Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

So many bastards, so little time.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Cole is on a roll !

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Cherish the Wins

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Cherish the Wins

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Cherish the Wins

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

When the performer is affiliated with Turning Point-USA, you know it’s about denouncing for dollars…

While on the topic of ‘pious for the payoffs’ hypocrites…

========

Far happier news:

Shalanda Young couldn’t sleep.

A small team of Biden administration officials had spent the past two days in intense negotiations with House Republicans in an attempt to avert a catastrophic government default. Ms. Young, the White House budget director, had been trading proposals on federal spending caps with negotiators deputized by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose Republican caucus was refusing to raise the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit without deep cuts.

Now, as she scrolled Netflix in search of “bad television” to distract her racing mind, Ms. Young had a sinking feeling. What if she cut a deal to reduce spending and raise the debt limit, only to see Republicans attempt to force through much deeper cuts when it came time to pass annual appropriations bills this fall?

At work the next morning, Ms. Young asked her staff how to stop that from happening. They settled on a plan, which in essence would penalize Republicans’ most cherished spending programs if they failed to follow the contours of the agreement. Then they forced Republicans to include that plan in the legislative text codifying the deal.

That approach reflected a broader strategy President Biden’s team followed in the debt limit negotiations, according to interviews with current and former administration officials, some Republicans and other people familiar with the talks.

On Saturday, that strategy reached its conclusion as Mr. Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 into law, just days before a potential default and following weeks of talks and a revolt from right-wing lawmakers in the House that put an agreement at risk of collapse.

In pursuit of an agreement, the Biden team was willing to give Republicans victory after victory on political talking points, which they realized Mr. McCarthy needed to sell the bill to his conference. They let Mr. McCarthy’s team claim in the end that the deal included deep spending cuts, huge clawbacks of unspent federal coronavirus relief money and stringent work requirements for recipients of federal aid.

But in the details of the text and the many side deals that accompanied it, the Biden team wanted to win on substance. With one large exception — a $20 billion cut in enforcement funding for the Internal Revenue Service — they believe they did…

Reader Interactions

257Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the $1.4 billion rescission will actually increase deficits by about $900 million over the next decade because it will lead to less tax revenue coming in. “CBO anticipates that rescinding those funds would result in fewer enforcement actions over the next decade and in a reduction in revenue collections,” states the May 30 report to Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
    The CBO’s projections did not include the $20 billion that the White House agreed to divert to other programs.

  3. 3.

    Ken

    While on the topic of ‘pious for the payoffs’ hypocrites…

    Darn, I thought we were going to do more pointing and laughing at Mike Pence and Casey DeSantis getting geared up as “Leather Couple of the Year” to win the coveted biker demographic.

    I guess pointing and laughing at stellar negotiator Kevin McCarthy will have to do.

  4. 4.

    Matt McIrvin

    It always amazes me when they lie about recent history that anyone can remember. Stuff they said ten years ago is in the memory hole.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They just don’t care.  It’s about today’s talking point.  Here, the talking point is about passing the buck to LGBT for forcing the right to act the way they do.

  6. 6.

    Michael Bersin

    The Warrensburg, Missouri Pride Festival on Saturday went off without a hitch – with the help of a lot of volunteers, four armed private security professionals at the entrance/exits and inside the venue, and  Warrensburg Police officers and vehicles stationed in the parking lot.

    Warrensburg, Missouri Pride Festival – hand wringing, pearl clutching, and sign waving in the noonday sun – June 3, 2023

    And:

    Warrensburg, Missouri Pride Festival – June 3, 2023

    We spent eight hours at the Pride Festival. Had a couple of [right wingnut banned] beers from the bar, some pizza by the slice, and acquired some free swag along with some purchases from vendors (rainbow flag!).

  8. 8.

    Almost Retired

    Ben Shapiro is grousing about DEI being contrary to Christian values and what is taught in the Bible.  How exactly is that?  Please do explain, Rev. Shapiro.  Sure, there may be some indiscriminate smiting in the books attributed to some of the grumpier prophets, but the Gospels would seem to support DEI aligning nicely with DEI measures

  13. 13.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Also, aren’t we the ones who are supposed to be boycotting Chik-fil-A because they were anti-gay or something? Didn’t that happen?

    ETA: Yes, here’s a 2012 article about how they promise to stop donating to anti-gay organizations. Our boycott must have been before that. I wonder if this is when they hired the DEI officer.

  15. 15.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve been boycotting Chik-Fil-A but only by default — the one time I tried them, the food was so-so, and I didn’t see any reason to go back.

    EDIT: Looks like the boycott-on-principles is lifted?  Maybe I’ll try them again.

  17. 17.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Back in the day, Republicans spoke in code to camouflage their bigotry. The GOP’s problem nowadays is that the junkyard rats in the party don’t want to go back to using euphemisms anymore. They’ve been emboldened to proudly wear their swastikas and white hoods in public and they love it. They’re thisclose to being able to fill in the blanks in the N-word at yell it in the faces of POC whenever they feel like it and get away with it. The tails of the junkyard rats waving the carcass of the Republican party can’t dial it back because they got a taste of the good shit. They want their bigotry pure and uncut.

    They’re hooked and they ain’t going cold turkey.

  19. 19.

    kalakal

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Also, aren’t we the ones who are supposed to be boycotting Chik-fil-A because they were anti-gay or something?

    That’s what I thought, must be a bit weird to work there, what with having to  be woke homophobes and all.

    The ‘Lord’s Chicken’ bit is a hoot. The grift goes ever on

  20. 20.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ken: ​
     

    My go-to is the spicy chicken deluxe.

    And I’d rather eat their waffle fries than any fries from McD’s or BK, but take that with a grain of salt if you like MickeyD’s fries – I’ve always been mystified about why people think they’re great.

  21. 21.

    Hilbertsubspace

    It is difficult to find word to describe the reactionaries, but I studied Vogon poetry in college.  Ahem….

     

    The pustulent effluvium of America’s scabrous backside.

