Today’s question: What’s wrong with the College Republicans?
Two of the tiki-torch marchers ID’d by the general public are College Republicans, and anytime I hear about that group, I’m reminded of a Fort Wayne story from 2002. I finally tracked down a copy of it, and since I can’t link, I’ll post larger-than-normal chunks of it here:
A Fort Wayne woman with dementia wrote nearly $50,000 in checks within six months, mostly to political organizations. She doesn’t recall making the donations, but her family wants the money back.
The more Mary donated, the more money the organizations pleaded for. They told the 82-year-old our nation is in danger of communist takeover and implied the letter writers had close ties with President Bush and other high-ranking government officials.
All the solicitations were through the mail.
…It’s a family’s worst nightmare, said niece Jan Rediger of Leo, who asked that her aunt’s full name not be published.
Last summer, her aunt told her, “The bank has stolen $30,000.”
“I knew things were going downhill when I stopped by to see her and there were stacks of mail everywhere, especially from Republican groups.
“There were hundreds of letters, most of them addressing her by her first name. She thought they were letters to her personally. She didn’t realize they were form letters. They all asked for money,” Rediger said.
…Last year, she began getting more letters from the College Republican National Committee, which is affiliated with the Republican National Committee.
Mary also received 20-30 letters a day from lesser-known GOP groups, including the National Republican Victory Campaign, Republican Strategy Headquarters, Republican Headquarters 2001 and the National Republican Leadership Committee.
All her checks were deposited and cashed, including several Mary made out to individuals listed as directors of the organizations.
One of the letters said:
“I need you to send your $200 contribtuion immediately. If I don’t hear back from you, I will be forced to shut down several critical Republican programs.” The undated letter was signed Scott Stewart, chairman of College Republican National Committee.
In another letter:
“I feel that we have gotten to know each other well enough that I may write to you using your Christian name …It always brings a smile to my face when I open a letter from Fort Wayne, Indiana because I know that it is from you. Mary, I am writing to you and sharing all of this with you because I have nowhere to turn. I am writing to you to ask you if you will make a major commitment to Republican Strategy Headquarters now to help President Bush in the amount of $25,000…
“This is the true amount that I need within the next three weeks if I am to help the president’s proposals pass through the Senate …I beseech you, send $25,000 now. Or if you cannot send it all at once, perhaps $5,000 now and the rest in a little while.” The letter, dated June 15, 2001, is signed: “Your sincere friend, David Harris, director of Republican Strategy Headquarters, PO Box 4442 Salisbury, MD 21803.
Although Mary did not send the requested $25,000, within a few months she did send nearly $13,000 to Republican Strategy Headquarters, which listed a different Washington, D.C., post office box on some letters.
…The College Republican National Committee “is not in any way connected” to Republican Strategy Headquarters, said committee Chairman Stewart.
But the family wonders why, in the June 15 letter, Harris writes: “You have been enormously generous toward me in the past and also to Chris, Scott and others.” Chris Tiedeman is general chairman of the National Republican Victory Campaign, a project of the College Republican National Committee.
Stewart said he had no explanation and “is going to be seriously looking into it.”
He said the national committee “does not ask for large sums of money,” adding solicitations usually are for $25 to $50.
In a March 28, 2001, letter, Stewart urges Mary to “rush me back $300 right now. …If we delay then the Rule of Law may be dead and America may turn into a Communist police state.”
There’s more, but you get the idea. A little Googling shows Stewart seemed to be cut from the usual College Republicans cloth — an early sexual harasser who rose like cream to the remunerative top layers of corporate America. And, of course, Mary wasn’t the only one. This was part of a national fundraising strategy, and most of the money went to pay vendors, not elect Republicans.
I had to chuckle over this passage in the last link:
College Republicans serve as the party’s outreach organization on college campuses. The group has been a starting place for many prominent conservatives, including Bush adviser Karl Rove, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed.
Elite company, right there. But seriously, given this history, wouldn’t you think job one would be to rebuild the brand? Rhetorical question, because of course, this is the brand – take-no-shit aggression in pursuit of party over all. Bilk a bunch of seniors? Hey, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few bank accounts. March with racists? A few bad apples, heavy hearts, thoughts and prayers, etc.
Blegh. Enough.
I want to leave you with something delightful after this grim week, I’ve found it, and it isn’t a kitty video, but this breezy history of true-confessions magazines, from their founding to today. Yes, today — they still exist!
