Finally, an actual weekend, full of weekend-y things — exercise, reading, shopping, day-drinking. Also: “Black Mirror,” of which I knew nothing before reading something good about the new season (the third) in the NYT recently. Although the show isn’t episodic, I figured it’s best to start with Season 1, Episode 1, which was…
The U.K. prime minister gets a pre-dawn call that summons him to his office, where a grim-faced cadre of aides plays a video for him. Princess Susannah, a mashup of Diana and Kate Middleton, has been kidnapped. The ransom demand: That the P.M. have sex with a pig on live television at 4 p.m. that afternoon.
Now that’s what you call a shirt-grabber, I’d say. This episode is five years old, and came to the U.S. three years ago, and this is the first I’m hearing of it.
Well, it’s impossible to keep up.
The hip-pocket description of the show would be this: A creepier, more disturbing “Twilight Zone,” with the underlying theme of technology, and how we interact with it. So far — we’re in the second season — it’s fantastic. Hour-long episodes. British. And everyone who’s known about it, and hasn’t sent a telegram to me insisting that I watch the whole thing in a mad stretch, is dead to me.
So I guess you know what we did Saturday night. There was a vegetarian meal involved, too.
Now it’s Sunday, and time for the week-ahead prep. In addition to the (vague) meal ideas and (hopeful) workout plans, there’s the Halloween-season (also vague) plans to get the holiday season edging toward front-of-mind. In other words: Shopping, or at least some ideas for it. Ergh. Another year, at least approaching the final turn.
In the meantime? Bloggage:
Yes, late-term abortions are done for the health of the mother. Here’s one story. Foul-mouthed, but effective.
The Republicans are eating their own, particularly in Michigan:
“[I]t won’t be just Trump that drives me from this party. I’m disgusted with the male leaders of the Republican party,” Texas right-wing activist Brittany Pounders wrote on Oct. 18. “They may not be sexual predators; they may not be sexist or misogynist—but they are clearly okay with others in our party who are.” On Oct. 21, Nancy French, a conservative who has co-authored books with Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin, wrote in the Washington Post about her own childhood history of sexual assault; her essay implied that the GOP itself has become a sort of sleazy predator in the age of Trump. “My party—which should’ve been a place of a certain set of values—now shelters an abuser,” she writes. “I’m thinking of this when the GOP presses against me and asks me to close my eyes just one more time.”
Time for “Westworld.” Enjoy the week ahead.
susan said on October 24, 2016 at 12:07 am
Is Trump a fascist? According to history professor, John McNeill, he’s a middling fascist, “more fascist than any successful American politician yet…but…an amateurish imitation of the real thing.” Is that supposed to make us feel better?
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Sherri said on October 24, 2016 at 12:23 am
In other words, like with everything else, Trump is incompetent at being a fascist. What is scary is that a competent fascist might have been able to win an election.
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Dexter said on October 24, 2016 at 1:17 am
Trump said something like HRC supports abortion even to the degree of ripping a baby from the womb just a day from the projected delivery date. Gail Bennington of XM radio’s Raw Dog 99 said HRC should have said, “Yeah, Donald…it’s called a C-section, you fucking moron.”
Black Mirror got a lot of heat years ago and I heard it mentioned the other day but I didn’t realize it is back. The pig-fucking scene wasn’t even mentioned here on this blog? That was unforgettable. I think I lost track of it after that, though.
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beb said on October 24, 2016 at 1:47 am
The Wife and I spent a pleasant afternoon viewing the colors at Kensington Metro Park. Also breaking in a new camera with image stabilization and 40x (!) zoom. Awesome technology. Next time we go to the zoo and take a picture of a tiger we’ll be able to count its nose hairs.
Saw an interesting article that said it was time to put pressure on Hillary to pick better progressives for her administration. If we wait until after the election the same-old, same-old people willbe baked into position.
