The inevitable slideshow.

You guys! I’m back! The bar is OPEN. Let’s clean up all these old coasters, wipe down the bar top and start a new thread. As always, I appreciate all you keeping the lights on in my absence. My vague idea to post a little from Canada fell apart; when we had wifi, I was consumed with following Twitter and the Trump/McCain situation. My eye sockets got a good aerobic workout from all the rolling, of course.

But, as is the custom these days, the Trump/McCain thing now seems like ancient history, because a few days have passed.

Instead, in the great tradition of American vacationing, let me bore you with some photos.

It was quite hot when we were there. So much for traveling north to escape the heat. I know it’s summer, but still — I’ve reached the point where I am no longer amused by having a sweaty head all the time. Day one we went to the Ex, i.e, the Canadian National Exhibition, which promised to be a version of the Ohio State Fair, but, sadly, didn’t deliver. However, there was a union dispute around it, and we got to see our old friend, the big rat:

Who makes the big rat? Does it sell exclusively to unions? I’ve seen it in Lansing, in New York and other venues, always in the context of a labor dispute. Anyway, the Ex was the bad parts of an American state fair and none of the good; “the barn” contained not row after row of prize livestock, but one or two examples of same, with copious signage explaining them to city folk. Disappointing. I wanted to see kids in dairy whites or cattlemen’s cowboy hats, snoozing between classes. Oh well — next time I’ll go to the one in Columbus.

The following day was a heat-warning day, so it seemed a good time to check out the Toronto islands, just offshore from downtown, a large city park. You get there via ferry:

And, once there, relax and enjoy. You can rent bikes…

…and ride them to the end of the complex, where you can behold the skyline:

Very impressive. Although I was taken by this freighter docked across the way, likely a salty (i.e., one that leaves the Great Lakes). Note the lifeboat, stored at that terrifying 45-degree angle. It’s safety orange:

Not exactly the open rowboats of “Titanic,” but then, you wouldn’t want those in the pitching waters of a Great Lakes storm, would you. I wonder how they’re launched, if they wait until the nose sinks enough that it goes down at a gentler angle, or if everyone just climbs in, straps in and boom. That splashdown would be a whiplash-inducer for sure.

Oh, almost forgot the one impressive thing about the Ex — this display of “paper lanterns,” although I suspect the paper may have been rather heavily coated in a way to make it more like fabric. Anyway, in a dark room this was quite beautiful:

And here you thought carrying the weight of the world was your job.

After that first day, we did a lot more — shopping, eating, going to shows, including the summer revue of Second City and a Shakespeare in the park production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I bought some sandals and Alan bought a Patagonia vest, both on end-of-summer markdowns. It was a good week, even as hot as it was. Oh, wait, one more: What dry-aging beef looks like in process, from the St. Lawrence Market, an indoor food Mecca:

On Friday, after our return, I went ottering — my friend Bill’s word for swimming in fins and a lifejacket — in the St. Clair River, while listening to selections from Aretha’s funeral on the drive there and back. What an event that was. Bill told me about how some firefighters he knows were sitting around the station one day when a fancy car pulls up and Aretha got out with her driver/security guy. You know her famous purse? Some of them have locks on them, and one had malfunctioned. It didn’t need a fire ax to open, but she dated a Detroit firefighter for a while, and knew they had the tools necessary to fix it. They did so, and she posed for selfies all around before riding off into the distance.

Speaking of selfies: The photos I just posted are most of what I shot in the course of a week. I couldn’t help but notice, in the depths of this dense-packed city, how so many people spend so much time just taking photos of themselves. Two cute girls on the doorstep of a yoga studio — selfie. People on the ferry — selfie. In that paper-lantern exhibit? “Selfie spots” where a single light is trained on you, to capture your face and the illuminated sculpture behind you in the proper exposure. If you stand there, an employee rushes up and offers to do it for you. Man, I am growing tired of all this.

(That said, I took one of Alan and I sailing yesterday. Because I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Anyway, I have some more thoughts about the Aretha funeral, and I think I’ll trickle them out over time, as they haven’t quite gelled yet. In the meantime, enjoy the holiday if you’re reading it Monday, and the rest of this short work week. September is upon us.

Posted at 11:29 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

45 responses to “The inevitable slideshow.”

