary, defined a Unitarian as “one who denies the divinity of a Trinitarian” and a Universalist as “one who foregoes the advantages of Hell for persons of another faith.”

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    I’d bet they are but don’t go out to bars so have no field data. “Cuba Libre” sounds more sophisticated. ;-)

    Japanese whiskey is the current “thing” at high-end restaurant bars here, which compete as to who can stock the most and the rarest.

  107. 107.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Rum and Coke only if you’re using a cane sugar cola and dark rum.

    Bacardi is shit.

  108. 108.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Felanius Kootea: I’m not sure that Trump’s coalition can be replicated. I’m convinced(though I don’t have any hard data to back it up) that Trump pulled in a good number of previously non-voters. Also some voters that were enthusiastic about Obama in 2008 and 2012 were not excited or downright hostile to Hillary(there are a number of reasons for this) and either didn’t vote or voted 3rd party. I’ve not seen much data indicating a huge shift of Obama voters to Trump.

  110. 110.

    gbbalto

    @germy: I would not wish that on any parent, whatever their character. How awful a burden!
    ETA – Not implying that you were. Always just sad.

  114. 114.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @lgerard: Did you ever see the pilot for the old Mary Tyler Moore show? She’s interviewing for a job with Lou Grant, and he pulls a bottle out of his desk drawer and asks if she wants a drink. She says oh no no, she couldn’t. And Lou says oh come on, have a drink. So she says, all right, I’ll have a Brandy Alexander.

  118. 118.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    That show was a jewel. Casting, writing, character development, acting…absolute perfection. (Imagine not being upstaged by Betty White every week.)

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Iowa Old Lady: I’ve been thinking of that scene!

    I hate spunk!

    @lamh36: Joy Reid‏Verified account @ JoyAnnReid 40m40 minutes ago
    I am 100 percent OVER the self-pity, conspiracy theorizing, moaning and foot stomping demands of Sanders bitter enders. Like, DONE.

    You and me both, Joy.
    Did you hear Joy Reid on the O’Bros podcast (I’m doing their PR for free today). You could hear the barely restrained impatience with all that nonsense in her voice. And she was just generally great.

  120. 120.

    lgerard

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    i used to carry a little flask of premixed brandy and creme de cocoa, so with a brief stop at the coffee station I could have accommodated her.

    I can’t watch that program because Ted Baxter reminds me of trump

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Someone please to make this go to viral please

    Chris Hayes‏Verified account @ chrislhayes
    Old man with a massive snake around his neck just biked past our live shot and said “It’s not even coming! You’re wasting my money!” ?

    @lgerard: Ted Knight was a winger, also, too. He and Ed Asner stopped speaking over Reagan. (and I didn’t you need ice cream?)

  124. 124.

    efgoldman

    @lgerard:

    Ted Baxter reminds me of trump

    Both clueless, to be sure, but Ted never gave the impression of being hateful and malign.

  125. 125.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @trollhattan:

    Japanese whiskey is the current “thing” at high-end restaurant bars here, which compete as to who can stock the most and the rarest.

    I’ve never tried it, but imagine it to be good. I know Four Roses has an export Bourbon purely for Japanese preferences, and that Suntory has been aggressive in buying up Kentucky distilleries (they have bought up Makers Mark and Beam brands, if I remember right).

  127. 127.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @lgerard: Watching it shows how things have changed for the worse in some ways though. Remember how Lou got really really mad at Ted for praying on the air? If a show had that now, people would be outraged at the opposition to prayer.

  128. 128.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @efgoldman:

    Both clueless, to be sure, but Ted never gave the impression of being hateful and malign.

    Knight had been a genuine badassed hero in WWII. He always has my respect for that.

  130. 130.

