This summer I upped my swimming from twice to three times a week, in preparation for the surfing safari I’m currently on. As I believe I’ve mentioned at some tiresome length, this summer I’m swimming at a different pool — the one at the Grosse Pointe Shores city park. They have a program for early-morning lap swimming, open to non-residents.
All five of the GPs have a pool, of course, and each has its stellar feature. The Woods, where I live, has the largest and nicest of the five, with a great double water slide, but it doesn’t have Tim, who coaches us gratis all summer. The Shores pool is shallow in its lap lanes, but it’s the best-situated of the five, in that it overlooks Lake St. Clair, which lies to our east.
Which started me on my summer-long campaign to capture how beautiful the sky was, almost every morning.
June 29, 2016, 6:06 a.m.
Your basic establishing shot: The pool, the people, the lake behind. The sun already above the horizon just after 6 a.m. A perfect Pure Michigan day ahead. It’s already too late for a good sunrise shot; once the orb clears the horizon it bleaches out every attempt to capture it, at least with an iPhone.
July 15, 6:09 a.m.
A couple weeks later. You can’t go all the way down to the lakeshore, not without climbing a fence or going through some locked gates. So for a while I shot through the kiddie splash pad, seen here with no water running, because the kiddies are all still in bed. Almost exactly the same time, but the sun’s lower in the sky.
July 26, 6:18 a.m.
At some point it occurred to me that the sunrise picture is the biggest cliché in photography, and I started trying to make them more like abstract art. I was also cropping out a feature I came to call That Bush.
August 5, 6:21 a.m.
It was a dry season, so clear skies almost every morning. The pictures got prettier as the sunrise came later. This is the look of a day when the humidity will try to kill you, but still — very pretty. There’s That Bush.
August 8, 6:01 a.m.
Sometimes I’d try to capture something other than the cliché sunrise, so here’s the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, next door. That tower is always described in historical and tourism materials as stately and Moorish. But even that day I realized…
August 8, 6:02 a.m.
…the sunrise is still prettier. I think it rained a little overnight; those are the clouds heading off to the east.
August 10, 6:20 a.m.
Brutal, brutal heat and humidity that day. Tim altered the workout for it, because it was difficult to breathe, even in the early morning. That Bush is seen with its twin, That Other Bush. (Yes, I know they’re really pampas grass.)
August 12, 6:16 a.m.
The rain was starting to come back by now, and this pink-and-purple morning color theme emerged for a few days. I stopped worrying about clichés.
August 15, 6:19 a.m.
Totally bananas pinkness this day.
August 22, 6:18 a.m.
I told myself, “No more stupid sunrise pictures,” but then I spotted those geese.
August 24, 6:19 a.m.
And now we’re in the final week. Let us pause for a word from E.B. White:
The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad monotonous song. “Summer is over and gone, over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying.” A little maple tree heard the cricket song and turned bright red with anxiety.
Last day for me. Oh, so sad! It’s dark!
September 1, 6:08 a.m.
School started this week, and the outdoor pools closed. When I get back, I’ll be swimming inside for the long, long school year. Soon enough, there’ll be no sun in the sky when I arrive, and little enough when I leave. But lord willing, Tim will be there, and we’ll keep turning lap after lap and waiting for next year.
Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 1:26 am
Apparently Richard Cohen has mansplained Nora Ephron for us: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/books/review/nora-ephron-richard-cohen-she-made-me-laugh.html
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Dexter said on September 7, 2016 at 2:15 am
Pink sky, blue sky…those are the choices the flight attendant has for the cabin ceiling lighting in the newest Boeing 737, the 800 series. We flew aboard an 800 back eastbound, and the first thing I did when I saw we had boarded an 800 was to ask the flight attendant to crank up that blue sky lighting. Solid pink the whole fucking way. I must have pissed her off. Helifino.
The evenings we were in Encinitas we went to Moonlight Beach for the sunsets into the Pacific. Sunrises found me in the sack with the old woman. My doctor at the V.A. asked about my vacation, then she said she and her husband are pulling a trailer camper all the way to San Diego next summer on a two week vacation. That’s tight scheduling, too damn much drive-time for me these days. But she’s a kid…maybe about 42 or so. Bon Voyage, Doc.
Party on, Gidget.
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Jolene said on September 7, 2016 at 4:44 am
Very poetic, Nancy, both pictures and text. Impressive discipline too. Hope you’re having a great week in California.
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Suzanne said on September 7, 2016 at 6:16 am
I am sad to see summer end. It wasn’t a stellar one; too hot, too dry, too many times of dealing with aging parents, not enough seeing the kids who live too far away. But the thought of those cold, dark mornings and sunset long gone by the time dinner is over, well, it makes me want to crawl in bed and stay there. At least Labor Day weekend had some glorious last gasp summer weather!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 7, 2016 at 7:30 am
Summer’s waning days always makes me think of this story, ever since a writing teacher in college made us do an inspired close reading of it, took it apart for us, and walked us through putting it back together piece by piece to what is, to me, a perfect if tragic ending. We debated at length whether or not it was tragic amongst the eight or nine of us still in the class at that point, and it’s to Malcolm’s credit I do not recall him taking either side in the discussion, but facilitating the vigor of the dispute.
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/dresses.html
He said he would have preferred to do it with “Big Two-Hearted River,” “but we don’t have that kind of time!”
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Deborah said on September 7, 2016 at 8:13 am
Stunning. The photos and text are just stunning. A great way to start a new day in Chicago. I’m going to look out at the lake every morning and think about your essay. I’m a lousy photograher so I won’t be able to capture it as you have, Nancy.
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Danny said on September 7, 2016 at 9:10 am
You know, before we disparage sunrise (or sunset) photos as cliché, a few tears back when my friends dad passed, he told me of a morning ritual the father had that was quite romantic. Every morning he would rise early, make coffee and go out on the deck to snap a Polaroid of the morning sky riding over the Chesapeake Bay. Then he would take the picture along with a cup of coffee to his wife’s bedside.
And he had another cool unrelated thing he did too. Every book he read, he assigned a letter grade that he wrote on the back page. My friend got these boxes of books and, without peeking, was working his way through them to see if he agreed with his dad’s estimates.
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Danny said on September 7, 2016 at 9:11 am
A few “years” back. Though tears works as well.
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Ann said on September 7, 2016 at 9:18 am
Danny, what a great story. Nancy, what beautiful photos. I know I’m not the only one eagerly awaiting the surfer stories.
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Judybusy said on September 7, 2016 at 9:46 am
What a wonderful way to start off my Wednesday. They are just beuatiful, and thank you so much for sharing.
Danny, that is just so sweet.
