I don’t know what you were doing late on a Sunday afternoon, but after cooking two complicated, and error-filled, dinners on Friday and Saturday afternoon, I can tell you what I’m doing: Dreaming of a pizza made by someone else. And then watching “Game of Thrones.” Because Sunday funday.
Everyone is out enjoying some activity. Alan went sailing, Kate’s at Belle Isle with her buddies, and I’m listening for the dryer buzzer. Did a bit of a bike ride, but a persistent backache set in at mile six or so, and I turned around rather than gut it out. Once out of the evaporative breeze of movement, I commenced to once again re-secure my title as World’s Sweatiest Woman. But it’s nice and cool in the AC and under the ceiling fan; time to enjoy my solitude and get a little blogging done.
A quiet weekend, all told. I feel like we’re getting old — we’re not doing much this summer, but truth be told, I don’t mind. Happy to stay home and bake cherry pies and not get sweaty waiting in lines. And lines are simply the reality at some of these summer events we’re all beckoned to. You might as well bring a picnic basket. A couple weeks ago, I spent a lengthy lunch hour riding the new streetcar down to where the food trucks were parked, and ended up in a bar, unwilling to wait in line for 20-30 minutes to get a cardboard-bowl lunch. So sorry, missed the Concert of Colors last night, but we watched “Nocturnal Animals” on iTunes and it was very disturbing, but a pretty OK movie.
Can’t complain.
Can complain about this, though: No more celebrities running for office, for fuck’s sake. Their recent record is, how you say, uneven. Sorry, Caitlyn Jenner. Sorry, Kid Rock. (I won’t link, because I can’t even bear to Google.) Sorry, actual Rock. Now more than ever, we need competence. I don’t generally swoon over Frank Bruni the way some people do, but buried in his Sunday column was this brief passage:
Infrastructure that’s no longer competitive (or safe), a tax code crying out for revision, a work force without the right skills: When do we fix this? How far behind do we fall?
In-effing-deed. When? How? The world is at a very dangerous precipice. Career politicians, which is to say, people who know how the game is played and how to get results out of the system, may be our last hope.
Meanwhile, the picture of Jenner that accompanies that story is ghastly. Looks like she ordered the Madonna model cheek implant in XL.
Meanwhile, some comic relief: A little bit of the sunshine Ann Coulter spreads in the world came back to her over the weekend. We can all agree that when Ann has a bad day, the world gets a little bit nicer.
Finally, think you’re good at spotting fake news? Here’s a game that will let you show your skills. (Use the quick start option.) I found it pretty easy, considering you could view the source for individual stories.
For me, it’s back to “Game of Thrones” homework. See you mid-week.
Dexter said on July 17, 2017 at 2:23 am
I felt GOT was so bizarre after the season with George Bush’s head on a pike that I abandoned. Like I never got Star Wars at all either…these funny characters in Star Wars and the dragons in GOT…it seems shows like that are for kids, then I hear how excited so many adults are. “Stranger Things” …I did watch it, but I don’t search out shows with kids in starring roles. I got tired of it at the end, and I hope it never returns. To each…
Twin Peaks, now there’s an adult show. I love the return…this is the best show on cable TV. The amazing hallucinogenic show three weeks ago rivals “2001: A Space Odyssey”‘s travel color blast for best ever head-popper delight. I’d love to hear from someone who watched that while on acid. David Lynch, an enigma. I actually know no one who can stand his work, and then there’s me, who adores him…as much as I appreciate Cronenberg and the Coens , I think Lynch is a bona fide genius. It’s perception I guess…I defend Ringo Starr as a great drummer for the way he paced and held the songs together. Most think he’s some fucking joke. He’s serious, he never was a percussionist, beating on triangles and snare drums anyway. He was a master of his Ludwig kit, that’s all…ask Dave Grohl, ask Don Henley.
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Dave said on July 17, 2017 at 5:17 am
Yes, I too hate the Ringo critics and have defended him many times. Somewhere, I read the phrase that said, “. . .and there’s Ringo, keeping the beat like a metronome. . .” and it was true. He was the last Beatle in and he completed the group perfectly.
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Suzanne said on July 17, 2017 at 6:36 am
I love that Delta did not cow tow to Coulter but basically told her to lay off their other customers & staff. And that Tweet got thousands and thousands of little heart likes.
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alex said on July 17, 2017 at 7:02 am
I got only 80 percent on the fake news test. That’s because I didn’t believe a real story out of Indianapolis about a girl getting a pet python stuck in her pierced earlobe and another about a marriage between a granddad and granddaughter who didn’t know they were related.
So at least no political bullshit got past me. I’m evidently just too much of a skeptic when it comes to tabloids serving up dirt on trashy looking white people.
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jcburns said on July 17, 2017 at 7:46 am
Somehow, a tossed-off (yet nicely crafted) line like “Sorry, actual Rock” is exactly what I need to start this crazy week. Thanks, Nance!
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coozledad said on July 17, 2017 at 8:21 am
Veselnitskaya: Here is documents I promise you.
Don jr.: But these are placemats. From Shoney’s.
Veselnitskaya: Use these lenses (Hands everyone in meeting 3D glasses)
Trump: That burger looks real. I can almost taste it.
Veselnitskaya: You can have one of those any time you like. Is part of deal.
Don Jr.: What about the emails?
Trump: Do we get to keep the glasses?
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nancy said on July 17, 2017 at 9:39 am
I want you on my screenwriting team.
