Long day, and what I really want to do is read a book right now. When you’re a writer, this is how you refill your well, even if you’re pretty much a stenographer, many days.
(Many days, I feel like a stenographer.)
So what I’m gonna do here is go out into the big world of news and grab the first thing that makes me wince or guffaw, and post it here. :::Sticks hand in bag, fishes around::: Here we go:
A man in Luzerne County cut down his neighbor’s tree over the weekend because he thought it was ruining his car. The tree ended up hitting his own apartment house.
Police said Raymond Mazzarella grabbed a chainsaw and cut down the tree in his neighbor’s yard Saturday afternoon. The tree sat in his neighbor’s yard, but it had branches above his parking space. Those branches would drip sap onto his car. When he cut through the 36-inch wide trunk, the tree fell onto part of his own apartment building.
So there you go. Some days you get the tree, some days the tree gets you. Carry on, guys.
jcburns said on August 24, 2016 at 12:17 am
“…sometimes the tree gets you.”
You’re telling me!
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alex said on August 24, 2016 at 6:07 am
What a way to start the day… It’s Angry White Male Wednesday. Per Sherri’s NYT link at the end of the last thread, they’re fixin’ to take a chainsaw to the Constitution and might just have enough gerrymandered legislatures to pull it off.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 24, 2016 at 7:07 am
http://gawker.com/tree-trimmer-lucky-to-survive-chainsaw-lodged-2-inche-1556848457
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 24, 2016 at 7:14 am
Sherri, people need convincing. Don’t stop. I just want us both to keep on looking for viable, humane candidates without having to accept the unacceptable. Yet in trying to do the art of the possible, I feel myself as if I have to keep on affirming the very aspects of the political process I’d like to take a baseball bat to (hence my insistence on not totally writing off all Trump supporters as “just” racists).
I have a bad feeling about today, and it’s going to be spent largely as a supplicant and an observer in courtrooms and conference rooms; early indicators say money talks, and the kids will walk. So I’m feeling pre-emptively cantankerous, just to keep my willingness to irritate the prosecutor’s office above my vague discomfort with ticking them off at me . . . and I can’t banish the latter, because it’s a long school year when this year’s drawer-of-the-short-straw begins by thinking “that stupid mediator over at FIS is a pain in the ass.” On the other hand, that’s what I’m trying to be, so maybe this year’s assistant prosecutor assigned to truancy filings should just know what they’re in for.
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Judybusy said on August 24, 2016 at 9:21 am
Jeff, carry on! I am also a professional PITA in my new-ish role as a social worker in the public defender’s office. It can make a huge difference. Yesterday, I found out that yet again, the chemical dependency assessor has not sent the referral to the treatment place so my client has sat in jail for six needless weeks. Which reminds, me, I gotta go make some calls….
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Deborah said on August 24, 2016 at 9:45 am
I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Bloomington IL. The plan was to be in Chicago by 10 but the horrible rain has changed that idea. We’re trying to wait out the worst of it but probably would be sitting here most of the day if we did that. We left our motel at 6am, lot of good that did, could have slept in. This has reminded me of the bad part of road trips.
Jeff tmmo, I hope that a lot of people feel the same way you do about Trump. With all of the people enthusiastic about Hillary, like me, and the people like you against Trump, will hopefully seal the deal for the first woman pres.
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brian stouder said on August 24, 2016 at 10:24 am
That Constitutional Convention idea definitely makes the short-list of “stupidest ideas I’ve ever heard of”.
Hereabout one of our state legislators – who is as tall as a giraffe, and who has a beautiful wife who is also a local television personality – has touted that idea for years.
But it would be like when the Wizard of Oz accidently sets-off on his climactic balloon journey; nobody can tell us what stupid things they’ll add to the Constitution….or what timeless things they will delete – once such a convention lifts off.
‘Katy bar the door’ (as Indiana’s James Whitcomb Riley would say), indeed
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Julie Robinson said on August 24, 2016 at 10:32 am
Has anyone been watching the political satire BrainDead? It’s set in DC, and the premise is that brain-eating bugs are making politicians stupid (or more stupid). It’s smart and funny, and seems all too true to life. I’d say it’s getting harder every day to tell truth from fiction. Last week’s show featured a fantasy sex scene with Michael Moore in an homage to Eyes Wide Shut.