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 10:29 am
I think the Clinton campaign is trying to send out a “Don’t Panic” message. Here’s another peek behind the scenes with a profile of the head of Analytics, from Politico: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-data-campaign-elan-kriegel-214215
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Heather said on September 7, 2016 at 10:43 am
So great. I really wish the public pools in Chicago opened that early. I would actually get up at 5 AM and go. I also wish they would stay open through September as duh, it remains really hot. But I get it–budgets, blah blah. At least the indoor pool I go to has giant sliding windows that they can open.
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Dorothy said on September 7, 2016 at 10:57 am
Danny that was such a sweet thing to share about your friend. I love stuff like that – little insights into relationships are just so great. I’m so glad you shared it with us.
When we were trying to find a piece of land to build our house in Knox County OH in 2007, we drove on a road around 8 PM on the Fourth of July. The piece of property we focused on faced due West. While we were checking it out, the neighbors saw us and called over to us to come sit for a glass of iced tea. And we watched the sun go down, and we knew we had to build there. Over the nearly five years we lived in that house (Jan. 2009 to November 2013) we never got tired of seeing the sunsets. Hell, I have many, many pictures in a photo album on Facebook. I miss that aspect the most since moving away from there. So suffice to say, seeing your sunrise pictures gave me several pangs this morning. Good work – and thanks!
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Icarus said on September 7, 2016 at 11:09 am
“All five of the GPs have a pool, of course, and each has its stellar feature.”
you are really making a strong case for Nightingale and I to pack up and move closer to her sister in GP.
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annie said on September 7, 2016 at 11:38 am
This might be a good time to relate the story of a son of a friend of mine–he & 3 of his college mates at an east coast university took a trip to California the summer after their junior year, found themselves at the beach in San Diego in the wee hours of the morning & decided to stay up to watch the SUNRISE!
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Jenine said on September 7, 2016 at 11:47 am
July 26 abstract is my favorite. The sky is a great consolation to me. Looking at cloudscapes and the color of a twilight sky is a good argument for being alive.
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Danny said on September 7, 2016 at 11:54 am
annie, that sounds a bit like what I did with two college friends in 1984. Except we decided to stay. My two friends eventually moved back to the Maryland/DC metro area, but I ended up making a life of it.
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Dorothy said on September 7, 2016 at 12:17 pm
Back in the olden days when we sent away film to be developed, I had been to the east coast with my kids and husband. And one morning I got some shots of dolphins at sunrise. The stupid film company LOST that roll of film. I’ve never gotten over it. In my mind they were prize worthy shots that would have been framed and fawned over for generations! (the reality of the actual pictures is likely much less compelling, but a girl can dream)
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Redmond doesn’t have an outdoor pool. There is a park with a beach and swimming in a lake, but not an outdoor pool. The public indoor pool is on its last legs, too, where the amount of money needed to really repair it is not worth it. So, we have to decide whether we want to have a public pool and pay to build a new one. Work on that is in process and is likely to go on the ballot in the next year or two. I’m already expecting the laments of homeowners about how we have pools in private gyms in the area, so why should I pay for other people to swim?
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Deborah said on September 7, 2016 at 1:25 pm
I’m at the Art Institute in Chicago where it’s cool and dark. For those of you in the area there’s a good exhibit called America After the Fall, Painting in the 1930s. Paintings by Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, Thomas Hart Benton etc done during the depression, it’s only up until Sept 18 though so hurry.
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Deborah said on September 7, 2016 at 1:49 pm
I wrote a comment about being at the Art Institute in Chicago, but I miss-typed my email address in the required place and it’s in moderation. Since Nancy is no doubt out surfing she probably won’t see it for awhile. Oh well maybe it will show up eventually.
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Scout said on September 7, 2016 at 2:14 pm
Oh how I loved this essay! Beautiful pictures, Nancy. What a treat.
In anticipation of cooler weather, you all might enjoy this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWWwmZ9RxxQ
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Joan Walsh on the white working class. The key point:
Teixeira believes that Clinton’s domestic program—from expanded infrastructure spending and paid family leave to debt-free college and subsidized child-care programs—“will make it easier for [white working-class voters] to get ahead.” But he thinks winning back a majority will require “a full-employment economy with rising wages”—the kind of economy fostered by the Keynesianism of the mid-20th century. Yet policies to re-create that kind of economy would need at least some support from Republicans, Teixeira points out. And right now, Republicans rely on white working-class voters to support their filibuster against any Democratic agenda.
https://www.thenation.com/article/can-the-democrats-win-back-white-working-class-voters/
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dull_old_man said on September 7, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Jeff @5–thanks for the link. It is a wonderful story. Reading it rescued me from too much politics.
I can answer the question: The story doesn’t contain an iota of tragedy. Aristotle was good enough to define tragedy for us, and this story is not it.
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Molly Ivins is surely enjoying a big belly laugh in the afterlife. The Dallas Morning News has endorsed Hillary Clinton. In response, Trump surrogate Katrina Pierson called it a liberal newspaper.
The last Democrat the DMN endorsed for President was FDR, for the third of his terms.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20160907-we-recommend-hillary-clinton-for-u.s.-president.ece
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Julie Robinson said on September 7, 2016 at 2:53 pm
The view of the lake past the swimming pool is why we bought this place. The house is just okay. But I snapped the first in what will be a series of sunsets last night. It will have to be a periodic series until we can get here full time.
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 3:05 pm
Charlie Pierce adds some perspective to the DMN endorsement: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48400/dallas-paper-endorses-hillary-clinton/
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nancy said on September 7, 2016 at 3:20 pm
Thanks, guys. I’m actually having a great time, and not thinking too hard about updating this. Right now I’m watching a cricket match on the beach among the other campers, who have scrounged driftwood for a bat and a tennis ball from somewhere. Surfing conditions were perfect this morning and I caught several great rides. Still very shaky, but I think I’m figuring it out.
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nancy said on September 7, 2016 at 3:36 pm
And a note to you aviation buffs: Yesterday we had a flyover by an Osprey, and not the bird. A very interesting aircraft. The beach we’re on is part of Camp Pendleton, so all sorts of intriguing sounds as we do our thing. Thanks, jarheads.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 7, 2016 at 3:47 pm
ooh rah.
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Dexter said on September 7, 2016 at 3:58 pm
nance…a few weeks ago we drove to downtown Hilliard for lunch at Old Bag O’Nails, on Main Street…on the way I asked our son-in-law what those men were doing in that field…and he informed me they were conducting a cricket match. First time for me, and I only caught a glimpse. Hilliard also has one of those splash parks where water jets straight up from many sources, at staggered intervals…little kids just love that concept.