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Julie Robinson said on July 17, 2017 at 8:23 am
That’s the thing about cooking, it never ends. It’s day after day after day. But my hubby baked blueberry pie this weekend and it was ambrosial. So there’s that.
You can take all the celebrity politicians away if you leave Al Franken alone, please. I’m listening to his new book, Giant of the Senate, and he’s not only hilarious, he’s also whip-smart and full of common sense. He narrates himself, and I’m just waiting for him to say he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and gosh doggone it, people like him.
It was my understanding that the Beatles didn’t gel until Ringo joined them. Our daughter has been in a couple of bands and says the drummer is much more important than people think.
So Coulter gets $30 for her misery. Sounds about right to me.
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Peter said on July 17, 2017 at 8:55 am
$30 for Coulter’s misery? What about the misery she puts me through? Where’s my parade??
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basset said on July 17, 2017 at 10:18 am
Ringo played what was right for the song, and he had a remarkably steady beat. That’s what it was about. Probably half the bartenders in Nashville are technically better guitar players than George Harrison, but he played what was right for the song. McCartney was the only Beatle who was anything special on his instrument.
Also… reposting my last comment on yesterday’s thread since it went up just minutes before this one started:
Congrats on the new rating, Joe! So it’s new company and you’ll just be flying the King Air?
Mrs. B worked across the street from the Beech plant when we lived in Wichita in the early 80s, and right off the end of the runway for McConnell AFB and a big Boeing plant… liable to see pretty much anything landing out there.
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adrianne said on July 17, 2017 at 10:22 am
So Ann Coulter gets $30 and a sorry/not sorry from Delta. Sounds about right!
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Mark P said on July 17, 2017 at 11:13 am
How far behind do we fall?
I was watching a tv program on one of the DIY/home networks. It was about a small company in Chattanooga that builds tiny house “mansions.” They were shown installing flexible solar panels on the roof, and the camera caught the manufacturer’s name. It was a combination of an American company and the Chinese company, backed by a state bank, that bought them out a few years ago. The American company had been funded by venture capitalists, who, I assume, saw a chance to make a little money, so they sold out. It wasn’t even that much money, maybe $30 million. The Chinese company generously offered to let current US employees stay on for up to a year. The Chinese company is in the process of building a global renewable energy business. And we’re helping them.
Idiots like Steve Bannon think the West and the US in particular will face a transformative struggle in the near future. They think it will be with Islam, which is absurd on the face of it. What do the Islamic states have to offer the world? Culture? Philosophy? Economics? No, nothing but oil, and we have enough of that already. Everyone from the cop on the corner to the President has Americans wetting their pants about Islamist terrorism, but terrorism is a weapon of the weak. Sure, it kills people, and that’s terrible, but it’s not an existential threat. China is planning to kick our asses in the economy and in world influence and power. We’re selling Buicks in China, but once the Chinese decide to do it, they’ll make their own cars, both for themselves and for us.
I don’t think it will be that long before the fundamentalist end-timers are going to find out what “Left Behind” really means.
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 11:25 am
Good comment Mark P. Almost all of the solar panels on the market today are made in China. I wonder about wind turbines too? I heard on NPR this morning on my drive back to Santa Fe from Abiquiu that production is up for oil and gas in the US, to the point that they can’t fill jobs like trucking etc. Great we’re going to keep wrecking the environment with fracking instead of investing in renewables.
I spent the night in Abiquiu last night because LB had some people over to watch GOT and I didn’t want to be the old fuddy duddy hanging around. It was the first time I stayed the night in the cabin by myself. It was quite peaceful.
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Sherri said on July 17, 2017 at 11:33 am
Bannon may think the global clash of civilizations will come vs. Islam, but he doesn’t like Asian immigrants either. He’s said that having so many Asian tech CEOs in Silicon Valley is bad, and the trump administration is dismantling the “startup visa” and is considering plans to require foreign students to renew their student visas annually.
I think he just hates smart people.
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Bitter Scribe said on July 17, 2017 at 11:36 am
Coulter sneered at the 9/11 widows as opportunists, but by God you better not put her to the slightest inconvenience.
The first celebrity president was Ronald Reagan. Nuff said.
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Rana said on July 17, 2017 at 11:37 am
Your comment about the lines reminds me of my ongoing love/hate relationship with street fairs and whatnot. I read the descriptions of these things, and I love the idea of them, but what I always, always forget is this: hundreds of other hot, sweaty people are also going to be there, too. If I could go to them and not have to deal with the crowds, they’d be lovely. But the crowds are kind of the point, so.
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Steve E said on July 17, 2017 at 12:03 pm
An interesting story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette about the misappropriation of a patriotic photo from the paper for use in various fake new stories across the internet.
http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/editorials/20170717/real-fake-news
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Jakash said on July 17, 2017 at 1:43 pm
A little of something like “Game of Thrones” goes a long way for me. In that particular case, none went the distance!
I didn’t even know that Ringo was *in* Twin Peaks. ; )
Haven’t seen “Nocturnal Animals,” but we really like Michael Shannon.
I concur with JC: “Sorry, actual Rock” was a treat.
I agree about celebrity politicians, as well. “Career politicians, which is to say, people who know how the game is played and how to get results out of the system, may be our last hope.” Alas, when they use their knowledge and experience to blatantly steal a Supreme Court seat, with absolutely no consequences, or to craft outrageous vote-suppression laws, our last hope doesn’t make me very hopeful.
