Yeah, it was just that kind of day:
Torrential overnight rains FUBAR’d all the local freeways, not just the Lodge, abated for much of the day, and then picked up again at quitting time. Alan generally works from mid-morning until early evening, leaving for work about 9:30. Typically it takes him 20 minutes to make the drive. I texted him at 11:15 asking how bad the commute had been, and he reply was: “Just got in.” Ugh. There are days when I wish I had more contact with two-legged mammals during my work day, but there are just as many that I’m profoundly grateful my work can be done anywhere I can take my laptop and phone.
Right now I’m propped up against the foot of my bed, with Wendy close by. Cozy, but she’s going to need a walk soon and she hates the rain.
I did a fairly innocuous story a few weeks back, about how Michigan cities are changing their infrastructure to deal with rain events like these, which are far more frequent in this era of climate change. An interesting thing I’ve noticed lately: No one I spoke to, or speak to on related matters, bothers to deny climate change, and I’m not just talking to commie college professors who’ve walked across melting glaciers. It’s here, it’s happening, we better get used to it. Someone from a state farming organization told me a grain elevator is either built or being built near Saginaw, a farther-north location than had ever been able to support one before. Corn and beans are being grown, in pockets, as far north as Gaylord; make your Michigan hand map, find the topmost knuckle on your middle finger, and that’s where Gaylord is. That’s pretty damn far north, 50 miles south of the bridge, above 45 degrees latitude, for crops we generally associate with the flatlands of downstate Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, among others.
Meanwhile, many elected officials continue to insist it’s either a) not happening; or b) not our fault; or c) can’t be fixed, so woo, let’s all put a pineapple tree in the back yard. Also meanwhile, we just endured a blistering, dry summer, and just took in a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours.
Sorry, great-grandkids, we broke the planet. Enjoy the off world colonies.
I’m not really depressed or anything. In truth, I adore an occasional overcast day like today. We had one — just one — when I was in California, and the locals were moping about it. “You mean, the sun isn’t actively trying to kill me today?” I said. “This is not a terrible thing.” We had a very California summer, so this feels like a pleasant reprieve. Of course, knock wood, I got no water in my basement (yet). So there’s that.
Now I’m thinking about dinner, and have some grocerying to do beforehand. Let’s see what sort of bloggage can be scrambled here.
The Detroit News, Alan’s employer, has never endorsed a non-Republican for president in its 143-year history. Until today, when the editorial board endorsed…Gary Johnson. Sigh.
Remember how Donald Trump kinda-sorta defended himself for stiffing contractors at his various properties, saying, “Maybe they didn’t do work to my satisfaction”? I wonder what this piano dealer did to displease him. Was middle C flat?
The New Yorker knows how to deal with this beauty queen.
Great weekend, all. See you Monday.
Jean Shaw said on September 29, 2016 at 6:02 pm
A friend of mine was considering voting for Gary Johnson until today, thanks to his ignorance of world affairs.
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Jean Shaw said on September 29, 2016 at 6:04 pm
And before I forget, the current mayor of my hometown (South Miami, Fla.) is not a climate change denier–quite the opposite, in fact. Bright guy.
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susan said on September 29, 2016 at 6:20 pm
Mr. Diehl, the piano salesman, should have waltzed right into the Taj Mahal Casino with a sledge hammer, and smashed the pyanos Drumphth stiffed him for. Mr. Diehl would have lost big bucks, but he surely would have garnered some satisfaction from the splintered wood and wires.
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David C. said on September 29, 2016 at 6:42 pm
I’m not sure “Smoke a bowl with Gary” is a suitable substitute for fireside chats, but that’s just me.
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alex said on September 29, 2016 at 7:12 pm
Poop water. Nice ring to it but the copy editor in me says sewage takes up less space. And what about the sensibilities of the elderly, queasy and poop-averse?
Guess it doesn’t matter coming from a paper with such a shitty sense of timing when making a presidential endorsement.
Despite all of the outrage over it in ’08, I adored the Barack and Michelle fist bump New Yorker cover because it laid bare the sheer ridiculousness of the GOP’s Alinsky-Ayers agit-propping. It was so smart the Republicans didn’t even get that the joke was on them. Unfortunately neither did a lot of strident liberals. On the other hand, Trump as a porky pageant queen is kind of low-hanging fruit, much as I might enjoy seeing him emasculated.
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David C. said on September 29, 2016 at 7:21 pm
I like this.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/29/495946913/reykjavik-turns-off-street-lights-to-turn-up-the-northern-lights
On Wednesday evening, the city of Reykjavik, Iceland, turned off street lights and encouraged people to darken their homes so that everyone could watch the northern lights.
The city council released a statement saying street lights would be turned off in multiple sections of the city between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time and warning people to drive carefully.
The city of about 120,000 people, which is located just below the Arctic circle, prides itself on its frequent shows of the aurora borealis. The blackout attempt appeared justified — photos and videos posted to social media by people in Reykjavik showed dancing lights against a mostly dark sky.
We were in a dark skies area in northern Wisconsin a couple of years ago and we saw the Milky Way for probably the first time since we were children. We don’t know how much we’re missing. It would be so cool to have the city turn the street lights off on one clear day a month.
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Deborah said on September 29, 2016 at 7:30 pm
We had a client in St.Louis, a real estate developer who put up a mixed-use building in Clayton (a suburb of St.L) I designed the architectural signage for the building while I worked for a small graphic design company. This client had a method which worked for him like a charm, basically he sued all of his contractors and designers after he’d paid only about 75% of each contract. Sure enough we got sued by him for a ridiculous trumped up reason. The company I worked for had to hire a lawyer and then of course the developer later dropped the suit. So of course he never paid the last 25% of our contract and our company didn’t pursue payment but decided to cut our loses. He was eventually investigated because it was such a regular deal with him. He kept a number of lawyers in his office just for that scam. as an aside we all knew that he was having an affair with one of his lawyers and even his wife knew it. I only know that his wife knew about it because a friend of mine regularly played tennis with the wife. Anyway Trump and his ilk do this on a regular basis, they know that it’s intimidating and they get away with it time and time again.