    Festering gobs sloughing and burning on asphalt.

    And they also smelled a great deal.

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    The thing is, the Republicans or at least the current crop are so bad at this because they mostly despise the kind of people who live and breathe policy and fiscal debates and they don’t hire them. I am sure there are still bona fide conservative policy wonks out there somewhere, but they seem to be fewer and fewer and working mostly in think tanks that seem further and further removed from Republican political machinery.

    Anytime someone complains to me about DEI, my standard answer is, they do it because they would like to have customers and competent employees not just today but 10 years from now. I guess that’s why Tucker Carlson moved on to the Great Replacement Theory as a response to what seems like pretty obviously rational business behavior. The only question is at what point does he start espousing genocidal rage as a solution. It’s scary out there.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @The Thin Black Duke: ​
     

    The tails of the junkyard rats waving the carcass of the Republican party can’t dial it back because they got a taste of the good shit. They want their bigotry pure and uncut.

    100%. The notion that some remnant of ‘sane Republicans’ will somehow save the party from itself is entirely absurd. They’ll be the way they are – or worse, if they can find a way, and I expect they can – until their party is too small to matter. (I can’t say I expect to live to see that, but one can always hope.)

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    @lowtechcyclist:

    McDonald “s fries used to be fabulous. Now it depends on the right McDonald” s and getting them straight out the fryer.

    Love the waffle fries. They are consistently good

  28. 28.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: @Ken: They were contributing to anti-gay causes back in the day, but one of their core principles was to hire the formerly incarcerated, who often have trouble getting jobs. Seems like the CEO has been evolving.

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    “You are no longer the Lord’s chicken.”

    MUST HAZ ROTATING TAG LINE!!!

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    @The Thin Black Duke: ​ You cross a line when your  political message is making people believe that they no longer need to worry about even aspiring to be something better.​

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @satby:

    Seems like the CEO has been evolving.

    I don’t know they guy, but I suppose there are some Christians who sincerely want to do good the way Jesus said but have internalized the historical (bigoted) standard for what is good and what is evil, which is something that can be unlearned, unlike hatred and fear, which requires a more fundamental transformation of the soul.

  38. 38.

    Ben Cisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️

    @Barbara: Co-worker brought this up to me a while back. He couldn’t define it either. I helped him out (my cousin is a Director of DEI at a decidedly non-liberal university in this state).

    Also told him that the overfed frozen food heir that did all the yelling about “woke” that got him wound up only used that word because he couldn’t use the one he WANTED to use. Teachable moment!!

  39. 39.

    narya

    I normally wear my beer-themed running shoes to the beer runs (duh . . .), but I think I’m gonna do a few with the new pride-themed running shoes. Three runs coming up–today, Wednesday, and next Sunday–so plenty of opportunities. No, I am NOT going to wear one of each. Probably not, anyway.

  41. 41.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Barbara: Know Your Place. Oh, we’ll tell you where, don’t worry. Actually, we don’t give a fuck how you feel.

  43. 43.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s been pretty cool around here–by the lake–so I’m not worried about that. And today’s brewery is Ravinia–the one that has a lovely beer garden out back. The run is at 10:30, so it looks like there will be Beer Before Noon . . .

  44. 44.

    Scout211

    Governor Newsom has put Temecula School district on notice.

    An offensive statement from an ignorant person. This isn’t Texas or Florida. In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn.Congrats Mr. Komrosky you have our attention. Stay tuned. https://t.co/4HHLm3q57r— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 3, 2023

     

    An ugly scene played out at the Temecula Valley School Board meeting as they voted 3-2 to reject an elementary school social studies book that contained information about pioneering California gay rights figure Harvey Milk. The board’s president made a baseless accusation that Milk was a pedophile before voting to ban the book.

    “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” said Board President Dr. Joseph Komrosky.

  46. 46.

    Layer8Problem

    Oh, and in this nation’s capital the humidity remains entirely too high.  Steeplejack, is there a manager I could be speaking to about this?

  47. 47.

    narya

    @Omnes Omnibus: It still (after all these years) amazes me a little. I’m a half a block from the lake, and my run/walk route is along the lake, and the breeze can be quite cool. Less than a half mile inland from the lake, and the temps can shoot up significantly.

  49. 49.

    The Thin Black Duke

    “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” said Board President Dr. Joseph Komrosky.

    He’s pouring the concrete for the Narrative.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I have long wondered if that’s how duplicate comments happen.

    I wonder if you clicked edit, made your additions, and then instead of hitting Update comment, you actually pressed Post Comment instead?

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    Those video-in-the-car things always strike me as being little more than, and just as fake as, “reality TV”.

    I’m so, so sick of it. The eyes wide with phony outrage, the same hand gestures replicated over and over in thousands of these videos, the whole “look at ME!, listen to ME!” niche celebrity aspect- I don’t even respect their grifters. None of it is original or interesting.

  56. 56.

    sdhays

    @Almost Retired: For people like Ben Shapiro, the salient parts of the Bible are the same parts that made the Utah school district remove it from elementary and junior high school libraries.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @satby:

    If it was a core principle maybe they were early to it but all low wage employers now hire the formerly incarcerated. The tight labor market took care of that for them. It was a business decision – they wanted the stores open. They don’t drug test anymore either unless it’s required for insurance.

  58. 58.

    JPL

    @Baud:  The NYTimes will be next to face the threat of boycott.  They might not read it or do the puzzle, but that won’t matter.  Spoiler Alert  The crossword puzzle is about the pride flag.

  60. 60.

    Spanky

    @Layer8Problem: Sorry, but the manager who was in charge of this died of malaria about two hundred years ago. The place is built on a swamp. The British foreign service classified the place as tropical back before air conditioning.

    In other words, tough luck, Charlie.

  66. 66.

