Donald Trump promised to be the greatest jobs president God ever created.
Instead, tens of millions of Americans are out of work and we're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. #PromisesBroken https://t.co/JzjZu7KKRr
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 28, 2020
Joe Biden’s campaign has purchased the web domain that spells out President Donald Trump’s re-election slogan “Keep America Great” and filled the site with what it says are Trump's broken promises. https://t.co/TvGWrAgaHl
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) August 28, 2020
Meanwhile, 2020 broke Jim Gaffigan and we’re all better for it.
hope y’all are happy you broke Jim Gaffigan pic.twitter.com/oOC2Qm87Ti
— Alice Hamilton (@AliceRHamilton) August 28, 2020
I already loved Jim Gaffigan long BEFORE he ran entirely out of fucks during trump's RNC.
Now I feel the need to go grab me some Hot Pockets. https://t.co/rSGIGZrLoh
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) August 28, 2020
His wife’s response ?
Okay fine
— Jim Gaffigan (@JimGaffigan) August 28, 2020
All of his NFLTG can be found here
Open thread
MJS
I’m with Brooklyn Dad – loved Jim Gaffigan before (I can watch his specials repeatedly and still laugh at jokes I’ve heard numerous times), but now love him even more. I especially loved his takedown of Lou Holtz. Of all Trump supporters, I probably hate Catholic Trump supporters the most.
TaMara (HFG)
@MJS: I just added his wife’s response to the Lou H. tweet. Priceless.
SiubhanDuinne
How perfect is the incompetence and lack of imagination of the Trumpie reëlection team that it never even fucking occurred to them to secure the “Keep America Great” domain name. I mean, how much could it cost — couple of million, tops, am I right?
And how sprinkles-on-top perfect is it that the Biden team had the imagination to do a quick search, find the name was available, and snatch it up for their own use.
I’m kind of in awe of both teams, for different reasons
germy
@MJS:
Here’s how old and out of touch I am. When I saw the name Lou Holtz, I thought it was this guy.
TaMara (HFG)
Okay, I’m not allowed to surf the web anymore until I write 500 words. So I’ll check back in a week or two ?
Writer’s block is real, my friends.
MJS
@germy: Not a football fan, I take it. : )
germy
@MJS: Nope.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MJS:
@germy:
I didn’t even know who he was. The guy’s 83 and he pretty much tarnished his reputation (hopefully) for nothing. I read he’s been active in GOP politics for some time; he also endorsed Trump in 2016, but I doubt most people know this about him. He just should’ve kept his mouth shut. Now everybody knows what an asshole he is and Notre Dame is distancing itself from him
mrmoshpotato
I want a high-res, framed print of that Twitter exchange.
SiubhanDuinne
I am clearly missing something important here, because all y’all are talking about Lou Holtz in connection with Jim Gaffigan, and I’m not seeing Lou Holtz anywhere in any of the Gaffigan tweets and I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What should I be looking for, and where?
Patricia Kayden
Don’t tell Donny.
TaMara (HFG)
@SiubhanDuinne: Here you go:
MJS
@SiubhanDuinne: About 13 tweets in at the link provided, Jim takes issue with Lou Holtz’s description of Biden’s Catholicism. Jim’s a Catholic, too.
Percysowner
@Patricia Kayden: That’s what is really going to leave a mark!
debbie
Love all of this!
I didn’t watch last night and didn’t stay up to watch Colbert, so all I know is what NPR and BBC have reported since then. My favorite is the image of Trump floating down the stairs to make his speech. I can’t help but be reminded of Disneyland’s Haunted House where the ghosts float down the staircase. Trump can’t join them soon enough for my liking.
MazeDancer
Even though it is an Open Thread, slightly off topic. Was just rereading the, of course, now dead, Morning Thread – to get all the posted Voting Plans to illustrate – and learned some dreadful news. Which I missed when it came out in 2014.
Marion Zimmer Bradley, a favorite author, wrote Mists of Avalon, was a horrible sexual abuser. To her daughter. And others. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/27/sff-community-marion-zimmer-bradley-daughter-accuses-abuse (Sorry, couldn’t get hidden link to work)
Throwing away her books tonight.
On topic: Way to troll ’em, Joe!
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (HFG):
@MJS:
Thanks to you both. I obviously didn’t dig down far enough, because none of it was making much sense to me.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I read that the Trump campaign did the same thing to our side in 2016. Fool me once…
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: I’m actually a little surprised at the ratings. I assumed enough people would tune in just for the spectacle of the thing. Pleasantly surprised.
SiubhanDuinne
@MazeDancer:
Yeah, I remember when that story first broke years ago. Horrific. I divested my library of MZB shortly thereafter. Wonder why the story has suddenly taken on new life.