And the most interesting aviation scenario for me was sitting in Cleveland’s baseball stadium as the air show was cranking, as one of those “Flying Wings” blasted overhead. Then those low-flying military jets just rocked the entire stadium, shaking it. Awesome.
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Dexter said on September 7, 2016 at 4:04 pm
On our ocean dolphin-watching cruise we got a long-range view of Camp Pendleton. Oceanside butts right up against the base, and I thought we’d see some Marines in Class A uniforms strolling the sidewalks or hanging out in burger joints, but things have changed from my day. We saw zero military personnel on the streets at all. I suppose the reason is terrorist attacks like the one in Tennessee where US Navy recruiters were gunned down…one of the young men killed in that attack was from Paulding, Ohio, close to my town…I just noticed the highway near Paulding has been named for that fallen sailor.
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brian stouder said on September 7, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Marvelous photographs, indeed. I viewed them over the lunch hour, and took them in. Michigan is a beautiful place to be, indeed (and we have to get back to the Henry Ford Museum at some point)
Then, I read Jeff’s linked essay, and was as put-off by the objectification of the women as that idiot’s wife was – especially when he goes all-in, and essentially says “deal with it” (and when he, catastrophically, concedes that he might act on his impulses at some point, he left the realm of ‘harmless’ and earned his stripes as a creep).
By way of saying – it was magnificent – and I could see how a class room full of inquisitive people might see that from several different angles
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jcburns said on September 7, 2016 at 4:58 pm
A cricket match? Is it possible you’re accidentally surfing in Cornwall?
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 5:22 pm
There’s a cricket club in Redmond that regularly plays not far from my house, and yes, they wear white. The middle school has a big open area next to it, and that’s what they use. They bring along a strip of artificial turf to put down for the area between the wickets.
Of course, there’s a substantial Indian population in Redmond, so it’s not too surprising that you see cricket here. My husband says that when big test matches are going on, the TVs in the Microsoft cafeterias are usually tuned to them.
Continuing the theme of the issues with the press coverage, I think this captures the fundamental problem.
Because if there’s one thing the mainstream media cannot say explicitly, it is that the Republican Party willingly chose an ignorant bigot as its nominee.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/07/grading-trump-on-a-curve-explained/?utm_term=.6bcfaeae1072#comments
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nancy said on September 7, 2016 at 5:47 pm
No, but I am surfing with an Irishman, several Aussies and lots of people game to try anything.
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Jolene said on September 7, 2016 at 6:38 pm
ICYMI, there’s a “Commander-in-Chief Forum on NBC/MSNBC tonight. Half an hour each of Clinton and Trump answering questions from veterans and active duty military personnel. Matt Lauer is moderating. I don’t really think of him as a national security guy, but we’ll see. Hillary is bringing some friends along.
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basset said on September 7, 2016 at 7:08 pm
There’s an Osprey parked on the downtown Nashville waterfront right now, along with a Super Stallion, an Apache, and whatever they call the upgraded Huey, I think Venom. Also various trucks and gear and several hundred jarheads running loose around the city, it’s Marine Week. Going by the courthouse on a homebound bus right now, most of em seem to be doing some kind of event out front. Hmmm, just as I typed that a tv station page appeared, it’s the opening ceremony.
Walked down to look at the Osprey at lunchtime, most impressive. Made a hell of a racket landing, too.
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Colleen said on September 7, 2016 at 7:30 pm
There is a big airshow in the Fort this weekend. Planes have been skywriting this week. Have yet to see “Surrender Dorothy”. I would like to see the airshow, but you have to park DOWNTOWN and take a shuttle out to FWA. Plus go through a lot of security, which really doesn’t bother me too much. But the parking downtown does. So we might miss this one.
Love that you are surfing and having a good time. Thanks as always for sharing.
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Deborah said on September 7, 2016 at 7:42 pm
Hey, I don’t think I’ve seen a comment from Connie in a while? Is everything alright?
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 8:29 pm
Robert Timberg has died. I believe I’ve recommended his book, The Nightingale’s Song, before, but I’ll do it again!
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 9:14 pm
Since Nancy is too busy playing Gidget to keep up with Rod Dreher, let me share this with you. For reasons that escape me, he seems offended that Brown is providing feminine hygiene products gratis in campus bathrooms: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/brown-social-justice-washrooms-tampons/
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 7, 2016 at 9:15 pm
Oy. Matt Lauer wasted the first ten minutes of the thirty with Hillary on private server follies; and Trump at least proved that he knows how to filibuster like a senator. My wife (very much a Clinton supporter) said at the end “yikes, he came off awfully well in the whole thing.”
In our chunk of Ohio, Hillary signs are three times as prevalent as Trump placards. If that means anything… Strickland is just flailing, and that’s not going to help Clinton carry the state; he’s got “I’m pro-Planned Parenthood and Portman isn’t” and not hardly anything else to say, and I’ve been listening. Even his own ads (and he doesn’t have many) are cringe-inducing; Portman’s non-coordinating super PAC ads are pretty well in step with his own, which just bang away on the jobs and deficit and children services cuts during Strickland’s term as governor, and Ted’s just got nothing coherent to say other than “my family grew up poor” which is only a starting point, not a platform.
Clinton’s still polling above the MOE in Ohio, at any rate.
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 9:40 pm
When the SAT added an essay part several years back, your score depended on the form of the essay rather than the substance. That is, the essay didn’t have to be factual in any sense to score well, as long as it was written to standard.
I feel like I’m living in an SAT essay world now.
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Jolene said on September 7, 2016 at 10:19 pm
From Stuart Stevens on Twitter re tonight’s forum: If nothing else, it is clearer why The Today Show has not proven to be a stepping stone to the NSC.
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jcburns said on September 7, 2016 at 10:22 pm
Jeff, all due respect to your wife, but on my TV, Trump came off as an idiot, plain and simple.
As someone put it on the internet, Trump came off as the guy who has to deliver a book report for a book he never read.
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Connie said on September 7, 2016 at 10:42 pm
Deborah, I’ve been lurking. Thanks for noticing. In May I told you I had started driving again after a year plus of medical issues with my foot. In June my foot issues blew up again and it’s been a tough summer. I’ve had lots of mental comments for you all, will have to start letting them out.
I am so horrified by our political doings it has left me speechless.
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Sherri said on September 7, 2016 at 11:33 pm
Matt Lauer couldn’t even handle Ryan Lochte’s lying to him, is it any surprise that he was helpless in the face of Trump’s? Maybe Ann Curry should have done the questioning…
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 12:37 am
Donald Trump praise Putin as a better leader than Obama, cites Putin’s approval ratings, says that sexual assault is to be expected when you put men and women together in the armed forces, so maybe the military should have a court system, yet Patrick Healy found none of that newsworthy. The candidates’ demeanor was, though.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-national-security.html
Every time I’m most annoyed by a Times political story, sure enough, there’s Patrick Healy in the byline.