It’s on plain old broadcast TV, but I’ve been watching it on the CBS app. They only keep the shows up for a week, but yesterday I learned it’s also on Amazon Prime, and I’m going to watch it all over with the hubby, because he needs to laugh too.
Deborah, I hope by now you’re back on the road. I think we might be getting that samw system through here.
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Suzanne said on August 24, 2016 at 10:52 am
A former co-worker of mine is a proponent of a Constitutional Convention as he would loudly tell anybody who had to listen. Funny, how people like him are all about what the founding fathers meant and wanted and did, but are quick to pounce on a chance to change it, if it fits their agenda. If the founders wanted to mandate a balanced federal government, wouldn’t they have put that in the Constitution? Also, funny how many of them say a balanced budget would solve all our problems, but in the USA’s 200+ year history, I think it’s only happened a few times and here we still are.
Both extremes on the right & left seem to fall prey to thinking a few simple solutions will make everything roses and rainbows, although it seems the right is worse in that respect at this point. Sure, a balanced budget sounds great, but what happens when the unexpected happens? Sorry, folks! The budget is balanced but we didn’t plan for this so you’re outta luck. How many of the people supporting this have ever taken out a loan for a car, or a house, or education, or some unexpected expense? If they did, then they obviously don’t know how to balance their own budgets. (Of course, my former co-worker is a master at getting a handout if one is available. His kids were all Indiana 21st Century Scholars and he would brag about not having to spend money for college all the while whining about Obama turning the country into a socialist hell.)
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brian stouder said on August 24, 2016 at 10:59 am
I have some colleagues at an agricultural trade show (‘MAGIE’) in Bloomington, Illinois.
Rows and rows of tents, on an open-field…I bet they’ll come back with some stories!
If I were in Bloomington, I’d head for the David Davis house, which I’ve driven by on a couple of occasions, but never stopped and taken a look.
As for politics, I do think it is worth a chuckle that the Donald’s campaign explains his trailing in the polls on people not wishing to admit that they support him, to pollsters…!!!
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Mark P said on August 24, 2016 at 11:09 am
It seems that only right-wing extremists have any interest in a constitutional convention. It makes me shudder to think about it.
As to Clinton-vs-Trump, it’s not really a choice between the lesser of two evils. The Clintons have been the subject of a concerted campaign by the right wing to demonize them for decades, and if you repeat a lie long enough, it will be believed. You know, if there’s smoke, there must be fire. In this case, the smoke is coming from right wingers’ pants.
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 11:22 am
A number of states have balanced budget amendments, but that only works because the federal government doesn’t and the states get money from the Feds. The problem, of course, with the BBA is that when the economy is bad and revenues are down is the same time when government spending increases, in the form of unemployment and food stamps and other such programs, because the private sector isn’t providing jobs. The BBA is just another instance of giving people cover to feel okay about selfishness, in this weird national puritanical capitalistic version of Christianity we tend to celebrate.
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Peter said on August 24, 2016 at 11:25 am
Mark, I really think it is a choice between the lesser of two evils. Comparing the candidates to levels of crime, one is guilty of a moving violation, the other one is guilty of treason. Hey, I just solved a problem! Maybe I should run for President.
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brian stouder said on August 24, 2016 at 11:49 am
Indeed.
When I was lots younger (mid-1970’s & into the early 80’s), and my part of Fort Wayne was taking a series of economic hits (chiefly – the loss of IH/Navistar, amongst several other manufacturers), a lament I remember hearing from various people was “what we need is a good war” – to rev-up the economy.
The only magic that has is lots and lots – unlimited, in fact – of deficit-spending by the guh-mint.
I say – if we can deficit-spend so as to strategically flatten cities and decimate armies, then we can adjust and do the same to rev the economy.
Donald Trump to the contrary notwithstanding, it is our money, and our economy, and the debt is owed to ourselves
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alex said on August 24, 2016 at 11:53 am
I don’t think anyone could manufacture a scandal that would matter at this point. Hillary leads Trump in all of the states Obama won in 2012 plus North Carolina, and she’s closing in on him in numerous diehard red states as well.
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brian stouder said on August 24, 2016 at 11:55 am
…including South Carolina!!!