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A different Connie said on September 29, 2016 at 9:51 pm
Long time lurker and fan and certainly not the normal Connie who regularly comments, but I just had to comment on this one.
You know what’s south of Gaylord? MOST OF THE POPULATION OF CANADA.
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Sherri said on September 29, 2016 at 10:18 pm
You know what’s north of Gaylord? Me, above the 47th parallel, preparing for the darkness.
Congress passed a bill to allow 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. While they were working on the bill, they complained that Obama was doing everything he could to stop the bill, and once they passed it, he vetoed it. They overrode his veto. Now they’re figuring out that maybe he might have had a good reason for doing so, such as that it’s damaging to foreign policy and opens the door to the US being sued by foreigners. So, who is Mitch McConnell going to blame?
Obama, of course. For not warning Congress about the potential consequences of the bill.
Stay tuned tomorrow when McConnell complains about the increasing overreach of the executive branch.
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Sherri said on September 29, 2016 at 10:40 pm
A monkey with a machine gun: http://www.vox.com/2016/9/29/13086236/trump-beliefs-category-error
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 29, 2016 at 10:50 pm
If Trump appeared on “Between Two Ferns” there would be a complete implosion of all sentient life. There is not enough irony in the Earth’s crust to adequately resist the pressure to collapse into ourselves entirely. It would be as if Charlton Heston were to portray a Hispanic in a seminal cinematic depiction.
**##[[((BOOM))]]##**
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Sherri said on September 29, 2016 at 11:38 pm
It’s good that the Republicans vetted their nominee so well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-foundation-lacks-the-certification-required-for-charities-that-solicit-money/2016/09/29/7dac6a68-8658-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/14/donald-trump-cuban-embargo-castro-violated-florida-504059.html
Didn’t any of the other candidates do any oppo research? Or were they too afraid? You’d think Ted Cruz could have gone after some of this stuff.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2016 at 1:04 am
Sherri, imo, first the other candidates didn’t take Trump seriously, so they probably thought oppo research was a waste of time and money. Then they danced around him because they thought they had a chance to get his supporters when he got knocked out. But of course he didn’t get knocked out. Then, obviously it was all too late. And also they simply didn’t do their homework, they assumed too much. Boy, that Vox link about how Trump communicates was fascinating.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 1:27 am
Well, if Trump wins, maybe we can all move to Reykjavik and watch the Northern Lights and soak in the water and pretend everything is okay.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 1:34 am
Glad to hear that Bernie is joining the team: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/just-in-time-bernie-getting-in-tune-with-hillary.html
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ROGirl said on September 30, 2016 at 5:56 am
I heard an interview with a guy who did IT work for Trump in the 80s. Trump didn’t pay him, he threatened to sue. Trump told him, go ahead, it will be more expensive for you to go through a lawsuit than it is for me not to pay you.
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ROGirl said on September 30, 2016 at 6:16 am
Anderson Cooper said that Trump was leering and looked creepy in the old footage of him watching the beauty queen working out for the cameras. Tru dat.
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Connie said on September 30, 2016 at 6:26 am
A different Connie: thank you for calling me normal. 🙂
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 7:07 am
Very good article about how the respective, ahem, communication styles of the candidates are likely to play out in the second debate. Take a few minutes to watch the embedded video. Hillary at her best.
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2016 at 7:48 am
My first “Like if you think we need to keep Christ in Christmas” meme showed up on my Facebook feed this morning. Getting an early start this year…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2016 at 8:01 am
I’ll continue to stay off that particular train, but I will admit to a sentimental appreciation of the ubiquitous slogan up in Frankenmuth, thanks to Wally Bronner:
“Enjoy CHRISTmas, It’s His Birthday; Enjoy Life, It’s His way!”
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Connie said on September 30, 2016 at 8:29 am
And today is my 38th wedding anniversary, which means Dorothy’s was just the other day. I will note that I forgot and had to email love to my husband after I got to work. Connie
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brian stouder said on September 30, 2016 at 8:53 am
Connie – congratulations; and here’s wishing your husband and you a great day…and a nice dinner out!
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Julie Robinson said on September 30, 2016 at 9:20 am
Congratulations, Connie, and Dorothy! That will be our next one, and I’m getting to the point of having a hard time remembering how many. Another friend just celebrated their 38th yesterday too.
Loving the Trump Foundation news. According to the story I read, they might have to repay all the money donated to them. Suck it, Donald.
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alex said on September 30, 2016 at 9:40 am
Congrats Connie!
Jolene @ #19, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Trump cuts his losses by calling the debates rigged and refusing to participate in any more of them. But if he’s really as clueless about his own performance in the first debate as that article suggests, then I’m very much looking forward to that town hall.
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alex said on September 30, 2016 at 9:40 am
And Dorothy!
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Deborah said on September 30, 2016 at 9:41 am
Donald will probably use his campaign funds to repay the money donated to his Foundation.
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Heather said on September 30, 2016 at 10:12 am
The Chicago Tribune just endorsed Gary Johnson too, calling him “a principled choice.” Which principles? Clearly not the ones about avoiding nuclear annihilation, the undermining of democracy, etc.
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Peter said on September 30, 2016 at 10:19 am
Deborah, I’ve had clients like that as well.
People don’t realize how far Trump’s reprehensible practices reach. I did a project for the executive offices of a large firm in Chicago; the millworker was halfway through production when they closed shop – they were the millworker for Trump’s Taj Mahal casino and were stiffed on the final payment; the amount was so large that they couldn’t make payroll. Our job was put on hold for three months while we found another millworker – it could have been for less but some of the material was shipped and installed, and there were workers who came to the jobsite trying to remove the material so they could sell it and get something for their lost wages.
Class act.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 10:31 am
Here’s another “Trump stiffed me” story. This one’s from a GOP political consultant.
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nancy said on September 30, 2016 at 10:32 am
The piano guy pointed that out too, Peter — that Trump’s 70 cents on the dollar translated to a couple years of stagnation for his business, diminished personal income, etc. These things have ripple effects, but Trump’s ego is so monstrous that other people simply don’t exist for him. I’m wondering when the endorsements for him are going to start coming, and what they’ll say. I expect some real pee-dancing from my former employer, whose ed-page editor has been working his way toward Trump for a while now, mainly by talking to his insane gun-nut brother in Texas.
