Mixed link grill.

This is one of those days when all I want to do is read. Fortunately, many links, so let’s get to it:

A lovely essay from last week, passed along by J.C. Burns, that ties together history, policymaking and? And? Yes, SURFING. Not only that, but surfing just a short distance, as the gull flies, from where I was last week: Surfing in Nixonland. Enjoy.

Ta-Nehisi Coates peers into the basket of deplorables and makes an obvious — and yet still unappreciated — point. Maybe she’s right.

The case for treating sugar like an addictive drug. Once upon a time, I’d say it would never happen. Now, not so sure. Robert Lustig:

There are four things that have to be met in order to consider a substance worthy of regulation. Number one: ubiquity — you can’t get rid of it, it’s everywhere. Number two: toxicity — it has to hurt you. Number three: abuse. Number four: externalities, which means it has a negative impact on society.

Sugar meets all four criteria, hands down. One, it’s ubiquitous — it’s everywhere, and it’s cheap. Two, as I mentioned, we have a dose threshold, and we are above it. Three, if it’s addictive, it’s abused. Four, how does your sugar consumption hurt me? Well, my employer has to pay $2,750 per employee for obesity management and medicine, whether I’m obese or not.

Interesting.

And into the whirl of the week we go, eh?

Posted at 12:10 am in Current events |
 

71 responses to “Mixed link grill.”

  1. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 1:56 am

    Hey, JC, the Public Editor is all over the Times for one of their headlines: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/public-editor/the-word-a-headline-didnt-need.html

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  2. Linda said on September 13, 2016 at 7:27 am

    Yeah, Coates put the bell on that cat. And so did, finally, a white mainstream pundit, Dana Milbank: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clinton-wasnt-wrong-about-the-deplorables-among-trumps-supporters/2016/09/12/93720264-7932-11e6-beac-57a4a412e93a_story.html?utm_term=.893697a55823

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  3. alex said on September 13, 2016 at 7:49 am

    Maybe she’s right? Of course she’s right. And I’m disappointed in her that she’s so cowardly she walked it back.

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  4. Kim said on September 13, 2016 at 8:00 am

    I grew up in California, so vacations were usually beachy. One memorable one was in San Clemente. I was early elementary, so my parents would have been around 30. My brother and I spent our days in a haze of rented canvas rafts, sand and snow cones. My parents, on the other hand, decided to try surfing. By the end of the week, Mike and I were tired and happy. My Dad had three cracked ribs and a broken nose. Mother had a concussion. A good time was had by all…maybe.

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  5. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 8:41 am

    Nixon had a house in Miami too, Key Biscayne actually. I went to a party once at a house where you could see it from. It was during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college. I remember it well because I was so ill at ease, all the kids there were super wealthy, and I was not by any means. You could just see the roof of Nixon’s house but we were all gawking at it.

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  6. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 9:31 am

    Has anyone said there are not *any* deplorables among Trump’s supporters? No. And I understand that “half” is certainly open for debate.

    What made it a poor call at that venue was, dehydration aside (and it may well have played a role), it was the first time the pool had been at one of her fundraisers within earshot and recording distance. Someone on her staff served her poorly by not making the usual adjustments, in my humble opinion.

    I’ve worked more school and social service levies than I care to go back and count. What we ALWAYS discussed was a bucket, barrel, or basket of what we usually called “irredeemables,” which thanks be to the Lord she didn’t say — but I’ve said that any number of times . . . in private conference and in closed settings. We ALL knew that spending time and mailers and doing door knocking in Franklin Township was a waste. of. time. They always voted 92% against the district levy because they lost their district school to consolidation in 1959, for pity’s sake, and those farmers and hill-folk up on Flint Ridge are still ticked off about it half a century later.

    More recently, we surveyed the county for the children services levy, which was on the heels of a developmental disabilities board levy that passed by less than 20 votes countywide. That, in Dr. Johnson’s phrase, concentrated our minds wonderfully. We had some very generous civic supporters, and a fair amount of money, but even so: we had to figure out which routes from our bedroom communities into Columbus were driven by folks out of which parts of the county, and where to buy billboards, where to put the big signs (four foot by six), and the yard signs.