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alex said on October 24, 2016 at 7:43 am
I question whether a more competent fascist could have pulled off a GOP victory. Ted Cruz fits that bill perfectly — a self-worshiping sociopath who also happens to be a phenomenal debater, well-informed enough to be a better liar, and adept at running a campaign in all the ways Trump wasn’t — and yet he mustered only about half of the level of support Trump was getting in the primaries. Had Trump never run and had Cruz secured the nomination, I suspect he wouldn’t be any closer to winning the presidency. It’s simply not possible to bridge the chasm between the GOP’s fanatical base and the demographic groups whose votes are needed. Whether the party learns its lesson after its third major loss remains to be seen, but I don’t think there’s a “stealth” Trump waiting in the wings to capture the hearts of women and minorities and make them find common cause with their worst enemies.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 24, 2016 at 8:11 am
The polarization factor, though; I know some are going to holler that I’m committing an equivalence falsehood, but I’m not comparing Trump and Sanders as much as I’m still wondering where we go with *process* down the road. Primary races very nearly (imagine if some of these Podesta email exchanges had come to light earlier) gave us two major party nominees neither of whom had been even party members until very recently — fifteen minutes before filing, in Sanders’ case. That’s just striking to me: and superdelegates are not looking good, even if they gave the DNC mainstream the outcome they wanted, but the GOP is certainly looking at nuances like that to prevent a slightly less incoherent billionaire from doing this again.
17 candidates on the stage well into the primary season certainly helped Trump stand out with intermittent eruptions of bombast. But between fragmentation in general and discontent in particular with “business as usual” means that neither party can be very happy with the way they’re making sausage this election. I know computer-driven redistricting into salamander-outlines that Elbridge Gerry himself couldn’t have imagined is usually blamed for this, but the retrenchment into extremes seems to be continuing apace, and I’m not yet seeing any factor that will stop it. The Democratic Party still has a vehement #Occupy faction, and the Republicans clearly have both an alt-Right racialist cohort along with a Tea Party/anti-tax overlapping circle of activists. Neither party can figure out how to (sigh) pivot to pick up enough from their other flank to allow them to turn their backs on their most extreme, no-compromise adherents, so they keep digging down into that drawer of adorables . . . and meanwhile legislative dialogue and compromise gets farther and farther away. Further?
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basset said on October 24, 2016 at 8:11 am
So what happened at 4 pm?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 24, 2016 at 8:33 am
Oh, there was bacon alright.
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Deborah said on October 24, 2016 at 9:31 am
I never heard of Black Mirror either. Is it on Netflix?
With Hillary so far ahead and Trump somewhat subdued I’m going into election withdrawal. I’m voting today so it will be over for me personally very soon.
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Mark P said on October 24, 2016 at 9:41 am
Jeff(tmmo), you really are making a false equivalence. The Republican Party is controlled by its right wing. The Democratic Party is not controlled by its left wing. The DP is really a (perhaps) slightly left of center party, while the RP is a far right party. When GW Bush was elected, you didn’t hear Democratic members of Congress say their goal was to make sure he was a one-term President. When Republicans nominate Supreme Court justices, Democrats don’t refuse even to hold hearings, they give them a fair hearing and more often than not they confirm them. When the Democrats control the Senate, they don’t shut down the government if they don’t get their way. Even when Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, they didn’t force an ultra-left-wing health care policy on the country. When the obvious solution was a single-payer system (Medicare from cradle to grave), they compromised on basically an insurance company program. But even so, why should the DP abandon anyone in their party? Compromise means you give some and you get some. That’s the way the DP operates. In the Republican Party, compromise means you do it their way or nothing gets done. The bottom line is, they are not equivalent.
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Deggjr said on October 24, 2016 at 9:58 am
@4:05pm the cadre of aides starts laughing: ‘Best prank ever’. Perhaps some setup is necessary to sell the premise.
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jcburns said on October 24, 2016 at 10:17 am
The “vehement #Occupy faction” as was said above may or may not be contained by a venn diagram circle representing the Democratic party, but to compare it to alt-right nutcases is beyond unfair.
Wikipedia (not Wikileaks) says : “The Occupy movement is an international socio-political movement against social inequality and lack of ‘real democracy’ around the world, its primary goal being to advance social and economic justice and new forms of democracy.” Those goals, even when being pursued violently (and at this point any violent protests are a very small part of that movement) are pro-human-beings-of-all-kinds (except maybe that 1% of the super-wealthy.)