    Soprano2

    @The Thin Black Duke: For some of them this is definitely true. I’ve heard people say, after saying something racist and untrue about black people (like the lower IQ claim) “It’s not racist if it’s true.” Not all conservatives are openly racist like that, though.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    A Texas school superintendent sent lewd photos to an undercover officer posing online as a 15-year-old girl he planned to meet with, authorities said.
    Michael Keith Stevens, 47, superintendent of the Itasca Independent School District, was arrested Thursday and accused of online solicitation of a minor, according to court records.
    Itasca Independent School District is about 55 miles south of Dallas.

    Before this his claim to fame was being a rock-ribbed conservative who did an in-school suspension of a 12 year old boy for weeks because the boy had long hair.

    Conservative authoritarians have a pedophile problem. They should address it. The vast, vast majority of child abusers seem to come from the Right, ESPECIALLY the religious Right. That they have THE NERVE to accuse anyone else is laughable. There is not a fundamentalist religious org in this country that has NOT had a child abuse scandal. It’s 100% of them on a system, if not individual, basis. Each and every org.

  69. 69.

    Shalimar

    @Ken: I have tried CFA’s chicken sandwich before and it is above average.  I don’t boycott them.  I just never go there because Popeyes’ chicken sandwiches are better.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    Didn’t want to skew the spirit of the garden thread, so placing it here.

    Did someone say Iris? Helluva 20 episode ride, available once again on Netflix.

  73. 73.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Layer8Problem: If you’re referring to Washington DC, this has been the dryest spring in years, maybe decades. By our standards the humidity is pretty damn low this year. So if you can’t hack this I suggest you get out before normal, much less damper than normal, returns.

  81. 81.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That’s good, I always thought it was a waste of money. Whole businesses sprang up to profit off the false idea that drug testing could weed out the “bad” hires. I knew of at least one time early on in that practice where a needed employee was hired in spite of failing the test. I think it was mostly used to find pot users, and now that it’s legal in so many states it would be impossible to find employees if you screened out everyone who tested positive for THC! I don’t have a problem with drug screening for cause, but otherwise it’s a stupid waste of money. It doesn’t find alcohol abuse, either.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They still do it for dangerous jobs – higher wage jobs, really, and in my experience it doesn’t matter if pot is legal- a positive still means they go home- either for a period or permanently. It would be the equivalent of showing up drunk. My son is currently  working on the Factory Zero EV plant in Detroit and when he arrived on site he was immediately drug tested – they send them for testing on arrival and if they fail they go home. I don’t think they can get insurance unless they test and enforce.

    But I think it’s gone for low wage, high turnover work, like fast food. I had a (funny) juvenile the other day tell me he cannot get fired from Wendys- he disappears for like a week and they just put him back on the schedule when he turns back up. It’s make your own schedule over there.

  87. 87.

    mali muso

    Taking my six year old daughter to see the new Little Mermaid movie. On our way, she confirmed that “this is the mermaid with the brown skin like me.” Representation matters! ❤️

  88. 88.

    oldgold

     

    @Juju:

    My first impression is that Kristen Welker is an improvement over the Toddler.

    Of course, as to what is really going on here, who knows? My bologna meter began to quiver and shake when Todd claimed he was doing this to spend more time with the family.

  89. 89.

    Juju

    @OverTwistWillie: I think it would more likely to be we have to fire this woman because she she’s to blame for whatever and we have to find our mediocre white man. I don’t think NBC is going to cancel a flagship program.

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    Side note: wouldn’t CFA’s DEI officer be kind of like the Maytag repairman?  That’s how I picture the poor guy/gal.

    On a positive note, though, the same person could easily be the DEI officer for Hobby Lobby and Cracker Barrel, and cash three paychecks each month.  =)

  93. 93.

    Mark

    That Christian woman sure is filled with a lot of hate.

    Praise the Lord & pass the ammo.

  94. 94.

    OverTwistWillie

    @oldgold:

    Whatever it was, that show is now a monument to Senate venality. Comcast should be required to book the production costs as lobbying.

  96. 96.

    JPL

    Apt description of Ron and Don      fascism 

    Like spoiled toddlers, they cannot mentally model the possibility of experiencing any consequences, no matter how small, so they blow through all those rules and conventions and traditions like a maniacal Stay-Puft Kool Aid Man and stomp in the faces of anyone or any law standing in th ofeir way.

  99. 99.

    Citizen Alan

    @oldgold: Really? Perhaps we should start a betting pool to see who the network could find that will be even worse than the Toddler, seeing as how MTP has gotten worse with every new host for as long as i’ve been aware of its existence. I hear Tuckums is still looking for work.

  101. 101.

    Mike in NC

    Ate once at a Chick-Fil-A in Virginia Beach about 15-20 years ago and thought it was awful. On the other hand, they’re opening new Five Guys locations all around here.

  102. 102.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Kudos to Kristen Welker who did a great job moderating the final presidential debate between Biden and Trump.

  103. 103.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Everyone I work with who has a CDL, which is most of them, is subject to random drug tests because their job is to operate big machinery, like backhoes and front loaders. So yeah, that’s right. I think you’re right that it’s going away for low wage jobs and also for office jobs. I guess that Wendy’s has enough employees to tolerate that; we couldn’t, we don’t have enough people to keep someone who just didn’t show up for a week.  What does that kid do for money?

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I have no real recollections of MTP pre-Tim Russert, I know during the Great Clenis Hunt he was one of the moral scolds, IIRC it was Atrios who named him Monsignor Punkinhead, and the show was in the tank for John McCain in 2000 and then Bush. David Gregory had the gravitas of a sack of dryer lint, and Chuck Todd wasn’t much better

  106. 106.

    Spanky

    @oldgold:

    My bologna meter began to quiver and shake when Todd claimed he was doing this to spend more time with the family.

    That means there’s video.

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    @oldgold:

    Kristen Welker will begin hosting Meet the Press this Fall.

    It’s still an idiot pundit show. There are norms to be followed. If the format becomes less stupid, I might take a peek.

  110. 110.

    RaflW

    @Almost Retired: Republican Jesus would be charging a 10% skim on the temple money changers, not throwing them out. Which begs the question, what about Republican Jesus is even remotely aligned with the Bible or his own teachings?