Chicago has multiple street fairs in various neighborhoods almost every weekend in the summer. People *lurve* them. Last weekend there was “Burger Fest,” which shut down Belmont Avenue, a major east-west street, for the weekend. So that people could stand in the middle of the street in a crowd, with the dew point at about 72, drink overpriced beer, eat a cheeseburger and listen to cover bands. Oh, okay. I realize that we’re not in the target demographic, by a long shot, but I never really got what was so appealing about that when we were…
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Jakash said on July 17, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Oh, and Rana, I liked your Yelp idea @ 89 on the previous thread, FWIW…
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Icarus said on July 17, 2017 at 1:59 pm
I use to love street festivals (fests, fairs, whatever you wish to call them) but that was in my younger, single days. Now if we go, we are regulated to the kid appropriate hours of After Nap and before Kidfree Singles show up to hook up. There use to be one key fest per weekend and a lesser known runner up. Now it seems every weekend has at least 3 in different parts of the city.
My friends and I figured out, as has almost everyone, how to beat the overpriced beer was by having someone bring a Beer Purse. I don’t miss the redunkulously overpriced “recommended donation” just to get in.
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Scout said on July 17, 2017 at 2:16 pm
Ann Coulter is treated to the new age of air travel ‘customer service’. Ann Coulter takes to twitter to bitch. Karma happens.
https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski/status/886740868287389696
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 2:32 pm
Summer fests with funnel cakes, bad hot dogs, sweaty people, bad music, no thanks. But I love going to community farmers markets where you get admittedly sweaty people but good food, so-so music (depending where it’s located) and they’re usually every weekend throughout the summer. Santa Fe has one of the best ones and Lincoln Park in Chicago has a pretty darn good one too.
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 2:34 pm
I just realized that the major thing missing from farmers markets to be competitive with street fairs and summer fests is beer. Oh well.
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Jakash said on July 17, 2017 at 2:55 pm
Green City Market is swell, indeed, Deborah.
My understanding is that the reason that’s a “recommended donation,” Icarus, is because if the fest is actually in a public street, they can’t charge admittance for it. This article is from 2012 (and Redeye, no less), but I think it’s accurate:
“‘They channel you through these long lines, and everything is presented as if it’s an admittance fee and that you have to pay. They are not being presented as suggested donations, and they are making people feel pressured or obliged to pay,’ Kerr said. ‘Folks aren’t aware that they don’t actually have to pay.’ …
The facts are clear. Charging patrons to enter any street festival is illegal.
‘You can’t charge admission to the public way,’ said Cindy Gatziolis, public relations officer for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Furthermore festivals are required to post signage at the entrance stating that the festival is free, she said. If the event decides to accept donations, they must post signage explaining how the donations will be used.”
http://articles.redeyechicago.com/2012-06-15/news/32258528_1_street-festival-donations-annual-music-fest
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Heather said on July 17, 2017 at 2:59 pm
This past weekend was the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. By the time I figured out there were enough bands I was interested in to pay for a day ticket on Saturday (including George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic! damn), they were sold out. It’s just as well though–I really can’t handle crowds anymore and don’t really want to hang out in the sun for six hours. I went to a friend’s 50th birthday party where they had a great Gypsy jazz band in their gorgeous backyard–much better.
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ROGirl said on July 17, 2017 at 3:15 pm
GM manufactures Buicks in China. There are many joint ventures between American manufacturers and Chinese companies. Chinese companies have bought automobile manufacturers and parts suppliers. They manufacture and assemble in the US. They employ American engineers and machine operators. They know they can’t just take over everything, and they don’t have the technical know-how to do everything on their terms. They do have a lot of cash, though. And people, too.
It’s just not a black and white situation.
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 3:17 pm
My husband and I went to Lollapalooza one time a few years ago in Chicago because Sigur Ros the Icelandic group was performing there. It was awful, muddy, stinky as all get out, smelled like manure. People were getting sick and passing out all around us in the hot sun. The music was marginally good because of bad acoustics (I think). It was all so much better when we watched the Sigur Ros documentary “Heima” which was filmed in Iceland. Never going to Lollapalooza or anything like that again, plus we were sooooo much older than everybody there (duh).
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brian stouder said on July 17, 2017 at 3:47 pm
Well, I learned the word “diurnal” today, which made sense when I read it (afterall, there’s ‘nocturnal’ – which should have an opposite)
I’m not big on street fairs, although we do catch the occasional parade (especially when one of our schools and/or kiddos is in the thing).
Aside from that, as the Trump de-lamination process continues, I’ve noticed how Fox News’s front page has gone toward teachers – specifically female teachers – having sex with students; and today’s bonus is LPGA women complaining about their dress code (cue up the photos of women golfers bending forward, etc)
http://www.foxnews.com/
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Icarus said on July 17, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Jakash there are costs associated with putting on a street fest. It probably isn’t cheap and since no one is forcing me to attend these fests, I usually don’t mind shelling out a few bucks to help offset those costs. But not all street fests are equal and my point of contention is the asking price.
Once at Retro on Roscoe, the front gate troll wanted me to pay full price even though they were shutting down in an hour.
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Judybusy said on July 17, 2017 at 4:22 pm
A local restaurant does a Bastille Day festival every year. We thought it would be smallish, cute, etc. We looked it up and it’s all our worst nightmare. We looked at pics from past years, and it was curb to curb people. Nope. We instead went to a French-inspired bistro and had a glass of wine.