Jinchi
Oh it probably occurred to them. Brad Parscale probably thought, ‘Hey I should secure that KAG domain’, but then he got distracted and got the gold plated mirrors for his Range Rover instead.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MazeDancer:
Good god that, she was totally fucked up. She even tried to help Breen to get access to a child he was interested in by adopting. What the ever living fuck?!
LuciaMia
@Baud: In gathering ratings, do they simply go by someone initially tuning in, or they take into account the duration ?
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: In the thread being referenced, she was mentioned in a post for her history in being a founder of the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Her history of abuse and condoning abuse was brought up included in the same post.
germy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: A lesson for the Baud!2024! campaign.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne:
If nobody else has registered the domain, a few tens of dollars tops.
Ken
@Baud: Trump’s popularity also dropped sharply this week, according to Rasmussen. Possibly people did watch part of the Republican convention, hoping to hear the word “pandemic” (ideally somewhere near “plan”), and didn’t.
germy
dmsilev
@Ken:
Does “Plandemic” count? Asking for conspiracy theorists everywhere.
Baud
@LuciaMia: I have no idea how they do it. I’m just glad our numbers beat theirs because it’ll piss Trump off.
Ken
I see that http://www.makeamericagreatagainagain.com is taken, but it’s by a squatter.
Baud
@germy: I’m starting to think America should have listened to her.
Frosty Fred
@dmsilev: I suspect you’re replying to an Arrested Development reference.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m canceling my order for the lions and elephants as we speak.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Pro-Life Lou, who is all about the Baybeez (like my fundie Catholic aunts) has no problem with children being tortured for being brown.
oatler.
“A spoonful of butter helps the bugmeat go down.”
germy
NotMax
Rs probably tried to register the domain but became frustrated and gave up when it didn’t go through because they kept typing the suffix as .con.
;)
tokyokie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think Lou Holtz’s first big college coaching job was at North Carolina State, and in the capacity, he got to know Jesse Helms. Anyway, a few years down the line, he was the head coach at Arkansas, and he asked athletic director (and former head coach) Frank Broyles for permission to cut a campaign ad for Helms. Broyles forbade him from doing so, saying that Helms was a notorious racist and having a football coach so closely associated with him would damage the school’s chances of recruiting Black athletes. Holtz basically said, “Fuck you, I’m going to do the spot anyway,” and Broyles fired his racist ass. Broyles, being a gentlemanly sort, allowed Holtz to resign rather publicly face the ignominy of being fired for sucking up to racists, but Holtz was fired.
I had always liked Broyles before then; he’d played for Don Faurot at Missouri (from which I graduated) and he was the college coach of Barry Switzer (the great coach at Oklahoma, for whom I’ve always rooted), but firing Holtz for being a racist POS really boosted him in my view. I’d disliked Holtz before then, other than his occasional upset of texass, but I’ve actively loathed the s.o.b. since learning of his association with Helms.
Ken
@Baud: The viewer numbers:
I’d say cue the pundits with their “drag on the ticket, who will replace Pence” columns, but only Democrats can be in disarray.
catclub
@germy:
That is really bad because of this – they had already sent them out.
so you have a large number of people who have ballots that cannot be processed.
sdhays
@Baud: When Dump makes every single day about himself, the spectacle value degrades. We have been inundated with Dump content for 5 years now. It’s boring now. Boring and awful.
It’s well passed time to cancel the series.
Jay
catclub
although he actually fired him for not obeying orders from his boss.
tokyokie
@catclub: True, but the raison d’être for the order that Holtz defied was the damage to the program that could result from Holtz’s associating with a well-known racist. So it still comes down to Holtz being a racist POS.
I might also point out that Arkansas hasn’t been worth a crap in football since dick-swinging alums forced Broyles out as A.D. (Broyles has since died, but Razorback football preceded him in death.)
mrmoshpotato
The spectacle? The spectacle of fascism?
Mike in NC
My wife adores Jim Gaffigan and we’ve seen his Netflix shows. He famously used to say he didn’t want to touch on politics, but I guess nobody can be neutral about Fat Bastard.
Has anybody asked how much the Washington Monument extravaganza last night cost us taxpayers?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
How went it with the ribs?
sdhays
@mrmoshpotato: It worked for John Roberts of Fox. He was gratifying himself over the possibility of it becoming the norm for the incumbent President.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne:
@dmsilev: nickel bet that trumpov’s team goes and buys a couple dozen juvenile anti-Biden site names (bidensadouche.com, etc) this weekend and then beats its collective chest about it.
You know they will.
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
the Viewership stats don’t include stats on who was hate watching,…..
mrmoshpotato
@sdhays: November 8, 2016 was the day to shitcan this series.
“Sorry, test audience of 65,853,516 + 133,000 in MI, WI, and PA said to throw yourself into a volcano, Donnie Dipshit.”
waspuppet
Gives No Fcks Richard Marx is also worth a follow.
Chyron HR
@mrmoshpotato:
Isn’t that the only thing fascists are good at?