    Not that Republicans ever need to answer that question. They just smugly ‘believe’.

  111. 111.

    M31

    @Mike in NC:  they’re opening new Five Guys locations all around here.

    wait till the woke warriors find out that two of the 5 guys are gay

  113. 113.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Pride was never such a controversial thing when it was gay men and lesbians

    What a pathetic lie.  It was obvious to me the whole point of Pride was to get in the face of the haters so everyone could see how screwed up the haters are.

  114. 114.

    satby

    @Kay: Yes, they were early to it. They’ve been actively hiring formerly incarcerated people since at least 2008, when I became aware of it; roughly the same time as their anti-homosexuality became public. It was an odd mix of the owners “Christian” beliefs, but it wasn’t because the unemployment rate was low.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I think he makes “enough” in a couple of weeks at Wendys and then coasts for a while. I worry about them a little because when the economy slows they will have to adjust expectations. Wal Mart went from a suspension for one no-show/no call to a suspension for THREE no show/no calls. They were complaining about three so I asked them- how many no show/no calls should you get? Thirty seven? You have to show up for work.

    I once got suspended from working at the Dairy Queen in high school for sassing the assistant manager, who was like 6 months older than I was. Back in MY DAY :)

  118. 118.

    NotMax

    @Mike in NC

    Tried a Five Guys location several years back while on a NY visit. Two nibbles enough to prompt throwing the rest into the nearest trash barrel. Absolute swill.

    In sore need of bringing in a sixth guy, one who knows the rudiments of cookery.

  119. 119.

    RaflW

    @Ken: The only time in recent memory I even considered a Fil-A sandwich was at the Minneapolis airport. Terminal food choices often kinda suck, and the back end is all run by one octopus contractor (though of course Fil-A corp gets some percentage cut).

    I ended up having mediocre Asian from one of the last standing outlets of a local chain that was the hot thing 25 years ago. But maybe I’ll relax about the Fil-A anti-gay boycott if need be.

    My last chicken sandwich from them was, IIRC, in the 1980s. It was in fact a chicken sandwich. Crispy, I’m sure. Mayonnaisey, if memory serves. Entirely average, so of course popular in America!

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I wonder how many of those comedians who spoof right wingers on social media had to throw out their script when this woman said, apparently in utter sincerity, that Chick-Fil-A was no long the Lord’s chicken

    I’ve never had it, in part because I consider waffle fries to be an unholy abomination

  121. 121.

    OverTwistWillie

    According to wiki, CFA pulled their money from Salvation Army and FCA. Maybe someone had a road to Damascus moment, maybe they just needed some cash for a place on St. John.

    Let she/he without sin, or with a declining donor base, cast the first stone.

  122. 122.

    Urza

    For those talking about going back to Chik-Fil-A cause they stopped donating to anti-gay causes, the CEO still donates a significant amount.  And its a private company so you don’t know how much he’s being paid.  Just because they got a DEI exec doesn’t mean he ever stopped his bigotry.

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: Years and years and years ago, we heard about this place called 5 Guys and decided to stop there after seeing a movie.

    There were about 5 couples in front of us, so we figured there would be a bit of a wait, but it would be Ok.

    It took something like 35 minutes to order and get our food.

    :-/

    It was very good, but 35 minutes for a burger and fries??!

    We didn’t go back. But we’ve been to a couple of stores after they went franchise and got big. Much faster service and still very good.

    Dunno why you had a bad experience with them (BIL in Austin loves them), but people are different.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    Miss Bianca

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole “Woke Chicken” thing. I mean…”Woke Chicken”? WTF? Do these people ever actually listen to the shit that dribbles out of their pie-holes?

  125. 125.

    smith

    @Miss Bianca: Not a whole lot different from woke M&Ms or woke Mr/Ms Potato Head

    ETA: It may be that the willingness to swallow absurdities is the test of a true believer.

  126. 126.

    Miss Bianca

    @lowtechcyclist: My understanding is that Mickey D’s fries *were* considered great back in the day when they were still using animal fats to fry them. When they switched to vegetable oils, not so much.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    Don Moynihan
    @donmoyn
    ·16h
    The invocation of Churchill’s “we will fight them on the beaches” speech as his country faced an imminent invasion of Nazis only underlines how absurd the war on woke is. There are real problems in the world today, but these people don’t have the capacity to address them.

    They’re ninnies. Shrieking about woke monsters under their beds. And that includes all the “respected” anti woke ninnies, like Andrew Sullivan and the NYTimes editorial board and Bill Mahr.

    Ninnies. No capacity to address real problems so they create panics about stupid shit and then “address” that. They’re low quality thinkers. They should all do car videos. That’s the level of thought involved.

  129. 129.

    sdhays

    @NotMax: Agreed. I tried Five Guys years ago when I moved back to the US, and was seriously unimpressed. I tried it again a few years later just to see if my previous impression remained. It did.

    I really don’t understand why they’re successful. Even their fries are terrible.

  130. 130.

    Another Scott

    @Miss Bianca:

    “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
    ― George Orwell, 1984

    It’s intentionally nonsensical. It’s all about bending people in their cult to their will for power.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    Miss Bianca

    @Soprano2: I’ve stopped having disturbing flashbacks to mandatory “peeing in the cup” every time I go to the bathroom even at home, but it took a while. I was mostly incensed over being forced to do it as an e-commerce office drudge in my local Big Hardware franchise – even  if it was for “insurance purposes”, I wasn’t operating any machinery bigger, heavier, or more dangerous than my fucking computer.

    Even baked out of my gourd I could have managed to fill Amazon orders, ffs.

  132. 132.

    sdhays

    @smith: I still can’t quite believe that they were freaking out on how one of the M&M’s was less fuckable. I mean…not to kink-shame, but if you’re thinking of fucking an M&M to the point of getting upset about a change in Mars’ advertising strategy, you probably should bring that up with your therapist rather than social media/shitty Fox show.

  134. 134.

    Anoniminous

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     
    Since it is highly likely-to-a-certainty Sally Hemings was his half-sister you can add incest along with the pedophile and rape charges.

