Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Everybody saw this coming.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

White supremacy is terrorism.

No one could have predicted…

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / I Love This Story

I Love This Story

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I Love This Story

The was last seen blurting “I love you” to Joe Biden as she escorted him in an elevator to an editorial board meeting at the New York Times last December, part of an exchange that went viral as the Biden campaign cast her adulation as a bigger deal than the news organization’s endorsement, which he lost.

On Tuesday night, Jacquelyn Brittany, a 31-year-old African American security guard, will do something else for Biden — be the first person to put his name into nomination for president. Her role has not previously been disclosed.

Jacquelyn — she declined to publicize her last name; Brittany is her middle name — epitomized for the Biden campaign the dynamics of the primaries: Spurned by others, Biden’s hopes rested on Black women and working class voters, who would eventually resurrect his campaign.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Jacquelyn said she has followed Biden since he became Barack Obama’s running mate. “I just like Joe. I’ve always liked him,” she said.

She said she finds inspiration in his life story and the tragedies he has endured — the deaths of his first wife and daughter in a December 1972 car accident and of his son to brain cancer in May 2015.

“He’s been through so much. And he doesn’t show it on the outside. He may feel it on the inside — and I’m that type of person,” she said, adding that her outward cheer masks a difficult life, including stints in foster care as a child.

That’s nice.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    MazeDancer

    Teared up just reading about it.

    29 Million people watched DNC last night. That’s Oscar level numbers.

    Actually looking forward to the 3 nights. Wonderfully done production. Wonder how they’ll top The Rising vid tonight.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    Which part do you love, that Joe is a wonderful human being, or that the Washington Post scooped the NYTimes on the story.   What a sweet story and I’m sure she will do fine.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    Love it.

    I have had two interactions in the last week that I have found interesting. Both of them have showed me that I underestimated how much a lot of working class people dislike “professional-managerial class” people. Note that I’m not saying “rich people”.

    I have to admit that I don’t really see a lot of sense in this resentment.

  11. 11.

    chopper

    see, this is a great move. i dunno who’s all in charge of biden’s campaign but it reminds me a lot of obama’s in 08, they’re really doing most everything right.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    @gwangung: Yeah, both? One of the interactions: we had a client send out a snarky, passive-aggressive email. Client is a doctor in a not-posh community hospital. My office admin, who lives in same not-posh community, reaches out to me and says, “OMG did you see her email?! GOD I HATE RICH PEOPLE!”. I had not seen a class or money dynamic at play, but my admin was, like, super-upset, feeling like this rich doctor (who probably isn’t really rich) was treating her badly.

  14. 14.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Suzanne:

    Having been working class my entire life, I can tell you it has to do with how we are treated by so many of the “professional/managerial class” folks we deal with on a daily basis

    Eta: Thats why we notice people like Joe Biden, who appears to treat all people the same.

  15. 15.

    J R in WV

    This is a wonderful piece, thanks for sharing it with us, Cole!

    I remember seeing this selfie, obviously taken by Biden in a NYT elevator, months ago. Jennifer is a great person, and I hope she does well going forward.

    Biden seems like a really good guy, the more I learn about him, the more respect I have for him, he’s obviously coped with horror in his personal life and overcome all of it.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    @Suzanne:

    The professional-managerial class are the people who shit on the working class from immediately above; they’re the nearest available object of class resentment.

  17. 17.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: Less certain about the left’s thinking.

    Corporate shills making money squeezing workers for every last drop of productivity while paying the bare minimum, providing inadequate tools, and showing little concern for the practicalities of how a workplace actually operates?

    Or something like that.

  21. 21.

    Ed Marshall

    I can’t find the full video anymore.  I loved watching that in retrospect where she becomes the focus instead of basically invisible and how she *doesn’t* react to anyone else.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Suzanne:

    Note that I’m not saying “rich people”.

    I had an uncle who got rich– not Rolls Royce rich, but a couple of Cadillacs and a big house in a leafy suburb and a place right on the beach in I forget which south FL resort- in some kind of wholesale business and real estate. He had a peculiar obsession with how easy teachers have it. He would “good naturally” tease my sister and my three or four public school teacher cousins every June with “You start your three month vacation yet?” I’ve noted this is not an uncommon hobby-horse among a lot of different income levels. He was white, he never went to college, he didn’t live to see trump get into politics but I’m sorry to say probably would’ve voted for him (his widow, my aunt, hates trump in spite of her obsession with “life”. I’m reasonably sure she’ll vote for Biden).