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Jeff Borden said on September 30, 2016 at 11:04 am
Why are newspapers so irrelevant? Let us look to the Chicago Tribune, once the mightiest player between the coasts. Faced with choosing between the dumpster fire in a bad combover and a native of suburban Chicago who actually has experience, its editorial board opted to endorse libertarian Gary Johnson, the mope who cannot find Aleppo and couldn’t name a single foreign leader he admires.
Yeah, encourage your readers to waste a vote on a bonehead libertarian when the nation faces the greatest threat to our democracy since, maybe, the Civil War. That takes some cojones.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 11:13 am
ProgressOhio put together some ads featuring people stiffed by Trump: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/will-these-anti-trump-ads-be-killer-spots-2016-campaign
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Deborah said on September 30, 2016 at 11:20 am
But another way to look at the Trib’s endorsement is that if enough Republicans vote for Johnson, Trump loses. The Trib leans right as I understand it, I’m not a subscriber but that’s what I’ve heard. They know Johnson isn’t going to win and most lefties know that the Trib isn’t for them. So, it’s a way for the Trib to “save face” to their subscribers. On the other hand it makes them look ridiculous to most people.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 11:53 am
It is Friday, and Donald Trump is still talking about Alicia Machado. In their wildest dreams, the Clinton campaign couldn’t have imagined to get this far into his head. Clinton’s laid out a textbook in how to manipulate the guy. If you want to distract him from something important, make him look bad and force him to defend himself, because he will do that endlessly. If you want something from him, praise him endlessly. Russia didn’t hack into those computers, some 400 lb guy did. Russian separatists in Ukraine didn’t shoot down MH-17 using Russian missiles, we’ll probably never know who did. The aura of Donald Trump, savvy deal-maker, is gone forever.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 11:54 am
The discussions I’ve heard suggest that support for Johnson is mostly hurting Hillary. Apparently, his support is mainly coming from young people, who are unalterably opposed to Trump, like Obama, but don’t much like Hillary.
I don’t think the newspaper endorsements are very important to these voters, but their friends are. If the idea grows that voting for Johnson is a cool way to blow off the Establishment, it could be very damaging to her.
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Bill said on September 30, 2016 at 12:00 pm
I wonder how influential newspaper endorsement are. The Tribune endorsed Republican presidential candidates in each election from 1876 through 2004. They endorsed Obama in both of his runs.
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Peter said on September 30, 2016 at 12:00 pm
I would agree with Deborah. I think her chances of winning here are only a little below DC and California, so the Tribune can say whatever it wants and it won’t do squat to the outcome.
It sounds crazy, but I am losing sleep at night because of Trampoline. However, a couple more debate performances like the last one and I think he’ll fizzle like MacArthur did in the ’48 primaries.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 12:01 pm
“The aura of Donald Trump, savvy deal-maker, is gone forever.”
I can’t believe that his kids can’t convey to him how much damage he is doing. It’s they who will have to deal with the effects of this campaign on their business. Plus, you’d think they’d simply be embarrassed by his outrageous, uncouth behavior.
It’s fascinating–in a horrible way–to think about what it’d be like to be in the room with him while he’s stewing over the latest insult.
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nancy said on September 30, 2016 at 12:07 pm
A fat guy in my FB network tweeted something after the 400-pound guy reference at the debate, something like, “I was waiting for my people to be insulted, and our day has come.” It’s like what happened after he went to Detroit, and that skeevy preacher draped a Jewish prayer shawl over his shoulders, claiming that since it came from Israel, it had magic powers or something. My Jewish friends went nuts: “Do we give one another crucifixes for fun?” He’s really ticking off the boxes, isn’t he?
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Heather said on September 30, 2016 at 12:11 pm
Jolene, that was one thing I noticed in the video of him arguing with Jared Kushner on their way to the cars after the debate. Both Ivanka and Melania had the very carefully blank expressions of women who are used to putting up with men having tantrums and have trained themselves just to sit through them.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2016 at 12:15 pm
Read your Hemingway. The bullfighting descriptions. Hillary set the pic, and the bull is rambling wildly around the arena, shaking his head, dripping blood, snorting and roaring, but trying to shrug off something wedged too deep to dislodge, all the while ignoring the still figure with the flowing cloak.
There are a few passes left, and you have to beware even of a dying bull. But this matador has been in the ring before. And she’s hoping for two ears and a tail, not just to survive.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 12:42 pm
Heather, do you have a link to that video?
And speaking of the Trump women, I’ve been struck by the sameness of wife, daughters, and daughters-in-law. Tall, thin, with long, straight hair. Melania differs only in that she has dark hair. Can’t imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship where one’s most important quality is being decorative.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 12:47 pm
Never mind. I found the video.
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 1:00 pm
President Obama gave his usual great speech at Shimon Peres’s funeral earlier today. Worth the time to listen for its own sake, especially so if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tugs at your heart. The speech was both a tribute to Peres and to Israel and a challenge to Israel and its current leaders. Bill Clinton spoke too, also insightfully and movingly. His remarks are are here.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2016 at 1:15 pm
I’d still like a link that video Heather or Jolene, I can’t find it myself.
Also Jeff tmmo, great analogy of the bull and the matador.
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Heather said on September 30, 2016 at 1:18 pm
Here you go: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/09/donald-trump-appears-have-hissy-fit-he
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Jolene said on September 30, 2016 at 1:19 pm
Here it is, Deborah.
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/09/donald-trump-appears-have-hissy-fit-he
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Jean Shaw said on September 30, 2016 at 1:24 pm
“The Trib leans right…” — oh Deborah, ain’t that the truth. When I arrived in Chicago (1977) to go to grad school, I was astounded. I had grown up with the Miami Herald, which was still a good paper at that time (and I have to put in a plug: My father wrote the Sunday book column), and I literally could not believe the headlines, which often featured the ever-hated “Russkies.”
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brian stouder said on September 30, 2016 at 2:24 pm
And now – we have a guy who could well win the presidency, and who Trumpets his love and admiration for Vlad Putin; and who muses to large teevee audiences (and Gawd & everybody) about how – meh! – NATO may have outlived its usefulness.