    Barbara

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: I have a rental vehicle this week because my car is in the shop. It has sirius radio that was tuned to the E Street channel — all Springsteen. They have guest DJs and what not, and as I drove home they were taking listener requests. A lady from New Jersey said that she wanted to hear Springsteen sing This Land Is Your Land from the 2009 pre-Inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial, how she had worked really hard for Obama and she and her kids watched the concert on streaming but it still gives her goose bumps to think about it. I actually started tearing up as I drove home.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I enjoy it, a lot of it, if I’m honest, is confirming my own opinions, but they have some good guests. They interviewed their ex-boss a while back, and there’s some good insider stuff about working in the White House and on campaigns. Some conservative referred to them as “Obama’s giggly frat boys”, and there’s some truth to that.

    When they launched they said they were going to be using it as a vehicle for organizing and activism, but beyond telling their listeners to organize and be active, I’m still waiting for that part. I don’t know exactly what they could do beyond that, but I hope they think of something (I’m a typical American voter: Me: You! Do something! Them: What? Me: I don’t know! You figure that out!“I

    ETA: the other side of that coin is the trump campaign: “I’ll fix it” “How?” “It’ll be easy, believe me”

  134. 134.

    Baud

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Thanks.

    confirming my own opinions,

    I know we’re not supposed to be epistemocally closed, but I feel like mainstream liberal Dems are so constantly inundated with negativity that it’s ok to seek out like minded people.

  137. 137.

    trollhattan

    @Starfish:
    Nearly wrecked the car when I saw a Spanish language billboard for this. It lowered my hopes for humanity, ironically preparing me for Trump’s election later that year.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: So true, I am so fucking tired of all this negativity. TNC’s analysis of the 2016 is all about race and leaves out geography completely. My county is more than 90% white and HRC won here bigly. Her margins were huge, greater than the overall MA margin. But of course since we don’t conform to anybody’s CW we are chopped liver. You can massage statistics to get whatever result you want. I am so over this woe is me punditizing of everything.

  139. 139.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Starfish:

    Caesars are actually pretty tasty. I never would have believed it had I not been sold on it by a bartender at the old train station hotel (can’t remember the chain name) in Winnipeg the night before my flight to Churchill.

  141. 141.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @trollhattan:

    I’ve had cheladas before in Mexico – it’s a mighty fine hangover cure. No clamato there, though. No Bud(spit), either. Just Modelo and decent Mexican tomato juice with some picante and salt.

  146. 146.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: I agree with you, with a few caveats. If you tracked Obama’s favorability by race, you saw a huge discrepancy by region. The difference between the South and north, midwest and west was huge — 25 to 30 points lower in the South. However even small single digit shifts in voting patterns mostly by white people were largely responsible for the election results in the rust belt states that voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016. Just take Pennsylvania: in 2012, 55% of white people voted for Romney and Obama won the state by two points or so. A shift of 2% up or down would have big consequences. TNC is not wrong to focus on race; but TNC is wrong — as are most other people — to remain silent on the effect of gender. In Pennsylvania, there were five statewide races: Senator, President, PA AG, and two supreme court seats. All Republican candidates were male, as were the Democratic candidates for AG and the judgeships. Only Clinton and Katie McGinty lost as Democrats. Every male Democrat won. It is very hard for me to see that outcome as the result of racial politics.

  149. 149.

    Felanius Kootea

    @schrodingers_cat: No, Ta-Nehisi’s analysis basically blows the economic anxiety, white working class abandoned by the Democrats bullshit that the pundits have been spouting ever since Trump won out of the water. That’s not negativity, that’s raw, hard truth, especially in Red States. So the next question is, well if what the pundits are saying is not true, what do you do to win? How do you avoid going down the wrong path? The first path (accepting the untruths that the pundits are peddling about why Trump won) leads to nonsense like the Washington Post saying today that Bernie Sanders is the leading presidential candidate for the Democratic party and to some of Tom Perez’s otherwise (to me) inexplicable actions. The second path, looking at the hard data and accepting the truth, means that Democrats accept that they win by broadening their coalition (not playing the Bernie game of pretending minorities don’t exist in a bid to appeal to the white working class because addressing economic anxiety will solve all problems). Democrats can’t play the race-baiting game. So how do they re-win the Red States that Barack did? A rock star candidate could help, addressing gerrymandering will help, addressing voter suppression will help, but there has to be acknowledgment that the dominant narrative about why Trump won is false.