  135. 135.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I consider waffle fries to be an unholy abomination

    Ah, you’re a pancake fries man.     :)

    Have never set foot in a C-F-A. Fast food joints never held much appeal for me regardless of the sign above the door. All sorts of chain joints have recently discovered Maui. In addition to Chik, Raising Cane’s and Sonic opened or about to. Fatburger came and subsequently shuttered in practically the blink of an eye. Quizno’s went bye-bye years ago, ditto for DQ. Only a single KFC outlet left, that one serving what could best be described as Kentucky Fried Chickadee; teeny-tiniest pieces of bird ever.

    For the record, personal boycott of McD’s (since early in the 1970s) still active after one in then suburban Virginia served me a sewage patty (meat was far beyond spoiled) and refused to either replace it or provide a refund.

    Remain mildly curious about a new place coming soon, though, solely because of the name: Ramen Bones.

  136. 136.

    sdhays

    @Miss Bianca: Employer mandated drug testing is banned in Europe and somehow they manage, so it’s clearly all bullshit. I’m not sure if they have exceptions for jobs operating heavy machinery, but definitely not for office work.

  141. 141.

    Bill Arnold

    @Baud:
    There’s a related line in Sophocles/Antigone, that has been translated as “evil at one time or another seems good, to him whose mind a god leads to ruin.”
    The theologies motivating Christian Supremacists are riddled with this sort of confusion. (‘s/a god/the adversary/’ (or Satan)).

  143. 143.

    Juju

    @Anoniminous: Sally Hemings was not Jefferson’s half sister. She was very likely the half sister of Jefferson’s wife. Jefferson’s wife was the daughter of a slave owning planter.

  144. 144.

    laura

    @Soprano2: Just a few years ago, the feds implemented a national database for CDL holders that tracks any violations of the stringent drug and alcohol prohibitions and limitations. It prevents a driver who pops positive from leaving a job and getting hired anywhere else in the US. Employers are also held to enforce the regs by stringent hiring procedures. It takes about 45 minutes and 2 separate electronic devices- computer and smartphone to register with the database. This should really increase road safety overall, but it does nothing to address the use of legit pain-related opioid usage by injured drivers- and work-related injuries and chronic pain are surprisingly common in the trucking industry be it long haul or municipal/state refuse and road maintenance jobs. Lowering the retirement age and ensuring affordable retiree healthcare would actually address this aspect.

  145. 145.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: God, Kay. Are you living in my head? Or have I just absorbed the way you look at things from seeing you lay them out like this? I’ve been formulating a letter to my local Board of Education in the wake of their decision to shit-can the social-emotional learning curriculum at the school on the grounds that it “teaches Critical Race Theory.” This in a school where 20-25 percent of the kids are on IEPs, mostly for social-emotional issues!

    And what I’ve been saying to myself as I write it is, “I understand why the BOE wants to focus on BS problems instead of the actual, real problems this district is facing – BS problems can have BS solutions, unlike real problems that need real solutions. But BS solutions to BS problems can actually create more REAL problems.”

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @smith: Historian Annette Gordon-Read’s The Hemingses of Monticello (2008) examines these and other questions in detail, 800 pages worth.  She won a Pulitzer Prize for her work.

  148. 148.

    James E Powell

    It’s Sunday! So that means Chuck Todd & Andrea Mitchell are both trending on twitter. And everybody hates both of them.

    This is what puzzles me about the media. Why are such people treated as major figures who just cannot be replaced? Who would miss them if they disappeared tomorrow? They add nothing of value to the discourse.

  153. 153.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    It’s all so dumb. Social emotional learning is teaching kids how to function in groups, a “group” like a… society. It’s impulse control and treating other people decently. When I was on a school council and we did anti bullying the ony way we could explain it to Right wing parents was to portray is as behavorial controls- “behaving yourself” means not attacking the kid who is different, etc. We had to portray it as “maintaining order” – otherwise they would be pro-bullying.

    Tell them “social emotional learning” will make productive employees because they’ll be able to work with others. Maybe they’ll value that.

  156. 156.

    smith

    @Kay: At a deep level, getting along with people who are not powerful conflicts with their core value of “cruelty is the point,” and will have to be dressed up in a huge amount of camouflage before they can accept it.

  157. 157.

    RaflW

    @Miss Bianca: “‘Woke Chicken’? WTF?”

    My hope with all the DeSantis gibberish about woke mind virus and how it’s cultural marxism is the turnoff to median voters that it should be.

    It’s completely unrelated to anything actually happening in the lives of anyone not extremely online in right win spaces +/or consuming endless Newsmax/OAN. IT certainly doesn’t speak to solving problems for people with unaffordable home insurance or unmanageable hospital bills.

    DeSepsis’ spokesmodel said some nonsense about “as bizarre as [Nikki Haley] aligning with woke Disney.” Disney drew 58,000,000 visits in FL last year. That’s 12.6X the number of votes Rhonda gleaned in FL in ’22.

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    @lowtechcyclist:

    but take that with a grain of salt if you like MickeyD’s fries – I’ve always been mystified about why people think they’re great.

    They used to be very good. I remember Julia Child once raving about them.

    ETA. I also remember listening to a public radio piece about a secret fast food laboratory that came up with organic additives that helps takeout french fries stay warm for the extra minutes it takes people to drive home. I wonder if this affects the flavor a bit.

  161. 161.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @RaflW: somebody on twitter said that things got very tense with Ron and Casey at an event when she told somebody their daughter watches Frozen, which I gather is a Disney picture, several times a day, as little kids will.

    And of course, they got married at Disney World

    consider the fact that in his book Mr. DeSantis notes that it was Ms. DeSantis who asked him to wear his naval “dress white uniform” for their wedding, complete with all his medals, though he had planned on wearing a tux.
    She also held an on-air competition, he wrote, so viewers could vote on what wedding dress she should wear. When it came time to walk down the aisle, Mr. DeSantis wrote, she looked “less like a TV anchor and more like a princess.” Together, however, they looked like nothing so much as cosplay from the triumphant finales of both “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “A Few Good Men.”

    she was a local news anchor at the time

  164. 164.