  1. Jeff Borden said on September 3, 2018 at 11:53 am

    Scabby the Rat is a very popular figure in Chicago with no fewer than two Facebook pages devoted to him and his balloon cousins, ie. Greedy the Pig. Since the reasonably priced neighborhood we bought into (Lincoln Square in Chicago) has exploded in popularity and price, there are condo projects on several blocks using non-union workers and the labor boys are not shy about calling them out. I often buy them a round of cold Gatorade or hot coffee, depending on the season. Until I started teaching at Oakton Community College, I’d never belonged to a union, but am now a proud “union thug” in the NEA as everyone at OCC is unionized.

    https://www.facebook.com/ScabbyTheRat/

    https://www.facebook.com/WhereIsScabby/

    The Orange King laid pretty low over the weekend, no doubt stewing that the nation’s attention was focused somewhere other than on him, though he held to his usual quota of stupid and erroneous tweets. This week promises to be awful. Brett Kavanaugh is a hideous choice for SCOTUS, but the Republicans appear to have the votes to put him over. Bye-bye consumer protections, sensible gun laws, campaign finance reform, women’s reproductive choice, worker’s rights, etc. Gee, maybe Judge Brett will rule on whether a lying president in league with Russian thugs can be held accountable. You think?

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  2. Susan BG said on September 3, 2018 at 12:58 pm

    Last year was my 50th class reunion. Against my better judgment, good friends talked me into going. Fort Wayne, IN. Elmhurst, 1967. I knew they were conservative and racist, but homophobic, xenophobic and just plain ignorant?Wasn’t prepared.

    I finally found fellow travelers. Graduates of good ole EHS (go Trojans) who were sophisticated and wise. Among them, the Turnley twins. Midwestern jocks who morphed into photojournalists.

    If you get a chance, check out David Turnley’s photos of Aretha’s funeral.

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  3. David C. said on September 3, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    I’d like to be a union thug. They have a union in the plant and everyone in the offices bitches because they have better insurance than we do. I suggest that’s maybe because they negotiate for it rather than just having to take what’s given, but the connection never seems to take. Oh well, I’ll hold on four years until Medicare kicks in for Mary and six years for me. That is unless Brett decides it’s unconstitutional.

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  4. brian stouder said on September 3, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    Susan BG – a semi-non-sequitur: I’ve been continually mystified as to why it’s taking so long to tear-down Elmhurst High School.

    https://www.facebook.com/ElmhurstHighSchool/

    The thing is about 1/2 gone, and looks like it was hit by an air-strike.

    If I was a graduate from there, watching the progress of its demise over the past 10 weeks would be like water torture

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  5. basset said on September 3, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Thanks for the retirement wishes at the end of the last thread – my “celebration” at work is this Friday and I’ll go either the 14th or when Mrs. B gets out of (physical) rehab, whichever comes first. Then, I will transition to full-time caregiver.

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  6. Bitter Scribe said on September 3, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    I read how two separate “bishops” disgraced themselves at Aretha’s funeral: one by groping Ariana Grande (for which he later apologized), and one by ranting against Black Lives Matter and single mothers. The latter jerk actually did the what-about-black-on-black-crime thing. Does he seriously not know that that’s a favorite deflection tactic of white racists?

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  7. jcburns said on September 3, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    I heard the Big Rat went to the Ohio State Fair and chewed on the big Cardinal, and is now in Gaffney, SC trying to take a chunk out of the Big Peach.

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  8. Rana said on September 3, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    Jeff B, I was coming here to post about Chicago’s big rat too! On the one hand I find it sort of amusing that you can rent the rat for all your calling-out-the-bosses needs, but on the other hand the logic of it makes sense. It seems like tempting fate for a union to actually own its own giant rat.

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  9. brian stouder said on September 3, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    btw – forgot to add that I love the vacation photos!

    A summer or two ago, we went to Charleston, and did the Fort Sumter thing, which involved an exceedingly pleasant half-hour on a ferry out to the fort and back.

    Boat rides in the breeze within a major harbor, with big ships (including the USS Midway, which we also toured) and historic places to visit struck me as just about a perfect vacation thing to do….plus, there were dolphins breaching the surface and swimming hither and yon, all around the Charleston harbor; who knew?!

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  10. beb said on September 3, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Welcome home, Nancy. Enjoyed the pictures. Hope you were able to gracefully decompress. The Aretha story was a gem. Now that’s a memory those firefighters will always treasure.

    This year ought to have been my 50th high school reunion but they’ve stopped sending notices to me. Never went to any, don’t intend to. But recently I was talking about something I had done while going to college and realized I was talking about something 50 years ago. Boy, did that make me feel old.