  25. 25.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: It’s driven from the top, but a lot of these middle types enforce those directives from the top and get paid comparatively well for doing so.   It’s layer upon layer of BS to ensure that the money from the business goes anywhere other than to the people putting the product together and getting it out the door.

  30. 30.

    gwangung

    @Kropacetic: Yeah, that fits.

    And I don’t overly blame folks on either side. A lot of the managerial class ARE stuck up little shits…and even more can have bad days and forget their privilege.

  31. 31.

    MomSense

    Whatever happens, I’m proud to be a Democrat and I’m happy we are showing our compassion and decency.  Biden is a good guy and that feels like a superpower in these times.

  33. 33.

    James E Powell

    @Suzanne:

     I underestimated how much a lot of working class people dislike “professional-managerial class” people.

    Many people hate their bosses. The most common negative comment I heard from white women about Hillary Clinton in 2008 and 2016 was “she reminds me of a boss I had once that I hated.”

  35. 35.

    Kropacetic

    @James E Powell: Many people hate their bosses.

    For me, it’s rarely my boss, I usually love my bosses. It’s that nebulous entity known as “corporate.”
    Not even individuals from corporate. They’re generally fine dealing with them one on one.
    It’s the system, maaaaaaan.

  36. 36.

    bluehill

    Joe definitely passes the have-a-beer-with test. It’s who he is and has always been and it’s exactly what most people want in their president right now.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    Both of them have showed me that I underestimated how much a lot of working class people dislike “professional-managerial class” people. Note that I’m not saying “rich people”.

    Some working class people are simply giving back the disdain they get from professional class folk. And it does not matter about political ideology. Some people take special pride in belonging to their tribe and look down on people who are not part of the club.

  38. 38.

    scav

    @Baud: Well, I can certainly empathize if the managerial class / exemplar is MBA-oid.  There is certainly a lot of actually working the job experience, knowledge and expertise that they blow past, thinking of ‘management’ as something discrete, abstracted, universally the same and only possessed by them.

  40. 40.

    Rusty

    @Suzanne:  The managerial class are the folks running your life. The boss, the lawyer for your ex (and your lawyer too), the doctor giving you bad news, the manager of your manager who shows up twice a year to spew meaningless crap. The rich are layers and above that, you don’t ever see them they are so insulated from you. The other part is the rich get to tell the managerial class what to do, the managerial class has to eat their crap, and wouldn’t it be great to be rich and yield power over those assholes?

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Thats why we notice people like Joe Biden, who appears to treat all people the same.

    I do that, but unlike Joe, I am equally crappy to everyone. I can see how some people might take that the wrong way.

  45. 45.

    Kropacetic

    @scav: Well, I can certainly empathize if the managerial class / exemplar is MBA-oid.  There is certainly a lot of actually working the job experience, knowledge and expertise that they blow past, thinking of ‘management’ as something discrete, abstracted, universally the same and only possessed by them.

    This.  All this.

  48. 48.

    Heywood J.

    Love the photo and the story. This and last night’s convention start show just how much right now we need to be reminded not only that it is possible to have decent humans in gov’t, but that there are still decent people out there in general.

    I have no doubt that if you watched Biden at a restaurant, and then Trump at a restaurant, and saw how they treated the servers and how they tipped, etc., the differences would be day and night.

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Everyone in “Office Space” is in the professional-managerial class, except maybe Jennifer Aniston’s character (and, come to think of it, her manager).

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    For some bizarre reason, I can never see a CNN video on my phone. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a link like yours or on the CNN website — I get audio just fine but never the picture. The ads that precede the clips? Those come through just fine. But when the actual content starts, the video disappears. It’s only true of CNN. Strange.

  51. 51.

    satby

    I saw this weeks ago on Twitter, they’re only covering it now?

    And I was put in the naughty child chair on FB for telling my right wing stalker that it “totally chaps your ass that the black guy, his wife, and his daughters are far better, kinder, and more capable people than the white trash president and his family”. They said that comment was hate speech, which it was honestly, because I surely do hate the traitor and his thieving family.