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Peggy said on September 8, 2016 at 1:12 am
Gorgeous! I’m a transplanted Michigander I Kansa, mourning the annual closing of my local public pool. But I never imagined the magic of a local public pool next to a Great Lake! Lucky you!
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Peggy said on September 8, 2016 at 1:16 am
Sherri: I noticed that too. Rod is so disturbed by the thought that trans people can use public bathrooms he would rather his daughter do without sanitary napkins if she doesn’t have a quarter. Sometimes hurting the other is more important than protecting your own
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 2:39 am
On the good news front, here’s a story about a ministry of my church.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2016/09/06/i-was-hungry-and-you-gave-me-food/
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basset said on September 8, 2016 at 5:09 am
On the not so good news front, our 17-year-old calico kitty crossed the Rainbow Bridge last night, and we are now petless for the first time in over thirty years. She’d been looking skinny and decrepit for months, and we couldn’t keep weight on her; a couple of days ago she quit eating, then yesterday she could no longer stand, and about nine-thirty last night we were sitting with her when she stopped breathing. She had a good, long life.
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Deborah said on September 8, 2016 at 6:41 am
Sorry to hear it Basset. Seventeen years of a good life isn’t bad.
Connie, good to hear from you, we’ve missed you. Sorry about your foot issues, take it easy.
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Suzanne said on September 8, 2016 at 7:27 am
Trump’s new slogan: Make Matt Lauer Great Again!
So according to Trump, Putin has great poll numbers! He’s very popular. I totally believe what he says. Russia is, after all, well known for its honesty in elections and public information. So it must be true!
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Danny said on September 8, 2016 at 8:46 am
Did anyone watch the Apple event yesterday or read any reviews? People seem most concerned about the decision to delete the headphone jack, but I am more concerned about the haptic sensor replacement for the home button. JC or anyone have any experience with haptic?
Sherri, though it’s not my field, it’s kind of a hobby to stay up on tech and security. I regularly read Bruce Schneier’s security blog and this article yesterday kind of dovetailed into my French language studies:
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/talk_by_the_for.html
Apparently the former head of the French SIGINT gave a student talk that got pulled from YouTube where among other things he discussed catching the NSA in a malware exploit on the Élysée. Interesting reading and something that should give anyone further pause about electronic election tampering going forward.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 8:46 am
This is pretty much right on target: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/portman-strickland-ohio-senate-race/499070/
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Kim said on September 8, 2016 at 8:47 am
A brilliant post, Nancy – thank you! I look at the photos, see another crank of the wheel as time passes and am reminded to enjoy every sunrise, sunset and all the sandwiches in between.
That commander conversation last night though? Oy. What Sherri, Suzanne and JC said.
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Connie said on September 8, 2016 at 8:47 am
Our nearby county park has a cricket field, visible from the main drag, but not very identifiable as such.
When we started our ESL conversation groups at the library we found the most common participants to be speaking languages from India and Pakistan along with Korea and several Indonesian languages. There are often cricket players among those groups.
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BethB from Indiana said on September 8, 2016 at 8:48 am
Basset, sorry about your kitty. Yours joins our three who died over the last three years–Samantha, Maggie, and Millie. It is never easy, but your calico had a long life with a good home.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 8:48 am
JCB, my wife didn’t mean he came off well to her, but in general (with Matt Lauer’s I assume unwitting help) he managed the time and expectations better. Trump made her say at least three times out loud “and that’s why we can’t trust you with the office, idiot!” Which, trust me, is not how she normally talks. To anyone. (Even me!)
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jcburns said on September 8, 2016 at 9:05 am
“he managed the time and expectations better.” Again, sorry, that does not correlate with what I saw at all.
The only time issues during Ms. Clinton’s half-hour were Lauer’s way-too-frequent interruptions…those interruptions evaporated during the Trump half hour not because of the length of the answers but because Lauer stopped doing it as much.
I thought Clinton came out, endured answering way too much on emails, tried to stay substantive, and looked presidential. My expectations of Trump—or any candidate—were the same—and he wasn’t in the tri-state area of meeting any of those.
As I sputtered on Twitter last night, we need to raise the bar on Trump and stop grading on a curve just because he’s randomly, dangerously willing to say anything.
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Judybusy said on September 8, 2016 at 9:40 am
bassett, I also am sorry to hear about your kitty. 17 year is a good run, and I know she was much loved in your home and hearts.
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Dorothy said on September 8, 2016 at 9:42 am
I’m not very active on Twitter but last night I could not help myself during Dumpy McDumpertson’s time on stage. Whew but he stunk up the joint. Did he ever answer a question directly? And who are The Generals he keeps referring to? His own lackeys, I guess, who bow down to him and say what he wants to hear rather than saying what they want to say. Aren’t they usually referred to as Brown Nosers?
Basset I’m sorry about your kitty cat. I get filled up just thinking about anyone losing a pet. Yesterday one of my co-workers had to put down her elderly St. Bernard, Bella. I can’t bring myself to go talk to her this morning because I know we’ll both dissolve in a bucket of tears. I’ll see her soon – perhaps in the hallway instead of at her desk.
I’ve kept a lid on this for nearly two months and finally am able to tell you all some really great news. We have a grandbaby on the way! She is due in March, and I’m sure other families know this kind of happiness, but for us it’s off the charts because they’ve been dealing with fertility issues for over 2.5 years. I’m very aware of lots of people (in my own family – two cousins and one of my sisters) who never get pregnant after undergoing fertility treatments. So we are full of joy, and every other happy noun or adjective you can think of. It’s not public news yet on social media, so for the few folks I”m friends with here and on Facebook, it’s on the downlow for now. Once you see me talk about it there, it means my son and his wife did so first.
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Dorothy said on September 8, 2016 at 9:43 am
*She* refers to my daughter-in-law; it’s too soon to know the gender of the baby.
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Deborah said on September 8, 2016 at 10:20 am
Wow, Dorothy, that’s spectacular. It must be hard to keep that great news quiet.
When things like Lauer’s behavior on the TV last night make me furious. I didn’t watch, I’m only going by what I’ve read about it. It’s so frustrating because that happens all the time to women and men don’t even know they’re doing it, it’s so ingrained. They interrupt women way more than they interrupt other men, because they can and because they’ve gotten a way with it so for so long, and again, many aren’t even aware that they’re doing it. Men also kowtow to the alpha male, which it sounds like happened last night when Lauer didn’t call Trump on his lies or at least point out inconsistencies in what Trump had publicly said before.