  150. 150.

    fuckwit

    This post, and the last one about Obama, make me very sad, not hopeful.

    Obama is our Gorbachev.

    He’s the Reformer trying to save a collapsing system, and failing, because you can’t save a collapsing system.

    He really believes in Democracy, and with the same naive and passionate dedication that Gorbachev believed in Communism.

    He thinks it just needs to be reformed, and everything will be fine.

    It’s too late. Troll is our Yeltsin, and the oligarchy is now fully in command. The USA as we knew it is gone. We are off the map. We do not know who our Putin will be– and it may well be Putin.

    And yet Obama carries on with his unshakable faith. Gorbachev is still around too, and even has his own political party in Russia, still trying to reform.

    I think Obama and Gorbachev should sit down for lunch together one day. They would have a lot to talk about.

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    I had to do a triple-take on this one, about President Jeb “Low Energy” Bush, or rather, what we used to consider political scandal pre-Trumpov

    Twenty-seven months into the Donald Trump political phenomenon, it is easy to forget what used to qualify as big news — something like, say, a sex scandal involving an eight-term congressman and a woman half his age.

    You didn’t hear about this? Huh. Maybe it’s because after the media covers President Trump’s DACA decision and President Trump’s deal with the Democrats and President Trump’s handling of major hurricanes and President Trump’s son telling senators about meeting with a Russian lawyer, there isn’t much time to cover an admission by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) that he carried on an extramarital affair last year.

    To illustrate the extent to which Trump dominates every news cycle, we at The Fix took a cue from a format many have applied to foreign news and imagined what a report on Murphy’s affair might look like in a parallel universe where the Trump phenomenon never happened.

    Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) on Wednesday admitted to carrying on an extramarital affair with a woman half his age, dealing a self-inflicted blow to his reelection prospects in 2018 and rattling congressional Republicans, who acknowledged privately that the “low-energy” start to President Jeb Bush’s first term already has put their House majority in jeopardy.

  153. 153.

    ThresherK

    @LesGS: “Agree with the words”?

    My closest Berniebroze are UUs. They are forever comparing every pol to Saint Bernard and every other pol fails them.

    Kamala Harris may gain their favor if she “walks the walk”, which means to them getting a veto-proof single payer bill thru the Senate. Not after the 2018 elections, but now.

  154. 154.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Felanius Kootea:

    No, Ta-Nehisi’s analysis basically blows the economic anxiety, white working class abandoned by the Democrats bullshit that the pundits have been spouting ever since Trump won out of the water.

    That analysis was bullshit, we knew that, many BJers including myself did, we didn’t need the great TNC to come and explain it to us. It was fairly obvious. Elections are not a linear regression, just like President Obama’s election did not herald a post-racial America, T’s election does not necessarily mean that Democrats will never win again, unless they make racist overtures to attract the white vote.

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    @Jeffro:
    What you are, sir, is an absolute glutton for punishment! But here’s a complementary 40-pack anyway. Hurricane hydration pack.

  156. 156.

    Felanius Kootea

    @schrodingers_cat: That it was obvious to you on an obscure but beloved blog called Balloon Juice does not mean it was immediately apparent to the broader audience that TNC reaches through the Atlantic. I love Balloon Juice but I know that its readers are light years ahead of the general population in thinking about these things. He just got more people to think about it and I’m seeing on my FB feed and elsewhere some evidence of what Robin Diangelo termed “white fragility” in response to his thesis. It’s been fascinating.

  159. 159.