  52. 52.

    Rusty

    I had a chance to meet Joe at a wedding 30 years ago.  It was two people that met on his presidential campaign in 88 and he came to the wedding.  He really is a warm person.

  53. 53.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: Careful, dude.  Lotsa people who are used to family-owned italian restaurants HATE Olive Garden.  That’s not a right-or left, working, middle or professional class take.

    We’re losing one of our local-to-Watertown best Italian joints to COVID 19; I suspect we’ll lose the other one within the next couple of months.  Non-chain restaurants are suffering big time, and there’s no end in sight.

  56. 56.

    HumboldtBlue

    Feeling more upbeat this afternoon than I have in a year.

    Just had an excellent job interview and I’m excited.

    What sort of work you may ask?

    Mobile Food Pantry Coordinator, packaging, loading, delivering and distributing food to the community. Food For People is an absolute jewel in the county and they do some awesome work and I want in.

    I really, really, really want this job, so much so that I pulled my name from consideration for a local news reporting spot.

    Time for a beer.

  57. 57.

    Kropacetic

    @FlyingToaster: Careful, dude.  Lotsa people who are used to family-owned italian restaurants HATE Olive Garden

    I don’t ever eat at Italian restaurants because I think my family and I do it better.  That goes triple for Olive garden.

  60. 60.

    satby

    @satby: and I can’t edit, but of course I saw the video weeks ago, I didn’t read the story to learn she’s going to be able to nominate him. That is very sweet.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    a lot of it is the opposite. It takes a ton of “learnin” in multiple disciplines to be a good mechanic, a good landscaper, a good carpenter, or even a good retail clerk, bartender or waitress.

    sadly, a lot of people with letters before or after their name, don’t care about that. They need to gain their self esteem by punching down.

    I know lots of people who would have liked to go to a name University, but they wern’t legacy, and their parents couldn’t afford to buy a building or endow a trust.

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Oh, exciting! I’ll cross all the crossable bits. It sounds like challenging and deeply satisfying work. When do you expect to know for sure?

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Colin Powell endorsing Biden at the convention tonight.

    He’s been so quiet the last four years I wondered for a while if he was ill. But I think his (paid) speaking schedule has held up.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    And there also can be the tendency that Hofstadter wrote about in Anti-intellectualism in American Life.

    Americans are strange. Many of us admire the common man. From a distance.

    Trump always talks about how much he does for the average white man, while also emphasizing how exceptional he is and how upper crust his friends are.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: It takes a ton of “learnin” in multiple disciplines to be a good mechanic, a good landscaper, a good carpenter, or even a good retail clerk, bartender or waitress.

    You will never find me saying differently.  But that was not what I was talking about.

  74. 74.

    bluehill

    Colin Powell is supposed to be speaking tonight. If they are building up for the final night, I wonder who it will be.

  75. 75.

    debbie

    @Suzanne:

    Plenty of that next door in Ohio, too. Not my neighborhood, though. Tonight’s walk: 1.01 miles, 26 Biden signs, 2 Trump signs.

    I don’t think it’s a done deal that Ohio will go Blue.

  78. 78.

    FlyingToaster

    @Kropacetic: And you made my point.?

    The only chain restaurants I can stand (currently) are Panera, and Starbucks when I’m on the road.  My Chinese comes from places like Mary Chung’s (finally reopened!), my Greek comes from one of the two family owned joints here in town, ditto Persian, tacos from the Taqueria on Willow, etc.  Fuck Clover, Flour and Subway.

  79. 79.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus: See my correction in a later comment.

    Every time I comment, it tells me it’s a duplicate even though it isn’t and I can’t edit them. Commenting here has become such a PIA.

  80. 80.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    Baud, you are a ray of blinding sunshine, a beacon of such joy and goodwill towards all living things that it is only safe to talk to you through the internet.  In person we would surely be consumed into ash by your compassion and universal love.  When the post-mortem on the 2016 presidential election was finished, all the polls and analysts agreed that you were not elected President because people felt you were too good for America.

  82. 82.

    FlyingToaster

    @lahke: Stellina in Watertown Square is closing Saturday night, after 35 years.  I first ate there ~32 years ago.  Sucks.