The alt-right is anti (sometimes violently, always aggressively) vast, vast swathes of humanity, those of racial shades, religious beliefs, or genders not like their own. The alt-righters would like to yell at them, mock them, blame them, shove them around, subjugate them, and, ultimately, make them go away from their world one way or another. Their heroes include genocidal dictators who have had small successes at these goals in the past.
Therefore, if I have to pick an extreme to stand near, hashtag me #occupy.
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BigHank53 said on October 24, 2016 at 10:37 am
The tea-party and alt-right factions (I see less daylight between them than Jeff does) are in no way equivalent to the…I don’t know, let’s call them the “young socialist” branch of the Democratic party. What I think Jeff was getting at was that the Dems and GOP have–and are going to continue to have–similar problems keeping a national coalition stitched together. The know-nothings and racists used their influence in the primaries to nominate the Imploding Pumpkin. Bernie Sanders started his campaign as a protest, and was taken by surprise by his success. What are they going to do after another decade, when the Limbaugh/Fox demographic has swallowed another ten years of racist ultranationalism? They’ll be a smaller group, but still able to tilt a primary. Who are the Dems going to put forward if crappy tax policy allows more and more money to flow upwards, making our underclasses into a caste? The GOP is honest about wanting to punish poor people for being poor, but if the Democrats can’t deliver any improvements sooner or later even their most faithful supporters will stay home on election day.
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Connie said on October 24, 2016 at 10:53 am
Beb, Kensington was where I saw my first eagle a few years ago. Several more since then.
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Lynn Perry said on October 24, 2016 at 11:08 am
Truth of the day: “The GOP is honest about wanting to punish poor people for being poor, but if the Democrats can’t deliver any improvements sooner or later even their most faithful supporters will stay home on election day.” Thanks BigHank53.
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Sherri said on October 24, 2016 at 1:09 pm
For now, anyway, from a structural standpoint, the difference between the Occupy fringe of the Dems and the Tea Party/Alt-Right part of the Republicans is that the Oocupy fringe is just that, a fringe. Not all of the Occupiers were even Dems, or are really interested in being Dems. They certainly aren’t the base of the party, not yet, anyway. It remains to be seen if they are willing and able to do the work to organize to become a substantial force in the Dem party.
For all that Sanders hung around in the primary, the outcome of the primary was never in doubt, not after it became obvious that Sanders could not make inroads into African-American and Latino voters, or older women. Those are the base of the party, and also the elites of the party, so at this point, there isn’t the disconnect between the elites of the party and the base. That may change, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that the Dems are headed in the same direction as the Republicans, where the extreme takes over the base because the party is unwilling to fight the extreme to grow the party.
We’ll see if the various offshoots of the Bernie campaign that are working on electing Occupy style Congress members have success. Bernie was out here last week holding a rally for Pramila Jayapal, but her opponent is is also a Democrat and pretty much as liberal. Zephyr Teachout was a good candidate before any Bernie groundswell. The guy Bernie endorsed in a fit of pique against DWS lost, and really wasn’t that good. I know I sound like a broken record, but what would really have an impact would be for those young Occupiers to run for city councils and state legislatures and school boards, learn how to be effective, and then run for Congress.
Or get active in the local party org, those are easy to take over.
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Deborah said on October 24, 2016 at 1:20 pm
The occupy fringe of the Democratic Party are/were somewhat squeaky, meaning getting some sensationalistic press. But I think there is a silent majority of dems and independents who aren’t getting as much attention, quietly going about their lives and voting when they’re sufficiently motivated. And they seem to be highly motivated now. The hard core Dem base is positively roaring to vote.
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Jakash said on October 24, 2016 at 2:34 pm
If President Rumpy were forced to “have sex with a pig on live television at 4 p.m.”, how would one know which was which? (Rimshot.)
Which reminds me, Roger Ebert used to occasionally refer to intercourse as “the old rumpy-pumpy” in his reviews. Sad that he’s no longer around to offer his perspective on the success of the Cheeto Charlatan.
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Jean Shaw said on October 24, 2016 at 3:25 pm
Deborah, couldn’t agree more. As a result, I wonder about how many Dem folks will vote straight ticket. I sure will, even though I’m in a solidly blue state (OR). Eff the RNC and every single Repub politician who hasn’t disavowed He, Trump.