We then drove to a wine bar in process–getting built by three sisters. The guy doing the work invited us in and gave us the pretour. The neighborhood is super excited they are opening. They had run a coffee shop for 20 years and a young woman wanting to open up a gluten free bakery outbid the sisters on rent (causing many emotions to be expressed on Next Door.) Turns out, the sisters had wanted to do a wine bar and coffee shop for a long time, so here they are building their dream. It’s a 5 minute drive from our house.
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Jakash said on July 17, 2017 at 4:45 pm
No doubt there are costs, Icarus, and people should donate how ever much they care to. But if there is “signage at the entrance stating that the festival is free,” as that article said is required, I must not have looked for it hard enough at some of the ones we’ve seen.
Years ago, before the Art Institute charged admission, they had a sign reading “Suggested donation: (well I don’t remember, but let’s say) $12.” But right there with it was some wording like “You can pay what you want, but you must pay something.” I thought that was a nice idea… Evidently not nearly lucrative enough, because when they switched from the donation model to straight admission, I think the admission price was more than the suggested donation had been previously, or maybe the same amount.
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Dexter said on July 17, 2017 at 5:05 pm
No, Ringo is not in Twin Peaks, but Harry Dean Stanton is, sort of playing the old-age version of his Paris, Texas character. I brought up Ringo because it seems that people I communicate with think I am “too different” for appreciating David Lynch and Ringo Starr and for that matter for driving weird cars and staying up all night watching Alfred Hitchcock festivals on TCM. Basset made me take notice with his comment about so many guitar pickers in Nashville being superior in talent to George Harrison’s legacy. In this list, Jimi is #1, George, #11. http://www.imdb.com/list/ls052192776/
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 5:15 pm
I like David Lynch, not everything he’s done, but some of his his earlier stuff is superlative. I like Eraserhead, which a lot of people think is bizarre. It is bizarre, but that’s at least half the point. His production of Dune was highly criticized but I liked it too, after having read the book. He seems like a sensitive bohemian, creative guy, always pushing the limits of his art. I respect that. I think he’s done some mediocre stuff for money, and you can totally tell the difference.
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Jakash said on July 17, 2017 at 5:50 pm
I got that, Dexter, I was just funnin’ with ya.
If I had to pick just one channel out of all the basic cable crap, it would definitely be TCM. We watched “Woman of the Year” and “To Have and Have Not” Saturday night, and in-between I was reminded that we’ve been missing the whole Hitchcock celebration. D’oh!
We watched the original Twin Peaks and the movie, but are not privy to Showtime, so we’ll need to catch that later. Which may be a problem, as my wife is not as inclined to revisit the weird Lynchian world as I am, alas… “Eraserhead” was a bit much for me, though I thought some of it was funny.
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LAMary said on July 17, 2017 at 6:24 pm
If you like diurnal, you should love crepuscular.
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Andrea said on July 17, 2017 at 6:24 pm
The day after the night I saw Eraserhead, the guy I went to the movie with and I went to lunch in our dorm cafeteria and they were serving chicken with the wing attached… seeing all those rows of butchered chickens laying out there, ugh. We took one look at each other and silently agreed to eat elsewhere for lunch that day.
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LAMary said on July 17, 2017 at 6:24 pm
sorry. Crepescular.
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LAMary said on July 17, 2017 at 6:25 pm
Argh. Had it right the first time.
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Jolene said on July 17, 2017 at 6:37 pm
Check out this story re the shady activities of the former dean of the medical school at USC.
At this late stage of life, there shouldn’t be much that would shock me, but I’m still amazed by what people are willing to risk to indulge themselves.
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David C. said on July 17, 2017 at 6:45 pm
I like the food we get at the farmer’s market, but like all my other shopping, I like to get in, get what I want, and get out. I’d like it if they would put the farmers at one end, the egg rolls at the other, and a special track for those doing the quarter-speed amble somewhere far away.
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Deborah said on July 17, 2017 at 6:59 pm
Skunks are crepuscular animals, we found that out a couple of years ago when we were having lots of them visiting our yard in Santa Fe, thankfully we haven’t smelled them lately, of course no doubt now that I’ve said this, I’ve jinxed it. Come to think of it we haven’t seen or heard raccoons either so I don’t know what’s up with that?
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Charlotte said on July 17, 2017 at 7:18 pm
Deborah — someone’s making wind turbine blades in the US because they go through Livingston both on flatbed rail cars, and sometimes on the Interstate. Headed west for the ports.
I hate festivals. In part it was growing up in the tent business, so I was always in the back with the operations guys, but there’s nothing I like less than a lot of hot sweaty people, eating gross things that drip, and listening to bad music played too loud. Yes, I’m a grandma about that.
That said, our Farmer’s Market, which is on Wednesday evenings along the Yellowstone River (big mountains for a view) has both beer *and* nice wine — it’s as much a tiny festival as it is a market. Music in the old bandshell, hippie dancing, food carts, veggies and lots of macrame bracelets.
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Sherri said on July 17, 2017 at 7:42 pm
a special track for those doing the quarter-speed amble somewhere far away.
Can we just make that a general purpose thing? And can we put all the people who stop in the middle of sidewalks to look at their cell phones on it, too?
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coozledad said on July 17, 2017 at 8:08 pm
https://twitter.com/Fran_Kilinski/status/887049418977017859
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basset said on July 17, 2017 at 8:53 pm
Dexter@31, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of faith in that list… Robert Fripp not being in the top few is reason enough to question it.