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Deborah said on September 8, 2016 at 10:23 am
When things like Lauer’s behavior on TV last night happen, it makes me furious. Fixed it.
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brian stouder said on September 8, 2016 at 10:30 am
Dorothy what Deborah said!
Pam and I watched it last night, and we reacted very similarly.
Bottomline is: I believe Trump had his ass handed to him.
The clip I’d use, if I was making a ‘he ain’t no Commander in Chief’ commercial, was the (actually pretty funny!) back-and-forth, wherein Trump tried to ‘splain how he has “A Plan” – and it’s more than simply planning to ask his manly generals to develop a plan, pronto!
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brian stouder said on September 8, 2016 at 10:36 am
..and didja notice the Donald’s spirited (and repeated!) call for American imperialism in the Middle East?
“Keep the oil!!”??!!
How’s THAT gonna work out?
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LAMary said on September 8, 2016 at 11:18 am
So sorry about your cat, Basset. My little ginger female went the same way a few months ago. It’s never easy but you were there for her and she was loved to the end.
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Heather said on September 8, 2016 at 11:30 am
Congrats to Dorothy! And Basset, I’m sorry about your cat too. It sounds like she had a great life and a peaceful death at home with loving family.
I didn’t watch the pre-debate or whatever it was called, but am horrified by the blatant sexism, especially with Matt Lauer interrupting Clinton. I’m going to start to point that out every single time someone does it to me in protest.
On Twitter Reince Priebus said something about how Clinton came off as argumentative and didn’t smile—??? Um, she’s running for President, not Miss America. It’s almost not even worth getting angry about since this kind of comment is so unsurprising from the GOP.
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brian stouder said on September 8, 2016 at 12:14 pm
…and in semi-unrelated news, this evening is the evening we will get to attend a lecture from Jeb! Bush, at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, this evening.
I imagine his observations will be somewhat like what a survivor in a lifeboat might say, as what was his ship lists heavily to the right, in the background
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 12:23 pm
My own take on last night — Trump served up a big steaming plate full of Mussolini. My worry is how many people are happy to order themselves up some, with meatballs.
Basset, sorry to hear about your cat. We’ve been catless here at Sycamore Lodge for almost ten years, but I keep thinking there’s one that just went around the corner ahead of me even now.
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Jolene said on September 8, 2016 at 12:24 pm
I wonder what motivates Jeb Bush to be on the lecture circuit right now. Can he possibly need the money?
Seems like it would be embarrassing to the point of pain to be making speeches about politics when you’ve lost to someone as awful as Trump.
Will be interested to hear what he has to say, Brian.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 1:10 pm
Danny, I have the Kindle with the haptic sensors for page turn buttons, and I like them fine. One advantage of sensors rather than real buttons is that you can adjust the sensitivity of them, so I’m less likely to accidentally turn the page than I was with the physical button, surprisingly enough.
Sorry about your cat, basset.
Jolene, I assume Jeb is out there to keep his name in front of the big donors while he figures out what to do next. He also may have some campaign debt he wants to erase; losing primary campaigns usually do. Sometimes deals can be worked out with the winning campaign for the debt to be paid from the joint victory fund, but there’s no money inTrump’s and he wouldn’t be likely to share if there were.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 1:22 pm
My guess (hope?) is that the percentage of the electorate who is happy to elect a dictator is under 40. The “He speaks his mind!” people drive me nuts; yes, he does, and he shows just how empty that mind is. There’s a great deal of overlap between those groups,though.
And of course there’s the irony of the people who seem more eager to go full fascist who are also the loudest about getting the government out of their lives. This is not new; you could find the same sentiment at a Wallace rally 50 years ago. Their resentments are being played.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 1:40 pm
Gary Johnson, who has actually served as a governor and didn’t seem completely stupid, was asked this morning in an interview what he would do about Aleppo if he elected. Anybody who’s paid attention to any news from Syria should have some idea about Aleppo. Johnson didn’t know what Aleppo was.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 1:43 pm
Il Duce, ha fatto i treni in orario.
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Deborah said on September 8, 2016 at 1:56 pm
No, Trump won’t make the trains run on time either.
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Deborah said on September 8, 2016 at 2:01 pm
One of the things I found interesting about the exhibit about paintings during the 30s great depression at the Art Institute yesterday was that there were a few paintings warning about the spread of fascism within the US. I don’t remember who the artists were, and I was unfamiliar with that particular message coming through art here during that era.
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Scout said on September 8, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Because there is no news alternative to NPR on my drive home, if I want to catch up with what the MSM is saying, I’m stuck listening to completely biased Mara LIARson glibly pretend both candidates are equally serious. I was so angry last night that it literally took me hours to calm down. I’m sick of the thoughtful chin stroking coverage of the verbal vomit spewed by the roadkill hairpiece sociopath that is “balanced” by sneering insinuations of constant wrongdoing when speaking of Hillary. Guess I need to stop being the definition of insanity and listen to music on the drive home instead, because it’s simply not worth it. Here’s the audio, if you feel like getting your dander up too. If you do visit the link, click the audio for 9/7. http://www.npr.org/people/1930401/mara-liasson
On a happier note, Matt Lauer is taking a beating on Twitter for last night’s hot mess.
bassett – please accept my sincere sympathy for the loss of your precious kitty.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 2:11 pm
But Trump’s trains will be YUUGE! And GREAT! And the only immigrants on board will be the models from Slovenia serving the drinks, so it won’t matter that they’re not on time.
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susan said on September 8, 2016 at 2:16 pm
Here’s a link to a video of Gary Johnson referenced in Sherri’s comment #77. It’s helpful to watch him say this. He said he blanked. I’ll say. His expression is completely blank. Can you say cypher?
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Suzanne said on September 8, 2016 at 2:17 pm
Brian, do give a report on Jeb! from tonight. I was interested in going but neither my husband or I were free tonight. He seemed like kind of an odd choice for the Omnibus Lecture series, being low energy and all, but I’d enjoy hearing his take on this crazy election and see if he’s serving up a big helping of sour grapes.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 2:28 pm
Trump will hire the best people, but he won’t pay them or meet with them: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/09/08/inside-the-collapse-of-trumps-d-c-policy-shop/
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susan said on September 8, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Scout @81. Do you have an iPod or some such? Or smart phone. You could download the BBC and CBC apps and get your news from them. On the BBC app, there are about 70 or so radio channels, but “W” is BBC World News and number 4 is Great Britain with some world stuff, too. I completely stopped listening to NPR news ever since they kicked out Bob Edwards and replaced him with that ingratiating toady Inskeep. And listening to it was spotty, at best, before that with Mara Liaison and that other toady Wan Williams emitting their pronouncements; and them both supplementing their incomes by also appearing on Fox News. Ugh. NPR is NOT liberal. Or honest.