    I heard about the touchie-feelie bishop but not about the BLM/single mothers tirade. The second Bishop ought to be really embarrassed since Aretha was a single mother.

    We’re currently camped out at Starbucks because the power went out again during a mild rain storm. This is the second time in a month we’ve lost power. There’s a map of affected area’s and we’re about it — BUT they project repairs to be finished at midnight! It’s time for DTE to be investigated!

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  11. Susn BG said on September 3, 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Brian,
    Did you know that EHS had a gun range under the stair well? All you had to do was have a C average and you could shoot for an hour. Of course, you had to be male.Nobody believes it, but I have living proof

    My brother-in-law went to Northrop. He made fun us as farmers. I think he was right

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  12. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 3, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    Brian — you were on CV-10, USS Yorktown, “The Fighting Lady.” Hope you had a great tour! It’s an amazing experience, and yes, dolphins pace you on your way out with a boatload of Cub Scouts to do flag raising at Fort Sumter . . . an eerie and wonderful experience I doubt to ever improve upon. Plus, I learned on board to eat cheese grits for breakfast and like it.

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  13. Susan BG said on September 3, 2018 at 5:20 pm

    Bryan
    Did you know that you could shoot at EHS under the stair well?
    Yep, if your grades were good enough (C) and you were male, you could get a pack of bullets and shoot away.
    My brother-in-law, who went to Northrop used to call us farmers. I think he’s right..

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  14. Dexter Friend said on September 3, 2018 at 5:22 pm

    My last employer chartered with the UAW in 1940, and I was very happy to leave my former employer, also an UAW plant, because I was a lab tech and so, non-union. I proudly wore my UAW caps and pins and buttons while on the job floor, eventually becoming temporary then full-time shop steward and then local UAW trustee for a couple terms. We experienced steady wage growth from my start, in 1972, at $5.25 per hour to $23.75 when I retired, and the top wage earners’ group made just under $28.00 per hour. I retired 16 years ago, all due to the 30-and-out policy. I timed it just right…now UAW workers enter at a bottom wage rate and only slowly attain full pay. We just jumped to the top in my day, after a short 30 day probationary term. Over the years concessions we made were recouped in subsequent contracts. Only one of our 3 kids worked in a factory, and Lori, now a nurse practitioner, worked in several for summer jobs, and beat me…she was a UAW cardholder and also a Teamster. Bravo. But one remark…at age 65 I was considered dead by my dear old union…the monthly magazine ceased mailing me my copy, and all communications, such as informing me of pension information or invitations to the Christmas party or the summer picnic just dried up. But we move on and leave our past in the dirt as it turns to dust. Greasy, sweat-equity dust.

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  15. Bitter Scribe said on September 3, 2018 at 5:35 pm

    Dexter Friend: My father also joined the UAW as an autoworker about that time. It was the decent wages and other benefits (such as continued pay during layoffs) that enabled him and my mother to put my sister and me through college and build an addition to our house.

    Dad was so proud of having been a UAW member that he stayed on with the retirees’ union and so kept in touch.

    But he got in, and out, at exactly the right time. Now, as you say, incoming workers have to put up with crap wages for years. And automation, where the car industry has always been the vanguard, has decreased the overall demand for labor.

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  16. brian stouder said on September 3, 2018 at 6:14 pm

    Jeff – You’re right!

    We toured the USS Midway when we were in San Diego, some years ago, after my mom passed away. My brothers and son and I flew out, with her and my dad’s ashes, for the US Navy to take and bury at sea.

    My dad served aboard the USS Oriskany back in the ’50’s*, and met my mom (then a WAVE) in San Diego, so that was our excuse for the San Diego trip.

    That carrier had a space capsule on board, that one could also examine and climb into.

    Susan, I did not know that about Elmhurst, but I once did get a mini-tour of the basement and nether-regions of good ol’ South Side High School, which was quite impressive (and dark!). A friend of mine – who also graduated high school in 1979 – was on the rifle team (at Harding high school) – which still makes me wince/chuckle; they’d show up at school before a contest, carrying their long-guns in hand…!

    *The same carrier that Senator McCain would launch from, before becoming a resident of the Hanoi Hilton

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  17. Deborah said on September 3, 2018 at 6:22 pm

    When LB was younger (in her early 20s) she worked at a grocery store and was a union member, about the only time she ever had healthcare insurance before Obamacare. Her dad and I couldn’t get her on ours because she had a preeexisting condition, since she was diagnosed at age 5. Hard to believe isn’t it?

