Having a lovely time. 

Wendy’s not a good Lab impersonator, but she tried. Big storm left us power-less for a day-plus, but otherwise all is well. Wish you were here, but you sorta are. 
   
 

Posted at 12:57 pm in iPhone |
 

108 responses to “Having a lovely time. ”

  1. beb said on August 4, 2015 at 1:07 pm

    Someday your picture may finishing loadings…

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  2. brian stouder said on August 4, 2015 at 1:10 pm

    What a beautiful photograph!

    I’d say that’s a Chamber of Commerce shot of a Chamber of Commerce day, in the great of ‘Say Yes to Michigan’ state

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  3. Jolene said on August 4, 2015 at 1:54 pm

    Such clear water! Love sun on water.

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  4. Julie Robinson said on August 4, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    Wendy looks soooo happy. Hope the feeling is shared by all.

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  5. coozledad said on August 4, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Chris Christie reveals he has done got hisself into a vagina sometimes, somehow.
    http://gawker.com/not-to-brag-but-chris-christie-has-had-a-lot-of-sex-sa-1722018382

    I didn’t know the feeder vote is a Republican demographic.

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  6. Judybusy said on August 4, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    I love seeing happy dogs at play in the water! Enjoy the quiet and the beauty.

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  7. Dorothy said on August 4, 2015 at 3:04 pm

    I’m glad I got to see this pic via Instagram because I can barely see Wendy on the screen here. That is some gorgeous scenery. Glad you’re having fun!

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  8. brian stouder said on August 4, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    Egad! Ol’ Chris Christie’s breakfast sex over-share would take the shine right off of a person’s eggs and sausage

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  9. alex said on August 4, 2015 at 3:18 pm

    Christie says he’ll be judged when the judging time comes. I’d say that time has already come and gone.

    What an unappetizing presence, and that’s just with his damn fool yap shut.

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  10. Suzanne said on August 4, 2015 at 5:42 pm

    Oh, happy dog!

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  11. Deborah said on August 4, 2015 at 6:35 pm

    I really needed to see that photo to cool off. We just got back from the Santa Domingo Pueblo to see the dances for the annual Feast of Saint Dominic. It was hot and dusty there but the dances were terrific. Jeff (tmmo) you would have loved it. It’s called the Green Corn dance, there were probably 500 dancers in the plaza of the pueblo which was long and sort of narrow. The women dancers all wore black shifts with moccasins and these headdresses that were turquoise colored, they waved pine boughs around while they danced. The guys work a sort of buckskin wrap around with a fox skin hanging off the back, they had bells and shells that jingled when they danced and they also shook gourds rattles. There were other dancers dressed like spirits, they were the helpers, they had corn husks sticking up off the top of their heads and were painted grey overall with circle dots painted on their heads, arms and legs. Their faces were painted in fierce geometric patterns. This article from the NYT explains it much better than I can http://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/22/travel/a-timeless-pueblo-ritual.html. Another really interesting thing we did there was have a meal at the home of one of the residents of the pueblo. We went with friends from Abiquiu who know this guy who lived there. We were served tons of food, they really went all out and were so gracious. The grandmother of the guy had been a potter and they had tons of her pots in the house. The house was built by hand of adobe, it was fascinating. The nephew of our host was one of the dancers so he gave us the background story. It was a great day even though it was pretty hot.

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  12. basset said on August 4, 2015 at 9:11 pm

    Meanwhile, some actual scything from the ancestral homeland:

    http://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/08/04/scything-on-hackney-marshes/

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  13. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 4, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    Deborah, thank you for thinking of me; and many thanks again for the reminder that the Ohkay Owingeh dances began before the feast day! It’s always good to have a “native” informant . . . and the new museum behind the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe is NOT to be missed.

    Truly, northern New Mexico is a great place to be reminded of what a complex thing this country really is. The cultures and intersections there, bridging thousands of years in a twenty minute drive: a little patience and you can end up feeling the centuries slide past in a puff of dust from a footfall or in the scent of piñon on the breeze.

    And inhale some roasting chiles for me, too! My son is still processing what he saw, there and at Taos and San Ildefonso. He was disoriented in the best way. Now, he’s surviving band camp (we do ours “at home,” not at a distant site, so they sleep at home) and watching his dad serve lasagna to 140. Good times, good times . . .

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  14. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 4, 2015 at 10:01 pm

    Lammastide — hat tip, Basset!

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  15. Jolene said on August 4, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    The PBS NewsHour had a good piece on the sharp rise in gun violence in some cities in the past year featuring the chiefs of police from Milwaukee and St. Louis. The increase is remarkable, and are the guy from Milwaukee also had some amazing numbers about the likelihood of victimization based on race. In his city, blacks are 18 times as likely to be a crime victim as whites, and nine times as likely to be murdered.

    Both officers were very forthright about the ridiculous ease of access to powerful weapons in their jurisdictions. It would be a great thing if law enforcement leaders throughout the country really put some muscle behind the issue of access to guns, but I’m not holding my breath.