What I meant to say about the bartenders, etc., and I may not have been clear… a lot of them have better technical ability than George had, but getting the song across is a whole different challenge. Most of George’s early stuff was rehashed Carl Perkins that he couldn’t quite play, but it worked.
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Suzanne said on July 17, 2017 at 9:29 pm
Jolene @ 38, I saw that bizarre story earlier in the day. It reminded me of those people we all knew in college, who smoked, drank, and god knows what else in excess and managed to succeed. I had a college reunion a few years ago and had a great time, but was a bit bothered that the people who were the biggest party people back in the day seemed to also be very successful.
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alex said on July 17, 2017 at 9:45 pm
Disenchanted with festivals anymore for most of the same reasons stated above. It’s really only fun when you’re young and haven’t done a lot of it. Dropping acid belongs in the same category.
Well Hubby brought home some exciting new stuff from the vape store tonight, including an e-liquid called Butt Custard. A woman visiting for dinner applied it to her wrists like it was perfume. I was fast losing my appetite until they let me in on the joke. It’s shorthand for Butterscotch Custard, but makes for quite an arresting product label. And it’s a nice rich low-cal dessert when you put it in your pipe and vape it, I might add.
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Sherri said on July 17, 2017 at 10:45 pm
This could get interesting: https://www.lawfareblog.com/new-front-opens-laffaire-russe
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MarkH said on July 17, 2017 at 11:05 pm
basset – I’ll go you one better on that list by channeling Prospero:
What the fuck is Stephen Stills doing at #47??! Arguably as good as Neil, maybe better, I’d yank Keith out of the top ten and put him there. Just sayin…
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MarkH said on July 17, 2017 at 11:22 pm
Also, basset –
Your Nashville bartender-guitarist reference made me think of this. At least John Sebastian knew where real guitar talent lay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcL8yFzHd8o
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LAMary said on July 18, 2017 at 12:18 am
I’ve become crepuscular. My black lab won’t go out for walks when the sun is high, but he likes dawn and sundown. It’s tough being a black dog in hot weather.
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susan said on July 18, 2017 at 12:25 am
Dexter @ 31 – That Rollingstone list of “greatest” guitar players is just plain stupid. Only two women made it out of the 100? Really? RS sure didn’t try very hard. And Bonnie Raitt is #89???! Fuck that! Also, as to how silly that list is, check out #68. Ha ha ha ha ha! Such careful editing. As careful as their story on the U of Virginia gang rape allegations.
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Dexter said on July 18, 2017 at 12:45 am
susan…ALL those lists are bogus, meaningless, I concur. Tommy Emmanuel is the world’s best guitarist, but most have never heard him. Who could sing like Roy Orbison, bang drums like Ginger Baker, raise a building off its foundation like Bruce or Elvis?
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susan said on July 18, 2017 at 12:47 am
The Rude One has a really good post up today. The media should read and mind it. “Trump Voters Were Wrong, So Fuck Their Opinions.”
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Dexter said on July 18, 2017 at 12:55 am
good old days of skimpy “stew” uniforms and smoke, smoke, smoke…and booze it up to the max. http://www.stopsmoking.news/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2016/03/ecig-plane-6.jpg
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Jakash said on July 18, 2017 at 1:27 am
I love the comments, both here and on the actual link Dexter put up, on a piece of random bullshit like that Rolling Stone guitarists list. To wit: “just because Keith Richards is high on everything else doesn’t mean he can be high on the list.” The choice taking the most brutal dissing at the link seemed to be John Lennon, as a guitarist. Anyway, however lame and random the list is, and despite the fact that I can’t hold a candle to the musical props of the Commentariat here, we did see 9 of the folks on that list, including 3 of the top 10, in one day at Clapton’s Crossroads 2007. So, I’ve got that going for me. Speaking of hot, sweaty festivals…
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Jerry said on July 18, 2017 at 2:25 am
Jakash, can’t match your numbers but saw two of the top ten playing at dances, as opposed to concerts or festivals. Of course, most of us were more interested in social opportunities rather than music appreciation!
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Deborah said on July 18, 2017 at 4:49 am
Is the senate really going to vote on repealing Obamacare with a delay to replace in two years? Sounds like chaos to me.
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basset said on July 18, 2017 at 6:55 am
MarkH, if you’re ever in Nashville go to the transit bus station downtown, where bronze plaques of the sheet music to various songs are embedded in the concrete floor as decoration… “Nashville Cats” among them.
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coozledad said on July 18, 2017 at 6:58 am
Susan: They were so wrong I think we ought to undertake a broad social experiment, patterned after right wing social policies of the past four or so hundred years: Confer marginal citizenship status on them; encourage extrajudicial justice against them. Make being a Trump voter a barrier to living in better neighborhoods; acquiring loans or being able to walk down the damn street unmolested.
Rigorously enforce a judicial and social code that effectively communicates to them and their progeny that we are only willing to pay taxes in order to have them isolated and observed by law enforcement, and randomly killed to drive home the point that they’re not Americans, and never will be.
Some will inevitably begin to understand their best shot is to relocate. We should use every legal tool to highlight and encourage that option, and undertake it as swiftly and cheaply as possible.
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2017 at 7:07 am
Apparently, McConnell does want to simply repeal the ACA and worry about replacing it later. Kind of like packing up your family, selling off your house and furniture, and moving to a new spot figuring you’ll worry about getting a job, finding schools for your kid, and finding a place to live when you get there, isn’t it? What could go wrong?
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2017 at 9:03 am
What Suzanne said!