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Jakash said on October 24, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Wasn’t there a dead horse on the previous thread? Not that it deserves to be beaten, but…
“Yes, Trump Really Is Saying ‘Big League,’ Not ‘Bigly,’ Linguists Say”
“The internet, of course, is not going to let social science stand in the way of a good meme.”
mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/us/politics/trump-bigly-big-league-linguists.html?
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Sherri said on October 24, 2016 at 5:50 pm
SNL had a surprisingly good sketch that didn’t involve Trump: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk&time_continue=390
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Dexter said on October 24, 2016 at 6:11 pm
Deborah: I tuned into Netflix on my tablet and Black Mirror was all over the front page…S3 already…I think somehow I missed S2.
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Deborah said on October 24, 2016 at 6:30 pm
I voted! I went to the place in the loop at 15 W. Washington, early voting started in Chicago today and will go until Election Day. There are lots of places to vote in the city for you other Chicago folks who might be thinking about early voting http://www.chicagoelections.com/en/early-voting.html. It was a snap for me today, there were lots of people but they must have had 40 or 50 machines and lots of workers who were very efficient, especially considering it was the first day. Yay, I’m done!!
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alex said on October 24, 2016 at 6:49 pm
As defensive as Trump is, I’m surprised he hasn’t been going out of his way to tell people that “big league” is what he’s been saying all along. Which is what I thought I heard and I figured this is just another turn of phrase that doesn’t ring in the millennial ear.
We have a generation that doesn’t read and doesn’t know language. “What’s a Ford tape?” someone asked me after I’d used the word forte. This kind of thing seems to happen a lot lately and makes me feel like a stodgy old fart.
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David C. said on October 24, 2016 at 6:56 pm
Aww. Jack Chick died yesterday. I don’t know if anybody gives away Chick tracts for Halloween anymore. I got a couple when I was a kid. I wish I had kept them, but I was probably well into my teens before I appreciated camp. The only thing worse than getting a Chick tract was getting circus peanuts.
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alex said on October 24, 2016 at 7:57 pm
The new Contragate…
http://www.salon.com/2016/10/24/eric-trump-doesnt-know-rudimentary-spanish-poses-for-photo-with-latina-contra-trump-protester/
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Jolene said on October 24, 2016 at 8:09 pm
For all that Sanders hung around in the primary, the outcome of the primary was never in doubt . . .
It was also not determined by superdelegates, a point that needs to be repeated from time to time. Clinton won ~3.5 million more votes than Sanders or 55% of all votes cast.
Obviously, he gave her a good run, but it should hardly be surprising that a person who, as Jeff said, was barely a Democrat was beaten by someone known to every Democrat in America, someone who had previously campaigned throughput the country, and someone who had held high legislative and executive branch offices.
I do worry that attachment to older, established Democrats will mean she doesn’t listen enough to younger, more outsider voices who can tell her which way the wind is blowing. Have been thinking about this a lot and also about the idea that we are facing big problems that aren’t going to be solved by the kinds of ameliorative policies and programs she is fond of (e.g., early childhood education, family leave). Will write more later. (I know you’re all dying to hear what I think.)
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Deborah said on October 24, 2016 at 8:17 pm
David C, I love Circus Peanuts, I don’t know why but I do, always have.
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Diane said on October 24, 2016 at 8:27 pm
I voted today too. Well, we are having a mail-in election here in Colorado so by voting I mean I sat down in my comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and filled out my ballot, doing some last minute Googling on ballot issues I hadn’t made up my mind about. Today I dropped my ballot off (because the County Clerks’ office is a block from my workplace, otherwise I would have mailed it). I know there are cons to the mail in election thing but I do love it!
And, it feels just marvelous to have voted (and to be done!).
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alex said on October 24, 2016 at 8:28 pm
With any luck it will take the far left 30-some odd years to turn the Democratic Party into the party of cray and by that time I’ll be gone and won’t care.