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jcburns said on September 8, 2016 at 2:43 pm
Vermont Public Radio has a nice low-bandwidth stream of the BBC World Service (this URL will work in most web browsers and apps that play mp3 streams): http://vprbbc.streamguys.net:8000/vprbbc24.mp3 (consider donating to VPR if you use it all the time.)
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Scout said on September 8, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Thanks for the suggestions, susan. I can download some apps on my iPhone and then stream through my bluetooth speaker in the car. I keep saying I’M SO DONE with NPR and then I go back out of habit. Insanity.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 2:51 pm
Podcasts have replaced NPR in my car, but my challenge is that we still use radio as our alarm, so we still wake up to NPR. I need to figure out a solution to that.
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Scout said on September 8, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Josh Marshall has a good summary of last night debate, in which he makes a case for why Matt Lauer didn’t do as badly as people are saying he did. I suppose that he did allow The Donald to be The Donald (iow a rambling, know-nothing, self aggrandizing, word salad spinner), but I’m still pissed about Hillary’s segment. It’s like one job applicant being given a test in quantum physics and the other a spelling quiz.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/ok-i-admit-it-i-m-a-lauer-truther
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jcburns said on September 8, 2016 at 3:37 pm
Good comparison, Scout. Yeah, I’ve seen Lauer do worse. I think the issue here (and it will be the issue during the debates of course) is that un-level playing field. I’m not even saying that they have to be identical questions…I’m just saying ask the question, and don’t interrupt and craft the answer.
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brian stouder said on September 8, 2016 at 3:51 pm
I confess that Lauer was ‘makin’ me mad’ in the moment, but I felt like he (Lauer) was more concerned about appearing to be a ‘Big Media Bug-a-Boo’…and in any case, HRC did tremendously well.
I think HRC is going have the same effect on Trump, in the face-to-face debates, as the bucket of water had on the Wicked Witch of the West
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 3:53 pm
Someone made the following analogy. You have two job candidates. The first candidate is ten minutes late to the interview, but is smart, well-prepared, qualified, answers all your questions well, and asks great questions of you. The second candidate is on time, but is a blowhard who bluffs his way through the interview, isn’t qualified, knows nothing about the job or company, and insults you in the process.
If all you focus on is which candidate is on time, then are you doing your job as a hiring manager?
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Judybusy said on September 8, 2016 at 4:54 pm
I’m becoming more frustrated with the election coverage on NPR as well. I really can not recall the last time I heard anything directly from Clinton or why people are voting for her. But every morning, they have a report on where Trump was the day before, what he said, and then they talk to a couple people about why they’re voting for him. The only time Clinton comes up is to discuss the gd emails.
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brian stouder said on September 8, 2016 at 5:02 pm
…and here’s an interesting little whatzit article, on the unemployment rate – just because:
https://blog.dol.gov/2016/09/06/what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate/
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 5:22 pm
How do millions of unwanted accounts created by 5300 employees not be detected for years?
http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-created-phony-accounts-bank-fees/index.html
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Suzanne said on September 8, 2016 at 5:37 pm
We bank at Wells Fargo & I don’t like them, but we stick with them because they are convenient, especially when we travel. They must cycle people through pretty fast as our local branch seems to have different people every time I’m there. Maybe this will spur us on to switch.
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susan said on September 8, 2016 at 5:54 pm
Oh, and on the BBC Radio 4 (on the app), on Sunday mornings (USA time, ≈6:15 AM Pacific) is one of my new favorite programs: Gardener’s Question Time. You can also listen to it from the BBC website, here. It is so-o-oooo-oooooBritish, and quite amusing. And useful, too.
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David C. said on September 8, 2016 at 6:54 pm
I suspect if they asked tRump what Aleppo is, he’d say the maid opens the can, puts it in a dish, and the dog eats it.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 7:09 pm
Johnson’s problem is that he thought he had to know what Aleppo was to answer the question. Trump would have just blustered on with word salad about how great his solution would be.
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Dave said on September 8, 2016 at 7:13 pm
We used to bank at Wells Fargo and fired them about five years ago. They kept changing their policies for checking accounts with fees and other costs and we finally had enough and went to another bank. Now, we’re with a Indiana bank (Lake City) and even though we’re living in Florida, it’s still our primary account. No problems, in today’s electronic world, it’s simple, and they do refunds on ATM fees up to $25, (as long as you use your debit card eight times a month) which is generous and we’ve only gone over once. We’ll never go back to a large nationwide bank.
Congratulations, Dorothy, we’ve three grandchildren and they’re a joy. Very exciting times.
So hard to lose a pet but we never got another dog after our last one because we wanted to be free of pet care and free to come and go as we please. Yet, we miss her still.
I really hate Trump. That’s all I’m saying.
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Dave said on September 8, 2016 at 8:00 pm
Oh, for any OU folks, such as our hostess: http://www.thepostathens.com/article/2016/09/gss-roger-ailes-newsroom-proposal
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 8:27 pm
We are living in weird times when a backup QB can refuse to stand for the anthem and be attacked as unpatriotic but a candidate for President can call out current President a worse leader than a thuggish dictator who has his enemies killed, and some of the same people respond that it’s true.
Trump is just the symptom.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Kevin Drum pretty much sums it up.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/tell-us-how-you-really-feel-kevin
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 9:22 pm
In Johnson’s defense, in context, I could imagine hearing Barnicle as asking about “a LEPPO?” What’s a “LEPPO” is what I saw Gary scrambling to figure out, and in a fashion I’ve come to admire (if not plan on voting for) he didn’t waffle-stall, he just said “Help me out here, I’m blank.” I just don’t see how everyone keeps saying his failure to catch the question on the first bounce “disqualifies him for office.” Really?
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basset said on September 8, 2016 at 9:44 pm
Thanks for the support, everyone. We buried her in the backyard tonight, this weekend we’ll look for a shrub or sonething to plant on top. No pampas grass, though.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 10:15 pm
I’m willing to grant a little leeway to Johnson, but Aleppo has been at the heart of the Syria story for several years now. If you’ve even had news on in the background for an hour or two a day, you’ve heard Aleppo regularly, and I would think that someone running for president would immediately recognize it.
But it’s not the first time he’s failed to be aware of something. He didn’t know who Harriet Tubman was either. I know Libertarians are Republicans who like pot, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that their nominee not seem like a teenage stoner.
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Jill said on September 8, 2016 at 10:43 pm
Connie, sorry about the ongoing foot trouble.
basset, your house must be awfully quiet right now. I’m sorry.