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coozledad said on July 18, 2017 at 9:17 am
We have a three tiered system of justice. The entry level consists in imprisoning as many blacks and poor whites as possible. The second tier is the application of remedies for the propertied against encroaching classes. The third tier is an inviolable wall around the professional asslickers of the rich:
http://www.joemygod.com/2017/07/18/former-republican-house-speaker-confessed-pedophile-dennis-hastert-released-prison/
The only way he should have left a standard prison cell is by gradually seeping through a drain in the floor. He was a goddamn predator, FFS.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 18, 2017 at 9:33 am
Triggered by some of the previous posts, by way of both frustration and understanding: I’ve been buried the last few months by a run of funerals, then weddings, and an implosion in my denomination’s regional offices that I got dragooned into being on the clean-up squad for (pro tip: don’t sleep with the staff, okay? Thanks.). But I continue in my general vocation as a congregational pastor in a small city in a medium-sized county in Ohio.
We are, as a congregation, doing waaaaay better than most, in attendance, in giving, in service both contributory and hands-on face-to-face, and while we’re not swimming in kids, we have enough young people to know what they look like and to hear their perspectives. But it’s true, we don’t have lots, and those who are part of our church family are erratic to a new extreme in terms of attendance. Our children’s church person just turned in her resignation, because she’s just too stressed figuring out how to plan and prep for a Sunday morning which could have 2 kids or 12, and the continuity is non-existent. I tell her this is the new normal, and she’s doing a great job (she really has been), but she feels like she works hard to connect and communicate with parents and grandparents, but she has to approach every week as a self-contained unit, and she just doesn’t like working that way.
So my point, such as I have one, and what I am thinking of reporting back to our whole board Wednesday night as I’ve hit a few key leaders with already. What people keep muttering about is “why don’t we do what [insert here] church is doing? They have herds of young families, lots of kids in youth night on Sunday evenings, and they seem to be reaching them where we aren’t.” [insert here] is always one of four churches in our county. One’s a Vineyard, one’s Southern Baptist, one’s Nazarene, one’s non-denominational. Some of you already know what I’m gonna say next.
If “you” really want us to be more like [insert here], I have some news for you. I’ve been on their mailing lists the last few months, talked to more people I work with in my weekday job who go to those churches, and done my online research. Those four all have large and active “youth programs” with consistent attendance and plenty of activities for middle and high school kids, the ones we don’t have. They also have the following things in common:
* They have no office hours. None. No one sitting weekdays in a space you can visit or call. Sorry. Email or message us, but no office hours.
* Three of the four have church administrators who handle all the finances and logistics who are also the pastor’s wife. Yes, they are three and four times bigger than we are, and they do have treasurers and checks and balances, but the business of the church goes through the minister’s household.
* They have essentially no print product. No newsletters, no calendar pages, no bulletins. They have emails and Power Point screens that roll before worship with announcements, that have to be into the worship coordinator by Thursday night. Last minute announcement of an event? Doesn’t happen. Ever.
* They are focused on how those who have made their own particular confession/baptism are saved, and that those who haven’t (atheists, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, other misled Protestants like me, which has been said by name from at least two of the [insert here] churches) are doomed to condemnation and eternal torment. Their general theology is murky at best, vaguely prosperity-ish but usually they condemn Osteen almost as much as they do people like me, so it’s prosperity-lite, and driven by social issues big in the news, though almost all have done a series in the last few years on hidden messages in pop music, which I thought was a dead issue, but hey, I’m going to Hell.
* And – drumroll – they ALL bar women from the platform in worship other than to sing. They don’t preach, read scripture, or even teach in the classrooms above third grade unless it’s a “girls class” or “women’s group” but the curriculum options are, shall we say, limited.
So if you want us to imitate [insert here] church, there’s the full list. That’s what they do that we don’t. Oh, and yes, they have praise bands with light show effects and the occasional fog machine. But so do a number of others — the ones who have lots of young families and kids in the youth program have the above five items in common.
Is that the secret? Is this cultural revanchism what it takes? My wife says it might be that some smart, professional women (I sit, appalled and fascinated with a table of women like that in Kiwanis who all go to either of two [insert here] churches, as they talk about what they can and can’t do, and tell me “I don’t mind” when I ask about being barred from teaching after the kids get older than ten) actually like these churches because they don’t have to do anything — that they are tired and weary of their job responsibilities and their home tasks and like a church where by definition they don’t have to do anything other than bring the occasional casserole.
And make no mistake, it’s the women, the mothers, who are driving this. They pick the church, not the man; they look for these churches for their youth programs. Am I missing something? Is there a confusion between chicken and egg I’m not getting? They’re not knuckle-dragging working-class thuggy guys driving this phenomenon, it’s the young professional women who wake up the family and tell them “we’re going to [insert here] where my friends are” and drive back to their Butler building complex on the edge of town in the evening to drop the kids for two hours.
Meanwhile, I’m feeling like sticking a branch into the tiger cage and poking the occupants at my own faithful menagerie. It’s like where Israel comes to Jehovah in I Samuel and says “we want kings like everyone else,” and God replies “it won’t work the way you think” and the people respond “we don’t care, we want to fit in” and the Lord answers “as a chastisement, yer gonna get kings. Enjoy, my people, let me know when you’ve figured this one out.”