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beb said on October 24, 2016 at 9:25 pm
The 20 worst McMansions (though your mileage will vary).
http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/an-architecture-expert-reveals-20-of-the-ugliest-mcmansions-in-america-a7366326.html
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susan said on October 24, 2016 at 10:25 pm
Oh oy. Drumphth launches his own “newscast” on Facebook page. It’s all glowing, all the best news.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 25, 2016 at 7:51 am
I’m going to have BigHank53 write all my potentially controversial posts in the future. Thank you! “What I think Jeff was getting at was that the Dems and GOP have–and are going to continue to have–similar problems keeping a national coalition stitched together.” That’s my point, and I wasn’t making any of the equivalences I got accused of (which I thought I said).
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 25, 2016 at 7:56 am
Meanwhile, only the good die young. This guy did so much damage that pastors like me spend our lives trying to heal. Talent he had, but also anger and fear and judgment to spare.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ln-jack-chick-obituary-20161024-snap-story.html
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Peter said on October 25, 2016 at 8:59 am
David C – WHOA Jack Chick died? Think he’ll be cast into the lake of fire? Will he be spending time with Alberto? Passing on the death cookies?
One of the best T shirts I ever saw (right up here with Free Tibet – when you buy a Tibet of equal or greater value) was one where the front said HOT FOR CHICKS and the back had images of his tracts.
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Peter said on October 25, 2016 at 9:04 am
Chick tracts were like the Sex Pistols of art – they were so bad they were good.
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brian stouder said on October 25, 2016 at 9:33 am
We live a couple blocks from the University of St Francis here in Fort Wayne, and one of the benefits of that is their free public lecture series – a sort of mini Omnibus series (which is what Indiana-Purdue university at Fort Wayne calls their public lecture series)….
and the bishop is going to give a lecture titled Catholic Political Responsibilities – and which oughta be pretty good!
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brian stouder said on October 25, 2016 at 9:46 am
…that lecture is set for tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.
meanwhile, here’s a thing Pam sent me, which caused my best laugh of the day, so far:
https://www.yahoo.com/style/why-this-latina-contra-trump-shirt-represents-a-bigger-statement-about-trump-and-millennial-latinas-182621344.html
…dang those contras!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 25, 2016 at 11:50 am
And a theoretically card-carrying member of the Religious Right has publicly torn up his card and thrown it to the ground: not sure why there’s no link to the speech anywhere, but Rod Dreher apparently has a copy of the text, including this line: “Mr. Trump did not give us this. This is a preexisting condition. The Religious Right turns out to be the people the Religious Right warned us about.”
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-religious-right-a-eulogy/
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Deborah said on October 25, 2016 at 12:19 pm
Excellent New Yorker article about Hillary and Trump supporters by George Packer http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/hillary-clinton-and-the-populist-revolt
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Dorothy said on October 25, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Deborah I’m with you – I really love circus peanuts. But after a half dozen or so, I’ve had my fill for a couple of years! Same with candy corn. It’s so bad but I can’t resist.
Anyone see the NY Times article about an interview with Trump from two years ago? This part really struck home with me. Isn’t this an example of a sociopath??
He reserves special scorn for people who embarrass themselves in front of their peers. He tells the story of an unnamed bank president who became inebriated during an award dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan, a ritual of New York society. By the end of the night, he recalls, the man was incapable of walking and had to be carried out, to Mr. Trump’s disapproval.
DONALD TRUMP: … We all had a leg, an arm, a back, and we carried him out of the room that night, right after he made the worst speech you’ve ever heard. And I never looked at him the same way after that. …
I’ll never forget that in front of a room of the most important people, we had to carry him out of the room. And so things like that had an impact on me.
There is little trace of sympathy or understanding. When people lose face, Mr. Trump’s reaction is swift and unforgiving.
I can’t understand how this guy got this far and how people are so infatuated with him, I really can’t. Maybe they think if they vote for him they’ll get a thank you check in the mail?
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Sherri said on October 25, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Coalitions always have a lifetime. The Republican coalition, in place since Reagan, is in its death throes. The Democratic coalition has been around since Obama, and I don’t think it’s going to fall apart that quickly. External factors always play a role, but for all the noise of the primary, I don’t think there’s the tension between the base and the fringe that people seem to want to project. The base isn’t the DLC Third Way Democrat anymore.
Is Party identification decreasing? Sure, a trend that’s been happening for years. I’m nor sure how it impacts elections and governing, though, because the two party system is deeply baked into our system and won’t just change because people stop identifying with parties, and even though people don’t label themselves, their voting patterns are about as reliable as if they did.