Forget the Manchurian candidate; we have a Moscovite empty suit edging us all ever-closer to the abyss
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Dorothy said on September 30, 2016 at 2:28 pm
Y’all are so sweet but our 37th anniversary arrives on 10/27.
I saw a picture of the President on Instagram reaching his handkerchief to Shimon Peres’s son who was weeping in the seat next to him at the funeral. It was unbelievably sweet.
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Jakash said on September 30, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Tronced!! D’oh! I don’t expect much sense from the Tribune editorial board, but I’m still surprised at the Johnson endorsement, given all the other deeply conservative papers that have seen their way clear to endorsing Hillary. Still, I have to believe that he’ll take more votes from Rump than her. There probably weren’t a whole lot of millennials holding their breath waiting for the daily dinosaur to spout forth its fiery pronouncement today.
I would hope that more lefty hold-outs would be swayed by this rationale than by that of the “more tax cuts for the rich, please” folks in Tribune Tower, if people were inclined to be influenced by actual arguments:
“Some of her weirder beliefs aside, it’s easy to see why former Bernie supporters might turn to Jill Stein. But Gary Johnson? He makes Hillary Clinton look like the second coming of FDR. Unless you’re basically a single-issue voter on civil liberties and military force, it’s hard to see why any lefty of any stripe would even think of supporting Johnson. What’s the deal here?”
http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/why-are-there-any-liberals-supporting-gary-johnson-list
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Connie said on September 30, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Sorry Dorothy. Must be birthdays we have together.
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Dorothy said on September 30, 2016 at 3:50 pm
No prob, Connie. That date is 8/31.
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Jakash said on September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm
Still, even if you were “a single-issue voter on civil liberties and military force” or can put “some of (Stein’s) weirder beliefs aside,” voting for either of them is just gonna make it more likely that Rump could win. And he is surely by far the worst choice when it comes to civil liberties or the positions that folks might prefer Stein on. Bernie needs to up his game in supporting Hillary, as Sherri indicated he might be doing @ #15.
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Connie said on September 30, 2016 at 4:13 pm
USA does its first ever endorsment, an anti-endorsement. “This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.”
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Deborah said on September 30, 2016 at 4:19 pm
My husband made a comment today that made me think, that many (of course not all) Trump supporters are people who have made bad judgement their whole lives, so why would they have good judgement now on who they would support for pres. Which made me wonder what compels people to have such bad judgement. Judgement has been one of those attributes that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. What causes good and bad judgement, it seems to have not a lot to do with intelligence, there are some incredibly smart people who make really bad choices in their lives. Take Bill Clinton for example in his relationship with Monica. What causes people to do things that are so wrong that can have debilitating consequences for them? I suppose the answer to that is the million dollar question.
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Connie said on September 30, 2016 at 4:24 pm
USA Today.
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brian stouder said on September 30, 2016 at 4:31 pm
The funny thing about Trump running to be the chief executive of the United States government is that he has no ‘governor’ on his rhetoric, or his impulses. Everything he does is (add adjectives here) great and tremendous and lovely and big (and bigly!) and terrific; and anything any critic says or does is awful, terrible, a fraud, overweight, low energy, has blood coming out of their…wherever, and so on.
The man has no sense of moderation, nor equilibrium – and whereas Nixon ended up wandering the White House at night, muttering to himself, President Trump will aspire to be the chief Twit, at 2 in the morning, as he rants against this or that or the other thing
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Deborah @ 57, if you could figure that out, you could run for President. Or God Almighty!
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Peter said on September 30, 2016 at 4:50 pm
What I don’t understand is where was Sean Hannity? Was his phone busy? Chris Christie? Piling on the Crisco? Rudy G? Trump couldn’t get through? Some friends those jerks are.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 4:59 pm
Trump has no friends. What he has at this point, as the guys from Keeping It 1600 described it, is a bunch of people trying to walk that thin line between making money off the campaign vs sullying themselves forever.
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brian stouder said on September 30, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Pam pointed this link out to me; it’s pretty good stuff!
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/targeting-former-miss-universe-donald-trump-goes-the-rails
an excerpt:
Four days after the debate, Trump still can’t help himself. The GOP nominee unleashed a tweetstorm early Friday in which he called Alicia Machado “disgusting” and ripped into Hillary Clinton for mentioning her in the first presidential debate.
The purported “sex tape” appears to be a reference to reports about explicit footage from Machado’s time on a Spanish reality television show called “The Farm.”
Note, in one of his early-morning tweets, Trump specifically urged Americans to “check out” a non-existent “sex tape” – making the 2016 Republican the first major-party presidential nominee to encourage the public to seek out porn. (Congrats, again, Christian conservatives.)
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 5:20 pm
Making America Great Again: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pennsylvania-mayor-charles-wasko-racist-facebook-posts
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David C. said on September 30, 2016 at 5:32 pm
I think it was Charlie Pierce who wrote that when the people on the Trump campaign are looking for other positions in the Republican party their interviews would go:
What’s the gap in your resume for the last half of 2016.
I was in jail.
Are you sure you weren’t working on the Trump campaign?
No, I was in jail.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 6:09 pm
Eww, gross: https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/donald-trump-appeared-in-a-2000-playboy-softcore-porn
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 6:31 pm
Virtually the entire Republican professional class understands at some level that their presidential candidate is wildly unfit for the presidency. They have all made the professional decision that they cannot say so in public. Instead, their plan is to conceal Trump’s unfitness through the elections and hope for the best, without much regard for what would happen if they succeed in handing control of the Executive branch to an unstable bully. It is one of those moral decisions so awful it can’t be described in plain terms. Pivot is their euphemism of choice.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/how-pivot-became-the-euphemism-of-the-trump-campaign.html
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Deggjr said on September 30, 2016 at 10:12 pm
It seems that people throughout the world assume that climate change will affect someone else but they’ll be unaffected.
I believe a big part of Rod Dreher’s shock over the flooding in Louisiana was that there was ‘no someone else’; the good people of Louisiana were the ones suffering.