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  16. Deborah said on August 4, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    Basset, the guy in the photo from your link has one heck of a farmer’s tan. Great link, thanks.

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  17. Sue said on August 4, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Just got off the phone with my daughter, who’s trying to save the few hundred dollar cost of hair and makeup for a wedding this weekend by doing it herself. We rambled a little bit and before I knew it I was trying to convince her that yes, back in the dark ages we used to sleep in rollers. Hard plastic ones. She couldn’t fathom it. I didn’t bring up Dippity-Do.

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  18. basset said on August 4, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    My mother came from near Walthamstow but never did mention Lammastide or scything… she did talk about picking hops in Kent, though, and evacuating to Scotland during the war. Just found my grandfather’s WW1 and 2 Royal Navy records, too… will take some study to understand them, looks like he was ashore more than at sea.

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  19. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 4, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    Basset, I surely hope you’ve seen “A Canterbury Tale” (1944). One of my favorite movies, ever.

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  20. beb said on August 4, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    On teaching, writing and a seriously fucked up student by Lance Mannion
    http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2015/07/the-pure-products-of-america.html

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  21. Basset said on August 5, 2015 at 7:13 am

    I haven’t, JeffTMMO, but will look for it.

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  22. Wim said on August 5, 2015 at 7:31 am

    I’m surprised that Lance Mannion’s fucked-up student wore red laces in his DMs. By the code, skinhead peckerwoods wore white laces, while commies wore red.

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  23. brian stouder said on August 5, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Beb, that Manion essay is quite troubling. A whole novel exists within that couple of hundred words

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  24. coozledad said on August 5, 2015 at 10:13 am

    This guy and the rest of his Republican colleagues should be forced to pass a honeydew melon sized object through their asshole, for educational purposes.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/gop-senator-i-can-lecture-women-on-pregnancy-because-abortion-is-a-mens-issue/

    Then he should have to put up the money for the cost of maintaining depression-era numbers of unwanted children. This is what happens when you mix reaching into the white trash shitbox for votes with national policy. They’re dead set on ruining this country.

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  25. coozledad said on August 5, 2015 at 11:30 am

    More from the Republican Religious Freedom Initiative catbox.
    http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/nc-county-commissioner-storms-out-of-meeting-during-muslim-prayer-i-dont-need-no-arab-telling-me-what-to-do/

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  26. brian stouder said on August 5, 2015 at 11:34 am

    This is what happens when you mix reaching into the white trash shitbox for votes with national policy.

    Completely agreed! And again, I honestly do believe I’ll live to see the switch-back, wherein the R’s tire of getting the stuffing knocked out of them in national elections, and move toward inclusiveness…and then the too-clever-by-half elements of the Democratic party look at the increasingly disenfranchised plutocrats (and newly minority-status elements of America), and pick them up.

    Afterall, if the ‘party of Lincoln’ could comprehensively dis-own civil rights (etc) and even Eisenhower (“me-too” Republicans, afterall!), we could be within 20-30 years for the party of Obama to grasp for that angry base. By way of saying, stupid intolerant bigotry and mindless misogyny always seems to have enough tempting glitter to lure in at least one of our major parties. It’s as American as apple pie

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  27. coozledad said on August 5, 2015 at 11:49 am

    I don’t think the Democrats will ever reach this deeply into the ass of Amrica. This is strictly a Republican operation:
    http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/official-fbi-operation-being-conducted-belmont/nnBSL/

    Courtesy the NC State Board of Elections, the voter reg for 2 of these terrorists:
    County: GASTON
    Status: ACTIVE
    Voter Reg Num: 000007606002
    NCID: BR116630

    Party: REP
    Race: WHITE
    Ethnicity: NOT HISPANIC or NOT LATINO
    Gender: MALE
    Registration Date: 01/28/2002
    NCDMV Customer: No

    Voter Details

    CHRISTOPHER TODD CAMPBELL
    514 WOODLAWN ST
    BELMONT, NC 28012

    County: GASTON
    Status: ACTIVE
    Voter Reg Num: 000007678211
    NCID: BR179397

    Party: UNA (Unaffiliated in NC is shorthand for white power Republican who participated in Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos”)
    Race: WHITE
    Ethnicity: NOT HISPANIC or NOT LATINO
    Gender: MALE
    Registration Date: 01/19/2012
    NCDMV Customer: No

    Polling Place

    NORTH BELMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
    210 SCHOOL ST
    BELMONT, NC 28012

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  28. Sherri said on August 5, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    Why, bless Sen. Lankford’s heart, it was so good of him that he “had something to do” with the birth of his daughters, whatever that was, and that he was there for the sonograms. I’m sure his wife appreciated his support. Especially considering that he didn’t have to be there, and had to take time out of his busy senatoring schedule and all.

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  29. Jerry said on August 5, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    Picking up from Cooz’s comment yesterday about Ted Heath being accused of rape against children: I really don’t know what to think.