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  18. Suzanne said on September 3, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny-news-steve-bannon-new-yorker-festival-20180903-story.html

    Who in the world thought it was a good idea to invite Bannon in the first place? I swear, the world has lost its damn mind.

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  19. Rana said on September 3, 2018 at 7:31 pm

    Suzanne, I was shaking my head at that one, too. (And sent an angry message to them, along with a bajillion other people, apparently, because they’ve canceled him now.)

    I think the problem is that a lot of folks are still engaging in the naive fantasy that if they cause racists and bigots to out themselves as such, the racists and bigots will feel shame or be shamed or both.

    But Bannon and his ilk are out and proud supremacists; engaging with them doesn’t make them feel shame – it sends the message that they’re to be taken seriously. And even now that they’ve dumped him, he can still use that to spin up messages of how people were “afraid” of his ideas, etc. (What’s that saying about wrestling with pigs, again?)

    People like this shouldn’t be ignored – we need to keep an eye on them – but they absolutely should be shunned.

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  20. Rana said on September 3, 2018 at 7:34 pm

    Deborah, I absolutely remember those days. I went almost 10 years without seeing a doctor except for emergencies, because I was terrified of being diagnosed with something that could be considered a preexisting condition.

    (I was working a string of short-term jobs, many of which required either self-insuring or moving across state lines. So I was applying for health insurance fairly frequently, and each time was fraught with the possibility of being rejected.)

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  21. alex said on September 3, 2018 at 9:50 pm

    Susan BG,

    The Turnley twins were indeed a class act in that otherwise crummy neighborhood known as Indian Village. (“I’ll sell to n***ers” was the favorite refrain of neighbors having petty disputes over lawn maintenance, pets running loose, etc.) I was quite a bit younger than the Turnley twins were but remember them well. They had lived in the Chief Richardville House prior to the Village, and their parents had the good sense and proper reverence not to remodel it or change anything original to the house. (For those not in the know, it was built in 1820 by the then-wealthiest man in Indiana, who was half native American and half French. Today it’s a beautifully preserved/restored historic home/museum. The Turnleys treasured it but ultimately got tired of living without certain modern amenities like indoor plumbing.)

    I was in kindergarten in 1967 so you must have a good 12 years or so on me. I knew a couple of 1968 Elmhurst grads including a trans woman named Tina (her previous name escapes me).

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  22. Marjorie Taylor said on September 3, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    The Turnley twins father was a dentist who practiced
    in a large bldg. on Washington Street with Drs.Buckner.
    In 1964 my father who was a patient, passed from a
    heart attach. Dr. Turnley and his assistant came to
    the funeral home. This was so kind of them.
    Turnleys were into antiques and when he retired, they
    moved into the country near Hamilton Lake,on a farm.
    After he passed, she had a great antique sale. I was
    able to purchase some nice Ft. Wayne treasures.

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  23. ROGirl said on September 4, 2018 at 7:47 am

    I lived in the same dorm as the Turnley twins in Ann Arbor. They were a noticeable presence on campus even back then.

    Regarding the Steve Bannon New Yorker invite/disinvite situation, this sums it up rather nicely.

    https://boingboing.net/2018/09/03/the-new-yorker-editors-excus.html

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  24. Julie Robinson said on September 4, 2018 at 9:31 am

    My mom, who has been staunchly Republican and non-union all her life, readily admits that she has a good retirement because of unions. Her small town library got thrown together with the police and fire fighter unions for collective bargaining, and the result is a generous pension and even more generous health plan. She pays a couple hundred bucks a months for a Medicare supplement, and nothing at all for doctor visits, labs, and prescriptions. I don’t know anyone else with such a good deal, do you?

    My experience at high school reunions was of making new friends among those I thought didn’t like me way back when. I guess we all matured.

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  25. Jakash said on September 4, 2018 at 11:02 am

    Michael Jordan, 1990, (reportedly): “Republicans buy shoes too.”

    Nike, 2018, (it would seem): “Let’s find out how many!”

    Meanwhile, yesterday’s 2 prominent Twitter kerfuffles (the New Yorker/Bannon thing and the Nike/Kaepernick thing collapsed into one very clever image:

    https://twitter.com/PFTompkins/status/1036780502869372929

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  26. Dorothy said on September 4, 2018 at 11:18 am

    Thanks for the birthday wishes in the previous Nancy post, friends. It was a nice birthday weekend. Work has been unbelievably busy and crazy this semester but I do read this page every day, and come back for updates when I can. Hope things settle down soon at the office – this breakneck pace can’t keep up forever!