Maybe Jim Inhofe can throw more snowballs in the Senate. Climate change will never affect Oklahoma.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2016 at 10:45 pm
This is a fine rant: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/30/1576271/-Art-professor-s-viral-quote-poignantly-encapsulates-the-double-standards-between-Trump-Clinton
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Dexter said on October 1, 2016 at 3:40 am
If there were an army of cloned John McAffees around, there wouldn’t be any poop in the floodwater. Watch “Gringo”, the John McAfee story on Showtime, you’ll see why. (You’ll also be so grossed out you won’t be able to shake the image for days.)
I watch my share of weather docs on TWC. These tornado outbreaks vary in occurrences year by year, just like hurricanes do. Florida went years recently with no hurricanes, but when they come, they both , generally, tend to be much larger. I watched a tornado video from Oklahoma that was two miles wide at touchdown max. Also, lately, at times three to five smaller tornadoes converge and if conditions are right, form one giant killer tornado. These are rare but do happen.
I wasn’t an asthmatic child, but my mat. grandfather and my mother were severe asthmatics. I thought I had missed it, but in 2003 I began having problems and was dx’d as an asthmatic. Well-controlled asthma is still a pain-in-de-ass…two inhalers, two pills each day. Sometimes asthma sufferers have life-threatening attacks trying to breath pressurized cabin air at 35,000 feet. Blissfully, not me.
But I felt the wrath of our dissing Ma Nature. Fifteen days in Las Vegas, every day from the low of 108 to the high of 114 for highs, and at night eventually it would cool down to maybe 90, with humidity reading from 3% to 8%. With the Cal fires, the winds push all the daily pollution from LA County plus the smoke from the constantly breaking fires, making breathing a real chore. My bronchial tubing hurt, my lungs ached on some days. In the mikddle of our stay of 15 days, we drove to Ecinitas. It was like heaven there in California. SoCal, famed and damned for pollution, and the winds just kept blowing that airborne shit towards Las Vegas. San Diego area air was great, 70s, easy breathing…I only hit my rescue inhaler a couple times in 4 days. In Las Vegas, I was maxing that inhaler out, every 4 hours. Rain came hard to California and filled a few reservoirs but it’s a big place and some places have had no significant rainfall for five years. It was eerie to watch the Santa Cruz Mountain Range and the hills behind Santa Cruz scorched a few days ago. That area used to be lush. Those hills and mountains yield to the Salinas Valley, “The Salad Bowl of the World”, where lettuce fields go on forever. I wonder if there’s enough water to irrigate those field anymore. Vice Network has a doc on The Salton Sea, an accidental man made inland ocean (formed when aqueduct construction went haywire in the 1920s or thereabouts) . Now it shrinking rapidly and wind blows toxic waste around…it’s a disaster, just another one.
Well, by now everyone with a TV or radio knows Gary Johnson is a moronic oaf, so he should parade around with the climate-change deniers.
By the way…a hurricane blew up with early winds of 140 mph, will wind around the Caribbean, cut through Cuba, and the European model has it then heading towards the middle of the Atlantic but the US model has it blasting into North Carolina. Fun times, I guess.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2016 at 8:47 am
Ugh, the Salton Sea is a stinking mess. I’ve been by it many times. It’s gross. Someone told me that a lot of the tilapia sold in the US comes from there. I don’t know if that’s true but it’s still one of the reasons I never get tilapia.
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Julie Robinson said on October 1, 2016 at 9:23 am
Mike Pence, Trump running mate and sitting Governor of Indiana, came to the Fort yesterday and drew, wait for it, 350 people: http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/About-350-rally-with-Pence-at-Coliseum-15547758. Maybe we aren’t a hotbed of conservatism anymore.
The article says it’s about the same number he’s drawing in appearances in other states. That must be a dispiriting campaign bus.
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alex said on October 1, 2016 at 10:18 am
350 at a Pence rally in his home state. That’s less than turns out for a relatively unknown bodice-ripper novelist at a book signing, or a memorial rally to place a pile of teddy bears at the scene of a fatality.
Pence’s straight-faced assertions that Trump is Mr. Wonderful underneath the brash exterior disturbs more than it resonates. He might as well be trying to coax people into eating shit by calling it chocolate.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2016 at 10:23 am
Julie, it’s probably, in part, a mark of Trump’s poorly managed campaign. In most campaigns, I believe there are organized efforts to fill seats at rallies. Some time back, I got a call inviting me to a nearby Clinton event. Probably, there are buses as well for some events, though I don’t know that for sure.
Trump’s pumped up supporters apparently only need to know where he will appear, but that’s probably not enough for a Pence appearance.
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alex said on October 1, 2016 at 10:31 am
A raucous takedown of Scott Adams.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2016 at 12:06 pm
I think Donald has reached his Todd Akin moment. It’s amazing that he was able to say and get away with so much so far. I’ve been waiting around for him to finally stick his foot way down deep in it and I think it’s finally happened with this whole Miss Universe incident, the way it got under his skin and he can’t shut up about it. As I said before, I’ll be astonished if there is another debate but if there is he’ll probably talk about Monica and Gennifer and that will truly and finally be the end of him.
Got a bit of bad news yesterday, nothing earth shattering just frustrating. It turns out we probably won’t be able to move our stuff in to the Abiquiu cabin next week because of a glitch with the doors. The deadbolts can’t be installed until it’s fixed and we can’t put stuff in it until it can be locked all around. There are lots of doors so it will take a while to fix. I will be in NM for 2 weeks so maybe, hopefully the second week I’m there we can move in. The only problem with that is my husband won’t be there to help, he goes back to Chicago because of his teaching schedule. Oh well, that’s life.
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nancy said on October 1, 2016 at 12:34 pm
I’m a little surprised all the commentary about the Trump-Machado feud has been about the fat-shaming, where it seems he has at least a few toothpicks to stand on — beauty queens aren’t chosen for their personality, and even TV anchors generally have maintain-personal-appearance clauses in their contracts. That said, I don’t believe for a second that this woman gained 60 or 70 pounds; from the photos, I’d say 20, tops, and she was still fitting into standard dress sizes. Also, Latin American cultures generally don’t mind women with a little flesh on them, or so I’ve been told.