SiubhanDuinne
@Jay:
Well, that’s good and all, but is the lawyer just going to let it sit there? That whole episode was horrifying in so many ways. Don’t just say “Okay, it’s over now.”
TaMara (HFG)
@waspuppet: NFLTG Mark Hamill is still my most favorite.
mad citizen
Lou Holtz: Not to mention his serial cheating while coaching: from Bleacher Report (2011) via googling: “Lou Holtz is typically not thought of as a dirty coach, but has left every program he coached at just before they were hit with NCAA probation. NC State, Minnesota, Arkansas, Notre Dame, and South Carolina were all found to have violated NCAA rules while under the leadership of Holtz.”
Holtz is and has been the biggest horse’s ass for decades.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: They’ll be excellent. (Cooking now, I was lazy. And I’ve done the recipe before.) :)
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Sure. Hitler was evil, but he knew how to put on a show.
As an aside, how lucky are we that the U.S. didn’t host an Olympics during Trump’s term.
HumboldtBlue
The justice system fails people of color in so many unfathomable and unseen ways. This story, which I spent the last few weeks reporting, reveals a few of them.
catclub
this is a big set of polls for the politically addicted I noticed at the bottom it included source code and data sources. wow! wonderfully important if accurate.
mrmoshpotato
@sdhays: Well, John Roberts can fuck himself with a running chainsaw. Any questions?
Jay
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
Which would be so stupid. Nobody on our side is going to search for a site calling Biden or Kamala derogatory names, so the only people they might appeal to are their own true believers.
But it’s highly probable that a Trump-inclined or Trump-curious person might google “Keep America Great” and see our messaging. And maybe we can change a few minds that way, or at least make people uneasy. I think it’s brilliant.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: Spectacle and mass murder.
catclub
@Jay: how many arrests of the victims?
Redshift
@Baud: I figure there’s some word of mouth involved like movie openings. Since people didn’t know exactly when the speech was going to start, they may have seen reports that it was a boring low-energy rehash of every campaign speech for months, and skipped it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What do you think are the parades, flags and young men in totally NOT gay tight uniforms are about? Fascism sells itself threw spectacle. Turns out Trump is less a Mussolini and more of a Mouselini.
catclub
@mrmoshpotato: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical dedication to the pope.
Another Scott
Something something the parties are the same something something
But if cops can’t hassle people for pot, what will they hassle them for? Having TikTok on their phones??
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
He’s always been an asshole, even back when he was coaching at Notre Dame or before that at Arkansas. The asshole old white coach routine is just more tired and annoying today than it was a couple of decades ago when coaches like that were revered.
Obvious Russian Troll
@tokyokie: I’ve hated Holtz for years, and I didn’t even know that.
He was a terrible analyst after he retired from coaching, too. He was always blatantly promoting either Notre Dame or later his son Skip in various coaching jobs.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: True. My mother always said he was the most spellbinding public speaker she ever saw.
Jay
@SiubhanDuinne:
probably not. Bullshit charges quietly withdrawn are a standard Police/DA tactic to try to taint/slant the end result.
As time rolls on, Kenosha will face millions upon millions of dollars in lawsuits, which will be settled with Taxpayers money, which will be taken from the school budget.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
I live in Chicago. We know.
Kent
@tokyokie: Thanks for that piece of history that I didn’t know about Holtz. I’m just your average west coast football fan of a certain age who didn’t really notice Holtz until Arkansas.
But my oldest daughter recently graduated from Arkansas and I attended a few football games there during her time when I visited on parent’s weekends. It’s sort of surprising to me how much they suck recently give how enormous the facilities are and how nice the school actually is. I actually happened to have taught their most recent QB Ben Hicks when he was in my HS physics class back in Texas.
Jay
Ken
Certainly not by this cut-rate crew. Ivanka’s Chinese-made knockoffs don’t hold a candle to Hugo Boss, to begin with. And there’s already been enough discussion of the wrinkled flags.
Oh, don’t get me started. I don’t think half of those RNC speakers even looked at their speeches in advance, much less rehearsed in front of cameras like Hitler did to refine their gestures, tone, and delivery.
NotMax
Triple grrr. Message left on answering machine from robocall scam scum. “Your credit card has been charged $399 for PC protection. Call this number if you want to dispute this charge.”
Jackals, of course, will recognize this as bogus. If you have elderly relatives though, wouldn’t hurt to contact them to forewarn them about the revival of this criminal practice and tell them hang up if such a call is received.
catclub
lgm has an article that referred to another article on what is really in the GOP platform that is here,
by David Frum. It lists what the GOP really believes but does not advertise too heavily.
I would argue that at the moment, number 12 should be number 2. Number one is of course lower taxes for rich people.
Calouste
@Baud: Well, the 2020 Olympics have been postponed until 2021, if they take place at all. So they wouldn’t have happened during this presidential term.