    Heath was my member of parliament and I met him a couple of times when I was a school governor and he was presenting prizes. He struck me as very cold and controlled. There were rumours he was homosexual (gay really seems the wrong word whe

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  30. Jerry said on August 5, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    Following on … Where he was concerned). But the impre

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  31. Jerry said on August 5, 2015 at 12:40 pm

    Damn this iPad keyboard. I continue…

    The impression both I and my wife had was that he was asexual. But of course we could easily be wrong. We shall just have to wait and see what comes out during the investigation.

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  32. beb said on August 5, 2015 at 1:43 pm

    I stand amazed at the blithful obliviously of Sen. Lankford who seems to think that spraying around some sperm is on par with giving birth. Or like Bush saying do we really need to spend half a billion dollars on women’s health. Or the county commissioner Coolzedad linked to who couldn’t bear to listen for one minute to a prayer from a Muslim. It’s an astonishing blend of ignorance and hysteria, How did they get through life as long as they have without learning anything?

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  33. brian stouder said on August 5, 2015 at 1:58 pm

    beb – or indeed, what is it that they HAVE learned?

    They have learned that “I have rats”*, including to believe whatever I want.

    It’s not just a joke to say that many people’s coping mechanism (in this complex world) is simply to inhabit their own arbitrary reality.

    *or – rights!

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  34. Sherri said on August 5, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    I really can’t add anything more to this. It’s perfect: http://boingboing.net/2015/08/05/tom-the-dancing-bug-cecil-th.html

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  35. Dexter said on August 5, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    I have heard a few radioheads talking as to how they cannot wait to watch the mighty ten debate in a few days or whenever…poor Santorum is just crushed as he is banished…but to get excited over this? I have always watched these debates, but I am done. I can’t stand it any more. All I care about is I want to see Donald Trump win the nomination. I love a circus.

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  36. brian stouder said on August 5, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    Another – another “active shooter” in a movie theater

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/08/05/active-shooter-situation-in-tennessee-movie-theater-police-say-suspected-shooter-is-dead

    I mean – my God; is this how America whiles away the summer, nowadays?

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  37. alex said on August 5, 2015 at 4:04 pm

    Luckily for me I can’t stand Hollywood movies. I used to say I wouldn’t be caught dead going to one — and that was before shopping mall cinemas became the new target range of choice.

    Let’s just hope the right-wing freaks are too stupid to figure out that they’re likely to find more liberals concentrated in an art house theater.

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  38. Jolene said on August 5, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    President Obama gave a great speech re the Iran deal. Politically powerful, and also quite moving at certain points. It’s almost an hour long, so listening is a commitment, but it’s worthwhile.

    If you support this deal, it’s very important to let your senators and your representatives know. Opponents are spending millions to defeat this accord, and there is tremendous pressure on members of Congress. Only takes a minute to call.

    Count on me to post more about this. I really feel strongly that this accord has the potential to move events in the godawful Middle East in a better direction.

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  39. Basset said on August 5, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    I live on the other side of Nashville from that theater – but just a few miles from me, near our dead mall, there’s a former multiplex theater which has been converted into a gun store and shooting range.

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  40. Deborah said on August 5, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    I was wondering about how close you were to the Nashville theater shooting Basset. How unfortunately fitting these days that a former theater has been converted to a gun store and shooting range.

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  41. Deborah said on August 5, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    A fantastic new theater near us in Santa Fe has a cafe you can order food and drinks from that you can take into the movie, now has a slide that they show before the previews and the main feature that tells you what to do if you see someone you suspect of foul play and how to exit the theater as safely as possible. I don’t remember that before the Aurora shooting. I mean theaters have always had warnings about how to exit in case of fire but not about suspicious persons that I can recall. Sadly, this must be the new normal.

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  42. Jolene said on August 5, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    David Simon, the force behind The Wire, has a new show appearing on HBO called Show Me a Hero. Sounds really good. Begins August 16.

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  43. Dexter said on August 6, 2015 at 12:29 am

    David Simon…I was disappointed that “Treme” did not resonate with Americans, finishing the series not close to being a talked-about HBO classic show like so many are. I got excited before every episode but not enough shared my enthusiasm.

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  44. Jolene said on August 6, 2015 at 1:44 am

    Dexter, in this interview, Simon talks about the limited popularity of Treme. His view is, “You do your best. People may or may not get on the train. But the work is on the shelf, and you never know who will find it and find meaning in it at some time in the future.”

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  45. Basset said on August 6, 2015 at 6:46 am

    Reminds me of a conversation I had with a local musician… went to one of his shows, hardly anyone there but it didn’t seem to bother him. I asked why… “Everyone who showed up had a good time.”

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  46. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 6, 2015 at 7:38 am

    The good thing about today’s technology is that now work like that is on a shelf, and a relatively accessible one at that. So it can happen; not like waiting for a 3 am replay of “Casablanca” to finally watch it all the way through in the 70’s.