The magazines are staple-bound and always 64 pages long—ten stories, two “Inspirational Mini-Stories, and one recipe, released once a month. The paper inside is newsprint, the photos all stock images, and the prose leans toward Kindle single. They’re not exactly the kind of magazines that anyone would describe as “venerable” at a glance, but the goofy covers belie the publications’ age and legacy. The first women’s confessional magazines, True Story and True Confessions are now approaching their centennial.
I think I’m going to have to seek one out. In the meantime, have a great weekend.
basset said on August 18, 2017 at 9:34 am
You could not make this shit up, volume two thousand or so:
https://psmag.com/news/juggalo-and-pro-trump-rallies-may-converge-on-national-mall-in-september
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adrianne said on August 18, 2017 at 9:36 am
That’s par for the course for the College Republicans, home to future political shitheels like Karl Rove. They learn from the masters.
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Jenine said on August 18, 2017 at 9:45 am
@basset: I heard about that through a Tweet from Patton Oswalt that said “Uh…go Juggalos?”
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Peter said on August 18, 2017 at 10:06 am
OK, I call BS on one part of that article – “a massive Pro-Trump rally”. Massive PRO Trump rally? What, 100 people?
OTOH, what I wouldn’t give to have Trump Impersonator Anthony Attamaniuk address the Juggalos. That would be special.
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Julie Robinson said on August 18, 2017 at 10:49 am
Well, I’m taking the day off from it all. It’s our 38th anniversary, and while hubsters is traveling for work today, I’m taking Mom out to ride an old-timey train. La-di-da.
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Connie said on August 18, 2017 at 11:02 am
In junior high I babysit at the neighbor’s where I read all the true confession magazines. I was quite sure at the time that they were dirty magazines.
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Sherri said on August 18, 2017 at 11:25 am
Happy Anniversary, Julie!
Pierce highlights a few heartening reactions to Charlottesville, and refers to the Nazis as “kindertiki” in the bargain!
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57089/rosanne-cash-kkk/
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Bitter Scribe said on August 18, 2017 at 11:51 am
That story about the old woman who was bilked by political organizations really hit home for me, because something similar happened to my father.
It wasn’t (thank God) for quite as much money, and it was from the opposite end of the political spectrum. I loved my father dearly, God rest his soul, and he was always a staunch liberal. But in his way, he was every bit as goofy and conspiracy-minded as the nuttiest Fox News viewer. To give just one of many examples: He thought that Busch beer was a conspiracy to further the fortunes of the Bush political dynasty. No shit. He really, literally believed that.
As he grew older, he started contributing to Democratic and liberal causes, and as Nancy’s post described, the more he gave, the more solicitations he got. They never took him for any four- or five-figure sums, but he kept giving and it kept adding up. Once he passed, my mother was surprised at how much extra money she had in the household budget all of a sudden.
I just thank God he didn’t survive into the era of cable news and PACs as outright hustles.
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Mark P said on August 18, 2017 at 12:01 pm
The exact same thing happened to my mother. She got a handful of solicitations almost every day, and every one of them was just like what was described in the article. She regularly wrote checks to them. It wasn’t for $50,000 but it was for thousands over a several month period. When I read the solicitations, I felt an almost overpowering urge to buy a baseball bat, drive up to where these slime molds lived and beat the shit out of them, to beat them until their heads looked like their misshapen souls. This was several years ago and I still get mad thinking about it today.
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nancy said on August 18, 2017 at 12:05 pm
Mark, if you read Scott Stewart’s LinkedIn page, you’ll see this line about his work with the CRs: Increased fundraising from $250,000 per year to over $1.3 million.
Doesn’t say how he did it. Hmm.
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 12:22 pm
I keep getting Trump stuff in the mail, always asking for $$ which seems odd since the T-man said he didn’t need anybody else’s money. I was filling out the stupid surveys in a sarcastic way, then mailing it back unstamped. Now, I just write “Refused. Return to sender” and toss it back into mailbox. Don’t even want it in my mailbox.
I guess I haven’t my limit of shock yet because I was shocked that VP MyPants who just told us all he was in full agreement with his boss’s statements regarding the Nazi terrorist attack now is stating that the US is willing to go full bore with Spain to stop the terrorists that attacked there. It shocked me. The gall of it.