The real offense Hillary related was the “Miss Housekeeping” stuff. Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the country, and many are sharply upwardly mobile — the fact some of their women work their asses off cleaning up after pigs in hotel rooms is not something to sneer at. Many Middle Eastern immigrants in Detroit work in gas stations and party stores and drive their children hard to do better; the enormous number of doctors with Arab names around here is testament to how effective they are.
So for Trump to insult her with that name HAS to be reverberating in the Hispanic voting bloc — it’s as though he called an African-American Miss Cotton Picker or something. And it’s one thing he hasn’t defended, or denied. What a dolt. I bet he’s one of those guys who leaves the used condom on the floor next to the bed instead of throwing it away. Why not? He’s no fucking housekeeper.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 1, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Deborah – your husband’s comment about judgement I’d love to elaborate on (and nuance, yes) on a day when I don’t have a huge wedding here in the building in a couple of hours.
But I’d braid my commentary into the trip I took for the first time from Newark, Ohio to Athens, Ohio and back yesterday, picking up my son for HS homecoming back here in Granville. I went down by way of Ohio Route 13, from farms to hills to coal country, the last long winding stretch along Sunday Creek. Not far from my home is what remains of the rural seat of the head of the Sunday Creek Coal Company, the Bryn Du Mansion. In my neighborhood across the street are six Clinton/Kaine signs & one Trump sign. In the last three weeks it disappears every few days, but the retired military family living there has anticipated that possibility, and seems to have a supply, because their sign is never gone for more than half a day.
As you leave the estate of Mr. John Sutphin Jones behind, and you wind deeper into the crumbling remnants of coal country – New Lexington, Moxahala, Congo, San Toy, Corning, Trimble, Chauncey – the more devastated and ruined the homes and towns look, the more frequent and larger the Trump signs get. And yes, even once you leap the expressway and drive down State St., US Route 50 into the college town, they are still there . . . until you get to campus, anyhow.
Make of that what you will.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2016 at 12:53 pm
Nancy, that issue came up in a political chat show on MSNBC this AM. Maria Teresa Kumar, who is the president of Voto Latino, an organization that seeks to empower Latinos in various ways, decried that remark and observed that Trump had very likely made lots of money based on the labor of Latinos. Disrespecting the work of Latinos, especially Latino women, is not likely to help him win their votes.
There was, though, a fairly sophisticated Latino woman defending him on the same show. She objected to his offensive remarks and was less anti-Hillary than many Trump voter, but felt that his policies would be economically advantageous to her. Unfortunately, she is wrong about that.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2016 at 1:15 pm
I read that Machado gained a whopping 19 lbs. Of course Trump has Trumped it up to 60 or 70, that’s what he does.
As I’ve mentioned here before my husband watches movies by director and he has gotten to Leni Riefenstahl. So he ordered Triumph of the Will and we tried to watch it last night. For one thing it’s boringly repetitive so it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep. But it was also horrifying, the hideous part of it was the look on the faces of the crowds as they gathered in masses to see and heil Hitler. They were smiling and cheering and they looked absolutely like normal people. It was completely scary to see how they had obviously been totally duped by a monster. And what we know now about how the German people treated Jews was hard to imagine because they looked so sweet and innocent, that was excruciating to watch knowing how many people were executed in the gas chambers etc. What is wrong with people?
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 1:46 pm
I would guess that the focus on fat-shaming comes down to two things, the optics of this campaign full of disgusting old fat men with multiple marriages and problematic histories with women, and that the members of the media have more experience with being concerned about their weight than with having a housekeeper for a parent, most of them having come from a middle or upper middle class background.
I was watching the Stanford-Washington football game last night, and Hillary was advertising pretty heavily during it. This is a solidly blue state, but maybe she was hoping to catch the attention of younger voters, plus ballots go out in a couple of weeks.
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adrianne said on October 1, 2016 at 2:01 pm
Even though I live in the bluest of blue states (New York, y’all!), my slice of the Empire State is full of stupid white guys. Hence, I’ve seen a lot more Trump/Pence signs around than I would have expected. I know these assholes. Losers, every one of them.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm
Also re fat-shaming, it was weight that precipitated her mistreats, so it’s not so surprising that it’s been the focus of her mistreatment. “Miss Housekeeping” was just a way to add insult to injury, not the focus of the conflict.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm
Mistreats was supposed to be mistreatment.
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Jakash said on October 1, 2016 at 2:11 pm
I don’t imagine Hillary was expecting an endorsement from William Weld, Sancho Panza to Johnson’s Don Quixote, but you gotta love “straight shooters.”
“TODD: You believe (Johnson’s) more qualified to be president than Hillary Clinton?
WELD: I’m not sure anybody’s more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be President of the United States.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/gary-johnsons-vp-im-not-sure-anyones-more-qualified-than-clinton-to-be-president/
I don’t have much hope for any actual information getting through to Rump voters, but if there WERE something that I’d think might bother them, if they cared to consider how they indicate what a mean, in-it-for-himself grifter he is, it’s the “Trump stiffed me” stories referred to in this thread.
And Sherri, I had the sound muted, but actually glimpsed a Trump/Pence commercial on a Chicago TV station last night, as I was headed to the feedbag. ; )
I wish I’d been paying attention, ’cause I have no idea what it said, but I just thought “You go, Donny, spend that money in Chicago instead of somewhere it might matter!”
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alex said on October 1, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Better than suffering through Triumph of the Shill is spending an evening with this thought-provoking documentary about Riefenstahl. In a way, it’s the old Dr. Faustus story but with a female protagonist. Imagine, say, a slightly more sympathetic Kellyanne Conway.
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nancy said on October 1, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Seconding. That’s a great movie. I think of Riefenstahl as a cat, always landing paws-down no matter how high a window she was thrown from. Her photography of the Nuba in Africa is stunning.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 3:01 pm
I was struck by the reference to his Pleasanton mansion in the Scott Adams article. Nobody among the cool kids in the Bay Area would brag about a mansion in Pleasanton, which would coast about as much as a starter home in Palo Alto. The cool kids would be in Atherton or Woodside or Los Altos Hills, if they wanted some space from their neighbors, but he probably can’t afford a place in those areas. And I seriously doubt that Hillary’s proposed estate tax for estates over $500 million would impact him.