    Porcini’s on School is still there, but I don’t think they can survive once dining has to move indoors (that is, November).

  85. 85.

    MagdaInBlack

    @satby:

    Some people are just asshats and it wouldnt matter the position or education or lack of. Altho, Ive often wondered if our management takes a special class in how to be a ignorant to your employees ?

  87. 87.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Baud: @zhena gogolia: @MagdaInBlack: @eclare: @Aleta: @SiubhanDuinne:

    Thanks so much, folks, hope to know in a week or so.

    I gladly stand as a foe against the ruling class.

    I admire their mission so much and I’ve written directly about them or in stories in which they played a key role on more than one occasion.

    Needless to say, the first five minutes were spent discussing last night’s convention.

  89. 89.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    He had a peculiar obsession with how easy teachers have it. He would “good naturally” tease my sister and my three or four public school teacher cousins every June with “You start your three month vacation yet?” I’ve noted this is not an uncommon hobby-horse among a lot of different income levels.

    Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Some people I talk to tend to think teachers are “overpaid”. They think they live high on the hog making $60,000 after 30 years. It always comes back to, “Wish I could make $60,000 and go on strike. Who’s looking out for me?”

    I suspect it’s because of local property taxes. Which, I mean, I think property taxes are a terrible way of funding public schools to begin with, but I don’t blame the staff. And don’t forget the student loans that have to be repaid

  92. 92.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlyingToaster: It always amazed me that people line up out the door for Olive Garden in towns where good Italian food is readily available–until I had a kid and realized that it’s a place that children clamor to go to. They love the breadsticks, and the extensive kid’s menu of bland, non-scary pasta dishes. I think a lot of chain restaurants catering to families are like that. Once you hook the kids all you need for the adults is to be sufficiently inoffensive.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @bluehill:

    “I would like to thank Trump from the bottom of my heart for making me only the second worst president in our lifetimes.”

    I would bust a gut.

  100. 100.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @FlyingToaster:

    I like the food at Chili’s and Olive Garden. You can’t beat the endless breadsticks at OG or sizzling fajitas at Chili’s

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    @Kropacetic: How is your veal piccata?  Served in nightly?  And braciolla?  Can I get that at your house?  Mmmm. Saltimbucco. Vodka sauce with home made lobster ravioli. Steak a la Milenese?

    If you are not ready to serve those up, y’know.  Please save us your special pony story about going to restaurants, the whole point of which is to have something you don’t cook at home.

  105. 105.

    Ken

    @Baud: Then Cheney enters from offstage and says, “Right. I only did it to enrich myself and keep Republicans in power, not to benefit the Russians.”

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    Yeah, the love is for David Brooks’ imagined Applebee’s forays in order to conduct his social research and for which he also imagined a salad bar. Now that there is an example of patrician disdain (also, too, his hair was loafers were perfect).

  107. 107.

    Calouste

    @bluehill: I was thinking that as well. Considering they went from two former GOP governors yesterday to a former GOP Secretary of State today, expectations are going up. I doubt any current GOP office holders will endorse Biden though, although there are some very long shot possibilities.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @Rusty:

    The managerial class are the folks running your life. … The rich are layers and above that, you don’t ever see them they are so insulated from you.

    There are all kinds of layers to this. The managerial class want to be rich and often defend to the death the pretentions of their “betters.”

    Lower class people often work for the rich and see how hypocritical their lives are. But society has a vested interest in maintaining the fiction that the upper crust is truly special.

  110. 110.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: Harvard Square used to only have local joints (and outlets of local chains like Au Bon Pain and Dunks).  Then it got a Chili’s.  GRRRRRRR.  Fortunately, even the students avoided it (plus the Hong Kong’s scorpion bowls were far more fun).

    Of course, the Chili’s did not survive.  Neither did Au Bon Pain.  The Squayah is full of chains now, though Charley’s Kitchen and Pinocchios and Grendel’s Den are still there.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Look, fundamentally, there are lot of reasons that those of us in the educated, professional classes with pretensions to intellectualism and boho art snobbery will be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.   Just deal with it.