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Sherri said on August 18, 2017 at 12:33 pm
What choice does My Pants have? His base, white evangelicals, seem just fine with trump’s white supremacy. My Pants was going to lose his gubernatorial election until trump threw him a lifeline, and now he he has a good chance of becoming president. If he disagrees with trump, trump will turn on him and want to fire him. My Pants may not be very bright, but he’s not completely stupid. If he wants to be president, and he clearly does, he has to suck up to his boss and maintain a low profile, while denying knowledge of anything.
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 12:49 pm
And according to Twitter, Bannon is out
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Peter said on August 18, 2017 at 1:14 pm
Yeah Suzanne, that’s the headline at the Washington Post website – someone commented “and another confederate statue comes down!”
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ROGirl said on August 18, 2017 at 1:15 pm
Does anyone seriously think it will make any difference?
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 1:20 pm
No, I don’t think Bannon leaving will make a dent. He did what he wanted to do by getting white nationalists to be seen as a force and a legit alternative. And God knows what Intel he’s gotten his hands on the past 8 months, which he can now use with no one watching over him.
Keep your friends close & your enemies closer.
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Jeff Borden said on August 18, 2017 at 1:22 pm
Re: ROGirl.
No. It won’t make any difference. There are still two white nationalists on the staff — Stephen Smith and Sebastian Gorka– who operate in the Bannon vein of racism. And the Orange King is himself a rancid racist. And we still have Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as our chief law enforcement officer. This is a moral victory, yes, but there is still plenty of shit around this administration.
On a related note, I wonder how the Breitbart media will react? I have never and hope never to click on their site, but I imagine they will not be happy.
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Scout said on August 18, 2017 at 1:39 pm
Bannon out = good. Trump, Gorka, Miller still occupying our WH, with MyPants licking his chops in the wings = still really fucking bad.
Here’s something that made me lol, as the kids say, or at least, they used to. Laughter is the best antidote to the feeling of needing to scream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVvpXZxXWZU
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Sherri said on August 18, 2017 at 2:07 pm
Because stigmatizing drugs has worked so well.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/initiative-to-ban-heroin-safe-injection-sites-in-king-county-qualifies-for-ballot/
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Dorothy said on August 18, 2017 at 2:25 pm
I am SO very busy at work but took 10 minutes to read something that wasn’t work related. Frank Bruni did an article at the NYT about the eclipse and I just love the hell out of this paragraph:
The eclipse is precisely that. I’m not well versed in matters of the cosmos — I’ve never even made it through a whole episode of “The Big Bang Theory” — so I’ll describe its rareness in a vocabulary that I and most of you probably better understand. Envision a month in which the president didn’t golf. Imagine a sentence in which he didn’t brag. Fantasize a speech of his that made you proud. The eclipse is that rare.
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Colleen said on August 18, 2017 at 2:35 pm
MyPants has his lips so firmly attached to Trump’s butt that if Trump stops short, MyPants will shoot right into Trump’s backside.
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brian stouder said on August 18, 2017 at 2:47 pm
Egad Colleen – the mental picture you just transmitted into my brain has me exhaling!!
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Bitter Scribe said on August 18, 2017 at 3:01 pm
Heaving Bannon out may not change things, but it sure is fun to visit breitbart.com and see the consternation of the commenters. “The liberal globalists are now in charge of the White House!” etc.
Trump demands absolute loyalty while showing none himself. That, even more than his incompetence, will be his undoing IMO. He’s about to find out that life is not like his “Apprentice” shows; people don’t just disappear once you fire them.
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brian stouder said on August 18, 2017 at 3:20 pm
people don’t just disappear once you fire them.
Especially when they own a press (or a popular website), and buy ink (or bytes) by the barrel.
Let the axe-grinding begin!
(or continue)
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 3:24 pm
Mark H, I think you’re the one among us who has watched Longmire. I just came back from Whole Foods in Santa Fe and saw Zahn McClarren who played tribal chief of police Mathias. They finished up filming the last season about a month ago, so maybe he lives here. Oh, and he had his hair in a man bun, he’s very small but very fit, and handsome.
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 3:26 pm
Bitter, the Brietbart stuff proves what I’ve thought for months. The GOP didn’t stand up to Trump (or prior to him the alt-right lunatics) because it never occurred to them that they, the GOP, would ever be just as much of an enemy as liberals. They liked the alt-right KKK types because they vote and they disliked liberals. Figured it as a win for all!