Like Trump, he makes more of himself than there is.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 3:26 pm
It’s a trap! http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/1/13130396/trump-machado-clinton
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Jakash said on October 1, 2016 at 4:22 pm
As is often the case, the comments following that Scott Adams take-down offer additional perspective regarding the “Master Persuader.”
According to some of those intrepid folks who’ve also wallowed in some of his previous musings, the brilliant prognosticator evidently previously endorsed Romney, wrote: “That’s why your next president will be named McCain.” in the election before that, and had the preternatural wisdom to state: “That sort of strategy is why Herman Cain will be the Republican nominee for president” in 2011.
So, deciding that Rump would win the nomination this time doesn’t seem so much like genius as finally having a horse win after you’ve spent a long day at the track picking losers. Obviously, since they’re both rampant narcissists, he seems to identify a lot more with his current nag, though.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Some evangelicals see Trump as their strongman in the coming apocalypse (the ones who read too much LaHaye, or the premillennial dispensationalists, to use the technical term.)
http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/donald-trump-the-herald-of-evangelicals-end-times/
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Jolene said on October 1, 2016 at 4:42 pm
A non-election topic: Rolling Stone recently published its list of 100 all-time best TV shows. TV critics were invited to help shape the list, and WaPo critic and occasional nn.com poster Hank Stuever sent in this list. See what you’ve missed and maybe put some things on your list for the cold months coming.
The season premiere of Saturday Night Live is tonight. Alec Baldwin is playing Trump.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2016 at 5:35 pm
So now there’s something out there about Donald trying to force Marla Maples to pose for Playboy when she didn’t want to. Now I ask you, why didn’t the media know about these things before? Why does it take the Clinton campaign to set the Miss Universe story into motion which now has these spin offs? Was the media not looking into this stuff before?
Also, my husband told me that he also has the Riefenstahl DVD that she directed about the Olympics. No thanks, I’ll pass. I don’t think I can bring myself to watch that, knowing what we know now.
This afternoon I needed to go to an Ace Hardware near here, so I was walking down the inner drive of LSD and some total asshole hit a puddle (it had been raining all day) on purpose, and sprayed me head to toe with filthy water. The people in the car were laughing their asses off as they passed. Now, who would do that to a little old lady with white hair dragging a shopping cart? I had to go back home and take another shower. What is wrong with people?
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brian stouder said on October 1, 2016 at 6:57 pm
Deborah, impossible to say what is wrong with some folks. I suspect some mixture of group-think/jerk-ass/’hey watch this’/alcohol/stupidity.
I struggled through that top-100 teevee show list (it was loaded as one massive thing, and it takes forever to get their listing) – and didn’t see Ken Burns’ Civil War series on it – which marks it as utter bullshit right there! Aside from that, it listed “House of Cards” – but not the original (with the Grey Poupon guy), which was sublime
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 8:17 pm
Maureen Dowd decided to go after Trump, but being MoDo, the only way she could think of to insult him was to call him a girl. Oh, and she couldn’t resist taking some shots at Hillary, too.
Please, NYTimes, find someone new for your editorial page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/opinion/sunday/girl-talk-at-trump-tower.html
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Hattie said on October 1, 2016 at 8:20 pm
I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but pineapples don’t grow on trees.
It’s been raining and raining in Hilo, but our whole infrastructure is built to take it, with good drainage, flood plains, etc. etc. It gets hotter and more humid every year, and we have had some wild storms and near misses from hurricanes.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Watching the crazy end of that Tennessee-Georgia football game, I was thinking of Prospero and missing the chance to share a little friendly trash talk with him tonight. RIP, Pros.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 9:22 pm
Since it’s unlikely that any substantive questions about science will be asked in the debates or covered in the media, sciencedebate.org asked the questions instead: http://www.sciencedebate.org/20answers
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Sherri said on October 1, 2016 at 9:29 pm
Somebody leaked part of Trump’s 1995 tax return to the NYTimes, showing how he likely used the Atlantic City debacle to avoid taxes for years: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
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Sue said on October 1, 2016 at 9:41 pm
“I bet he’s one of those guys who leaves the used condom on the floor next to the bed instead of throwing it away.”
And I bet he’s never used a condom in his life. Birth control is the woman’s job.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2016 at 12:51 am
So now we know Trump lost almost a billion dollars in 1995, even while stiffing people who did business with him. As the myth of Trump the winner gets destroyed, what will the Trump children do to protect the brand? There’s still time for them to declare that he’s suffering from dementia and they need to take over his affairs. Maybe they could claim that they were just humoring him when they made their own racist remarks, but he’s clearly lost his mind and is destroying their company.
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Dexter said on October 2, 2016 at 12:53 am
Sherri…helluva an ending to the TN-GA game. Here we were shown Michigan State-Indiana. Indiana looked small, dazed and confused as MSU was killing them. After the boring Ohio State massacre of Rutgers, and the defensive struggle in Ann Arbor where M beat a tough-as-hell Wisconsin Badger bunch, I had had enough so I watched baseball and a Vice Network show where poker game robbers were showcased.(biggest score, 4 men split a $140,000 money bank after a hit) . Walking the dog, I put headphones on to catch the scores on WFAN AM-660, New York. And somehow Indiana has beaten Michigan State. The series has a trophy, an old spittoon. I could not make this up. http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/images/Old-Brass-Spittoon-Michigan-State-Indiana-William-Gholston.jpg
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David C. said on October 2, 2016 at 7:17 am
I don’t understand the Trump brand thing. Even before this run, I thought of Trump hotels as being like Hummer stretch limousines. I imagined his hotels as being garish and tacky – a poor person’s idea of how a rich person lives. After seeing photos of Trump’s home, maybe it’s a Queens idea of how a Manhattanite lives. But anyway, I would never buy anything with a Trump brand, and I don’t think I know anyone who would.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2016 at 9:17 am
The Trump tower in Chicago is actually a very nice building, at least on the outside. It was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who now has a firm called Smith Gill. He also designed the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the world’s tallest currently). I’ve never seen the interior of the building even though I walk by it many times. It has a really ugly, gargantuan sign, down low with letters 20′ high. The sign faces the Chicago river and is quite prominent, a giant scar on the riverfront that was highly controversial when it was put up a few years after the building opened.