    LesGS

    @ThresherK: Like, does the line contain the words, “Jesus,” or “God,” or “Lord” or, “humbly beseech.” We don’t mind a few “Hallelujahs” thrown in here or there. :-)

    Yah, our church parking lot (which could be mistaken for a used Prius sale on Sundays) has a real mix of political bumper stickers, mostly HRC, with plenty of BS, even a Stein or two. Mine says, “Engineered by FIREFLY, Coach Works, Ltd, Osiris. No. 03-K64-FF”

  162. 162.

    PIGL

    @germy: when I hear “Brandy Alexander” I think of that outrageous fop in Brideshead Revisited. I would’ve thought that trinket headed today in the 30s. I’m surprised to even the most depraved frat house douche bro would let one touch his lips.

  163. 163.

    James Powell

    @cleek: @trollhattan:

    Same for me with 1 – 10, stumped by a few 11 – 20. I don’t think it’s age as much as it’s what I was listening to at the time. All of the stuff I couldn’t identify sounded familiar, like a tune in a TV ad, but I’m sure I don’t know them.

  165. 165.

    MoxieM

    @schrodingers_cat: Hampshire Co, ne c’est pas? I’ve decided it’s like a Snowglobe: self contained, self-reflective (mirrored), and full of (snow)flakes. Of course it’s also lovely, peaceful, and a wonderful place to live–but I don’t think it’s representative of much. In MA, Cambridge (City of) has wider diversity–although less and less socioeconomic.

  166. 166.

    trollhattan

    @Jeffro:
    Costco is your frenemy. :-) More than once I’ve seen grizzled dudes rolling their carts to checkout packed with Bud Light suitcases and 2L bottles of Kirkland vodka. One also had a tent. Some kind of bizarre death cult, I guess.

  167. 167.

    Monala

    @Barbara: I wrote this in response to the original post about TNC’s article: why Trump won, and why Clinton lost, are overlapping but not identical issues. When looking at why Trump won, you have to deal with the issue of race. When looking at why Clinton lost, you have to deal with the issue of gender. TNC’s article was about the former.

  168. 168.

    NotMax

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Pish and tosh. Whiskey sours have never gone out of fashion.

    Lurve me a well made scotch sour. Ordering that when out and about is my personal acid test for rating a bartender’s skills.

    @Iowa Old Lady

    Reminded by that of a scene with Martin Short (memory hazy as to whether it was on TV or in a movie). When asked if he’d like a drink while visiting someone’s house (or maybe it was an office), he requests a pousse cafe.

    As for drinks which have passed from common imbibing, any sort of rickey.

  169. 169.

    feebog

    Three of these will put you on your ass for sure. The Bushwacker. Rum or Vodka (I prefer rum), Kahlua, Crème de Cacao, Coco Lopez, Triple Sec, milk, blend with ice, top with whipped cream, sprinkle a little nutmeg. Goes down smooth, hits you like a two by four.

  170. 170.

    Chet Murthy

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That analysis was bullshit, we knew that, many BJers including myself did, we didn’t need the great TNC to come and explain it to us.

    With respect, he wasn’t writing it to convince you. Or me. Or probably anybody who reads here regularly. He was writing to counteract the to-this-day narrative in the MSM, that the poor put-upon WWC’s economic anxiety was why he won. And that was important. Do you read him? I’ve read a lot of his columns in _The Atlantic_ and all I can say is, he’s one of the best living writers in America (sadly, now in France) and a national treasure. And he “woke” me. I never understood the black experience in America, until I started reading him. Not saying I do now, but lordy, how closed my eyes were.

    Now, all that said, @Barbara: is right that TNC didn’t address misogyny, and that was a massive gap in his argument. The only thing I can think of to defend that is …. well, he didn’t feel able to make that argument. But someday, I hope he will. Then again, there are a lot of women who do it pretty well, so maybe it’s not so necessary for him to do it too. Idunno. All i can say is, he’s a national treasure, and one of the best writers I’ve read in this century. And his essay was -necessary-.

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