They never considered that for the alt-right, it isn’t a game. Those alt-right white supremacists truly believe the crap that the GOP winked at while it was being spewed. Since they (the GOP) said nothing for so many years, now when they try, nobody much believes them. They may be starting to panic a bit.
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brian stouder said on August 18, 2017 at 3:33 pm
btw – the other evening Ms Maddow did an extended essay on the rise of Confederate statues in the 1920’s, and the ties between that and the then-resurgent KKK…and the arrest of Fred trump at an NYC KKK rally –
and one thing I learned that I’d never heard before was what the Donald’s dad’s middle name is.
Freddie the Klansman’s middle name is (cue drum roll….)
Christ!
Anyway, I thought it was funny
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 3:43 pm
Brian, you’d have to type that put as Fred Christ! Trump, as Charlie Pierce does for various and sundry public figures. Imagine naming your kid Christ!
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 3:43 pm
Out not put
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alex said on August 18, 2017 at 4:02 pm
Since the News-Sentinel decided to bury this embarrassing and incoherent harangue by one of its writers (with a tangent dedicated to that Lenin statue in Seattle, I might add), I thought I’d post it here for everyone’s amusement:
http://news-sentinel.com/news/local/interpretation_of_history_isnt_carved_in_stone_awareness_of_it_should_be_20170817
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Jakash said on August 18, 2017 at 4:20 pm
Recognize this one, Basset? One of the commenters says it should be left up “like an Onion article to confederate statues.” Indeed. Evidently put up in freaking 1998? Whoa!
https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/898569297341108224
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 4:26 pm
Brian, before I even clicked on the link, I knew who the author would be.
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Suzanne said on August 18, 2017 at 4:27 pm
Whoops, that was Alex that put up the News-Sentinel link.
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brian stouder said on August 18, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Alex – “incoherent” is being polite to that guy!
And – I’d challenge him to hit me with his best shot regarding “things Lincoln believed”.
Lerone Bennet wrote a fine (and iconoclastic) book about Lincoln called “Forced into Glory” – which points to Lincoln’s genuinely “conservative” approach to things, and his love of bawdy jokes and minstrel shows….and the effect (on me, anyway) was the same as if you could stand at the base of the Statue of Liberty, and see her imperfections and flaws. Ms Liberty remains a towering, breathtakingly beautiful thing in any case; maybe moreso, given her flaws
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alex said on August 18, 2017 at 4:55 pm
Love of bawdy jokes and minstrel shows hardly makes Lincoln flawed. I’m sure Jesus would have loved them too.
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Colleen said on August 18, 2017 at 5:00 pm
Alex, I too knew the writer to whom you were referring…..
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brian stouder said on August 18, 2017 at 5:07 pm
Agreed!
It’s what makes Lincoln all the more magnificent; he was human, and had flaws.
And, while we digress, is there any term as ridiculous as “fake news”?
Would a person who knew anything – anything! – about the history of the American press (thinking Jefferson/Aurora; Penny Press/Greely et al; and Lincoln and the German language paper he bankrolled back in Illinois) us the term “fake news”?
Sure – we’ve always had partisan presses and niche presses and independent minded (rogue?) presses; I think that’s why they call it ‘freedom’ of the press in the First Amendment, yes?
Personally, I think even shit-for-brains Sean Hannity (and Oxy-Rush, et al) knows this, but “fake news” is such an effective hobby-horse, for us on people who haven’t read anything
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Brandon said on August 18, 2017 at 6:40 pm
@brian, #27: It was the maiden name of Trump’s paternal grandmother.
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 7:17 pm
Is it pronounced Christ as in list, or Christ as in, well Jesus Christ?
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LAMary said on August 18, 2017 at 7:34 pm
Christ as in Judith Christ. Film critic and feminine hygiene spokesperson.
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devtob said on August 18, 2017 at 8:21 pm
The right-wing direct mail industry depends on older people who will read the screeds, fill out the slanted surveys, sign the absurd petitions, and send the checks to save America from baby-killers, sodomites and commies, aka Democrats.
Most of the money goes to the direct mail company, very little to the politician or non-profit whose name is on the letterhead. And once you give, your name is relentlessly retailed to other people and groups as part of a reliable list.
My late mother, a public school teacher and FDR/JFK Democrat, devolved into a right-wing Republican in retirement, largely because of abortion. She read the wingnut mail religiously, filled out the surveys, signed the petitions, and sent a few $25 checks a month for 20 or so years.