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 12:05 pm
Jeff(tmmo), I’ve found that convincing people doesn’t usually work. I just continue to push back against things I feel are wrong, as politely as I can. Maybe it’s just my experience as being a woman, but not all people are open to having their minds changed by a women. (I’m not putting you in that category, just telling you my default.)
On the Clinton Foundation, looking past all the innuendo and spin, what I see is someone with a long record of life in public service married to someone with a long life in public service and a former President. They have relationships with people all over the world, not just people who have donated money to their campaigns. After his Presidency, Bill looked to leverage those relationships to do some good in the world, and he appears to have done that, tackling some hard problems. They didn’t have the wealth of a Gates or a Bloomberg, so out of necessity, they had to raise the money, not just use their own, and thus, the CGI.
The Clintons did not pay themselves from the CF. When Hillary became SoS, there was a MOU outlining her relationship to the CF, and it appears to have been followed. There were some emails from Doug Band at the CF to Huma Abedin asking for meetings and or help fro Secretary Clinton, but I haven’t seen anything she did or anyone she met where it wouldn’t have been an entirely appropriate part of her job. Most of the meetings requested seem not have happened.
If I’m looking for scandal or corruption, I’d want to see people she met with or helped who wouldn’t make sense as part of her portfolio at State. Helping Yunus or meeting with Melinda Gates don’t seem unreasonable, and don’t seem likely to,have happened because of their donations. The AP story with the numbers about how many donors met with her didn’t show that there was contact from the CF regarding all those meetings, and it didn’t attempt to evaluate why those meetings occurred. There was an underlying assumption that meetings with private people must be unusual, and therefore, the number of donors among that groups would be relevant. I don’t see the underlying assumption as valid without more justification.
So, they did good work, they spent most of the money on programs, they didn’t pay themselves, the evidence of influence peddling is really thin, and we know more about the inner workings of the CF than we do most similar orgs. I’m not sure on what basis to conclude that the Carter Center is superior (other than it’s more efficient, but both are good), except that Jimmy Carter hasn’t been relentlessly attacked by people looking to cause scandals. (Can you imagine what the media would have done had Chelsea been arrested for protesting CIA recruitment at a university, as Amy Carter was, among other arrests for protesting?)
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alex said on August 24, 2016 at 12:26 pm
I have no misgivings about the Clinton Foundation, and I’m getting more than a bit peeved at the Fourth Estate and its lazy-ass ways.
Consider this, Jeff:
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/24/playing-into-the-rights-trap-the-media-is-all-too-quick-to-go-chasing-phony-clinton-scandals/
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 12:37 pm
A different look at the numbers from the AP story, plus more detail on just how ridiculous it was to use Yunus as the big example: http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/24/how-the-ap-spun-the-story-about-the-clinton-foundation/
I’m always suspicious when numbers pop up in stories, because (nothing personal to the journos here!), too many journalists are innumerate, and make basic errors, not even getting into not understanding about putting numbers into context.
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adrianne said on August 24, 2016 at 12:53 pm
That AP “analysis” is bogus. Vox has a good takedown, essentially saying, when they found nothing, they should have killed the story. Instead, they went with it and Vox concludes that the analysis is “a mess.”
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12618446/ap-clinton-foundation-meeting
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Scout said on August 24, 2016 at 1:33 pm
The AP fell into the “both sides” trap, trying to equate the CF with Trump’s too numerous to list issues with bankruptcies, scams, rip-offs and failure to disclose what the American voters have a right to know. The AP’s CF story is yet another example of a political accusation misrepresented as a scandal. What it is a red meat nothingburger, served undercooked, with extra relish.
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brian stouder said on August 24, 2016 at 1:38 pm
Scout – an excellent, excellent lunchtime metaphor!