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  27. Sherri said on September 4, 2018 at 11:35 am

    Democratic Senators, led by Schumer, aren’t serving us well. Do you think the Republicans, even in the minority, would meekly do nothing as the left-wing equivalent of Kavanaugh were put on the Court?

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/democrats-kavanaugh-confirmation.html

    To stiffen their spines, Democrats might consider what a Republican senator declared in October 2016, back in the Hillary inevitability days. “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up,” he declared. As straight talk and bipartisanship and honor itself are apparently laid to rest alongside his body – and as Trump’s takeover of the Supreme Court is assumed to be inevitable – remember that the man who said that was John McCain.

    When in was in the throes of crisis from depression and alcoholism, I just wanted to get my life back to normal. I wanted to get my life back to what it had been before my crisis. Eventually I figured out, that wasn’t going to happen. There was no going back.

    There is no going back for us, either. Whatever comes after The Current Occupant, we have all changed. Returning to status quo ante isn’t an option, but I don’t think enough people in Congress, the major media, and other institutions have recognized this. They still think of this as a passing phase, that the pendulum will swing, and things will go back to normal.

    I look beyond DC, and I see a large young generation saddled with student loan debt, shut out of home ownership, fighting in a winner take all economy, and I don’t think we’ve yet seen all the impacts of this. We’re seeing the early rumblings of this with primary losses of incumbent D’s, but Schumer is giving away the judiciary for a generation right now, and I don’t know how that’s going to play out.

    I think the rise of the alt-right is part of this, too; it has grown online, out of Gamergate and other alienated young men groups. We’ve talked about Angry Man Boys here before; a society with a large cohort of underemployed AMBs is not a stable place.

    I guess I’m saying what I’ve been saying: it’s not just about The Current Occupant, as bad as he is. He’s the symptom, not the disease, and we need to not forget that.

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  28. Heather said on September 4, 2018 at 12:01 pm

    Can’t even listen to the Kavanaugh hearings; it’s making me too angry and I do have to get some work done. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel just announced he wouldn’t run for mayor of Chicago again. Everyone is stunned.

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  29. Jeff Borden said on September 4, 2018 at 12:24 pm

    Wow! CNN has some excerpts from Bob Woodward’s upcoming book on the tRump White House. If you weren’t terrified by the ravings of the Orange King before, you will be now.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/bob-woodward-book-donald-trump-fear/index.html

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  30. Icarus said on September 4, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel just announced he wouldn’t run for mayor of Chicago again. Everyone is stunned.

    not everyone. when he first arrived and ran (and won) many thought he was a one termer who was using Mayor of Chicago as a stepping stone for bigger and better things.

    I’m sure some of the scandals on his watch have hastened his departure.

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  31. Heather said on September 4, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    Icarus, the trial of the cop who shot Laquan McDonald starts tomorrow, so the dots are starting to connect.

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  32. Suzanne said on September 4, 2018 at 1:21 pm

    I look at my childrens’ generation as the Lost Generation of the new century. I think you are right, Sherri. There is no going back to normal; this is the new normal.

    I always enjoy class reunions and visiting with people who wouldn’t have given me the time of day in high school. It’s been [mumble] years since I graduated so it’s time to let it go.

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  33. Jakash said on September 4, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    Along with revelations from Woodward’s new book, WaPo has released this transcript and audio of an 11-minute phone conversation of Trump calling Woodward to indicate he’d like to participate in it (after the manuscript was finished, and after Woodward had unsuccessfully tried 6 or 7 times through various folks to get an interview with him.)

    If one can get past the blatant self-aggrandizing and touting of his supposed accomplishments, and the curious idea that none of his “people” let him know that Woodward was requesting an interview, the interesting thing to me is that Hair Furor actually comes off seeming pretty much like a normal person in this exchange. Kellyanne, on the other hand, seems to be about as much of a weasel as usual…

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/04/transcript-phone-call-between-president-trump-journalist-bob-woodward/

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  34. Jakash said on September 4, 2018 at 2:29 pm

    Rahm managed to keep a lid on the Laquan McDonald video until way past the last election. The response to it was, justifiably, about as damning as could have been expected. I figure that at that point, Rahm would have just hoped that maybe things would have gotten better enough in the city by now and people might have moved on by the time the next election came up. But things are not great in the city, a lot of people never moved on from their outrage about his handling of that situation and now this trial is starting, which is bringing it front and center again. There are undoubtedly other factors in his decision not to run again, too, but he certainly never was able to put this behind him.