    In doing so, we had a county map the size of a banqueting table, and it was colored in by precinct, and we actually had them for the last DD board levy, the last CS levy ten years ago, and for two school levies in key areas. The hardest work we did other than walking streets and getting doors slammed on us were the three or four evenings we spent talking about the “no-hopers,” the “hell-no-ers,” the “deplorables” (the last not our phrase, but I expect to hear it the next round!). You don’t spend too much money where you always get 75+% yes votes, and you don’t spend hardly a dime where they always vote 80+% no, and then you’re trying to maximize your dollars for that “basket” of voters who a) might be shifted, and b) you had some idea of how to shift them.

    That’s what I see Hillary referencing in her speech, which after all was at a group she’d probably not thought once about as being anything other than supportive (an LGBT oriented event which was about to introduce Barbra for a few numbers). She’s reminding them in that second paragraph of the voters they CAN and SHOULD be helping her with to turn them, and rally them.

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-transcript-clinton-s-full-remarks-as-1473549076-htmlstory.html

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  7. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 9:33 am

    This is where her last four percent to victory are coming from:

    “But the other basket — and I know this because I see friends from all over America here — I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas — as well as, you know, New York and California — but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

    “And what I hope is that in addition to your extraordinary generosity, you will go to our website, hillaryclinton.com, or text to join at 47246 to see how else you can get involved.”

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  8. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 9:34 am

    $50 ain’t much, but I just started a kid in college and haven’t had a raise in a decade. Y’all know what to do.

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  9. St Bitch said on September 13, 2016 at 9:47 am

    Of course Hillary is right, but she’s in the wrong position to be attacking voters. It’s a dirty bomb with collateral damage rather than a surgical strike against her rival. Walking it back only compounds the fallout.

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  10. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 9:59 am

    Did someone here already post this? If so apologies, but it’s worth a second placement regardless:

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/problems-white-people-america-society-class-race-214227

    Key phrase: “if you’ve always been privileged, equality begins to look like oppression. That’s part of what you’re seeing in terms of the pessimism, particularly when the system gets defined as a zero-sum game, that you can only gain at somebody else’s loss…”

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  11. Bitter Scribe said on September 13, 2016 at 10:26 am

    Good line from somewhere: If sugar had been discovered 10 years ago instead of in antiquity, it would be a controlled substance today.

    I was aghast at how much sugar there was in my favorite yogurt, so I decided to get some plain Greek yogurt and sweeten it myself, with honey or marmalade. I felt myself very virtuous until I looked at the label, did the math and realized I was giving myself just as much or more sugar this way as with the processed stuff.

    Sigh. You can’t win.

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  12. Jenine said on September 13, 2016 at 10:54 am

    @Bitter Scribe: I think you’re still better off using your own sweetener because you know you’re avoiding high fructose corn syrup.
    I try to buy bread that doesn’t have sugar added to it – surprisingly hard to do in a US grocery store.

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  13. Icarus said on September 13, 2016 at 11:20 am

    thanks for the sugar link. I shared it on my FB pages. Wasn’t there someone who discovered how bad sugar was and was ridiculed by academic colleagues until many years later when someone else did the same research?

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  14. alex said on September 13, 2016 at 11:25 am

    The sugar industry has been protecting its interests with bogus science all along, just like the tobacco industry.

    Having been diagnosed with fatty liver disease and type II diabetes, I’ve become particularly adept at reading labels, and I was shocked to discover that even canned and frozen vegetables can be full of added sugar.

    These days I make my own mayonnaise, tomato sauce, etc., and only buy 9-grain bread, plain yogurt, plain soy milk. It has been quite an adjustment, and I was never a big consumer of processed foods to begin with, but I’m eager to see what my lab values look like after six months of judicious eating when I see my doctor next month.

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  15. nancy said on September 13, 2016 at 11:34 am

    I’ll be interested in those numbers too, Alex. Today’s NYT has a story on the sugar industry’s shenanigans with academic studies, too. I’ve stopped worrying about fat, period — eat meat and bacon on the regular. But I’m way more judicious with added sugar, and have moderated my drinking considerably. I’m thinner and more weight-stable as a result.

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  16. brian stouder said on September 13, 2016 at 11:44 am

    Here’s a little sugar (pronounced ‘shu-guh’) – for HRC’s campaign, I’d say –

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/13/the-middle-class-and-the-poor-just-had-the-best-year-since-the-end-of-the-great-recession/?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-economy%252Bnation

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  17. Suzanne said on September 13, 2016 at 11:54 am

    Bitter Scribe, make your own yogurt! It’s really pretty easy and tasty.
    https://food52.com/blog/16269-the-beginner-s-guide-to-making-impossibly-creamy-yogurt

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  18. LAMary said on September 13, 2016 at 12:01 pm

    Trader Joes full fat plain Greek yogurt is very good. This time of year I slice a peach and sprinkle some chopped almonds into it. No sugar needed. Shredded unsweetened coconut and raspberries are good too.