Obvious Russian Troll
@mad citizen: Holtz also ranted about coaches leaving schools for new jobs before their teams played in bowl games. Predictably, though, Holtz had done exactly that when he left Minnesota for the Notre Dame job before Minnesota played its bowl game.
But that was different because it was his dream job (eye roll, wanking motion).
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: The Chicago Olympics bid was for Obama’s term. Or did you mean that any city should be grateful for not playing host to the Olympics, given the horrendous costs and inconvenience?
germy
Adolph used that trick where he would begin the speech very quietly, with lots of pauses. Audience would lean forward trying to get every word, and then he’d get louder and more dramatic until he was yelling and arm waving at the end.
Off topic, but I notice when Rose McGowan gives a speech, she pumps her fist up and down the way the 1920s/30s fascists did.
gene108
@tokyokie:
I’m an NCSU alum. Holtz coached there for 3 years in the early to mid-70’s, before taking up a head coaching job in the NFL (I think with the Jets) for a couple of years.
I did not know he was such a big Helms supporter.
Really changes my view of him.
Jay
@catclub:
if you include those who experienced the fear and trauma of not only the violent attacks, but also the Cop Riots, then the numbers are in the thousands.
most of the charges get eventually dropped or the victims acquitted, (1st Amendment), but only after,
– a period of detention, ( now with Covid exposure)
– usury bail conditions,
– surrendering their freedom of association and 1st Amendment rights until the State drops the charges or they are acquitted.
it’s a form of punitive punishment exacted by the State but is selectively applied.
raven
@tokyokie: God, I flew down there from Champaign when we played at Faurot Field in 83. Remember Shorthose?
Kent
The past couple days I have gotten two text messages from 667 area code (Maryland) stating the following:
I’m convinced they have to be scam text messages and I just blocked the number. Nothing I ever ordered from May never arrived, and any legit company would identify itself in the text message if they even sent one.
HumboldtBlue
Thread: one of the reasons I love covering House races is that analyzing things at a district level can reveal a lot of micro-trends before they show up nationally or even statewide…
Jay
raven
Has anyone noted that the three people shot in Kenosha were white? I don’t mean here but it doesn’t seem to be of note.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Because of course his lawyer can do everything in one day…..
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics ran a profit. We didn’t build a whole new set of facilities. We’ll probably do it the same way for 2028.
Jay
Baud
@Calouste: Trump would not have postponed the Olympics. Team USA would have won every medal!
HumboldtBlue
DESUS & MERO We’re not saying everybody at the RNC was on something…but we’re not NOT saying that either.
NotMax
@Kent
The area code (and number) is likely bogus. That can be spoofed. They’re going for entry to your computer.
Have read that in some sections of Canada, as there can be a 5 to 10 second delay after one hangs up before the line is cleared that some of these villains play a recording of a dial tone so the unwary who immediately try to call their credit card company on its legit number out of worry are redirected to another scam number instead.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: I think that’s on purpose. It would negate the narrative they’re trying to construct of this punk being in fear of his life of the savage black mob.
Calouste
I love the plan of the NBA to open their arenas as polling stations (and hopefully other leagues will follow). Obviously the arenas are good locations, large, tend to have easy access etc. But also the teams and the players have massive audiences, so anything that happens at those polling places that is out of order will get a lot of attention. And I assume players will be there and people will go to vote just to meet them in person.
Calouste
@Baud: Nah, the Russians would still have shown up.
Redshift
I am so infuriated by this both-sides article from the Post this morning, “U.S. political divide becomes increasingly violent, rattling activists and police”
Violence cited involving progressives: property damage, “clashes between opposing protesters in scattered cities,” and a truck driver got beaten up, all of which happened weeks ago, so not “increasing.”
Violence cited involving right-wingers: shooting people dead, hundreds of armed counter protesters showing up and threatening or assaulting protesters, claiming that they are angry because of things “shown on the news”. (Article includes no questions about which news, which might have revealed how Fox has become Radio Rwanda.)
Anti-police brutality protesters didn’t die of “political divide.” Grrr…
Plus sympathetic reporting of police saying the “don’t have the manpower” to protect protesters from armed yahoos.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Best traffic in modern LA history, Uberroth scared people into closing so many businesses it was a breeze. When the russians bailed they had a ticket fair at the Forum. My brother was in law school in Sacramento and I was getting ready to move down here. We both called my mom in Hawthorne and had her go and buy tickets to everything we could get. Third row in the Coliseum for Moses gold medal, basketball, boxing, swimming, soccer, baseball. . .it was awesome! This was Joanie Benoit getting her gold medal for the marathon that they ran that morning!
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: Guess you are right.
Kay
@Calouste:
Politics can be so grim and miserable now, too. When people say they “hate it” they mean it- they really do hate it. This is just plain positive.