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  47. coozledad said on August 6, 2015 at 8:54 am

    Scumbelly:
    http://time.com/3983229/scott-walker-milwaukee-bucks-jon-hammes/

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  48. Dorothy said on August 6, 2015 at 9:58 am

    Sue I meant to chime in quickly yesterday to thank you for the big laugh I got @17 about Dippity-Do! That was terrific.

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  49. brian stouder said on August 6, 2015 at 10:30 am

    OK – so in keeping with the earlier quote about a NASCAR race with a drunk driver in the field, our contest question should be:

    when Trump goes into a spin and smacks the wall, who will he take with him?

    I’m thinking he careens into Marco Rubio (who will run out of water to sip, early on), and then collects Raphael Cruz (who will be the Donald’s jock-strap); in the ensuing melee, Jeb! will dive for the pits and accidently smash into Huckabee, who will become angry and say “if you can’t stand the heat, get away from the oven”….

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  50. Sue said on August 6, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Brian, when I heard that Scott Walker was placed next to Donald Trump, instantly images of Foghorn Leghorn and the doofus chicken hawk came into my head and I can’t get them out.
    Another blog I read was talking about the Matt Taibbi drinking game article, and adding items. Here are mine:
    Any mention of Kohl’s
    Any mention of Eagle Scout
    Double shots when Megyn Kelly misunderstands her role as moderator and starts arguing with candidates
    And drink a big fat bottle of anything if Scooter shakes his head, smiles and says ‘There you go again’ to anyone

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  51. Kirk said on August 6, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    Excellent reference to my favorite Warner Bros. cartoon character, Sue.

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  52. brian stouder said on August 6, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    I think Sue’s Foghorn Leghorn imagery wins the Pre-Fox-in-the-hen-house-Debate thread!

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  53. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 6, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    I say, I say, boyuh. Don’t you go steppin’ on my lines. I said do not, at all y’all, step on my lines.

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  54. MarkH said on August 6, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    “Double shots when Megyn Kelly misunderstands her role as moderator and starts arguing with candidates.”

    Ha! What’s wrong with that, Sue? She’ll be arguing exclusively with republicans. Besides, when the question-dodging starts, she can be quite good at reigning them in.

    Trump’s implosion starts tonight.

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  55. Sue said on August 6, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    MarkH, I was thinking in terms of her famous tirade in favor of maternity leave, being all rude and in your face to some guy she was interviewing. She was in favor of it – after she had a baby and it benefitted her; then of course she was all self-righteous and self-centered about it. I’ll take your word for it that she’ll make them behave.
    Can anyone recommend a live-blog on tonight’s debate? When it comes down to it I’m not sure I can stomach it.

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  56. Deborah said on August 6, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    I have no desire to watch the debates, they’re probably already over by now for all I know. I could not put my self through the misery. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it tomorrow.

    Sue, you are a riot. I loved your comment about hair rollers and Dippety Do. Oh do I remember that, Ouch. And your comments about the drinking games are hilarious. Little Bird found a post about Bingo because the drinking games would render so many unable to drive or function the next day.

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  57. beb said on August 6, 2015 at 8:59 pm

    Sue, I suggest
    http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2015/08/what-to-expect.html
    the advantage is that you don’t have to wait to read it.

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  58. alex said on August 6, 2015 at 9:03 pm

    Was half tempted to watch it but can’t get Fox so it’s just as well.

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  59. Sue said on August 6, 2015 at 9:35 pm

    Deborah, I ended up sending this to my daughter with the message line “hair snot”.
    Plus, look at those nails. I remember nails like that, pre-nail salons.
    http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dippity+do+commercial&FORM=VIRE2#view=detail&mid=A90233451D606AC4FD83A90233451D606AC4FD83

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  60. alex said on August 6, 2015 at 9:40 pm

    The New Republic’s live blog is pretty decent. Fivethirtyeight is good too.

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  61. Sue said on August 6, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    I’m on Jezebel; I’ll check the others.

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  62. Heather said on August 6, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    I don’t have cable so I’m just on Twitter reading about the debates on my feed. It sounds quite entertaining. If there was an a la carte option to watch just the debate I’d pay $25 to do it. Well, no, I wouldn’t.

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  63. Sue said on August 6, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Thanks alex, but since Jezebel is making fun of Walker’s bald spot – sorry, kitchen cabinet door injury – and his #subtletongue, I’ve got to stay where the ridicule is highest.

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  64. alex said on August 6, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    Wish I’d known about Jezebel. I ended up on Slate looking at side-by-side columns of tweets from liberals and conservatives. It was dizzying.

    What strikes me is that the loudest applause seems to have been reserved for the crassest, coldest and most unpresidential remarks. The GOP base loves swagger over substance and can even overlook ideological blasphemy if it’s delivered with enough attitude.

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  65. Jolene said on August 6, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    You’re right, Alex. I watched the debate and found the audience response even more reboltithan the candidates. Shouldn’t be surprising, I guess, as attracting the votes of these people is what has given these guys their careers.