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    “I first met Baud personally in 1987, on the morning that the sun did not rise.  If you’re not aware of that event, it is because Baud personally went down into Tartarus and wrested the sun free from the jaws of James Watt, then lifted it into the heavens himself.  He acted so promptly to save us all that only astronomers and mythologists noticed that the sun did not rise naturally or on time.  I, myself, was out early walking to school in the gloaming when I heard a sound sweeter than bird song, and was compelled to follow it.  That sound was Baud’s grunting with effort, of course.”

  119. 119.

    FlyingToaster

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’ll take the rolls at Bertucci’s and fajitas at the Border Cafe any day of the damned week.

    Or actually, I’ll make the damned breadsticks (thank you for the idea, WG will love them, seeing that she actually likes last night’s bread) and see if the meat vendor at tomorrow’s farmers market has the right kinda steak.

  124. 124.

    aliasofwestgate

    I’ve done my time in retail foodservice (KFC for a solid 6 years) and it took a few years after that till i got into and was able to become a Pharm Tech.  So i could say that i’ve done both blue-collar and professional class stuff.  Upper management in both drove me up the freaking wall, universally.  Those i worked directly with? Fine for the most part aside from a hellish manager during my KFC years that i deliberately transferred away from. The management between those of us in the stores and the direct corp was enough to drive anyone and everyone nuts.  We also complained all the time about stupid corp decisions, which ranged from okay to epically stupid.

  125. 125.

    trollhattan

    @FlyingToaster:

    We have a bunch of infill development in and adjacent to downtown, and it’s depressing how much of it fills with chain joints. Goddamn Taco Bell Cantina gets a line out the door even though plenty of local places are on the same block.

  128. 128.

    satby

    @WaterGirl:  I hate my IPad. I do everything on my Kindle except print labels for my business. When it annoys me I just read and then go do something else. Probably a sign from the universe to quit wasting time on the internet.

  129. 129.

    Calouste

    @Baud: Charlie Baker (MA gov) and Larry Hogan (MD gov) are two others. Unlikely, but somewhat remotely possible.

  130. 130.

    The Moar You Know

    But you would think lefties would blame the people at the top, not the middle people.

    @Baud: I might at one time have been inclined to subscribe to that point of view, but each and every one of them I’ve ever encountered obviously enjoyed – I mean with glee, the high point of their fucking day – treating each and every person under them like disposable shit. So yeah, the guys at the top set up the game, and I was always cognizant of that, but management enjoys playing it way too much. Glad I no longer have to live under such conditions.

  131. 131.

    mrmoshpotato

    @bluehill:

    Joe definitely passes the have-a-beer-with test. It’s who he is and has always been and it’s exactly what most people want in their president right now. 

    I wanted Hillary’s second term, or her first, but I’m good with Biden.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I’ll lay out a longshot bet, in quatloos, not dollars: if she’s seen the RSCC’s internals and they look really bad: Lisa Murkowski. In the best case scenarios for D’s the Senate’s gonna be tight, and I could see (baselessly, wildly speculate about) Murkowski cutting some kind of deal to join the Indy caucus with Angus King. Maybe she’s still pissed about when they bailed on her in 2010, wasn’t it? I could see her serving Mitch McConnell a cold dish of revenge.

  134. 134.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: What’s probably saddest is that a lot of us (waves) were raised working class in the Midwest.  But we didn’t eat at MickeyDs, because my parents both thought it tasted disgusting.  We ate out at the local family-owned joints because my parents knew the owners.

    It may sound pretentious now, with most of us having decamped after getting an education (the lawyer still lives out there and does eat at Olive Garden), but it’s actually just what I was used to, my whole life.

  140. 140.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Calouste: I could see Baker. He’s probably already too far gone to have any future in the national GOP. I think Hogan still has designs on the White House.

  142. 142.

    guachi

    I can dream that every living Republican Presidential candidate would endorse Biden.

    Make a quick cut of Republicans endorsing Biden and slip Bush, Bush, and Romney in there.

  144. 144.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @FlyingToaster: I only found out when I was an adult that my parents would always pack a lunch – bread, cheese, sausage, tomatoes (if they were fresh), etc., because they were too broke to go to buy it.  I always assumed that it was because the food at museums and such was terrible.  But my parents were broke when I was a kid because my dad was still in school and my mom was a elementary school teacher in the ’60s.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @Immanentize:

    It’s the McDonald’s effect.  You are certain to get the same (dull) thing at every single Olive Garden.