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 2:33 pm
The problem with the AP story is that it’s an AP story, so it’s been picked up everywhere, and the headline is “Clinton Foundations donors were half her meetings with private parties at State”. Which sounds bad, because half sounds like she was meeting with Clinton Foundation donors all the time, inappropriately, to the detriment of her work. It’s bullshit, but now the pundits jump into talk about the “optics” and how she should have been more careful, not how the media created the optics. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Meanwhile, Trump won’t release his taxes, so we can only piece together how much he owes to the Russians and the Chinese, and seems to be using his campaign as a personal grift. Bernie never even filed the basic financial disclosure form, and spent most of his campaign money through a company nobody even knows the owner of, yet he’s the pure untainted by money candidate. I’m also waiting to see if his new organization, Our Revolution, a 501(c)4, releases the names of donors. The major reason I know of for creating a 501(c)4 instead of a 527 is to not release the names of donors.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 24, 2016 at 2:40 pm
Hey, would it help if I said I think that Doug Band is an idiot? And Huma Abedin less so . . . that’s just from skimming through the e-mails. People in jobs like Sec’y. Clinton’s have a right to expect staff to keep them from inadvertent appearances of impropriety. Of course, if I continue in this vein, I’m likely to end up blaming Bill, who may well be the willful walker on edges . . . and wouldn’t that just fit.
Meanwhile, Judybusy, good on you. I royally ticked off almost half of the county prosecutors this am, and am gleefully waiting for them to get back to the office, tell the senior asst. prosecutor (the big dawg is leaving office in Nov., not running again, not much involved in office management), and for him to call or text me. I’ve got a dreadfully self-righteous speech all ready for him. This is what comes of turning 55, I fear. I just don’t care anymore, kind of like my buddy Barry from Altgeld Garden days.
The sad thing is that he won’t be mad, he wants to fix this before the new prosecutor gets elected and shows up Dec. 31, and you can’t fix underpaid and overworked and constantly turning-over staff. But when I hear someone say to me and a conference room I filled at their request that the school attendance law hasn’t changed, and I have to note, by ORC number the three biggest ones that have in fact been changed by the Statehouse over the last 12 months, and get “oh, really? We’ll have to research that and get back to you” I think I’m allowed to say “Really? We have this meeting once a year, and it has one subject, and you didn’t even prepare for it where we’re pulling a dozen people from around the county into a conference room for your benefit? You didn’t prepare even as well as you prep for an M1 hearing? And school started two weeks ago, and you’re going to take three more to research it? I’m going to have filings for you tomorrow, and what do we do with those?”
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 2:41 pm
Also, I had a thought about the latest Trump strategy. I said before that I think his African-American “outreach” is really an attempt to convince suburban/exurban whites that he’s not really racist so it’s okay to vote for him. We had Kellyanne Conway go on the news shows and talk about “as a white person, she was really moved,” which sounded like a signal. Then Trump said he couldn’t go into to inner cities to hold rallies because it wasn’t safe, and that he’d make Chicago safer by getting “tougher” cops. Now we hear that Trump is planning a visit to Detroit with Ben Carson.
What do you want to bet me that the plan is to provoke a little violence, so Trump can scare the white suburban/exurban voters into voting for the law and order candidate? It would be right out of the Nixon playbook, and sounds like a Bannon ploy.
I’ll put $10 on it; anybody want the other side of that action?
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jcburns said on August 24, 2016 at 2:42 pm
As the Vox piece points out, what’s worse these days than a methodologically-flawed, awkwardly-trying-to-fit-the-narrative story is when the social media team at the AP then tries to cram the content into 140 characters and into one of those images that is the Twitter equivalent of a pullquote.
Time and again I’ve seen this stuff—the PR about the piece, not the piece itself—miss the point of their own story, distort the facts, or just transmit the impression that the social media drone/author glanced at the article for 8 seconds before starting to type.
And that’s the only version of the story an increasing number of twitchy news consumers will ever read.
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 2:54 pm
I think the wonderful freedom of being in your 50s, Jeff(tmmo), is you’re just tired of the bullshit.
I think Doug Band was a functionary keeping donors happy; that was his job. Huma Abedin’s job was to keep bullshit off of Hillary’s radar, and she seems to have done that. I don’t see what the appearance of impropriety is in someone asking for a favor and then not getting it is. I’m sure Doug Band knew that he was going to get a no sometimes, but then he could go back and tell the donor he tried.
Again, I still don’t see what the impropriety is. What access was granted that was inappropriate?