Fair Economist
@MazeDancer:
Oh, fuck. I knew she had associated with some sex abusers, but I didn’t know about direct accusations against her. How awful. Fortunately I’d cleaned out all my MZB years ago because I’d basically had my fill of her writing
Edit, dang, she’s been dead 20 years? Where does the time go?
Jay
@raven:
Protestors have a “system” set up where once the Cops declare a riot, unlawful gathering, blocking the street, blocking the sidewalk, blocking the entrance to a public building,
BIPOC protestors, who face much greater risks, who don’t want to stand in front, move to the back and white protestors move to the front, on the assumption that the Cops are much less likely to murder them.
eg: The Portland Suburban Moms and the Portland Lawn Order Leafblower Brigaide.
NotMax
Recent FYWP update is playing hob with the front page. Mucho annoying.
Uncle Cosmo
@TaMara (HFG): To assholes like Holtz, anyone who isn’t actively trying to drag the One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church back to the 15th century is a “Catholic in Name Only.”
I fear for Pope Frankie.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I really hope that people are smart enough to watch what everybody DOES and not just believe what they SAY.
edit: By “everybody” I meant political parties and their representatives.
Kay
@Redshift:
I don’t believe them. I think they’re deliberately not intervening in the looting/property damage because they’re pissed off and they think the looting/property damage harms the cause of the protesters, which it does. They’re policing this very selectively.
BruceFromOhio
@SubaruDiane:
That’s what I was thinking, too. Some intrepid staff thought to look, I can imagine the elation when GoDaddy or ICANN or whatever came up all cherries. All it takes is an email address and a credit card, and the stupid fascist rubes couldn’t even handle that.
raven
@Jay: Didn’t work out so well.
Kent
You are building them now with your tax dollars. They just hide it by using tax rebate schemes rather than direct subsidies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoFi_Stadium (private funding but massive tax subsidies from Inglewood and Federal taxpayers)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banc_of_California_Stadium (more tax breaks)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Memorial_Coliseum ($300 million recent remodel funded mostly by USC with tax-exempt donations)
And so forth.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Business didn’t close they went to flex hours, so it staggered the commute.
Jay
hueyplong
Holtz has been, is, and ever shall be a repugnant POS. Of course he’s a trumper.
Next you’ll be telling me there is something not quite right about Sean Hannity.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: They are being built for other purposes and will be used for the Olympics. What we did not do in 1984(or will do in 2028) is build massive facilities JUST for the Olympics.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: What WordPress update?
MattF
@Kent: I just got a call with a recorded message saying my electricity would be shut off in 45 minutes because of an unpaid bill. ‘Recorded message’ because I only pick up the phone to answer calls from people I know.
Jay
@raven:
when I go to protests here, as a Street Medic, I know full well that the Red Cross on my back and Yellow Hardhat is seen by Cops and Nazis as an alluring Target.
Still I go.
Heather Hayer’s murder only came as a “surprise” to people not in the Movement. Every time we take to the streets, we fully expect to be murdered, by either the Cops or the Nazis.
germy
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: Oh, Jesus Christ, that might be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Those two guys are KILLING it, I am DEAD!!
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: I didn’t say it was a good strategy… =)
RobertB
@raven: My brothers and I all ate free McDonald’s for a month off of their Olympics promotion (I was a college kid then, I was allowed). A Gold for the US gets you a Big Mac, etc. Since the Warsaw Pact countries sat that one out, the US won just about everything. Towards the end we’d just give them three random tickets for a Big Mac, fries, and Coke.
James E Powell
Just out of curiosity – because he was trending on twitter – I read Andrew Sullivan’s rant about how Democrats have walked into a trap and Biden needs a Sister Souljay moment of clarity. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway.
Apart from being an a hole, that guy is really stuck in a “Forever 1998, Democrats have to reach out to religious people, quotes from undergrad philosophy classes make me an intellectual” frame of mind.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Probably version 5.5 “Eckstine” which rolled out beginning August 11.
Redshift
@Kay: I don’t believe them either. I read the quote as intended to say “how can anyone want to defund us when we clearly already don’t have enough manpower?” which made the credulous reporting all the more infuriating.
And also in light of the wingnut “these people risk their lives, so we should not question anything they do,” here they’re refusing to act against armed groups because it would be too dangerous.
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA: By the way. We just got back from a road trip through your part of the world to visit some colleges with my daughter. We stayed for a few days in Pasadena and visited: USC, Occidental, LMU, and the Claremont Colleges. Daughter liked Occidental the best of all the campuses we visited on DIY self-directed tours with no students present.
I never actually spent time in the greater LA area doing anything more than passing through or flying out of LAX. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how urban much of the suburban areas are and how nice it is. I thought the Eagle Rock neighborhood around Occidental was especially interesting and looked like a cool place to go to school. By contrast, Claremont out in the suburbs reminded me of Plano TX, which is not a good thing.