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Sherri said on July 18, 2017 at 10:00 am
I think your wife may have the right idea, Jeff(tmmo). To put it a little more cynically, the churches provide a ready-made way to check off the We Ought To Do Something About Church box without requiring a lot of investment. A friend of mine, when her kids were the appropriate age, searching about for a solution of what to do about the What Do We Do About The Kids’ Spiritual Education, considered one of those places after getting fed up with the local Catholic parish. (The priest at the local Catholic parish has managed to drive off a lot of my friends, who now either go to church in Seattle or don’t go.) I told her what the theology of that church was, underneath all the marketing materials and praise bands and youth programs, and that it wouldn’t be an improvement over her frustrations. Those kid programs were a strong draw, though.
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Kim said on July 18, 2017 at 10:00 am
Cooz, agreed. While I am not a fan of the generally lite-news Chicago Trib, without their reporting the reason behind Hastert’s hush money hijinks – his pedophilia – would’ve never seen daylight. The judge did right by his many victims by demanding Hastert admit to preying on kids, even though it wasn’t his official crime because of an expired statute of limitations. No mercy is in order for that guy.
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2017 at 10:04 am
Amen, Jeff. Truth is, church has become marketing scheme and the congregants have now become consumers. Those that have better marketing schemes have more members and when those members see a better deal, they go after it. Most of the big “successful” churches in our area are also in high income zip codes. God bless churches like yours that looks at the congregants as people, not prospects, but they are small and frequently not too mighty.
I go back to a story I heard from a friend about the number of people that show up at her local, small catholic church asking for help. Many attend the local mega-church but don’t want anyone there to know they are in a bad spot, so they visit the Catholics for help.
It has also been my experience that many church people diss Joel Osteen but then proceed to spout his type of theology.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2017 at 10:31 am
Does Ann Coulter have Marfan syndrome? In the recent pictures of her relating to that Delta experience, it sure looks like it. As she ages it seems to be more apparent, at least I never thought of it before. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfan_syndrome
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alex said on July 18, 2017 at 11:07 am
The blue-eyed granny starver’s nickname inside the White House:
a limp-dick motherfucker who was born in a petri dish at the Heritage Foundation
Read all about it at TPM…
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Jolene said on July 18, 2017 at 1:30 pm
The repeal now/replace later plan is dead.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/mcconnell-obamacare-repeal-senate-defections
It is f’ing outrageous that we cannot figure out how to do what so many other countries have done: figure out a system that permits all citizens to obtain essential healthcare. You’d think sheer embarrassment would drive people to solve the problem, not to mention fiscal sanity.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2017 at 1:37 pm
It’s interesting that the senators who have indicated they won’t go along with repeal and delay in the TPM link are women. If I read that correctly, I skimmed it while doing other stuff so maybe I missed something.
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Jolene said on July 18, 2017 at 1:43 pm
Late in the article, it says that Portman (Ohio), Cassidy (Louisiana), and Heller (Nevada), all men, also objected.
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Jakash said on July 18, 2017 at 1:50 pm
From Jolene’s link:
“The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the 2015 repeal bill now under consideration found it would cause 32 million people to lose their insurance, hike premiums for millions more and increase the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Thus, to Grinch McConnell, a step in the right direction! So satisfying to see that fucker floundering even with his majority. Gee, if only some of those Senators would have stood up and said “Uh, hey, should we really be blatantly stealing a Supreme Court seat?”
We just finished watching “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Sorta get whiffs of it from the attitudes Jeff refers to. If nothing else, his post helps me understand how ole Rumpy got 53% of the white women’s vote.
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Jolene said on July 18, 2017 at 2:02 pm
More on McConnell. A tweetstream from a former aide to Harry Ried–in other words, a Senate insider.
https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/887137073785909250
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2017 at 2:05 pm
This is why Cooz is, at the end of the day, exactly and precisely right – even despite what occasionally looks like rhetorical over-kill.
The rightwing opinion universe – Oxy-Rush and Shit for brains Sean Hannity (et al) – unblinkingly says “drop dead”, while a thin (and shrinking?) slice of their party just cannot quite ‘pull the trigger’.
If you’re in an air-conditioned fortress in Florida (or NYC) – and your whole job is flapping your lips for several hours each day – it is all so very simple.
Pre-existing condition? Pick out a nice head-stone.
Can’t afford insurance? Pick out a nice head-stone.
20-something kiddo, still at home? You might get lucky, and suffer no injuries or illness – ’cause you ain’t got no insurance, either.
If you’re a successful lip-flapper – and there aren’t many who really hit the jack-pot – it’s all so very easy.
But if you’re an elected public servant, and you need to win elections where free people will confront you with the actual, consequential votes you have cast on the issues of the day – it ain’t easy at all.
Either you’re a straight-shooter, and do what you say you’ll do – happiness! And if you take gobs of cash from rich donors who also have a list of things you cannot vote for (or must vote for) – sucks to be you!
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coozledad said on July 18, 2017 at 2:06 pm
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-jr-meeting-ikakly-kaveladze-russian-money-laundering-scheme-9986f528982a
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Scout said on July 18, 2017 at 2:06 pm
Susan, thank you for posting the Rude Pundit link. He hits the nail on the head.
So, the latest craptacular Republican “health care” grift bombed. Thank you, jeebuz. Ed at G&T says, “By resurrecting that idea now that the GOP has the majority, they’re recognizing that the Republican Party is incapable of creating anything. They can repeal, cut, obstruct, filibuster, defund, and grandstand. They can talk, feign moral outrage, dog-whistle, and mud sling. The one thing they cannot do, as we now can all see plainly, is write a bill that makes policy.”