And congratulations, Dorothy. Having been close to people who’ve dealt with infertility I know how exciting it is when they’re able to have a child.
Love the photos.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 8, 2016 at 10:55 pm
Dude. C’mon, Sherri. Dude.
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Sherri said on September 8, 2016 at 11:08 pm
Hey, Jeff, you know I’m in favor of legalizing marijuana. I just want smart tokers.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 12:06 am
More about what the Clinton Foundation does: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/sep/06/clinton-foundation-tanzania-work-farmers/
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Bill said on September 9, 2016 at 12:55 am
We saw “Sully” tonight in IMAX. Very good and reasonably true to life. Tom Hanks is terrific.
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Suzanne said on September 9, 2016 at 6:52 am
I read Sully’s book a few years ago. Amazing. Now, I can’t find it, so I don’t know if I loaned it or got rid of it. I used to work with a guy who is a conspiracy nut. He told me, completely serious, that it was all staged in order to get people interested in flying.
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Dorothy said on September 9, 2016 at 9:04 am
I’d watch a movie of Tom Hanks reading the phone book. He’s number one in my book.
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brian stouder said on September 9, 2016 at 10:07 am
A non-sequitur venture into the bushes:
So Grant, our first-time-presidential-voter, and I went and took in Jeb Bush’s lecture last night, at good ol’ IPFW, and – all snarkiness aside – I learned why he didn’t win the Republican primary.
He’s smart enough, and wonky enough, and pleasant enough, and he’s well-spoken.
And then, right in the middle of everything, he says a thing or two that loses me completely. He touched on “education reform” (so-called), which I was ready for (but which still made me mad)….and then he matter-of-factly dropped in his support for a Constitutional Convention..!!!!
Good God!
How can a person be called a “conservative”, on the one hand, and yet advocate for the ULTIMATE act of ANTI-conservation??? When he matter-of-factly stated that he supports a new Constitutional convention, it hit me right in the chest.
If I was going to ask him a question (and for a second there, it seemed like possibly a thing to do, but I thought better of it), it would certainly have been about that.
If he’s the “sensible shoes” within the Republican party, then the party is over.
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Deborah said on September 9, 2016 at 10:07 am
Has anyone seen the Tom Hanks movie that came out recently called A Hologram for the King? It’s based on a book by Dave Eggers, by the same name. I read the book a while ago but just saw the movie a couple of weeks ago on OnDemand. The woman who played the prime minister in the series Borgen, Sidse Babett Knudsen, was also in the movie. I didn’t read anything about the movie when it was being made or when it came out so I was surprised when I was clicking through OnDemand to see it listed. Hanks really fit the part of the main character in my mind, a sort of hapless middle aged, mediocre business man trying to make a sale in a middle eastern country. I worked for an architecture firm that did a bit of work in the Mideast and many of my colleagues had to go over there on business trips. What they described was very much like what was shown in the movie, so it seemed realistic to me. The movie wasn’t fantastic, but if you like Hanks you’d probably like it.
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Dorothy said on September 9, 2016 at 10:37 am
I haven’t seen that movie, Deborah, but I recall it being at the little Neon Theatre in Dayton not that long ago. Speaking of movies, has anyone seen Tallulah on Netflix? Ellen Page and Allison Janney are in it. It was pretty good. We watched it last night.
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brian stouder said on September 9, 2016 at 11:57 am
So, the BREAKING NEWS at this moment – in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, is that the Congress passed a law allowing US citizens to sue Saudi Arabia over those 9/11 attacks….and the president is expected to veto the law.
This, of course, looks like a free vote for the Congress, as they knew the president would veto the thing, leaving them free to demagogue the issue for the rest of the election cycle – and begs the question:
What would President Trump do?
He’d sign the thing, of course….and therefore Congress would never have passed it, if he were in office.
At least, that’s the hope…
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Scout said on September 9, 2016 at 12:55 pm
We saw Sully at a pre-screening event (through AARP, they have free movies for adults nearly every week here) and loved it. Tom Hanks was a fantastic choice to play Sully. Yesterday, I happened across this satirical review and literally laughed out loud, because being the sucker for animals that I am, OF COURSE this actually did occur to me too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX8Lm4t_zJI
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Dexter said on September 9, 2016 at 1:45 pm
The Wells Fargo scandal is sickening…and as far as recycling employees goes, hard pressed to beat PNC bank…it seems that every 60 days, a new crew,locally.
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Suzanne said on September 9, 2016 at 2:21 pm
So, Brian. Did Jeb! Explain why he wants a Constitutional Convention? I have a couple of Facebook connections that harp on that every now & then. What do they want to change?
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 2:25 pm
It’s hard for me to express a charitable opinion about prosperity gospel preachers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/09/how-the-prosperity-preachers-supporting-trump-are-using-him-to-sell-themselves/?utm_term=.485fe2906219
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brian stouder said on September 9, 2016 at 2:37 pm
Suzanne – that’s what I would have asked him.
Maybe he’s tired of that pesky 1st Amendment, or the 4th, or an expansion of the 10th (those “Tenther” folks are a little crazy)
He pretty consistently talked about “government debt” as if it was a horrible cancer* – so I suppose a balanced-budget amendment would be high on the list.
Truly – and leaving aside the Donald, for the moment – he looked and sounded like a guy who would go nowhere in a presidential race.
*that one always gets me. How did The Great Depression end? Massive government spending, and massive debt, was the keystonepiece of it. Granted, not having your factories bombed out of existence was a good leg-up in the ’50’s, too…although all those NEW factories in Japan and Germany gave them the edge in the ’60’s and ’70’s….
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Deborah said on September 9, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Someone on FB linked to a podcast by Malcom Gladwell, called The Vanishing Woman, it’s part of his series called Revisionist History, which I had never heard of before today. Sorry, I didn’t copy a link to put up here, but if you Google it, you’ll find it. I’ve listened to about half of the podcasts already, on my walk today. It’s not as hot here in Chicago today, but boy is it humid. The Vanishing Woman episode will make you realize what a hard time Hillary Clinton will face, even more so than she has already if what the first woman PM of Australia had to endure is any indication.
I walked 5 3/4 miles today which I haven’t done for a while partly because I was having some foot pain issues and partly because of the heat. It wore me out and I was a sweaty mess when I got home. Straight for the shower I went. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be cooler, but still damp. I don’t remember Chicago being this humid, but it’s probably because I spend so much time in NM.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Trump couldn’t bribe Schneiderman to stop the Trump U investigation in NY, so he had his foundation fund Citizens United to file a lawsuit against instead. A reminder: David Bossie, head of Citizens United and longtime Clinton hunter, now works for the Trump campaign.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-charity-gave-100000-to-david-bossies-citizens-united-that-helped-fund-lawsuit-against-moguls-foe-151337835.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw
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Joe Kobiela said on September 9, 2016 at 3:09 pm
I saw Sully last night also and enjoyed it very much.