If she doesn’t stay here in the Pacific Northwest for college, I think Occidental would be her first choice for CA schools. She liked it more than any of the bay area schools we visited (Santa Clara, USF, Stanford). I personally thought that part of LA was very cool and not a place I had ever visited before.
dmsilev
@germy: The “herd immunity” people tend to gloss over the few million dead people needed to get there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: Also note the Mausoleum remodel is to optimize the facility for FOOTBALL with luxury boxes and such, actually making it less useful for the Olympics. The opening and closing will be at SoFi, not at the Mausoleum like they were in 1932 and 1984.
germy
@James E Powell:
Law and Order
Redshift
@James E Powell: I’m so glad I first encountered Sullivan in reference to The Bell Curve, so I never started taking him seriously.
Kay
@Redshift:
They absolutely do selective policing and always have. They’ll tell you they do. They are mightily pissed off because they think they are being disrespected and they have decided which parts of the job to do.
Uncle Cosmo
Wrong. What “they had already sent out” were requests for absentee ballots. There is no evidence that anyone has returned such a request and been sent a ballot.
So they send out new requests for absentee ballots, along with a note:
I don’t know if they could get away with that PS, but it would be a satisfying way to shove a huge middle finger into the face of that “judge.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: Oxy is about 5 miles from the world HQ of BillinGlendaleCA. I’ve never been to the campus, though I’ve thought I might try and do some shots there. You know who went to Oxy, right?
I’ve been to Plano, Satan had a big facility out there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: It’s a small price(more that ALL of the US war dead) to pay for FREEDUMB!
gene108
@Kent:
Why should the donations to a not-for-profit university be taxed?
Brachiator
@raven:
A lot of people went on vacation or stayed away from Olympic venues. Some businesses decided to close. Bad decision.
There was good public transportation to many venues. Most creatively, some major streets became one-way, so you could just zoom from work to home or to various sites.
The area around the Coliseum, in particular, was very well used. I was able to go to a lot of track and field and swimming events. The 1984 games were a delight and hassle free.
catclub
@Uncle Cosmo: Thanks for the correction.
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. Dedicated football fields are narrower than soccer fields and especially narrower than Olympic size tracks for track and field. So when you bring those sidelines closer to make the stadium more intimate for football you eliminate the ability to do track and field.
UW did the same thing recently with their remodel of Husky Stadium which used to have a running track and forced the sidelines back. They dug out the playing field another 20-30 ft so they could bring the sidelines down closer to the action and sacrificed the track. So they had to build a new track stadium nearby.
People are also getting fatter so when they replace the bench seating built in the 1930s with box seating with arm rests and drink holders they lose 10-20% of the seats.
I don’t know exactly what they did with the Coliseum but I expect it was similar.
Immanentize
@Ken: I’ve become fascinated by Billy Sunday as a speaker. Especially his hands:
Billy Sunday — Take the Pledge
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The answer to these sorts of questions is always ‘Hitler’, right?
Another Scott
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/08/poll-projection-biden-has-88-chance-of-winning/
Pretty graphs. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
When they go to actually providing education and serving a non-profit public objective then fine. Don’t tax them.
But when it is rich boosters getting huge tax breaks to fund sports palaces for quasi-professional sports teams I’m not sure what public good is being served. If a billionaire booster gets a $1 million tax break when donating to the construction of luxury sky boxes at the LA coliseum, what is the public good being served? These are public dollars and the rest of us have to pick up the slack
USC spent $315 million remodeling the Coliseum. How much of that was covered by taxpayer subsidies via tax deductions? 30%?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: They lowered the field at the Mausoleum shortly after the Olympics, this renovation is for luxury boxes and amenities. One good thing is they’re getting rid of the huge jumbotrons on each side of the peristyle that ruins the sight lines.
Immanentize
@raven: I just discussed the fact that the Kenosha victims were white in my classes today! I first asked if anyone had seen pictures. And if they had, I asked them not to answer. Then I asked what race the students thought the victims were.
I love my students. In both classes someone spoke up and said, until you started this convo., I thought they were AA…. But the two killed were white red heads — I always have some Irish boys in my classes to point to. It shocks them!
Jay
@Redshift:
At Charlottesville, the Police Helicopter crew who later crashed and died, were caught on mike saying how great it would be if they had a chance to murder some of the anti-Facist counter protestors.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: I’ve been told he’s like Hitler*, but a portion of the 134 is named for him.
*At least that’s what Republicans say.
VeniceRiley
@germy: Sullivan needed weed because it helped him with his HIV.
Raoul Paste
Late to the thread, but I had to mention a Trump ad that I just saw claiming that donations would be matched by a factor of 600
Everything is a scam with these people
catclub
combing out charitable donations that go for ‘good’ charity versus
donations that mostly benefit rich people is tough. Nobody wants to bother with saying that donations to the opera are not tax deductible.
Mike in NC
Nobody should ever forget that one of Trump’s first appearances in 2017 was before some police group, where he said of suspects, “don’t be afraid of roughing them up a little”. As a rich prick, Trump has been protected by the cops his entire life.