    Where do you people live? I live in the big ass city. Some chains are good. Some local joints suck.

    Esteemed restaurant critic Jonathan Gold used to hang out at an eatery that was part of a small family chain because he loved the liver and onions. King Taco, In and Out reliably serve good food.

    Mcdonald’s use to have fairly good burgers and great fries.

  149. 149.

    The Moar You Know

    Then Cheney enters from offstage and says, “Right. I only did it to enrich myself and keep Republicans in power, not to benefit the Russians.”

    @Ken: and the enraging part is, there is actually a pretty huge difference there. God, don’t give me a reason to have to hate Cheney less.

  150. 150.

    zhena gogolia

    Sally Yates will be on tonight, as well as Caroline Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and John Legend.

  151. 151.

    FlyingToaster

    @trollhattan: That’s happening in the Seaport (what used to be the northern Industrial half of South Boston).  Fortunately, the popular places have turned out to be the now-with-garage-parking outposts from the North End.  Back in January we met my sister and BIL at Strega’s in the Seaport, and it was effing fantastic.

    No KFC’s or Taco Hells hereabouts; there’s still a standalone MickeyDs in Nonantum, which I’m pretty sure survives on its drivethru window.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @guachi:

    Walker, Rubio, Christie and Cruz, just for starters, still have their eyes on the Big Chair. Hasn’t Carly Fiorina already declared for Biden? It was ’16 when she ran, wasn’t it?

    Jebbie has ambitions for his son, George P. It would be so sweet if Texas trended away from the would-be royal family as they drift right with every generation. Maybe Cousin Barbara will run against him as a Dem

    ETA:

    @zhena gogolia:

    Jimmy Carter,

    I’ve been wondering about JC. Glad to hear he’s going to appear, for lots of reasons

  155. 155.

    MagdaInBlack

    Raw Story tells me Cindy McCain will be narrating a video praising Joe Biden.

    How will Meghan handle this, I wonder?

  159. 159.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @FlyingToaster:

    What’s probably saddest is that a lot of us (waves) were raised working class in the Midwest.  But we didn’t eat at MickeyDs, because my parents both thought it tasted disgusting.  We ate out at the local family-owned joints because my parents knew the owners.

    It may sound pretentious now, with most of us having decamped after getting an education (the lawyer still lives out there and does eat at Olive Garden), but it’s actually just what I was used to, my whole life.

    Fast forward to 2018, and then we have Trump cultists defending serving cold, greasy fast food at the fucking White House to college athletes. It’s being authentic, you elitists, not Trump just being a cheapskate!

  160. 160.

    zhena gogolia

    I have to admit I’ve never been to Olive Garden.

    We have a great Italian restaurant run by Albanians from Kosovo and Montenegro.

  161. 161.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think I saw somewhere that Cindy McCain will be endorsing Biden. Don’t know whether she’s part of tonight’s lineup, though.
    N/m, just saw MagdaInBlack’s comment #155.

  162. 162.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlyingToaster: I confess, Samantha and I used to go to that Harvard Square Chili’s a lot when we were dating and I lived near there, just because it was a good-enough casual place to hang out and not too expensive.

  163. 163.

    Geminid

    Class-based elitism is pervasive, and crosses party lines. I think of a couple I know who bought an empty lot in Charlottesville Va. 10 years ago and built a house. Debbie was a nurse at U.Va. Medical Center, and the neighborhood was a couple blocks from her job, in a largely African American neighborhood. Not long after, they met a City Council member at some Democratic party function. She heard their story, and told them how wonderful it was that people who worked at the hospital were now moving into the neighborhood. It was a poor neighborhood, but in fact it was and had always been full of people who worked at the hospital. But they pushed gurneys, or cleaned rooms, or prepared food. They were invisible to this white, middle class, at-large city council member. Debbie and Diana understood how elitist and wrong this was. But they were lesbians, and had long before developed outsider’s views of hierarchy and discrimination.                      I believe this kind of elitism is starting to fade, and I am glad that people, Democrats and others, are understanding better how it holds us all back.