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  66. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 7, 2015 at 12:04 am

    Land of Hope & Dreams – Bruce Springsteen
    (closing out “The Daily Show”)

    Grab your ticket and your suitcase
    Thunder’s rollin’ down this track
    Well, you don’t know where you’re goin’ now
    But you know you won’t be back
    Well, darlin’ if you’re weary
    Lay your head upon my chest
    We’ll take what we can carry
    Yeah, and we’ll leave the rest

    Big wheels roll through fields
    Where sunlight streams
    Meet me in a land of hope and dreams

    Well, I will provide for you
    And I’ll stand by your side
    You’ll need a good companion now
    For this part of the ride
    Leave behind your sorrows
    Let this day be the last
    Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine
    And all this darkness past

    Big wheels roll through fields
    Where sunlight streams
    Oh meet me in a land of hope and dreams

    This train…
    Carries saints and sinners
    This train…
    Carries losers and winners
    This train…
    Carries whores and gamblers
    This train…
    Carries lost souls

    I said this train…
    Dreams will not be thwarted
    This train…
    Faith will be rewarded

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  67. Dexter said on August 7, 2015 at 1:05 am

    Jolene, thanks so much for the link at #44. I’ll read it on my tablet with my first cuppa java later on today. I’ve worn myself out this week searching and sorting used cars and vans to replace my van that now rests in an auto salvage yard after the engine failed and died last Friday. I could have bought a car or a truck I found, but it’s easier for me to haul dogs and groceries and even people once in a while when I have a van, so I bought a Chrysler Town & Country van, which many adults of both sexes hate with passion, but ever since I rented and drove a Ford Aerostar as soon as they premiered in 1986 , I have preferred minivans and of course I don’t care what people think of vans and their drivers, as old people like me are not expected to be driving Maseratis or shiny sports cars anyway.

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  68. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 7, 2015 at 7:15 am

    Highlight clip from last night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTtfVOyVsf0

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  69. coozledad said on August 7, 2015 at 7:52 am

    Transcript from telephone call: Jeb Bush to Roger Ailes, 01:23 hours 8/7/15.

    Bush staff: We don’t care if he’s beating off in a pool of clams, get his ass to the phone.

    Ailes: Yes sir?

    Jeb: (Sighs) What did I tell you? What have we always told you? How did you fuck this up, Rog?

    Ailes: We put Megan on him, just like you said… It was the audience. They ate everything he said up like flies eating shit…

    Jeb: Who fucking picked that audience? Was it that fuckface Luntz? Because he is David Kelly dead. Only they are never going to find him, if I have to give some Salvadorans Columba’s jewelry allowance for the next two goddamn weeks! Do you know what these guys do, Roger? Do you even REMEMBER the pictures in daddy’s billiard room?

    Was it Luntz? Because I’m going to take bong hits out of his fucking skull!
    Just a fucking minute (covers phone, unintelligible)

    I just changed the security codes on your home alarm system. You’re no longer wired to your local cops…
    You’re wired to a little bodega where some of my daddy’s friends hang out. You remember D’Aubuisson’s boy? One they called Muerte Guitarzan?

    Ailes: Yeah. It was Luntz.

    Jeb. Got it. (Hangs up)

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  70. Connie said on August 7, 2015 at 9:05 am

    Remember the two tea party Michigan state reps that Nancy has written about. (About whom Nancy has…..) Check this out: http://deadlinedetroit.com/articles/12903/republican_state_rep_wanted_aide_to_spread_false_rumors_about_him_and_a_male_hooker#.VcSsYvnW8cM

    Quote: This strange scenario sounds like a plot twist from “House of Cards.”

    Chad Livengood of The Detroit News writes that State Rep. Todd Courser planned to distribute a fictional email alleging he had sex with a male prostitute — a ploy aimed at hiding his affair with Rep. Cindy Gamrat, according to audio recordings obtained by The Detroit News.

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  71. Deborah said on August 7, 2015 at 9:23 am

    Connie, here’s the piece Nancy wrote about Courser http://bridgemi.com/2015/04/todd-courser-hits-lansing-like-a-cannonball/. Quite the family man, eh? Coozledad, I’m expecting a song?

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  72. brian stouder said on August 7, 2015 at 9:38 am

    We need to get to know the inner-Courser

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  73. Danny said on August 7, 2015 at 11:06 am

    Well, it was an entertaining event, but with the exception of Paul, most of them are tone deaf on the fact that having a “strong military” is a euphemism for someone else’s son or daughter dying in f’ed up foreign adventures.

    Most sane people are sick and tired of politicians using our young people as the “world’s police force.”

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  74. Sherri said on August 7, 2015 at 11:40 am

    Every single one of the participants in the main debate wanting a strong military is a chickenhawk.

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  75. Danny said on August 7, 2015 at 11:42 am

    I was discussing this with MarkH this morning, and as unelectable as Trump probably is, the one thing that intrigues me about him is how his hard-scrabble biz acumen might play on the world stage.

    You know, if we have a global economic meltdown, as some analysts are projecting, Trump’s stock may rise.