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yep. Daughter got the requisite selfie at the Obama plaza that commemorates the spot where he gave his very first public speech, which if I remember the plaque, his first public speech was on college divestment from South Africa.
I found the campus to be one of the prettiest we have visited. It’s hilly with views of the city and has lots of little natural area niches where students can hang out. It’s the requisite mission style architecture that all CA universities apparently must follow by law. But they did a nicer job of it than most of the others. I’d like to go back after the pandemic and try some of the breweries there in Eagle Rock that looked pretty cool.
I bet you could get some great shots around campus right now. It is technically closed and they have signs up, but people from the community were still out strolling through campus, walking dogs, etc. I emailed the school beforehand to ask and they said we were free to walk around if we socially distanced and didn’t enter any buildings. The landscaping and trees are immaculate.
I was expecting her to like the Claremont colleges more. But Occidental was definitely the winner based on what you can see of the campuses without students present. I think it kind of flies under the radar compared to Pomona and the big schools like USC and UCLA.
James E Powell
@dmsilev:
Sometimes it’s Babe Ruth.
Jay
Immanentize
@Jay: You really need to give us a link to a credible source for that shit. Now
Kent
That’s not my point. I’m not even advocating that. Although I do question how schools like Harvard with a $40 BILLION endowment really deserve continued tax breaks. My point was that tax payers have spent billions on the construction of athletic facilities in LA in advance of the Olympics, even if technically none of it was direct subsidies. They have learned it is easier to feed from the public trough through the back door rather than up front where it gathers more notice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent:
Not UCLA.
Jeffro
@germy: Reporters really should have some basic math facts and Covid-19 death rates handy. Should this ‘senior White House official’s judgment come to pass, we’d be looking at anywhere from 3-9 million dead Americans.
Ah well. “Let them eat hydroxychloroquine”
Immanentize
@James E Powell: “Loudest boos, cheapest seats.”
Old Dan and Little Ann
Speaking of website trolling, if you type in the orange menaces name and add a bunch of random letters after .com it takes you to a “you’re as confused as Biden” page. I don’t like it but it’s clever for those douchebags.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: I’ve found my blood pressure is lower if I just scroll past the pearls dropped by our Canadian friend.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: My point is the facilities were planned and in some cases under construction before LA bid for the 2028 Olympics. The facilities may be used for the Olympics but they were constructed independent of the Olympics being in LA. The same is true of the Mausoleum for the 1932 Olympics.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Another Scott: and informative. It also inline out with a lot of what I’ve seen.
What the heck happened to 538? The website looks like modern art were you have to be among the initiated to understand it.
Doug R
@Ken:
Hey, we got a train to the airport and Richmond in 2010, plus a ….speed skating oval?
Someone did the math and it would have been cheaper to fly speed skaters to Calgary every day of the Olympics rather than build the oval. But Richmond turned it into an athletics place
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Olympic_Oval
dmsilev
@Raoul Paste:
This matching thing just keeps escalating, doesn’t it? How long until ‘we’ll match ONE MILLION TIMES’ shows up? Late September, probably.
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Really? You don’t call this Spanish Mission style? https://equity.ucla.edu/ucla-aerial-view/
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
This.
natem
I’m a Bruin through and through, but Oxy is a pretty campus that integrates well into its neighborhood. The Eagle Rock community overall has gone through some interesting changes in the last 20 years, most of them for the better. The only problem is limited public transit. Which is an LA problem, really.
natem
@Kent: It’s supposed to be Italian Renaissance.
Immanentize
@James E Powell: Shorter Sullivan as pre-imagined by Gang of Four:
Kent
Oh, I’m agreeing with you. I’m just pointing out that the public is still helping pay for for all those new sports palaces. Except that none of those costs will be counted on the future ledger for the 2028 Olympics when LA tells us how they made a profit or broke even or whatever.
Hoppie
@Brachiator: 1984 was also when they invented car-pool lanes. For the win!
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Tru Dat. And words to actually live by.
Kent
OK, I stand corrected. I’m not an architecture expert. I just see all these CA schools with red tile roofs and Catholic-looking structures and think Spanish Mission. I guess the true Spanish Mission look is like Santa Clara University which has the adobe style beige walls with red tile roofs: https://www.scu.edu/
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh hell no, they’re going to sue the shit out of Kenosha.
Ken
“Every dollar you donate will be matched by 600 kobo thanks to a wealthy foreign prince who contacted us by e-mail!”
natem
@Kent:
Spanish mission revival is popular in SoCal. And yes, a little too ubiquitous for my taste. I am much more inclined toward the Arts and Crafts architecture, which is also fairly common, but mostly in the pre-WWII developed areas.
Ken
I could see the next Olympics being distributed across the globe, depending on the pandemic. Each sport in a different city, with a bubble that includes the venue and the athletes’ hotel, arrive two weeks early for quarantine.