  164. 164.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @FlyingToaster:

    Hey, different strokes for different folks I guess. Local restaurants can have great food, but they can also be greasy spoons, as any episode of Kitchen Nightmares will show you

  166. 166.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin: Olive Garden has breadsticks and drinks. It is definitely terrible. I took Spawn the Younger there once because it was convenient to where we were shopping, and now she loves it and I will admit that I take her there when I just can’t stand to hear even one more second of whining.

  167. 167.

    Mike in NC

    @Matt McIrvin: Myrtle Beach is the sort of place that caters to a lot of summertime tourists from the Midwest. It has lots of authentic Italian restaurants run by snowbirds from NY/NJ, yet every year the place voted “Best Italian Restaurant” is almost always the Olive Garden. Like Cracker Barrel, it’s the sort of place I’d skip eating rather than dine at.

  168. 168.

    JMG

    There is only one chain in my Cape Cod town — Dunkin’ naturally.  Back up in my  soon-to-be-totally former Boston suburb, there’s Dunkin’, Starbucks, and no other chains.

  169. 169.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Never been to one but when they show pictures on the TV, other than the amount of pasta (which is cheap to serve) they look like appetizer size.

    YMMV.

  170. 170.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: We always packed a lunch, parents and kids alike.  My dad was a mechanic (later Inspector) for TWA.  My mom was a stewardess when they met.  After we were old enough, she was a rental property manager and then a travel agent.  They were always going to night school.

    So dinner out was usually one of the family owned, pick one from an ethnic column place on the strip nearby, or if we were being fancy, Mr. Putsch’s on the Plaza.  If out of town, Nickerson Farms or Denny’s (with 4 kids, predictable if depressingly bland food, feels exactly like Olive Garden).

  171. 171.

    Omnes Omnibus

    And for those talking about how the resentment is natural coming from working people toward those in professional and managerial jobs, I can’t be the only one who lived in a socially mixed neighborhood and had to deal with other kids picking fights because I was reading “grown-up” books and playing the violin?  Did I think I was special?   Did I think I was better than the other guy?  That shit starts young.

  172. 172.

    Calouste

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gen. Mattis doing a short segment with his personal opinion of the shitgibbon might also be interesting. I think it was him to whom the quote “fucking moron” was attributed. Considering we already got an endorsement for Biden from IIRC the former deputy secretary of the DHS last week, there might be a bigger fish still out there.

  175. 175.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yes it does. I have similar experiences

    In fact I still have them, because I’m working class but do not share the interests of my “class.”

  176. 176.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Look, fundamentally, there are lot of reasons that those of us in the educated, professional classes with pretensions to intellectualism and boho art snobbery will be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.   Just deal with it. 

    My first impulse is to say “Don’t have the player, hate the game”.
    Actually, that’s my second impulse, too.

  177. 177.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Crap, I missed your comment. I actually told them ahead of time I was a cannabis user and therefore considering the driving aspect of the job and insurance would not pass a urinalysis.

    They said as long as I don’t smoke at work we’re good.

  178. 178.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Look, fundamentally, there are lot of reasons that those of us in the educated, professional classes with pretensions to intellectualism and boho art snobbery will be among the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.   Just deal with it.

    Ahem. Your nymsake might beg to differ.//

    That being said…”ah, crap!”

  179. 179.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s the “summers off.”  As the child of a teacher, I am aware the sheer volume of bullshit in that concept, but many are not.

    Do teachers do a lot of work over the summers? It wouldn’t surprise me if they do

  182. 182.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: You are right that that shit starts young. I remember coming home from school sobbing every day in first grade because mouthbreathers were treating me like hell. This is why, as much valid criticism as there is for gifted education, that I believe it’s critical: to have a judgment-free zone for kids who are weird.

  183. 183.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Moar You Know:

    and the enraging part is, there is actually a pretty huge difference there. God, don’t give me a reason to have to hate Cheney less.

    Haha, I’ve found myself wishing for Dick, Donnie and W to be back in the White House over the past 3.5 years, and fuck that psycho, psycho, and psycho drunk coke head mass-murdering war criminals.

  185. 185.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Which wasn’t always the best answer when you were one of the youngest and thus smaller kids in the class.  “Perhaps” was a fun answer until the punches started.

  186. 186.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: ditto, except Guitar and Clarinet.