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  76. Danny said on August 7, 2015 at 11:45 am

    Sherri, I’m not so sure about that. Paul’s position seems to echo his father’s with respect to isolationism.

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  77. brian stouder said on August 7, 2015 at 11:46 am

    He’s Putin, only with more hair

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  78. coozledad said on August 7, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    “They’ll believe part of it.”

    Said by every Republican fraud ever.
    https://soundcloud.com/detroitnews/rep-courser-tells-aide-his-misdirection-plan/s-seWMM

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  79. brian stouder said on August 7, 2015 at 12:42 pm

    My main reaction to last night’s entertaining candidate forum occurred in the first minute or two, when they asked the Donald about a potential 3rd-party run.

    Fox missed the follow-up, though: If the Republican Party allows – at the outset – a candidate onto their debate stage who will not rule out a third-party run, the question arises whether the Republican party really exists, or whether it is the functional equivalent of a dummy-corporation. Why have primaries at all, if the eventual losers simply show up on the November ballot, anyway? What value does the Republican nomination retain, if it is so easily dismissable? As always, the Donald was his incoherent self – and I still say – watch out for John Kasich

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  80. beb said on August 7, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Jeff TMMO, “highlights from last night,” I can’t watch Youtube at work so I’m not sure whether the highlights feature the clown show (Jon Stewart) or the other clown show (the debates). I saw a bit of Stewart but had to go to bed (some of us still work, *sigh*. The Daily show has an amazing class of alumini – Colbert, Oliver, Larry Wilmore, Carell, Codrey (I may be spelling some of these names wrong) Lewis Black… you get the picture.

    I didn’t watch the other clown sow, or read any live-blogging. And only an article or two this morning. I gather that Trump is whining that Fox was tough on him. Someone should tell him that there’s no “nice” in politics

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  81. Jolene said on August 7, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    Here’s the full Daily Show finale, including the Springsteen number at the end. A heartbreaker, if you were a fan of the show. You are right, beb, about the tremendous number of talented people who got their start on The Daily Show and have gone on to do great–or, at least, good–things in other forums.

    At the link above, you can scroll down to extended interviews with recent guests. Here’s Ta-Nehisi Coates. Worth watching all the way to the end for a very tender ending, a moment of hopefulness from someone who doesn’t hold with the usual American faith that things will be better in the future.

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  82. brian stouder said on August 7, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    The Daily Show bug missed me almost entirely.

    Ms Maddow is my go-to, and she’s big on TDS, so I heard about it tangentially – but otherwise (for me) it’s a nothingburger.

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  83. Deborah said on August 7, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    Jolene, the Ta-Nehisi Coates segment on the Daily Show was terrific. I had tried to watch it earlier but life kept intervening. Thanks for the link, I finally got to watch it in full.

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  84. coozledad said on August 7, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    This sums up the state of the Republican Party and its genetic material pretty well:
    blob:https%3A//vine.co/804bd138-d587-4eb9-b380-578bd1160b1b

    I was just reading about Charles II of Spain last night. So inbred he’d have been better off if his mom and dad had been brother and sister. Tongue too thick for his speech to be legible. Hapsburg jaw too long for him to be able to chew his own food.

    But the Spanish monarchists propped him up until he rotted on his feet:

    Toward the end of his life Charles’ fragile health deteriorated and he became increasingly hypersensitive and strange, at one point demanding that the bodies of his family be exhumed so he could look upon the corpses. He officially retired when he had a nervous breakdown caused by the amount of pressure put on him to try to pull Spain out of the economic trouble it was going through. He lived a simple life from then on, playing games and other activities. He died in Madrid on 1 November 1700, five days before his 39th birthday. The physician who practiced his autopsy stated that his body “did not contain a single drop of blood; his heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water.”
    American historians Will and Ariel Durant described Charles II as “short, lame, epileptic, senile, and completely bald before 35, he was always on the verge of death, but repeatedly baffled Christendom by continuing to live.

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  85. coozledad said on August 7, 2015 at 4:10 pm

    Here’s a linkee that works:
    https://vine.co/v/ewhOmJVeqhJ

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  86. brian stouder said on August 7, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    A great link! That guy was like the bus driver, jus’ killin’ time on the stage ’til the show ends.

    Ben Carson was more impressive than Walker, and indeed – that’s not saying much.

    I thought Kasich looked and sounded credible

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  87. MichaelG said on August 7, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    I used to have regular hair, cut short in a conservative fashion. Then I had chemo and it all fell out. Then it grew back. Now I have Rand Paul hair. I’m mortified.

    Another thing I like about Kaiser. Records access. I dropped by today to have my little memory sticks updated. These records include everything. Every visit, every evaluation, every surgery, a full copy of every scan and every X-Ray. All of it. I’m going to Spain in less than two weeks and I wanted one to bring with me and one to leave at home No problem and no cost. And now there’s a web site where you can do it yourself and don’t even have to stop at a Kaiser facility. The nice lady gave me a poop sheet.

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  88. Deborah said on August 7, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    Michael G, I’m looking forward to another travelogue from you about your next Spain trip. Are you having medical procedures done there? If so, good for you, I hear it’s a lot less expensive.