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brian stouder said on October 25, 2016 at 3:52 pm
Outline for a 2016 American meta-political essay:
1. The two-party system
a. why?
b. history of parties that survived (the ‘Democracy’), and parties that morphed into new parties (The American party – aka Know Nothings; the Whigs; the Federalists)
2. Compare and contrast European-style parliamentary systems, with myriad parties and coalition-building after they arrive (in whatever numbers) in parliament; with American style organization of both houses of Congress, nominally from two parties – but in fact from amongst myriad “special interests” and political subdivisions which manifest themselves before the election.
a. Which method is best for selecting the head of the Executive branch of government?
b. Historic bests and worsts for each system’s chief executive selection
1. Abe Lincoln
2. Winston Churchill
3. Warren Harding
4. Adolf Hitler
3. If a major-label political party (ie – “Republican” or “Democratic”) imploded, would it matter?
a. fund-raising/organization/centrally-located strategic thinking
b. candidate development/candidate discipline – locally and nationally
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Dexter said on October 25, 2016 at 3:52 pm
I assume there are not a lot of comedy fans here at nn.c, but it’s worthy of noting the passing of Kevin Meany a few days ago…I didn’t know it until yesterday. Kevin was a front line comedian, and had at least one sitcom on network TV.
“Black Mirror”, new season, E1, was awful. Shallow plot, monotonous theme, but I stayed with it. What a waste. Then again, I use a tablet, not a smart phone, and I make my regular phone calls on a flip phone. I can message/text, take photos and access social media and the internet on my tablet and I don’t need a tiny computer in my pocket. Now get the fuck off my lawn.
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Deborah said on October 25, 2016 at 5:05 pm
Dorothy, I’m kinda neutral on candy corn. I can eat a bit of it, but it’s easy to OD. Circus Peanuts on the other hand, I could eat a whole bag of them. I think it’s as much the texture as the flavor. I haven’t had a circus peanut in years so maybe they taste different now. I had a friend who loved them too, especially when they were stale. The staler, for her, the better.
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David C. said on October 25, 2016 at 6:06 pm
I thought dislike of circus peanuts was universal. More fool me. I probably haven’t had them in more than 45 years. Maybe you need a more developed palate to appreciate them.
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LAMary said on October 25, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Even as a kid I didn’t like circus peanuts or candy corn. Bleah. My favorite things to find in my trick or treat bag were Reese’s and Almond Joys. Spearmint leaves were a rare and excellent find. I still love those.
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Colleen said on October 25, 2016 at 8:14 pm
Loved Kevin Meaney. Have been known to break out into his “I don’t care, I don’t care” song…
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Suzanne said on October 25, 2016 at 9:41 pm
I hate circus peanuts. Ugh. Candy corn, the same, and Bit O’ Honey. Barf. Gimme the chocolate!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 25, 2016 at 10:30 pm
As if I didn’t know we live in a fallen world, stained by sin.
http://www.thewrap.com/gannett-layoffs-tronc-deal/
Angry, angry, angry. Feces for cerebral cortexes.
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Dexter said on October 26, 2016 at 1:24 am
I was reared on Curtiss Baby Ruth bars. Curtiss sold the brand decades ago. Fort Wayne’s own Wayne Buns are now Bun Bar and made by Leaf Corporation, last I checked. I used to love Mars bars, haven’t seen them forever. I loved all the good stuff, couldn’t quite understand why a company would mush up Rice Crispies and chocolate and call it Mister Goodbar. Hated marshmallow anything except when floating atop hot cocoa.
Worst stuff in my Halloween trick-or-treat bag were popcorn balls wrapped in cellophane, decaying apples from the harvest , picked weeks before, and pennies.
I loved getting odd items like Charleston Chews and something called chicken in something…and the item most kids hated but I adored were black licorice babies. I was so happy to find those black licorice babies in the candy store at San Diego Old Town SP…I bought two pounds. Ate ’em all.