Seven years after she last sent a check, the mail still comes to the house, a couple three a week now, down from a couple three a day.
I used to read some of it, to see how the grift works (bulleted lists of scary apocalyptic lies/hypotheticals, ALL CAPS shouting, surveys/petition signatures that will allegedly be presented to Congress, at least two asks for specific amounts per page, etc.).
Now I just open up to see if there’s an SASE inside, and send that back empty.
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susan said on August 18, 2017 at 9:00 pm
devbob @412 – You should take those SASEs, stuff them with other grift-mail, and then mail it. Make them pay the max. On the occasions I’d get grift-mail from xtian orgs and even Republican groups, I’d tape one of their SASEs to a box of rocks. One time I taped a SASE to a box of dry cow patties to a particularly aggressive xtian ministry–I had warned him that if he didn’t stop sending me his bullshit, I’d send him mine. He didn’t, and I did. My Dad would stuff Republican SASEs with Democratic mailings effluvia. My brother got stuff from the NRA for some reason. He taped one of their SASEs to a box of sheets if lead he had just removed from a shower he was replacing. But now, you can’t just plop those heavy boxes into a postal box; I think the limit is 13 oz or so. Heavier than that you have to take it the PO counter people. Terrists, ya know. Drag. That was fun.
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 9:26 pm
I get democratic fundraisers who have a phone ID that shows up as unknown on my phone. I answered a few times before I figured it out so now I just wait to see what message they leave me. I’m not ready to give the dems anything until they figure out what they’re doing with it.
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basset said on August 18, 2017 at 10:26 pm
Jakash@31, I know exactly where that statue is, on I-65 south of downtown Nashville – I call it the Hamburglar. Pretty busy this weekend but I’ll try to get a photo of it in context.
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Deborah said on August 18, 2017 at 11:01 pm
I for one am very glad that Bannon is out of the picture, now let’s get rid of Miller, I don’t think a whole lot is going to change with regards to Trump but it will make a tiny dent and that’s worth something. Bannon scared the bejesus out of me. I watched one of his poorly made documentaries and it was creepy. Good riddance.
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Jakash said on August 19, 2017 at 2:11 am
“Every newsroom in America:
– Trump has fired the Nazi.
– Which Nazi?
– The one called Steve.
– Which one of the Nazis called Steve?”
https://twitter.com/benphillips76/status/898601975637475330
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Dexter said on August 19, 2017 at 2:17 am
The WWI vet and retired railroader I used to visit in Bellevue, Ohio, was 88 in 1980, and he’d get solicitations for money regularly, which he threw into a rather large box. When it got full, he asked for help in getting it to the USPS, where we mailed it to his US Representative along with an enclosed hand-written letter asking for help in getting some relief from receiving requests for money from his meager retirement checks. He never heard a peep…nobody cares.
So many have left 1600…maybe Trump is going to say he’s King of the World, and glass over Kim Jong Un’s paradise.
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Jolene said on August 19, 2017 at 2:27 am
Bannon in the WH was bad for all sorts of reasons, no doubt, but he has resumed his perch at Breitbart where he can–and has said he will–continue his war on rationality and decency.
I am hoping for (a) a disabling stroke or (b) impeachment, but not so soon that people get used to the idea of Pence as president. I want him to be the embarrassing inheritor of a failed presidency when 2020 rolls around–not somebody Republicans can paint as a savior who stepped in to restore sanity and decency to the WH.
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David C. said on August 19, 2017 at 6:54 am
Alex Jones got hopped up on whatever Alex Jones gets hopped up on and tried to take on Seattle. It didn’t go well.
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/08/alex-jones-gets-coffee-dumped-his-head
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coozledad said on August 19, 2017 at 9:42 am
White trash boddhisatvas coming down.
https://apnews.com/67e26214bdc546acbfdb60a9f787c1a2/Duke-University-removes-statue-of-Confederate-general
What is about murdering rebel scum that the deacons found so attractive to begin with?
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coozledad said on August 19, 2017 at 9:54 am
@not all republicansamirite
https://twitter.com/tsgnews/status/898654614500679680
I guess white felons can do anything, including waving their prosthesis in the street.
Angela Merkel is right. These people need to be rounded up and put away. There can be no accommodation for dangerous/stupid.
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coozledad said on August 19, 2017 at 10:34 am
https://twitter.com/AngryBlackLady/status/898658184650305536
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Sherri said on August 19, 2017 at 10:48 am
Seattle takes it coffee seriously, so all I can add is, what a waste of good coffee.