NotMax
@Ken
Matched by whom? From where? What mechanism is there to confirm it occurred? There’s a limit on the amount which can be donated by any single entity.
Whole thing doesn’t pass a cursory sniff test.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@dmsilev: Not to mention the tens of millions flooding the hospitals. Funny since the overlap between the we only shut down to keep from overwhelming hospitals and the herd immunity crowd is a near perfect circle.
mrmoshpotato
@Raoul Paste:
*donates $10 to Biden, waits for orange fuckface’s 6K donation to Joe
Calouste
@Redshift:
Police always seems to have the manpower when five or six officers show up to give a black guy a parking ticket. Funny that.
Ken
@NotMax: I was riffing on the Nigerian prince email scams, but I guess I was too subtle. The kobo is the Nigerian equivalent of a penny, and 600 of them would be under half a US cent.
NotMax
@Ken
Didn’t escape notice. Was responding generally to the topic and yours was the most recent to also do so beforehand.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: No, it’s Italian Renaissance, mission style doesn’t use brick.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: I meant given what a hose job getting the Olympics is, I’ll be good if we never get them. (Even long after I’m pushing up daisies.)
ETA – and that really goes for any city.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: That’s Spanish Mission style.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: It’s worked for LA both times we’ve had them here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@natem: Art Deco or GTFO!
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
No argument with your Missionary position.
:)
Patricia Kayden
Happy 57th Anniversary to the March on Washington. We still have a far way to go.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, as Aussie skeletons would say, good on ya bones, mate! :)
I hope anything built for the Games was put to good use for years after.
frosty
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And definitely not Harvey Mudd.
Just One More Canuck
@mrmoshpotato: He should go back to being a video jockey
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Wonder what would Henry VII think of the Deco-izing of Eltham Palace?
;)
NotMax
@NotMax
Left out an I.
Henry VIII.
Kent
I just noticed it because every single school we visited on our CA college road trip had buildings with red tile roofs and buildings that looked like Spanish-style churches.
You don’t see any of that here in the Pacific Northwest. All the colleges up here pretty much follow the English style and model themselves after Oxford or Cambridge. Like Reed College or University of Washington. I can’t think of a single university or school building up here with red tile roofs. It’s all mini Oxfords or modern stuff.
NotMax
@Kent
Wouldn’t the weight accumulation of snow and ice crack the tiles?
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
The subtext is that Lou Holtz gave a long, Trump-slobbering talk at the RNC Wednesday night.
James E Powell
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
538’s website has joined the Cult of the Savvy.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
That is worse than the car warranty scam texts. Which I get 3-4 a month. It’s not a legit number.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Holtz’s money quote about “Catholics in name only” here.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think that’s only here at Balloon Juice. People were discussing the Society for Creative Anachronism this morning, someone mentioned Bradley’s involvement in that, and then her back-story came up.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Or what Gravenstone said. ?
Hoppie
@Kent: Real Spanish Mission is down here with us slackers in SD. LA is just, as usual, fake.
tokyokie
@raven: I don’t remember shorthose, but I do remember the Illini beating Mizzou twice in the mid-’70s while I was there. The Tigers beat Alabama, USC, Nebraska, and Ohio State on the road while I was a student, and lost to Illinois and Iowa State at home. The Al Onofrio era was a wonderment.
zhena gogolia
Brilliant, brilliant Cauvin on Gaffigan:
James E Powell
@Hoppie:
Phony Spanish Mission is the dominant look in the pricier parts of Orange County.
Llelldorin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @frosty:
Nor most of the UCs and CSUs—they tend to follow the “1960s California Public Architecture” style. (“Yes, we do have cinder blocks! Ask us how!”)
Kay
Gaffigan went to the same (Catholic) high school as Justice Roberts.
Jay Noble
@catclub: These were not actual ballots but rather REQUESTS for Absentee Ballots.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Llelldorin: I know as far as UCLA goes, they’ve gone back to what they call “campus architecture” which is the Italian Renaissance inspired look.
Jay Noble
@raven: I did. And I’m still trying to figure out why the guy who got shot in the arm had a handgun, let alone having it out.
And still – why was Rittenhouse wearing gloves??
KenK
@SiubhanDuinne:
Or better yet – they make a donation.
Yutsano
@James E Powell: Is this some new talking point going around? Because George Will wrote something very similar.
The Moar You Know
@Jay:
@Immanentize:
sadly this is bullshit. There were no flight recorders on the helo.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@raven: yes I did. I figured possibly they felt they had a better chance of stopping a white man with a gun than a black person.(without getting shot by the cops) Or they might have been the closest people to see him aiming/shooting.
Honus
@Jay: I’ve lived in Charlottesville for fifty years. Heather Heyer was killed in the street in front of my office door. I’ve never heard that. I suggest you provide a source.