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2017/07/17/we-are-nihilists-we-believe-in-nothing
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Jakash said on July 18, 2017 at 2:55 pm
“Tornado destroys CVS receipt.”
https://twitter.com/Mr_DrinksOnMe/status/882646628980596736
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Jolene said on July 18, 2017 at 3:17 pm
Great tweet, Jakash. I wonder what it is that’s actually being pulled up in the tornado.
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Sherri said on July 18, 2017 at 3:40 pm
It’s all fun and games clamoring to burn everything down until you smell smoke in your own house. What’s going on with Republicans and trumpsters seems a lot like this article about the abusive culture at Uber.
As one former employee said, explaining why he joined the company, it seemed like a “libertarian playground where the best would rise to the top.” But, he said, “I quickly realized that environment also means work becomes a blood sport.”
Many of us can figure out that we can’t all be on top all the time without having to screw over everybody else first.
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2017 at 4:13 pm
Oh, no Sherri. Competition just brings out the best in people, donchaknow? Or at least, that’s what the Paul Ryans of the world seem to believe. Or are good at convincing people to believe.
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2017 at 4:59 pm
Laugh? Or cry?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/18/trump-says-time-to-let-obamacare-fail-after-health-bill-stalls.html
“I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let ObamaCare fail,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let ObamaCare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”
Laugh, or cry?
The man has obviously never heard the saying “The buck stops here”
President of the United States? Hey- if the news is good and the sun is out, hell yeah!!
But if it’s going to be hard – don’t look at ME!!I don’t ‘own’ nothin’, no-how, no way!
And didja know Lincoln was a Republican? Hell yeah!! And I’m a Republican! But I don’t ‘own’ nothing, except any good stuff that comes up
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Jolene said on July 18, 2017 at 5:30 pm
To follow your point, Brian, no recognition that letting Obamacare fail would have any negative consequences for real people. It’s all about him winning.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2017 at 6:09 pm
So clueless, so oblivious to themselves. The Trumps and the rest of the ridiculous Republicans are just sooooo incompetent. Thankfully so though when it comes to trying to repeal Obamacare. Now we just have to figure out how to keep them from wrecking it and make them own the wrecking if they do it.
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Scout said on July 18, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Twitler took an oath to uphold the laws of the land, of which the ACA is one. Isn’t there some legal remedy to hold him to this?
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Sherri said on July 18, 2017 at 7:26 pm
I don’t agree with Nick Hanauer on everything (he’s a big charter school fan, for example), but he was a big supporter of the minimum wage campaigns in Seattle and Washington and believes in, gasp, taxes!
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/18/to-my-fellow-plutocrats-you-can-cure-trumpism-215347
No, the only realistic near term way to insure Americans do better is to make existing jobs into good jobs by requiring they be paid adequately. There is no earthly reason why an entry-level job at low-wage employers like Walmart or McDonalds could not pay $15 or even $20 per hour with full benefits, the way an old factory job used to. There is nothing “unskilled” about a barista or a home health care worker, and no economic principle that prevents these workers from earning a living wage. The only difference between today’s service workers and yesterday’s manufacturing workers is that most service workers have no union, and thus have no power. People have never been paid what they are worth, despite what the trickle-downer’s will tell you. They are paid what they negotiate. And working people have lost their ability to negotiate decent wages.
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Sherri said on July 18, 2017 at 7:39 pm
Then we realized what the connection was: all of these behaviors are the actions of someone who feels entitled to other people’s property – regardless of whether it’s someone else’s ideas, work, money, or body.
The Al Capone Theory of Sexual Harassment
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Charlotte said on July 18, 2017 at 7:48 pm
This started out slow, but turned into one of the best things I’ve read lately on neoliberalism and the politics of hope (actual hope, not just slogan-y Obama hope): https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n14/william-davies/reasons-for-corbyn
Also, not to cheerlead, but the London Review of Books is consistently the most interesting and well-written magazine of the many I subscribe to. We gave a subscrip. to Himself’s dad, who worries every spring when the renewal notices come (and if you can find a good, renewable gift for a smart man in his 80s).
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coozledad said on July 18, 2017 at 7:53 pm
Mob trash. It’s like the first generation suburbans from the tobacco farms here in the states. The interiors will look like, and have probably been used as, porn sets.
https://twitter.com/DanielSchulman/status/887408199770533888
Nothing good will ever come out of Russia again. Stalin murdered all the bloodlines of anyone who had any taste.
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2017 at 8:11 pm
Sherri, that Nick Hanauer article is excellent, although I do wonder what he pays his employees. But he’s correct. It may take years, but with the kind of inequality we see, there will eventually be a tipping point and there are way more of us than them. History shows us that it gets really ugly when the pitchforks come out. I fear that beast has already been unleashed and will not be easily subdued.
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2017 at 8:52 pm
I wonder when all is said and done, how many people were in that room with Don, Jr? In just a few days, we’ve gone from hearing there was no meeting to, well, there WAS a meeting, to there was a whole room full of Russians. Seems everyone wanted to be in the room where it happened.
And now we discover that Trump & Vlad had a very off-the-record meeting at the G20. No one apparently wanted to be in the room where that happened.
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Rana said on July 18, 2017 at 9:53 pm
You’d think sheer embarrassment would drive people to solve the problem, not to mention fiscal sanity.
Jolene, I wonder if this is sort of perverse extension of American exceptionalism. “Everyone else is doing it” seems to be provoking certain segments of the population to respond, “Well, then, no way in hell are we gonna do that!” (Especially if “Everyone” means “liberal Europeans”.)
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