More on trump’s buddy and his visit to Seattle from the Stranger: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/18/25361806/alex-jones-comes-to-seattle-rants-on-street-corner-gets-doused-with-coffee-by-vicious-leftists
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David C. said on August 19, 2017 at 1:08 pm
Sherri, maybe he keeps a thermos of cheap Maxwell House to douse fascists like the cops keep throw away guns.
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Sherri said on August 19, 2017 at 1:11 pm
Maxwell House?!? What do you think this is, flyover country? 🙂
My dad drinks Maxwell House, and it’s hard for me to find it when he visits.
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Deborah said on August 19, 2017 at 1:41 pm
I finally watched the Vice video. Chilling.
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David C. said on August 19, 2017 at 1:56 pm
I obviously don’t know shit about coffee. That’s the brand I remember from ads when I was a kid. I could wear a feedbag of coffee all day just to smell it, but I never developed a taste for it.
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Deborah said on August 19, 2017 at 3:50 pm
I’m laughing out loud trying to imagine a person walking around with a feed bag of coffee hanging around their neck.
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coozledad said on August 19, 2017 at 5:13 pm
“Heel”
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/899001860639641600
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Sherri said on August 19, 2017 at 10:20 pm
I never expected to read a story with Serpico and Kaepernick in it: http://deadspin.com/frank-serpico-joins-current-and-former-nypd-officers-at-1798062318
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jcburns said on August 19, 2017 at 10:45 pm
The movie critic was Judith Crist (no H), pronounced with a short I…
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Deborah said on August 19, 2017 at 11:54 pm
I’ve been binge watching Twin Peaks this evening. The original one, on Netflix, wow is it good. I missed it when it first came out but glad I finally caught up with it.
I’m kind of scared, partly because I’ve been watching creepy stuff on the teevee and partly because we have an off kilter neighbor in the Santa Fe condo complex. This woman who owns one of the units hasn’t lived here the whole time we’ve been renting but for a short time she let her mentally ill brother live in her unit. He completely went off the deep end and she kicked him out and got a restraining order to keep him out. Meanwhile she hasn’t been paying her condo dues for years and years and owes thousands and thousands of dollars to the association. They took her to court and the trial was a few days ago. We think her condo went into foreclosure but we’re not sure. Meanwhile she and her partner have been on the premises cleaning out her garage, another sign that she’s in trouble. But she’s sorta wacky and it worries me that she could act unpredictability. So if you don’t hear from me or LB for a few days you might check the Santa Fe news.
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Icarus said on August 20, 2017 at 8:52 am
We are in Grosse Point this weekend and go to Eastern market for brunch maybe I’ll run into you Nancy
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 9:04 am
Filthy mob scum. His voters are if anything, even scummier.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/trumps-bid-for-sydney-casino-killed-off-by-mob-connections/news-story/65a0e5289cc924722f988bdca4b01e9
It’s a shame he’ll have a Secret Service detail in prison. Too bad we can’t employ the prison industrial complex to house his base.
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Mark P said on August 20, 2017 at 9:24 am
Cooz, the link’s not working for me.
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Connie said on August 20, 2017 at 9:29 am
Sherri, Maxwell House is sold in various forms by office supply retailers like Staples and Quill. My office buys it in bags of pods.
We are soon off to Flint for lunch where we are -at an I75 exit Coney- meeting my Baltimore nephew and family on their way to his mothers in Traverse City. I am looking forward to meeting my four month old grand nephew for the first time. From there it is a quick drive to visit my MIL. She and I will play cards while husband mows lawn.
I am also pleased to learn that nephew’s mother, my ex SIL, is new employee number 35 at the about to open Costco in TC.
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St Bitch said on August 20, 2017 at 9:36 am
The comments on that ‘murdered link’ from Cooze@64 are hilarious!
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 9:37 am
Try going from this one, Mark.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/899243367959154689
On another topic, this is a sound argument.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/08/black-historians-wrong-170816071925403.html
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St Bitch said on August 20, 2017 at 10:23 am
That’s a sound argument for despair, Cooze@68…regarding global inhumanity, not just American…utterly depressing! It’s “I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floor of silent seas” (‘The Love Song of J Alfred Pufrock’ T S Elliot). I’ll continue to try and belong to the Anne Frank school of hope, “…in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” (At least enough people are good enough at heart…)
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 10:54 am
St. Bitch: I’m beginning to think that the one third of Americans that support Trump, Nazis, and Russian interference in our elections is an immutable number, an eternal carbuncle on the ass of the Republic. One third of the American people are sociopaths, and that number will hold steady through the worst administrations, and expand whenever there’s an opportunity to plunge the country into war.