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 3:04 pm
Charlie Pierce, far from a Hillary cheerleader, recognizes the usual nonsense in the CF story: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a47960/clinton-foundation-scandal/
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Meanwhile, in stuff that really matters, the EpiPen company’s CEO just happens to be the daughter of Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV). Congress is exempt from FOIA.
https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/24/epipen-mylan-bresch/
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basset said on August 24, 2016 at 4:12 pm
Once again, way off topic:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/15/nyregion/new-york-mass-graves-hart-island.html?em_pos=large&emc=edit_ck_20160824&nl=cooking&nlid=73329789&_r=0
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St Bitch said on August 24, 2016 at 5:02 pm
Sherri – your theory that Trump’s faux-minority-outreach is really coded rabble-rousing to push his martial law agenda strikes me as quite plausible. I haven’t been able to buy into the commonly held idea that he’s appealing to racist-shy on-the-fencers.
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Scout said on August 24, 2016 at 5:35 pm
Matthew Yglesias, in his AP/CF follow up concludes the defense of the whole flawed premise is no better than the … whole flawed premise:
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12630586/ap-response-clinton-foundation
“Colford’s response simply does not address in any way the question of why AP would put out false factual claims on social media.
“My guess is that the AP sees social promotion as secondary to and distinct from the core journalistic enterprise in a way that makes it okay to elide key factual points for the sake of enhanced oomph.
But many people see the social collateral for stories without clicking through to read the full context. It’s difficult to pack a ton of nuance into a tweet, but it should be easy to avoid straightforwardly false claims.”
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Jakash said on August 24, 2016 at 6:25 pm
I always thought “U. S. Cellular Field”, nicknamed “The Cell” was pretty dang bad, but I do believe ole Mr. Reinsdorf has outdone even that.
The Tribune reports: “The Chicago White Sox announced Wednesday that beginning Nov. 1, the team’s ballpark will be named Guaranteed Rate Field after inking a 13-year naming rights agreement with the national mortgage lender.”
Prompting:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/BetterSoxStadiumNames?src=hash
My favorites so far:
:::tronc Field
Guaranteed Seats Field
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 6:34 pm
That name is just begging to be called Guaranteed Loss Field, when the team is bad.
Still, Sleep Train Arena (home of the Sacramento Kings) seems worse, and in the college world, the University of Louisville comes up with a pair of losers, the KFC Yum! Center and the Papa John’s Stadium. The Arizona Cardinals of the NFL playing in the University of Phoenix Stadium is pretty weird too.
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 6:46 pm
I’m curious about people’s perceptions concerning money and politics. I’ve posted here before some numbers about what it would take to get in the room with Trump or Bill Clinton this campaign season. How much do people think it would take to get in the room with a Congressperson, Governor, or Senator? I’m talking in the room, at someone’s home, where you could actually meet the candidate and speak to them.
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Danny said on August 24, 2016 at 8:03 pm
$20k in unmarked bills?
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 8:29 pm
That would be very illegal, Danny. Donations have to be reported to the FEC, and include your name, address, occupation, and employer.
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Deborah said on August 24, 2016 at 8:33 pm
I’ve been back in Chicago since about noon. It was a hideous drive, this last day, raining the whole time. Little Bird is staying in my husband’s uncle’s condo which is next door to the Maggie Daley playground which is next door to Millenium park. Our place is small and one room with the interior walls demolished so it’s more private for Little Bird to stay there. The view from there is amazing. I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.
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Jolene said on August 24, 2016 at 8:42 pm
In the room for a private meeting or in the room as part of a smallish crowd at a fundraiser? I just got an invitation to a fundraiser for Wisconsin Senate candidate Russ Feingold with a top ticket price of $2700. It’s being held in someone’s home, so, presumably, it’s not a huge crowd. You might not have a chance for a private conversation, but you’d probably have a chance to ask a question or two.
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Jolene said on August 24, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Another fundraiser invite in my inbox: Meet Madeleine Albiright and Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. (What an odd combination!) Top ticket price $2700.
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 9:15 pm
Not a private meeting, something just like you’re talking about. Top ticket prices for an event like that range from $2500-$5000, but the low end is $150-$250. I don’t enjoy these events, so I seldom go, but I have attended a few, and my experience is that you’ll be in a house with 20-30 people, and there’s no distinction in who gave what. You’ll schmooze, and if you can wait out the obnoxious man pontificating at the candidate, you can have a conversation with the candidate. My inbox is full of invites to these things right now, and because I’ve been a pretty reliable Dem donor, my phone rings off the hook with follow up calls as well. Someone from Jay Inslee’s campaign has called twice in the last week from a cell phone to try to get me to attend one of these events, and I think I donated $500 to his campaign last time and nothing this time (and I probably won’t because he has a huge lead.)