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  89. Wim said on August 7, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    Well Brian, you might be glad to know that Camille Paglia agrees with you: http://tinyurl.com/olgh9fb

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  90. MichaelG said on August 7, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    God, I hope not, Deborah. I simply think it’s a good idea to have my medical records along just in case. I’m not anticipating any difficulties. Medical care couldn’t be any cheaper for me than it is now. My health plan is beyond excellent.

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  91. Sue said on August 7, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    Cooz and Brian, when I saw the Walker thing, my first thought was Oh my gods, after 6 years of trying to make the world understand that this man is both pathetic and frightening, what’s going to send people screaming for the exits is a little lizard-tongue action that no one’s ever noticed before?
    I mean I’ll take whatever I can get but we have 6 years’ worth of facts and statistics! Doesn’t anyone want to hear our facts and statistics? Yes, yes, we know he looks … deficient… but that is the shallow surface of a deep pool of bad, bad stuff. Do let us share it with you, like a pesky Jehovah’s Witness.
    And re the eyes thing, I can’t believe that someone who can marshall the forces to raise enough money for a 7 million dollar ad buy just in Iowa can’t find the bucks to hire a media consultant who will tell him to open his eyes and close his mouth. You’d think someone would have pointed out to him by now that the sleepy-eyed slack-jawed look is hardly presidential.

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  92. Sherri said on August 7, 2015 at 11:55 pm

    James Holmes gets life without parole, an outcome that could have been reached two years and millions of dollars ago had the prosecutors accepted his offer to plead guilty in exchange for no death sentence.

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  93. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 8, 2015 at 7:23 am

    Beb, my video was a lame joke; the clip from years ago when Trump appeared on a pro wrestling ring and was tossed about by Stone Cold Steve Austin. So you missed nothing . . .

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  94. brian stouder said on August 8, 2015 at 10:59 am

    Hey – THIS guy should be at the next Republican debate:

    http://wane.com/2015/08/08/i-just-like-pigs-cops-say-nude-man-found-drinking-in-barn/

    MILLERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Police have charged a man with trespassing, public drunkenness and indecent exposure after he was caught on a neighbor’s farm in the nude, drinking beer among pigs.

    Police in Manor Township, Lancaster County, say 64-year-old Larry Henry told them, “I just like pigs” when they found him in the hog barn June 26 about 10:15 p.m.

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  95. Danny said on August 8, 2015 at 1:33 pm

    Sherri, I think the verdict was right for a young man who is obviously mentally ill, but the trial was not necessarily a total waste. It might have helped the victims and their families get some closure.

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  96. Sherri said on August 8, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Or maybe those victims could have achieved closure sooner had they not had to relive the tragedy in a trial. Or maybe the millions spent on a death penalty trial could be better spent on mental health services for the victims.

    I think the notion of victims achieving closure from the criminal justice system is mostly a myth. You don’t get over trauma and put it behind you, it becomes a part of you. Death penalty trials, which take a long time to come to court and then years of appeals, may slow down the process of integration by re-victimizing the victims.

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  97. beb said on August 8, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    MichaelG’s praise of his health insurance company ends with “The nice lady gave me a poop sheet,” which would seem to suggest that along with everything else in your medical file they must be recording how much you poop…

    OK, sorry for the lame joke.

    I’m not convinced that Trump was really saying that Megyn Kelly was having her period during the debates. He could have been at a loss for places for blood to come from after mentioning eyes. However, whatever the case Eric Erickson has disinvited Trump from a Georgia meet-and-greet. This is ironic because Erickson himself has a long paper-trail of misogynist comments.

    DEFCON is an annual convention on computer security. As the run-up to it various companies and organizations have mentioned things they have hacked. One group took over complete control of a jeep through its radio assist program. Another has been able to hack a Tesla Model S, which I’m sure has mortified Elon Musk and today I read where a group has hacked into a gas station pump. Great, they no longer need a credit card skimmer to steal your ID, they can get it from the backend while cheating you on how much gas you bought.

    Also I read how easy it is to get someone declared dead just by faking up two documents and emailing to the proper authorities. I’m beginning to think that computers have come to replace beer as the cause of and solution to all life’s problems.

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  98. Deborah said on August 8, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    A another beautiful day in Northern New Mexico. We are having a wall built on the property, we designed it and will finish it by adding a rustic trellis top made of skinny latillas, but someone else built the low adobe colored, stuccoed part. It will separate the parking area from the living area. We put in a patio last summer, this will make that patio much more comfortable to be in, now you won’t have to look out on parked cars. We’re going to plant silver lace to grow on it, so eventually it will be enclosed. Silver lace grows very fast here and it gets super dense.

    Little Bird took a cooking class today at Santa Fe School of Cooking, she very much enjoyed it. Green chile sauces were the subject of her class. She made Green Chile, Mint and Tamarind Sauce, she brought some home and it was delicious. She also learned how to make tortillas, now she wants a tortilla press.