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  19. Icarus said on September 13, 2016 at 12:15 pm

    “moderated my drinking considerably” so less wine and more Skeleton Keys or less alcohol overall?

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  20. Jakash said on September 13, 2016 at 1:10 pm

    I’ve been VERY slow to come around on the sugar issue, despite the “sugar is poison” articles, but I’ve begun to get the message. Have been watching fat for decades, but never paid attention to sugar until the last few years. And I’ve never really had a sweet-tooth, per se. Unlike many of my friends, its pretty unusual for me to have dessert, e.g. My biggest sin was giant gas-station or 7-11 buckets of Coke, which I finally abandoned cold-turkey several years ago. (Unlike Brian, I refused to go the “diet” route, so those had hundreds of totally pointless calories.) I miss them so! But I used to never care how much sugar was in a prepared product, even though I read labels carefully. Due to the fact that my metabolism evidently continues to slow down faster than I can adjust my diet, I’m paying much more attention lately. (Dropping the pop had no effect on my weight, alas.)

    My problem is how monotonous my fluid intake is. Water, water, water. BORING! I just want SOMETHING interesting to drink that isn’t alcohol, artificial-sweetener-based, or filled with calories like fruit juices. (Not that I’m a teetotaler, mind you…) Clearly, I’m not alone in this, as I’ve been seeing articles such as the following about the trendiness of La Croix flavored carbonated waters. Though, I don’t spring for the “cool” name brand, ahem, the ever-expanding selection of store brand fizzies have been my lifeline to having a few bubbles without the regrets!

    http://www.vox.com/2016/6/20/11666314/lacroix-sparkling-water-seltzer

    (Apologies if I was originally directed to that article from nn.c., which wouldn’t surprise me at all…)

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  21. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 1:43 pm

    If you have a TV nearby, Obama is doing a rally for Hillary in Philly, and this is one relaxed, happy man.

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  22. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 1:48 pm

    When I got sober, I started drinking sparkling water, and that’s mostly what I drink. I used to get the lemon-flavored, but now I find I prefer the plain. Right now, I’m getting the Perrier cans, because they’re a little smaller and just the right amount at once, so that the bubbles stay nice and fresh. I’ve considered getting a Sodastream, but I’m not sure how good the carbonation is.

    My yogurt of choice right now is Fage 2% plain yogurt, which I can get in the big 32 oz containers. I refuse to eat nonfat yogurt, the texture is just gross. I add fruit and granola, and I use Mark Bittman’s granola recipe to make the granola, which I sweeten with maple syrup. That’s my usual breakfast, unless I’ve made a big batch of steelcut oatmeal, in which case I eat oatmeal with dried fruit, nuts, and some brown sugar. My sugar failing is chai tea; that’s the other thing I started drinking after I got sober.

    I’ve maxed out my contribution to Hillary’s campaign, though not to the Victory Fund (that would be a lot of money!) I don’t usually max out to presidential campaigns, because I usually focus giving more locally, but all the local races I’m interested in are pretty safe, and Trump is a nightmare. If things start looking worse, I’ll max out my husband’s contribution, too, though since we’re after the primary, he can only give half.

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  23. alex said on September 13, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    Spayd neutered.

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  24. brian stouder said on September 13, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Thanks for sharing that excellent article, Alex.

    This evening I think I shall have to haunt the City Council chambers, and see the sparks fly when friend-of-nn.c Mark the Shark goes in there and straightens out Arp-the-carp, who wants to cut taxes without regard to the effect on Fort Wayne’s public schools

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  25. alex said on September 13, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    Arp the Carp — good one, Brian. Fuckin’ shit eater.

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  26. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 3:21 pm

    I drink mostly sparkling water, the Whole Foods brand that comes in a gigantic 6 pack. But I’ve really started to like a carbonated grapefruit drink, brand called Spindrift, it comes in cans in a 4 pack. It’s not sweet, it has about 30 calories per can. You can get it at Trader Joes and Target has it too, it’s probably in a lot of other places. I’ve tried other carbonated grapefruit drinks but this one is the best. Spindrift makes other flavors but I’m not crazy about any of them. As far as alcohol goes, I had been choosing Proseco during the summer in NM, very light and refreshing. In Chicago we have a martini every evening, or mostly every evening, it’s a very civilized thing to do up in our little place overlooking the lake. I like gin martinis with one giant sized pimento stuffed olive. I don’t like dirty martinis though.