    Delk

    Meanwhile in Iowa : Casey DeSantis wore a black leather jacket in 86-degree weather with the words “Where Woke Goes to Die” and an outline of Florida on the back.

    That’s cape weather, not black leather weather.

  165. 165.

    Baud

    @RaflW:

    They’re trying to recreate the mindless frenzied passion they created in 2016.  It’s not supposed to make sense.

  170. 170.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay:

    We had to portray it as “maintaining order” – otherwise they would be pro-bullying.

    That’s how bullies think: “You’re telling me if I do X I’m hurting someone?” “Yes.” “Then I am absolutely gonna do X!”

  171. 171.

    Alison Rose

    Hey y’all – Little Hill Sanctuary in Watsonville CA is having an online auction to raise money to either make repairs and improvements to their current property (they were hit hard by the rains and flooding earlier this year) or to hopefully move to another property that would be less susceptible to floods and such. There are a lot of great items here! This farm is owned by the friend of one of my dearest friends, so if anyone is inclined to place some bids, that would be wonderful :)

  173. 173.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Baud: I don’t know the guy, either, but the one person I know who works for CfA corporate is one of those rare evangelicals who really tries to follow all of the teachings of Jesus — donates a lot of his time and money to church and to nondenominational charities and causes. His big thing is alleviating food and water insecurity in underserved communities.  I have no idea of his views on the current rightwing attacks on the LGBTQIA+ communities.

  176. 176.

    CaseyL

    @oatler: I think all the fast food outlets and junk food companies have “secret” labs.

    There was a big story a year or so ago (?) about how the corn snack companies do a LOT of research on flavor and texture, how to make their food-like products really “pop” your tastebuds so you can’t resist eating them.  IIRC, they actually talked about triggering dopamine reactions.

    Another good reason to avoid junk food: it’s trying to get you hooked.  Literally addicted.

  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay:

    Tell them “social emotional learning” will make productive employees because they’ll be able to work with others. Maybe they’ll value that.

    Ha! You mean, tell that to the very same set of folks who complain that “no one wants to work these days”? LOL – they’d probably tie *that* to SEL as well!

  178. 178.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: Is it possible you just don’t like burger chains?  FWIW I think Five Guys is fine.  It’s no Culver’s though.

  179. 179.

    Cameron

    @sdhays: Y’all think yer all that with that hard sugar coat, but this dude can’t wait to get at that sweet stuff inside…..wait!  Wait!  Where are you folks taking me?

  180. 180.

    Steeplejack

    @Layer8Problem:

    Are you perhaps having a medical crisis?! In D.C. the temp now is 68°, the humidity is only 54%, and the all-important dew point is a low 50°. It’s a beautiful day!

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @dnfree: How good French fries are is all about the oil. McDonald’s fries were the best when they were fried in beef tallow.

  185. 185.

    Soprano2

    @CaseyL: There’s a book called “Salt, Fat, Sugar” or something similar that talks about this. It’s also addressed in “Fast Food Nation”. It’s not really a secret.

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I made my first confession to a priest who at the age of eight gave me some creepy vibes, the new thing then was face-to-face confession. Years later it came out that he was one of those priests. He ran the youth programs in our church.

    My mom shocked me decades later when she said she never trusted him because he was a convert who became a priest. She was born in 1935, attended only parochial schools, attended Mass most of her life, but that was a red flag to her

  192. 192.

    Brachiator

    @oatler:

    “Secret fast food laboratory” should be the tell.

    It’s not a big deal, and not that nefarious. During the pandemic, takeout became more popular and some people were driving further on average. People didn’t want to get home only to find that their fries were cold and limp.

  195. 195.

    smith

    @japa21: Culver’s is the only fast food franchise I frequent, and not that frequently. A few weeks back I stopped there for the first time in 3 years, and was disappointed to find their chicken sandwich to be less than expected. Not at all what I remembered — I may just give up fast food altogether.

  196. 196.

    Another Scott

    NPR.org (from 2016):

    But science can unlock many secrets, and cooking is science. To understand how to get the effects I want, there are a couple of universal rules of frying to nail down, according to Scott Andrew Paulson. He’s a physicist at James Madison University, and he’s been through a similar journey trying to create the perfect French fry.

    As soon as any food drops into oil, there’s that sizzle and burst of bubbles cradling your fries. “A lot of people say the oil is boiling,” Paulson says. But what’s actually happening, he says, is “you’re boiling the water very near the surface of the food.” Frying is first and foremost a dehydration process. This means that the drier your food is when you start frying, the better your crust will be.

    But there’s a problem. The water just below the crust of your food can’t escape easily. As it vaporizes and expands, it creates a kind of bubble trapped under the oil. Aside from helping to puff up certain batters, like the pancake batter on these fried Oreos, this stops the crust from becoming very thick. You could keep it in the oil longer, but that runs the risk of overcooking.

    The secret around this problem is to fry your food twice. Paulson fries his potatoes at 350 degrees for a few minutes. Then he freezes them and fries them again.

    “The double fry thing works for other food, too,” says Kenji Lopez-Alt, a food columnist at Serious Eats and author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. Moisture in the center of the food migrates to the surface after the food cools and the surface gets soggy again. Then you boil off that moisture again on the second fry.

    There are a couple of possible reasons why this works. One is there’s already less water in the food after the first fry.

    The second reason is that the first fry changes the microscopic architecture of your food. During frying, oil pushes into the food through air pockets that are, in the beginning, warped and twisted channels.

    As the cooking progresses, “those pathways are becoming simpler, merging with each other,” explains Pawan Takhar, a food engineer at the University of Illinois, who studied the dynamics of frying potatoes. On that second fry, these straightened, simple pathways make it easier for water to escape, giving you a drier, crisper fry.

    This knowledge has completely changed my chicken game.