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Deborah said on October 26, 2016 at 3:45 am
Black licorice, I like the very chewy kind. Remember root beer barrels? I cherished those when they showed up in my trick or treat bag. Hersey bars were my favorite, no almonds just plain, and milk chocolate not dark. I still like snickers bars, I have one a couple of times a year. I rarely eat candy anymore, except for black licorice probably because my husband likes it and he’s the one who buys it from time to time.
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ROGirl said on October 26, 2016 at 6:55 am
Black licorice, circus peanuts, anything jellied — ick, awful, disgusting.
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Kirk said on October 26, 2016 at 8:35 am
I know candy corn isn’t really corn. Are circus peanuts not really peanuts? Haven’t run across the term in my sheltered life.
My favorite trick-or-treat item was a chewy candy that had peanut butter in the middle. Can’t recall what they were called.
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Kirk said on October 26, 2016 at 8:38 am
Now I remember: peanut butter kisses. Individual pieces wrapped in black or orange wax paper.
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brian stouder said on October 26, 2016 at 8:48 am
When I hear ‘circus peanuts’ – I’m thinking of the slightly orange-colored candy, with the physical properties of those foam-rubber pads that attach to the feet of chairs, to keep from scraping the floors.
Up ’til this thread, my mother-in-law, who I love, was the only person I ever knew who actually liked those things!
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Deborah said on October 26, 2016 at 9:05 am
Here you go Kirk https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_peanut
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Deborah said on October 26, 2016 at 9:11 am
Another kind of candy I do eat from time to time are Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups. If I’m waiting in line while hungry, if I see those at the checkout line, I can’t resist. There are about 6 to a package as I recall and I try to make that last for awhile. They are dark chocolate covered. I used to only like milk chocolate but as I’ve gotten older I prefer dark.
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Kirk said on October 26, 2016 at 9:24 am
Oh, god, those horrible things. No, thanks. I must not have known the name because, even at a very young age, I could tell they were something I had no interest in. Now French-burnt peanuts are some fine eating, but I don’t recall ever getting them trick-or-treating. Thanks for the education.
I’m about to go out and buy our candy stash for the little beggars. As I favor Reese cups, there will be plenty of those to hand out.
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Dorothy said on October 26, 2016 at 9:29 am
Okay more candy riffing: Spearmint leaves – those are great, Mary! Peppermint Patties are a favorite of mine; no plain chocolate like a Hershey’s bar – I have to have caramel or peanut butter or nuts, but never almonds. Nestle’s Crunch or Baby Ruth or Snickers – something like that. Dark Milky Way bars are a nice treat. Remember B-B-Bats (a taffy on a stick). The banana ones were my fave. And those saucer things that looked and sort of tasted like Communion hosts, and had tiny round candies inside? Black Jack candies wrapped in paper were a licorice flavored chewy delight. You can find some of this stuff in specialty candy stores once in awhile. I dislike any kind of sour candy – what’s the point? was my thinking and still is! I have a box of Good and Plenty in my desk drawer at the office and every once in awhile I shake out a dozen or so pieces and nosh on them around 2:00 in the afternoon. That’s Chocolate O’Clock (or just plain time for dessert)!
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Dorothy said on October 26, 2016 at 9:32 am
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-candy-flying-saucers-image12991523
http://www.candyfavorites.com/blog/black-taffy-is-the-black-jack-throwback/
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brian stouder said on October 26, 2016 at 9:35 am
Used to go for Lemonheads…not overly tart, and increasingly sweet as they dissolve
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Julie Robinson said on October 26, 2016 at 9:43 am
All this candy talk is tempting my sweet tooth, because I pretty much love it all. So I’ll change the subject.
This morning I listened to a story that reported many Hoosiers over the age of 110 still on the Indiana voter registry. Presumably most of these folks have graduated to the great electoral college of the sky.
So I looked up my kids, and they’re both still eligible to vote in Indiana. One’s been gone for two years, the other 10. Both have been voting in their new states, politically active, and even volunteering at the polls. Last summer we received cards asking if they still lived here, and I sent them both back with the info on where they are now and how long ago they moved. What does it take to get someone off the voter rolls?
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Maggie Jochild said on October 26, 2016 at 11:18 am
Julie Robinson: Tell ’em they are black.
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Dorothy said on October 26, 2016 at 11:27 am
BAM ZING! Maggie is so quiet for a long time and then this. Great job!!
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