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  27. Suzanne said on September 13, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    I’ve been infusing plain old water with lemon & mint, as mint is growing copiously in my flower bed, where I stupidly planted it not knowing that it’s horribly invasive. I put a couple of handfuls of mint leaves in my sun tea (remember that?) container and let it sit for 24 hours or so until it gets kind of minty. I remove the leaves and voila! Flavored water. Slice up a lemon with the mint and it’s very good.

    I try not to eat much sugar by eating mostly home cooking. I never did drink much pop. So I should be thin, shouldn’t I?

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  28. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 3:49 pm

    Spayd’s view of balance is like a doctor evaluating a broken wrist and telling a patient “Option 1 is to set the broken bone and wear a cast for 6 weeks. Option 2 is to chop the arm off. Both solve the problem of a broken wrist. I have no opinion on which is best.”

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  29. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 4:06 pm

    Sherri, that’s an excellent analogy, it also sets up another issue, which is proportion, a big part of the problem. The outrageous always gets disproportionate play.

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  30. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 4:30 pm

    Okay, I’ll only chop half your arm off.

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  31. brian stouder said on September 13, 2016 at 4:36 pm

    And if you chop off both arms, why – it’s proactive, preventive medicine!

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  32. Jolene said on September 13, 2016 at 4:49 pm

    I’m very near becoming an angry white voter myself. So fed up with the horribleness that is Trump and his loathesome supporters. Irritated with Hillary for creating problems for herself and her supporters. Terrified by what it would be like to actually have Trump as president. Sickened by the prospect of the tide of venom that will be unloosed if Clinton is elected.

    How are we ever going to get beyond this and do some rational problem-solving?

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  33. St Bitch said on September 13, 2016 at 4:58 pm

    My sentiments exactly, Jolene @32. I’m doing a news cleansing, hoping to recover a modicum of serenity.

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  34. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    I just got an email asking if I’ll go door to door for Hillary. It’s to happen in a neighboring state, where polls are showing that it’s tight. I’m not sure which state, I have to click that I’ll do it before I find out which state. I really don’t want to go to Indiana, but I doubt that’s the state because it couldn’t possibly be tight in Indiana, I would expect that state to go red. It could be Iowa or Wisconsin. I really feel like I should do it, but I really don’t want to, the thought of it brings me dread. I do have a memorial service to go to on Sunday so maybe I’ll talk myself into that being my justification for not doing it. I went door to door for McGovern way back when and it wasn’t fun.

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  35. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    The reason I’m so frustrated by the Times in particular is that they’ve done excellent work in other areas. The work they’ve done on health care expenses has been great and important, and they are doing some good work on climate change. I realize that different writers are involved, but it would seem to me that from an editorial point of view, it would make a lot of sense to leverage that good work and use it as a different way of approaching the election. They’ve already made the editorial decision that these topics are important; why not apply them to the presidential race and look at how the candidates’ positions impact these topics? Do a deep dive on something like that for a change, rather than endless stories on emails. It might at least be relevant to how they would govern.

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  36. David C. said on September 13, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    We make our own yogurt, with a smidge of extra cream, just because. Now I can’t eat Yoplait or anything like that. It’s so horribly sweet. I saw an article recently comparing the sugar in granola bars to that in cake. You’re better off eating the cake.

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  37. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    I’m not asking the press to attack Trump and save us from the Trumpocalypse. I’m saying that the way the media covers elections has been broken for a long time, and the fact that Trump is such an outlier makes the ways in which the coverage is broken very obvious. Trump forces a reconsideration of what you thought you knew, and the press as a whole does not show that they have even considered that. They are simply overwhelmed by Trump; there’s such a firehouse of scandalous material coming at them daily that they can’t handle it, it just seems impossible that such a person could be a nominee for President. So, the instant the firehouse lessens, they think, good, it’s returning to normal, but of course, it’s not.

    I honestly think we’d all be better served if there were no ‘boys on the bus’, no press dogging every step the candidates make. It so skews their view of everything that I think their reporting suffers. I think the WaPo’s coverage of Trump improved when he kicked them out.

    (When I talk about media and press, I generally don’t mean TV. I don’t watch TV news and I think it’s hopeless and irredeemable.)