    The biggest reason that we sent WarriorGirl to private school is that she showed some pretty serious musical chops really early, and the local public schools laid off the music and art teachers while she was in Suzuki preschool.  One music teacher and one art teacher travelling to all 3 grade schools was not going to work for us.

    She’s in Zoom Fiddle Camp this week.  And spent the summer learning a Kreutzer caprice and starting her first Mozart piece (having learned two Vivaldi concerti and now a Handel Sonata over the past two years).  Figuring out HS is my next fucking nightmare.

  187. 187.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: I got that friction too… but some of the kids who were doing it were themselves the children of the professional-managerial class, playing at being rednecks. The kids who eventually got the shiny, shiny jacked-up pickup that never saw dirt.

  192. 192.

    The Moar You Know

    I can’t be the only one who lived in a socially mixed neighborhood and had to deal with other kids picking fights because I was reading “grown-up” books and playing the violin?

    @Omnes Omnibus: my neighborhood wasn’t socially mixed, every one middle class, but goddamn, I never would have guessed as a kid, before it happened (many times) that a violin case was like pinning a sign on your back saying “beat the shit out of me”.

    I still have the same violin, 46 years later. And a much nicer one as well.

    If they’d known what I was reading I probably would have ended up in a hospital.

  193. 193.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    My FIL was HS Ag/Shop teacher, also FFA and 4H Advisor. He had a 9 month contract ( as I recall) and his 3 months “off” were spent working with his students on their FFA  and 4H projects and judging their livestock at the area fairs. I think he  took about 2 weeks off to vacation.

    The 3 months off thing is pure BS.

  195. 195.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That was my mom’s experience as well.

    My sister, now an administrator worked every summer and I know, because I babysat four days a week in some of the most awesome summers I ever had.

  196. 196.

    Geminid

    @Calouste: It was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who described trump as “a fucking moron” to his staff. When it was reported, Tillerson did not deny it. A few months later he was fired.

  197. 197.

    The Moar You Know

    Do teachers do a lot of work over the summers? It wouldn’t surprise me if they do

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My wife’s a teacher. In the ten years we’ve been married, about six or seven weeks of that has been spent on actual vacation. None of which has happened over summer – she gets her week off over Christmas break. Teachers work all summer, period.

  198. 198.

    LesGS

    @aliasofwestgate: I had a manager at a fast food joint who was transferred to our store after his previous store was burned down by an angry employee. We came to deeply sympathize with that employee.

  200. 200.

    Suzanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Mr. Suzanne is a public educator (bilingual speech-language pathologist) and he not only works all summer, he also keeps freelance clients during the school year to make more money because public educators are so underpaid.

    Honestly, I think that there’s a cohort of people who resent that being good at going to school can be financially remunerative. Oh well.

  201. 201.

    Jay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    it’s about being “different”. Young feral humans are pack animals. Different is dangerous to the pack, the “weak” and “lame” attract predators. As adults, most of us grow out of it, some don’t.

    When I first started working, to be a Manager or Supervisor, you first had to have 5-10 years line experience in the business, ( in the Company or the Competition), plus at least 2 years Managerial training, ( Corporate or College).

    Starting in the late ‘70’s, it became 4 years of business school with no practical experience of the work required, or the industry, or the corporate/work culture.

    By the ‘90’s, it was MBA’s with cookie cutter ”solutions to problems”, “efficiencies”, “streamlining” that were supposed to work either in a McDonalds or Surgical Center.

    I’ve managed people, and I have been managed. Those that realize their staff knows their job best, punch up and defend down, tend to be the best.

  202. 202.

    Anotherlurker

    I, too, seek out local joints in which to eat.  My friends and I would spread our business around but we leaned repeatedly to a small Italian Restaurant on suburban L.I., NY.  It is immortalized in a song by Billy Joel.  It had the greatest Baked Special, a casserole of Baked Ziti, Lasagna and Ravioli .  They also served an excellent House Chianti.    Yum!

  203. 203.

    drunkenhausfrau

    This wonderful woman NAILED IT!!  I am crying so hard… this story I’d a GREAT endorsement of the human being Joe Biden is and will be as president.  Thank you, Jacquelyn.

  207. 207.

    Groucho48

    @Suzanne:

     

    Nothing new about that. Listen to the song Pirate Jenny, from Three Penny Opera. Judy Collins does a very nice version of it.

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