    There’s one last science tip. Once the food starts to cool, that bubble of vaporized water inside your food pops and turns back into water, Takhar says. That creates a suction force that pulls any surface oil deep into the food, making it greasier. So, mop up any excess oil on the food immediately after frying.

    I’m pretty sure that 5 Guys doesn’t do that double-frying thing (it would probably take an hour to get an order if they did ;-), and their fries are very greasy if they get cold (they’re much better if they’re microwaved if they get cold)…

    (I’ve read elsewhere that one should not refrigerate or freeze potatoes because the starches change to sugars or something, but of course Ore-Ida is very happy to sell frozen potatoes of various forms, so there’s probably lots of other things going on. Dunno. Cooking is organic chemistry and can get very complicated.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  197. 197.

    JWR

    I caught some of the CBS and NBC Sunday shows, (shitty lineup all), and one of McCarthy’s lead negotiators was on, practically bouncing in his chair, gloating about how this brilliant guy, McCarthy, rolled Biden like an old newspaper, and the GOP got way more than they asked for and on and on. It was weird. But I had to laugh like Hell, considering the opposite was what had occurred.

    Then both those programs had crafty old Joe Manchin on for the Dem response, though it seemed that maybe Biden’s team was happy to put Manchin out there because he would say stuff that would make Biden look weak and McCarthy strong. It was political Ju-Jitsu in action!

  198. 198.

    Jay

    Alton Brown covered fries.

    The secrets are:

    #1 the potato

    #2 prefry

    #3 freeze

    #4 refry

    the oil doesn’t really matter as long as it can hit the heat point with out smoking.

    When we lived in the hills, there was a 5 Guys on the route home. For fast fud, it was better than the rest, the fries were good, but the burger was too big. They closed after less than a year, probably location, location, location. They were off the traffic route. Ate at a Fatburger recently. Staff was great, (local franchise, family run), food was okay.

  199. 199.

    RaflW

    @James E Powell:

    Chuck Todd & Andrea Mitchell are both trending… Why are such people treated as major figures who just cannot be replaced? Who would miss them if they disappeared?

    Old people not on Twitter are the major Sunday show demographic. That and other media people, who look to the shows for their instructions on how to both sides & Dem bash for the week ahead.

  200. 200.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    Alton Brown holds that the freezing adds to removing extra surface moisture, and that it doesn’t turn starches into sugars.

    He made ribs glorious for me, so,………..

  201. 201.

    Baud

    @JWR:

    Then both those programs had crafty old Joe Manchin on for the Dem response,

     
    That’s hilarious.

  205. 205.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mike in NC: ​

    Ate once at a Chick-Fil-A in Virginia Beach about 15-20 years ago and thought it was awful. On the other hand, they’re opening new Five Guys locations all around here.

    Five Guys makes a good burger, and their fries are fucking awesome.

  207. 207.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Shalimar:

    I dislike fried chicken sandwiches because they dilute the pure joy that IS fried chicken. If I could have nothing but the crust, I would be super happy….

  209. 209.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    Ate at a Fatburger recently. Staff was great, (local franchise, family run), food was okay.

    In the hierarchy of Los Angeles area fast food, Fatburger was a big deal through the early 80s and along with Tommy’s was a step up from McDonald’s, Burger King and Jack in the Box. Taco Bell and Del Taco was in there somewhere for some people.

    I suppose that In and Out and King Taco now rule for flavor and consistency.

    There is also the wild food truck scene.

    And street food. There is nothing quite like a bacon wrapped hot dog with onions or jalapenos sold by a vendor in the garment district on a Saturday afternoon.

    And then, of course Ramen and a whole world of Asian fast food.

    And tamales. Beef, pork, chicken, and pineapple. Sweet Jesus.

  210. 210.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Layer8Problem: ​
     

    Phooey. Well, I shall try to jog all the same, thank you very much!

    Out here in beautiful Calvert County, I had a very pleasant bike ride this morning, and there was not much humidity at all that I could tell.

  211. 211.

    Ruckus

    Just sitting down to the computer and saw the thing about ChickFilA. I’ve eaten at CFA 2 or 3 times but stopped a number of years ago because it seemed they were owned/run by a complete right wing nut job.

    And now I see this from the CEO. I may have to start eating chicken again.

  214. 214.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    To answer your question, no.

    Not places I frequent, though (maybe once or twice a year). Find over the decades the burgers have grown noticeably saltier and the buns more the consistency of a damp sponge.

    Going way back, when on the road used to seek out Roy Rogers joints, whose burgers were a cut above, IMHO.

  215. 215.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Miss Bianca: ​
     

    My understanding is that Mickey D’s fries *were* considered great back in the day when they were still using animal fats to fry them. When they switched to vegetable oils, not so much.

    I’ve heard that line, but AFAIAC their fries have been boring since the 1970s at least.

  216. 216.

    Hildebrand

    @Ken: There is no reason to go anywhere else other than Popeyes if you want a good fast food chicken sandwich.

  217. 217.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Oh, and although haven’t been there in 20 years or so (too far out of the way of my usual routes), remember the burgers from Carls Jr’s being tasty.

  219. 219.

    WereBear

    @CaseyL: Another good reason to avoid junk food: it’s trying to get you hooked.  Literally addicted.

     
    It’s the story of everyone on My 600 Pound Life. So many of them had trauma as children which was ignored at the time. Or flat out bad food habits. Then medicate with food…

  222. 222.

    The Pale Scot

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    the new thing then was face-to-face confession.

    I remember that, I was in a Cath school, when they rolled it out. At first it was voluntary, then 2 weeks later, after NOBODY in the school had done, they made it mandatory. I fought back by superglueing every lock in the school.

  224. 224.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    Spoiler alert: If you type those words and follow immediately with the spoiler, no one will be able to look away fast enough to miss the spoiler.  Please consider making it a separate paragraph or a footnote.

  225. 225.