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  35. Suzanne said on September 4, 2018 at 2:48 pm

    Geeze. Is there no low they can’t find to stoop to?
    https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/brett-kavanaugh-refused-to-shake-hands-with-fred-guttenberg-parkland-victims-dad-at-senate-hearings-10698431

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  36. Deborah said on September 4, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    I was surprised to read that Rahm won’t run again.

    Wow the Woodward book seems extremely damning. And for it to come out so close to the midterms has got to help the Dems you’d think. Trump is such a liar, I don’t believe a word of his in that phone transcript. Unless his staff was trying to save him from himself.

    I’m in the throes of my travel day. Ugh.

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  37. Sherri said on September 4, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    Nike making Kaepernick the face of an ad campaign is a nice reminder that there are more of us than there are of them.

    https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22966998/nike-colin-kaepernick-ad-just-do-it/

    In case you didn’t know it, Nike is the official uniform supplier of the NFL.

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  38. Sherri said on September 5, 2018 at 9:08 am

    Dahlia, of course:

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/kavanaugh-confirmation-hearing-senate-judiciary-grotesque-decency.html

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  39. Jeff Borden said on September 5, 2018 at 10:50 am

    Hmmmm. I see the NRA is dropping $1 million on pro-Brett Kavanaugh advertisements. I wonder why?

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  40. Deborah said on September 5, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    I don’t get the ads for SCOTUS noms? I suppose it’s to cover the senators’ asses with their constituents. They can claim public opinion is in their favor. It’s so aggravating what the Republicans did to Obama with Merrick Garland, and their hypocrisy now about blocking noms.

    I’m back in steamy Chicago, but after being in a freezing airport in Albuquerque and then on a freezing plane, it felt good to be warm, when I got here last night. And it’s supposed to cool down after today.

    I’m going to Uncle J’s for a few days with my husband, I wasn’t crazy about doing that immediately after I’m back in Chicago but such is life.

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  41. Jakash said on September 5, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    Chicago nn.cers (and other politically inclined folks here) may appreciate this balanced view of Rahm’s efforts from a former Chicago City Hall reporter. Or not! ; )

    “La Guardia could directly target Lucky Luciano and the New York mob and burlesque houses, but Emanuel was faced with a far more diverse target: a city rife with splintered gangs with little or no ability to police themselves and enforce any kind of code of honor. And he had to deal with a police department with a code of silence as entrenched as the ‘no snitches’ culture on the streets.

    Emanuel could put thousands of kids to work in summer to keep them off those streets, but that was a drop in the bucket given the city’s population. He was never able to put together the sort of wide-ranging investment in the neighborhoods that might have stemmed some of the root causes of that street violence.”

    https://www.oneillinois.com/stories/2018/9/4/rahm

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  42. Peter said on September 5, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    Here’s proof that the Woodward book is making 45 go nuts – it’s been over 24 hours since Rahm announced he’s not running for reelection – where’s the tweet taking credit for that because he’s soft on crime?

    Someone’s not doing their job!

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  43. Jeff Borden said on September 5, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    There’s an anonymous oped piece running in the New York Times purportedly written by a senior administration official, which the Times acknowledges is highly unusual but defends by saying the person would clearly lose their job if identified. It pretty much validates everything we’ve heard from the Woodward book, to wit, whatever is getting done by this administration is in spite of the Orange King, not because of him.

    BTW. Brett Kavanaugh is coming off as an even slimier weasel than I’d feared. SCOTUS is going to be horrible for a long time.

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  44. Dexter Friend said on September 5, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    My ex-wife was an Elmhurst Trojan, and they lived south of Sand Point. By the time we split up I could have driven on Ardmore blindfolded I bet. I liked to drive to what I recall as May Stone & Gravel, what I called Fort Wayne’s Grand Canyon, just to take in the immensity of that hole in the ground.
    I know that many if not most divorced people maintain contact with exes and family members, but not me. With no children from our marriage, when she left and moved to the southern states, I simply got a lawyer and a divorce, easy-peasy, and never contacted her or any family members again. That was a clean break alright. And…good riddance , for several fucking good reasons.

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  45. Suzanne said on September 5, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    Twitter is aflame about that NYTimes editorial. It’s so damn maddening that so many say tRump is a lunatic and unable to govern but the GOP, with full Congressional power, sit on their fat, perverted butts and watch from the sidelines, wringing their hands and clutching their pearls. The pox on the lot of them!

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