I’m done talking to them. I remember what it was like to be among them and the memory of it makes me want to scrub my skin off with steel wool.
The hungry ghosts aren’t religious metaphor or denizens of some intermediate state, they’re among us, constantly trying to shovel stuff in their faces, just feeding and feeding relentlessly, and if they believe anything at all, it’s in some utterly false god. A fucking bean counter god.
One third of this country elected Little Otik to the presidency. I’m perverse, but I hope the monster chews them into a pulp. This is what I think, in my heart of hearts. But I’ll continue to behave as if there is real hope, because even going through the motions is better than just giving the fuck up. I also like pissing them off. I like the animal scent of their frustration, and watching them drown in the contradictions of their own childish belief systems.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=little+otik+part+1
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Deborah said on August 20, 2017 at 11:10 am
Totally off topic but hilarious. We’ve had discussions about ridiculous McMansions, well, check this out and read the whole thread if you want a good laugh https://mobile.twitter.com/gnrosenberg/status/898714156756369408
Have any of you Indiana folks seen this monstrosity?
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 11:31 am
deborah: That house reminds me of the old National Lampoon parody of country musicians, specifically Donna Dinette and her swimming pool shaped guitar.
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Sherri said on August 20, 2017 at 11:34 am
Cooz, are you familiar with the Crazification Factor: http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html
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Deborah said on August 20, 2017 at 12:06 pm
But dontcha know. The Crazyfication Factor is on “many sides”. *wink wink*.
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 12:18 pm
sherri: Yep. I wonder if that number has expanded along with the explosion of right wing media satellites, so instead of 27% there’s a baseline of 32 or 34%. NBC/Marist has him there now. I think those are already the people who wouldn’t desert him if he boned a cow in a public square.
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Sherri said on August 20, 2017 at 12:57 pm
I think the 27% is just the absolute minimum.
Several people here have recommended Al Franken’s new book Giant of the Senate. I’ve been listening to the audio version (Franken reads it himself), and I’ll add my recommendation as well. The Ted Cruz chapter alone is worth the price.
The part about his campaign for Senate (and the help he got from Hillary vs Obama) is fascinating.
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Deborah said on August 20, 2017 at 1:20 pm
This is timely https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/08/14/james-baldwin-nothing-personal-evil/
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Sherri said on August 20, 2017 at 1:26 pm
This house and its land is adjacent to what was my grandparents’ farm, and the guy who built it has been trying to sell it for several years. Single guy, came into a lot of money several years ago when his parents died and he sold the family farm, then built this house. Sadly, there are no pictures of the exterior in the listing, but the gated entrance is pretty strange.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/495-Mobley-Rd_Clarksville_TN_37043_M82508-86575
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coozledad said on August 20, 2017 at 2:05 pm
A home theater strikes me as similar to a thousand dollar a day coke habit: it’s god’s way of letting you know you’re another idiot with too much money.
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susan said on August 20, 2017 at 2:54 pm
Deborah, this “house” is a strong second… Good grief. Wonder if it comes with all the tchotchkes? Oh, they probably don’t know that word in Richmond, Tejas.
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LAMary said on August 20, 2017 at 5:30 pm
Here’s a house in LA for more than a mil.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/551-N-Gower-St_Los-Angeles_CA_90004_M22023-64241
Just over a thousand square feet.
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Jolene said on August 20, 2017 at 6:21 pm
Susan, i first saw that house ad on Facebook. Apparently, lots of people are amazed by it. It cracks me up because it’s such a gross violation of the advice that real estate agents give their clients, i.e., to clear away clutter. When I sold my house in Pittsburgh, the agent told me I had to put away my toaster!
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basset said on August 20, 2017 at 6:24 pm
A guitar-shaped pool:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Celebrity+Country+Singer+Webb+Pierce+Pool,+Nashville,+TN+37204/@36.0909878,-86.7729549,19z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x886465a840304a25:0xddf7410b46b3fc2e?hl=en-us
This is at 801 Curtiswood Lane in Nashvillle – the Governor’s mansion is at 882.
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