    Gretchen

    @Kay: the new Amazon Prime special on the Duggars make this clear. They drill unquestioning obedience to authority into kids, and give them no sex education. Then when the man whose authority comes straight from God starts doing things to them, they don’t have language to understand it or anyone to complain to.  Add in that all males are over all females, sexual abuse is inevitable. Shiny Happy People is the name.

  226. 226.

    different-church-lady

    @The Pale Scot: ​
    I did confession once. I made something up because there was no way I was gonna tell this guy what I had really done wrong. Even at ten years old I felt like my sins were a matter between just me and God. After that I pretty much knew the church wasn’t for me.

  227. 227.

    Another Scott

    @The Pale Scot: Interesting.

    I figured it was a cheap way to have control over background noises and camera setup (e.g., cheaper than a dedicated studio at home), and a way to hide from the family/SO while posting stuff on the web, but then it became a trope.  (Of course, I can’t find anything on the web about said trope.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  231. 231.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist:

    The world is moving forward and they know it. They keep trying to jam it into reverse and they keep getting shut down hard. Most people want to move forward because that’s what the world and time do – move forward. We have a large country on this planet whose leader is trying to move history backwards – russia or whatever they call themselves now – because it’s really, really dark where he stuffed his head decades ago. How well is that going for him?

    Time and history move only one direction – forward, like it or not. I’ve lived on this planet for a few decades and in that time the world has moved forward, yes in fits and starts but forward. We know far, far more than we did. We have gotten a little bit better, have figured out that wars really just murder people for often nothing good whatsoever. We are finally seeing, and even more amazing, accepting, that there has to be a better way for several billion people to live than constant wars for some asshole’s pride and/or greed. vlad will not be the last person to figure this out, for 2 reasons. One, he’ll never accept this. Two, he likely will have one or more of his citizens either teach him this or stop his breathing. (I’m betting on #2) The world is getting smaller because the distance between humans is getting smaller, what with more of us per however you want to measure area.

    We have to see change and accept change (and it’s change for the betterment, not one man’s bank account) because that’s the way the world works. Not seeing it or accepting it has never worked in the history of humanity because that causes wars and death.

  235. 235.

    lowtechcyclist

    @smith: ​
    They opened a Culver’s up in Plant City, FL, where my in-laws are, a year or two ago. Driven by it several times. I had no idea it was fast food, it looks like a generic family restaurant from the outside. If there’s a drive-thru window, I hadn’t noticed it.​

  238. 238.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    LA is such a food city.  It’s wonderful.

    I am a big Fatburger fan.  It’s been a few years because I moved away, but the ingredients were all pretty high quality, and I liked how meaty the patty is.

    Fatburger’s biggest sales point is that all burger places show you pictures of these big burgers stacked high with everything, and you know that’s just a publicity picture bearing no resemblance to the product.  A Fatburger really does look like that.

  241. 241.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Scout211: I have a co-worker who JUST moved to Temecula like two months ago. I told him to watch out for:

    1. Water issues

    2. Redneck idiots, since it’s a lot more “rural” than he’s used to

  242. 242.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    LA is such a food city.  It’s wonderful.

    Very true. The pandemic hurt a lot of eateries, but most bounced back and new places are also coming on strong.

    The variety and creativity is fun and can be rewarding, especially with relatively out of the way places.

     

    ETA I recently ran across a YouTube video where a guy traveled from Westwood to Temple City via public transit to visit a great Indonesian restaurant. It was a crazy long trip, but apparently the food was great.

  243. 243.

    Ruckus

    @smith:

    It may be that the willingness to swallow absurdities is the test of a true believer.

    By George I think you’ve got it!!!!

  244. 244.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    They’re low quality thinkers NON thinkers – they are followers. And they aren’t good at that because they pick idiot assholes to follow.

  245. 245.

    evodevo

    @Another Scott: Yeah…our son took us to one in CA before they had so many franchises all over…it was all of half an hour, standing around waiting…and my cheeseburger was…average.  I’ve had better ones at Wendy’s lol

  246. 246.

    evodevo

    @dnfree: Yep…and back in the Sixties, when they were GOOD, the outlet in Lexington peeled them in front of you – in other words, they were fresh potatoes, not frozen. So between that and the beef tallow, they were the bomb…I still remember the flavor, 60 yrs later lol

  250. 250.

    Chris T.

    Since we’re apparently doing this: I’m not a big fan of Five Guys myself. It’s OK in a pinch. For these kinds of chains, I’d prefer In-n-Out or—mostly available where In-n-Out is—Habit Burger.

    Popeyes chicken seems to be heavily location-dependent. I was first introduced to it on the East Coast in the 1980s, where they had steroidally-large chicken portions but were pretty tasty. Then I moved to the west coast (SFBayArea) and there were none, and then I moved to Utah and there were still none until they opened some in the early 2010s I think, and it was absurdly good there.

    I ended up moving back to the Bay Area for a while and the Popeyes-es there were awful. Now I’m retired (at least nominally) in the Pacific NorthWet and the Popeyes chicken is not very close, but pretty good—if they’re not out of chicken, which has happened more than once!

    There’s a Chik-Fil-A coming to Bellingham at some point soon. I didn’t like them in the SFBayArea, but I might give them a try up here.

  252. 252.

    RaflW

    @Omnes Omnibus: Back when I still ate beef, I’d occasionally get a Butter Burger, and to be frank, i didn’t get what was very special about it. And I don’t care much for crinkle cut fries.

    The custard, yes. We sometimes look at their online flavor of the day map and plan our road trip stops for one if they have dark chocolate decadence. If that isn’t on our route, a scoop of vanilla with hot fudge doesn’t disappoint.

    I also like Culver’s fried cod (sandwich or dinner) but the BF can’t eat wheat, so… custard it is!

  254. 254.

    Paul in KY

    Who the fuck would name their kid ‘Morgonn’.  I guess they thought it looked ‘fancy’.

  256. 256.

    Paul in KY

    @Soprano2: They can ‘dial’ the tests. Set it to only hit on a certain amount of THC in urine/bloodstream. The hair test can tell if you’ve ever smoked/ingested it once.

Comments are closed.