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  38. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    I rarely watch tv news either. Occasionally in NM I would watch Chris Hayes and Rachel, but never in Chicago. I get all of my news online, I don’t get any print news at all, except for maybe glancing at a headline in a kiosk while walking through the city. It’s frustrating to read about the Republican nominee for president of the United States of America treated like he is anything but the ridiculous bigot he is. It makes me want to scream. And I’m supposed to be kind and understanding to the people who support him? Thank goodness I don’t have to deal with any of them on a face to face basis, or I would totally loose my marbles.

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  39. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 7:53 pm

    A perfect example of the news being filtered through a white lens: Trump continues to say that things can’t get any worse for the African-American community, that they can’t walk out the door without getting shot, can’t get jobs, etc, yet that’s not treated as hugely insulting to voters. It’s much less true than the deplorables remark, but the media doesn’t write about it as insulting to African-Americans, merely as an ineffective outreach to African-Americans.

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  40. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 8:40 pm

    Fred Clark with an interesting look at the deplorables’ world: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2016/09/13/what-sjw-really-means/

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  41. Joe Kobiela said on September 13, 2016 at 8:43 pm

    Jolene @32,
    I feel the same way, just reverse the names.
    Pilot Joe

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  42. Deborah said on September 13, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    So joe, are you going to vote for Trump?

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  43. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 9:07 pm

    Guys, you might want to look the other way. OTOH, you might find it helpful if ever asked to purchase necessities for the women in up your life,

    http://www.scarymommy.com/mom-daughter-tampon-text-exchange-goes-viral-belinda-hankins/?utm_source=CM

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  44. nancy said on September 13, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    You guys, listen to “Keepin’ it 1600” today — lots of funny stuff about Pneumoniagate and Trump. You’ll feel better. It’s 9:30, and I JUST got home from a work thing, and tomorrow is another work thing that will keep me out late. I’ll try to update tomorrow, but it’s not going to happen tonight. Sorry.

    Maybe I’ll post a surf pic in the morning.

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  45. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 10:08 pm

    We’ll be here, Nancy, waiting!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH1K23rAYOQ

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  46. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 10:09 pm

    I see, it’s when liberals complain that we’re just whining about nonexistent bias.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/public-editor/liz-spayd-the-new-york-times-public-editor.html?_r=0

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  47. St Bitch said on September 13, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    It must be Iowa, Deborah. A few days ago it was slightly in the blue. Now it’s gone back to light red.

    How effective is door-to-door canvassing these days, I wonder? It’s probably going to go the way of caucuses, and other artifacts of pre-techno grass-roots America in the near future. Still, it’s in play this cycle, which has taken on the trappings of a festering civil war. And here I am, tethered to my swinging home state.

    I’m going to talk to my Bestie here (the one I usually go into Chicago with) about the two of us doin a little foot-soldiering for Hillary. So let yourself off the hook, Deborah, because you’re the inspiration for this. We’ll go in your stead.

    Or…come join us and we can turn it into an adventure.

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  48. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 10:49 pm

    Sherri, did you say TV news was hopeless and irredeemable? You must be referring to this:

    pic.twitter.com/lq1s2JcIg1

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  49. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 11:09 pm

    Sean Hannity is in the basket, Jeff.

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  50. Sherri said on September 13, 2016 at 11:24 pm

    Now we know why Trump hates China so much (to the point that he’s constantly saying the TPP is just a terrible deal with China even though China isn’t part of the TPP): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-trade-dispute-china-obama_us_57d869a7e4b0fbd4b7bc2d1a

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  51. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 13, 2016 at 11:38 pm

    Sean is truly deplorable.

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  52. basset said on September 13, 2016 at 11:44 pm

    Good one, Sherri@43. But what was a 13-year-old doing out by herself just before one in the morning?

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  53. Jolene said on September 14, 2016 at 12:58 am

    basset. I got the impression the mother was waiting in the car while the daughter went into the store.

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  54. Dexter said on September 14, 2016 at 1:06 am

    When I quit beer, I tried near-beer, Guinness Kaliber. It was so good I knew I had found a substitute for the real stuff. My new-found friends in church basements schooled me immediately…can’t do that. Many reasons , but no, that wouldn’t do. So I began drinking bottles of tap water, chilled in the fridge. A couple times a day, a caff-free-Diet Pepsi, for a while.
    This summer I have been drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. I never gave up the tap water, but of course I’ll buy water in bottles after going through TSA or whenever , wherever. The most I paid for a small water was $3 at the Las Vegas minor-league baseball stadium. I never get into my van or go anywhere without a bottle of water in my bag. I had another complete blood workup last week and since my A1C was so perfectly in-range, I celebrated the good news (my chest X-Ray was clear too, yea me) by having a glass of cow’s milk and a big-ass donut. It had been months since I drank a full glass of 2% milk.
    Quirky observation: Oatmeal is oatmeal, right? Nope. In the pro cycling community it is always referred to as porridge. I wonder why….