I’ve never donated to Patty Murray or Maria Cantwell, because they’ve never had any serious challengers. I have donated more to Suzan DelBene, my Rep, for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I had the chance to talk to her in a context outside of politics before she ran for the House in my district. So I’ve attended a few of her events, and she knows who I am, but in total, I’ve given maybe $3000 over several races to her.
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 9:27 pm
The AP’s defense of its story still sucks: http://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12630586/ap-response-clinton-foundation
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jcburns said on August 24, 2016 at 10:15 pm
How about “Road and Track and” Field? “Out In Left” Field? Or just to really confuse things in Chicago, “Marshall” Field?
Sorry. You might want to watch Rachel Maddow and Kellyanne Conway chat about, oh, you know, politics on the west coast repeat of Rachel’s show (or on demand or well, however.)
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Sherri said on August 24, 2016 at 11:16 pm
Trumplandia: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-white-blue-collar-supporters
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Dexter said on August 25, 2016 at 12:47 am
At least 8 tornadoes that I heard of just south of us, from 10 to 25 miles away, and of course Kokomo, Indiana took a hard hit. My friend George who lives right in the path of these fast moving storms posted video of two different tornadoes, and one was huge…Texas size…looked at least 3/4 mile in width. His rural home and grounds were spared, nearby farms and houses did sustain damage. Indiana and Ohio have pockets of serious destruction tonight.
~
Spending 4 days in Encinitas and San Diego last week lifted my spirits, then the next day the Blue Cut Fire destroyed The Summit resort in Victorville and I-15 was shut down for at least 2 days.
I may be the least-traveled contributor here at nn.c for the last 20 years, and this trip was good for me because I had not flown since 1996, and the changes at the airports were no surprise but the ball-banging TSA frisk at Columbus was a bit of a surprise.
I fucked up, too, carrying my backpack as a carry-on. Years ago I had put a pocket knife in a pocket, one of those multi-purpose little knives with scissors and tweezers and corkscrew and awl and all that jazz, but somehow I did not feel it when I checked for it here at home…it passed through in Columbus but TSA found it in Las Vegas McCarran…and was I ever embarrassed! Hell, I didn’t know…what then? All I had to do was go back and mail it home or forfeit it…and I let them have it, it meant nothing to me whatsoever. But that stuff is inexcusable. I heard in Columbus that this kind of thing happens with handguns frequently, and you are detained and sometimes arrested for that dumb-ass behavior.
Danny…La Jolla Cove was very cool…nice. Swimming with sea lions barking up a storm.
11 days in Las Vegas is too many days there. It’s hot as hell and it’s dusty and dirtier than shit. The wind blows dirt and dust around and with COPD and asthma , man, it was getting a bit hard to breathe, with hot 3% humidity air. At times smoke from Cal fires settled in and then it was a dismal place. I had no false hopes of winning money and I did not gamble and Mrs. Dexter (Carla Lee) ended up losing just $13…a major victory there, I’d say. Fast trip coming back from Encinitas…we averaged 85 mph and many times we’d be able to cruise at 100 mph…everyone else was driving that fast as well.
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 1:20 am
Thanks for the heads up, jc. The discussion about the McCarren Act was quite entertaining.
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 1:23 am
He’s just not that into you: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/coulter-goes-to-war-with-trump-and-it-is-glorious
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 7:17 am
Today’s the day — whatever else we’ve done wrong, we’ve got this: the National Park idea, born in America! 100 years ago on this date, and there’s a celebration somewhere near you (or on streaming video for you).
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/birthday-invitation.htm
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 7:39 am
Lots of other great articles linked here, and this is a fascinating read that might add to your bucket list. Or . . . you could just go more than a few hundred yards away from the visitor center in most parks and find a fair amount of solitude and peace! Better yet, ask a ranger about a backcountry permit, and take a hike . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/aug/24/10-least-visited-us-national-parks
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 8:07 am
And finally, though I’m trying to stay focused on the National Park Service centennial today, I think this is a very useful extended essay which I felt, reading it, I could have written right here in east central Ohio. The story is rooted in Louisiana, but a social stratum that is layered in the class system all across the country.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-white-blue-collar-supporters
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