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  99. Deborah said on August 8, 2015 at 8:59 pm

    “Another” not “A another”

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  100. Deborah said on August 8, 2015 at 9:00 pm

    Here’s a link for the cooking school, in case anyone is interested. A lot of tourists attend the classes apparently, http://santafeschoolofcooking.com.

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  101. Sherri said on August 9, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    I like Ezra Klein’s explainer of why Fox News turned on Trump in the debate: http://www.vox.com/2015/8/8/9121377/donald-trump-megyn-kelly.

    It also crystallizes something for me that explains a lot of other things. There isn’t really a Republican Party anymore. There is a Fox News Party. More people identify with it, and it has more power.

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  102. brian stouder said on August 9, 2015 at 2:49 pm

    Sherri, I think Klein hits it pretty squarely.

    A side note: one term that automatically irritates me is “mainstream media”. Klein shortens it simply to “media” – but I don’t accept the premise, in 2015, that there is a definitive “mainstream media”, with a mainstream-media agenda.

    Fox News and MSNBC, and CNN, and the New York Times, and McClatchy (et al) is, in any reasonable definition, part of the “main-stream media”, even as they disagree about this and that and the other thing.

    Nothing that Rupert and Roger (or Sean or Oxy-Rush) is new under the sun, at all.

    Back in the day, Abraham Lincoln very quietly (and repeatedly) gave hundreds of dollars (hundreds of circa-1850 United States dollars) to the publisher of a German language Illinois paper, the better to lock up an important voting block, for the wannabe senator.

    It’s good to see Fox News struggle to pull on its big-boy pants, rather than just throwing water balloons at President Obama

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  103. brian stouder said on August 9, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    forgot the money link:

    http://www.in2013dollars.com/1850-dollars-in-2015?amount=500

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  104. Jolene said on August 9, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    Ezra’s analysis of the conflicting motives of various components and individuals at Fox seems on target, but it’s important to note that it’s all inferential. He is drawing conclusions based on his observations, but there’s no independent evidence that the debate questioners were looking to take Trump down. Kelly has said that they were aiming for questions that would challenge all of the participants–Walker on his opposition to abortion even when a mother’s life is at stake, Carson on his lack of experience, Bush on his membership on the board of an organization that supported Planned Parenthood, and so on.

    But even if they were aiming to challenge Trump, in particular, I’m not so sure that they were successful. A great deal of the immediate reaction was hostile to all the moderators, especially to Kelly. Her Facebook page and Twitter were loaded with criticism of her and her colleagues for treating Trump unfairly.

    It wasn’t until Trump’s impolitic remarks implicating Kelly’s hormonal status that (some) people turned against him. He has been on TV this AM trying to pretend he didn’t say what he said, and it may work.

    A new NBC poll released this morning indicates that Trump is still at the top of the heap. This poll was taken while the kerfuffle re Trump’s remarks about Kelly was unfolding, so we’ll have to wait a few more days to see whether his clumsy remarks or his phony explanations of them carry the day.

    In any case, it’s fairly alarming to see that, in that poll, the top three performers were Trump, Cruz, and Carson.

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  105. Jolene said on August 9, 2015 at 4:46 pm

    Here is a minor treasure that I just came across: a video of Barack Obama speaking at the Cambridge, MA public library in 1995. He was on tour after the publication of his book, Dreams from My Father. We’ve all noticed how young he looked when he first came on the national scene in 2004. Here, he looks really young.

    The most interesting part of the video is the beginning, when he is introducing the passage that he goes on to read, and at 25:00, when he begins answering questions from the audience. I found it fascinating to hear how thoughtful he was about America and our longstanding racial issues. Was intriguing to hear him thinking aloud both about specific details of his experience (e.g., his work as the leader of a voter registration drive, the challenges he faced as a civil rights lawyer) and about big issues regarding our country.

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  106. beb said on August 9, 2015 at 5:55 pm

    “mainstream media” – this has long been defined as ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NY Times,Washington Post, LA Times but not Fox News, the Washington Examiner, Rush Limbaugh, Drudge or WorldNewsDaily. There are the “Very Serious” consensus, Villagers who want to define politics even as they become more estranged from it.

    Ezra Klein probably is getting information from people who are in the middle of all the infighting. Also I think he makes the point that all three of the first questions to Trump were harsh. It is unlikely that he got any softball questions.

    Something to keep in mind is that it doesn’t angry bloggers to make it like the masses support Trump. The question is what part of undecided voters and what portion of women Republican voters have turned against him.

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  107. brian stouder said on August 9, 2015 at 9:26 pm

    I think that when a speaker (or writer) decries “the main-stream media” it’s because they just read or heard a story they didn’t like, or which conflicts with their prejudices.

    But if words have meaning, “mainstream media” certainly includes Fox News and the collection of coast-to-coast radio lip-flappers.

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  108. Kirk said on August 9, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    The whole notion of “the media” as some kind of monolith is and has been ridiculous. It’s like saying all black people can dance.

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