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  55. Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 2:28 am

    What can you say? Drum is right. Despite all the attention the Times has given to high prescription drug prices, they paid no attention to Clinton’s recent proposal to address them. You’d think they might want to engage with it. Everybody is all over Trump’s laughable childcare plan,though.

    http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/donald-trump-announces-something-press-goes-wild

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  56. adrianne said on September 14, 2016 at 6:57 am

    The frustrating thing about the New York Times’ political coverage is that they do so much else that’s good in all other areas. My feeling is that certain editors there have had a longstanding grudge against the Clintons dating back to Whitewater, which turned out to be a whole lotta nothing. Ever since then they’ve been fixated on finding the one thing that will bring down the corrupt Clintons. It’s like an infection. Maybe it will go away when Hillary is elected president, but I doubt it. That Liz Spayd piece is absurd and practically unreadable.

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  57. basset said on September 14, 2016 at 7:19 am

    Jolene, that could be it… would ne interesting to hear how mom’s car came to be called the “Vaj mobile.”

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  58. alex said on September 14, 2016 at 7:49 am

    So Trump’s idea of disclosing his medical history is to sit down for an interview with Dr. Oz. Perhaps we’ll get to hear about his income taxes in a chat with Dave Ramsey.

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  59. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 14, 2016 at 8:10 am

    Alex, don’t give him ideas. (Next, housing policy with the Property Brothers.)

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  60. Danny said on September 14, 2016 at 10:12 am

    Russian policy with Yakov Smirnoff.

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  61. brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 10:41 am

    He seems to be getting his immigration policy ideas from Wile E Coyote…

    https://www.google.com/search?q=wile+e+coyote+gif&biw=892&bih=196&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf7e61i4_PAhVM4iYKHQU0AdUQsAQIGw&dpr=0.85

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  62. brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 10:56 am

    …and here’s three cheers for the prospect of more surfin’ pics!

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  63. Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 11:46 am

    Now Trump isn’t even going to show his medical records to Dr. Oz. My previous guess had been that there was an STD involved. Must be something worse than that if he can’t even trust a friendly interview with Dr. Oz. maybe he’ll talk to Dr. Sean Hannity.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/09/14/donald-trump-mehmet-oz-hillary-clinton-medical-records/90348722/

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  64. Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 11:47 am

    Kurt Eichenwald has done a deep dive into Trump’s international business ties: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/donald-trump-foreign-business-deals-national-security-498081.html

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  65. Jakash said on September 14, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Jeff @ #59. “Next, housing policy with the Property Brothers.” Or maybe the Parker Brothers; I’m sure he’s the BEST at Monopoly.

    The reality show candidate vetted by Dr. Oz. Holy moly, if only one of them had a brain. I pity “The Onion” having to compete with reality in this campaign.

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  66. brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Speaking of ‘deep dives’ – I finally looked up what a gastroenterologist is, and came up with this:

    http://patients.gi.org/what-is-a-gastroenterologist/

    which confirmed that a gastroenterologist is just what one would think one is…

    so actually, an extended medical discussion with Shit-for-brains-Sean Hannity would be just what the doctor ordered…

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  67. basset said on September 14, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    Speaking of medical condition, here’s what the Clintons don’t want you to know:

    http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wabc-anchor-mistakenly-announces-hillary-clintons-death/177957?utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=tvspy&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter20160914

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  68. LAMary said on September 14, 2016 at 1:28 pm

    Trump decided to not have his medical details announced on Dr. Oz.

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  69. brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 2:13 pm

    Basset – now THAT was funny!

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  70. basset said on September 14, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    Many of us have had that oh-shit feeling after putting out wrong information, I think I’d just go ahead and die after that one though.

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  71. Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    Funny thing how right after the email that Colin Powell sent Hillary telling her about how he used his own email account (and that showed he lied about what he told her), there’s been a raft of leaked emails putting Colin Powell in a more positive light. Hmm, wonder how that happens?

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