I’ve been to the Trump tower in Manhattan, architecturally it’s quite forgettable.
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ROGirl said on October 2, 2016 at 9:33 am
The tax returns may be the thing that pushes this thing over the cliff. It has been heading in that direction since the debate. The Trump brand is losing whatever value it had along with the campaign trajectory.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2016 at 10:41 am
I kept putting off reading Dowd’s latest column about Trump because I’m not a fan of her work, I finally did read it though and I thought it was aimed directly for the eyes of the Trumpster, the kind of thing that would drive him crazy. So will he come out swinging about it, only making him seem more like the 13 year old girl that Dowd accuses him of being? I haven’t heard anything about it yet so maybe miraculously he’ll let this one slip by.
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alex said on October 2, 2016 at 11:14 am
I haven’t read Dowd yet, but already I’m sensing an unfair swipe at 13-year-old girls. Most of them are more mature emotionally than Donald Trump.
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2016 at 11:36 am
Hell, our 12 year old daughter has more composure, sense-of-self, and emotional stability than that guy does
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beb said on October 2, 2016 at 1:18 pm
It’s appalling to think that The Donald could use the tax losses from one year to write off income taxes for the next eighteen years. I can see spreading it out over, say, five years but eighteen years is just coddling the rich.
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Dexter said on October 2, 2016 at 1:33 pm
I have been following this campaign as much as the average Joe I suppose, all the daily hot-points, today it’s tax avoidance. I would not ever vote for any Republican, that’s a given. Sometimes, the Democrat makes it difficult. You know how maybe a neighbor borrowed a tool 20 years ago and never returned it…maybe a spouse or “steady” cheated on you? Maybe someone ratted you out at work, started a false rumor, you get my drift. You may find it difficult to forget all that when that person wants you to forget those transgressions.
Nobody , nobody at all wants to bring up the fact that Hillary Rodham Clinton was George Bush43’s loudest cheerleader regarding the invasion and long futile wars in Iraq and then Afghanistan. Also her stance and actions against Muammar Gadaffi were ghastly. Hillary Clinton was all for the aftermath of Gadaffi’s Libya…Libya is now a classic failed state, Iraq is a disastrous totally failed state.
So now she’s poised to claim the throne…what will our foreign policy be under this hawk? Oldtimers here know I have always been on the side of peace and negotiations, and never been for a rush into the fog of war. Hillary Clinton has a hair-trigger, she’ll throw down and invade via snap judgment and the advice of hawkish generals and crazy people like John McCain, R-AZ.
She’s corralled the support of the UAW, even though she championed Bill’s NAFTA…how’d she ever do that? People want to forget the past, that’s how…move on, consider the alternative, they say.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ”
—George Santayana (16 December 1863 in Madrid, Spain – 26 September 1952 in Rome, Italy)
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Sherri said on October 2, 2016 at 1:51 pm
Dexter, it’s simply not fair, nor is it true to call Clinton Bush’s biggest cheerleader for the Iraq war.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/02/hillary_clinton_told_the_truth_about_her_iraq_war_vote.html
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Sherri said on October 2, 2016 at 2:10 pm
Remember when Republicans were all about protecting marriage?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/02/politics/rudy-giuliani-infidelity-everybody-does/index.html
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Jakash said on October 2, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Most of us, at least on this site, remember the past pretty well, Dexter. Thus, we’re well aware of your animus toward Hillary’s hawkishness. You casually write off “considering the alternatives,” as if that is not a legitimate consideration. But it is. If you have a solution for keeping Hillary out of the oval office that won’t result in electing Trump, please let us know. (Not that I agree with you about her hair-trigger, though; I think she’s much more circumspect than you give her credit for.) Since there IS no real alternative, I believe most of us are pretty sure a FUTURE with Hillary is far preferable to one with Trump, even specifically when it comes to your issue of rushing into the fog of war. The past I’m more concerned about involves Ralph Nader. If it weren’t for folks voting for him, the Iraq debacle would have never unfolded the way it did. I sincerely hope the past is not repeated with regard to third party candidates helping elect the wrong guy this time. I just wish you lived in Indiana rather than Ohio, for the purposes of this election! ; )
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Sherri said on October 2, 2016 at 3:14 pm
Right wing conservative Christians who support Trump tell themselves many things to excuse their support of Trump, but regardless, the reason they’re supporting a thrice-married adulterer who they know is not one of them is their knowledge that white Protestant Christians no longer enjoy their dominant status in a multi-cultural country. The last time the Klan was active was when there was a backlash to heavily Catholic immigration, which also threatened white Christian Protestant status. Anti-Catholic feeling persisted among conservative Christians well into the 70s, when they made common cause over abortion. That coalition is splitting over Trump.
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susan said on October 2, 2016 at 3:44 pm
Dexter, just hold your nose like a lot of us will. There is no choice. There just isn’t. HRC is worlds better than Drumphth. I cannot imagine Drumphth in the White House. No way. No way. That would be such an incomprehensible f*cking nightmare.
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Dorothy said on October 2, 2016 at 4:21 pm
I noticed on Thursday that my neighbor catty corner across the street put up a Trump/Pence sign that day. I felt very sad and a little upset. She’s a retired school teacher, widowed, who told us once that she didn’t know until after he died that her husband had been a spy. I stewed over it more than I should have. Lo and behold this morning I noticed it’s gone. I have no idea when she took the sign down but is it a coincidence that the 20 year old tax return story may have had something to do with it? I sure hope so, and I’m hoping it’s a sign of something bigger for the whole country. But I’m not stupid. Everything about this election has been contrary to other ones so why would this story make things different?
In the meantime, I’m planning to get downtown sometime soon and get myself a Clinton/Kaine sign. And a few buttons to put on multiple jackets too.
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Jolene said on October 2, 2016 at 5:07 pm
Re Nancy’s comment on Trump referring to Alicia Muchado as “Miss Housekeeping”: I heard on one of the Sunday political talk shows that the Spanish-language media are giving Ms. Machado’s story quite a workout, so his insults are likely to reach lots of potential voters.
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