It honed in on the ntsb side of the FAA, who’s motto is, we’re not happy unless your not happy, they got everything right as far as the flying goes, showed what actually happens in a emergency, aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order, and fly the thing all the way thru the crash, I also liked how it picked up on the disbelief of the crew right after the bird strike, their response wasn’t immediate they needed time to process what had happened, very important in the story, and it really happens that way. Last winter coming home from Alabama I was in cruise at 19,000 ft in my Cessna 421 I picked up a vibration and was trying to figure out what was causing it when there was a sudden big thump and the manifold pressure and oil pressure on the left engine went to zero, it took a few seconds to realize something happened and what do I do. Training kicked in and I identified the failed engine, verified it was the left because the plane turned into the dead engine, featherd the prop, turning the blades into the wind to reduce drag, and started looking for a airport, had bowling green Kentucky right below me then called atc and told them I had a problem, made a controlled decent away from the city and landed uneventfully, a piston had detached from the connecting rod and gone thru the engine cracking the top of the case. When they dropped the oil pan there were thousand of chunks of ground up metal that had gone thru the engine.
Sully did everything right and I always admired him for saying it was a team effort and it took everyone on his crew,copilot,flight attendants along with the scuba cops and the ferry captains and atc for it to be a successful out come.
Go see it tonight.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 3:15 pm
So, in other words, Clinton Foundation has leveraged Clinton name to raise funds to try to do good in the world, and has generally, at the least, avoided mixing the Foundation with the SoS office unduly. Trump Foundation, like so much else about Trump, is a hot stinking mess.
The Clinton Foundation story should have been pursued. It also should have been presented more honestly, without the innuendo. The issue of proportionality with regards to the amount and degree of coverage of the Clinton Foundation vis-a-vis the Trump Foundation demonstrates a fundamental failure of our top media outlets, particularly the paper of record.
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Scout said on September 9, 2016 at 3:51 pm
Joe – thanks for the pilot’s take on the movie. I thought it seemed to be done very well, but I do not have the flying knowledge to know for sure.
Sherri – your 2nd paragraph is so spot on.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys and perhaps an even bigger ego than Trump’s, just bought a new helicopter. He bragged that you could shoot things from it; you could even shoot pigs.
I think it says something about me that I immediately thought of flying pigs rather than guns and feral pigs.
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Hattie said on September 9, 2016 at 4:05 pm
Everybody has a right to OD on sunrises, sometimes.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 4:19 pm
I feel like I’ve fallen through some weird wormhole into an alternative universe where Republicans are praising a Russian dictator and the far left is accusing the Democrats of McCarthyism for criticizing that. None of this is real, right?
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Jolene said on September 9, 2016 at 4:26 pm
Sherri, who is criticizing Dems for criticizing Trump’s love of Putin?
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Jolene said on September 9, 2016 at 4:34 pm
Donald Trump is on TV feeding the paranoia of Chrisian conservatives. Speaking at the Value Voters summit, he is lamenting the difficulty of raising children in the perverse media. He’s also promising to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which precludes preachers from supporting candidates from the pulpit, on pain of losing their tax exemption. Also school choice, of course. Must avoid “failing government school.”
This guy has no idea what it means to be an American.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Jolene, it’s the usual Clinton haters at places like Jacobin and The Intercept. Glenn Greenwald is particularly rabid about it.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 4:58 pm
From someone who resigned from Wells Fargo a month ago: http://www.zenruption.com/zenbusiness/8/8/an-open-resignation-letter-to-john-stumpf-ceo-of-wells-fargo-bank
Linking executive compensation to stock performance and the promotion of shareholder value as the only important metric has been terrible to our society.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 5:08 pm
I hate the Dodgers, but Vin Scully is a national treasure, and this is incredible: http://www.salon.com/1999/10/12/scully_koufax/
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jcburns said on September 9, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Thanks Joe, GREAT review.
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Jolene said on September 9, 2016 at 5:23 pm
Trump is going to Phyllis Schlafly’s funeral in St. Louis tomorrow. Gawd.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 5:29 pm
It honed in on the ntsb side of the FAA, who’s motto is, we’re not happy unless your not happy
Evidently NTSB investigators aren’t as thrilled with their portrayal in the movie.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-ntsb-investigators-have-beef-with-movie-sully/
http://qz.com/778011/sully-ntsb-investigators-are-not-happy-about-being-made-the-villains-in-clint-eastwoods-film-starring-tom-hanks-as-chesley-sully-sullenberger/
I have no doubt that both Joe and other pilots feel that the relationship is adversarial, and the the NTSB feels like it isn’t. This just highlights the tremendous difficulty in investigating failures. Even when everybody is trying to do their best, pilots are going to rightly feel that they were doing their best in difficult circumstances that no investigator can understand, and the investigators are trying to probe every angle to find out what went wrong. Nobody wants to think that they’re responsible for a crash, and the investigators want to find out why in hopes of preventing the next one. It’s inevitably uncomfortable. The pilots are always going to feel defensive, and the investigators are going to get tired of being portrayed as inquisitors. Human nature at work.
It’s very important work, though. Air safety in the US is amazing.
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David C. said on September 9, 2016 at 6:05 pm
The fundies can now and forever STFU about their superior morality. That they willingly climbed into bed, so to speak, with that hot mess of a libertine asshole tells you all you need to know. Trump hates the dusky hued, and people who have read more than one book, and so do they. That’s all they need to know.
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Deborah said on September 9, 2016 at 8:27 pm
Joe, I found your story about your experience with a flying mishap interesting. I hope all pilots are as trained and on top of the situation as you seem to be.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 8:39 pm
I hate printers.
My cheap disposable HP printer broke this week. I diagnosed the problem to be the printhead, but a new printhead cost as much as replacing the printer, so I wasn’t going to fool with that. I looked at new cheap disposable printers, but HP has decided that all of their disposable printers will now have one color cartridge for CYM, so you have to replace the cartridge if one color runs out. Nope.
So, instead of the disposable $75 printer, I bought a $200 printer, which has 3 color cartridges plus black. The new HP cartridges all have little chips in them now, because what HP really, really wants to you do is sign up for their new ink subscription service. You pay so much per month for so many pages printed per month, and they monitor your ink cartridges and automatically send you new ones when you run low. They want you to sign up so badly that they make it really, really hard to set up the printer without signing up for their subscription service. Fortunately, I can setup a printer without their software, so I eventually gave up on their software and just did it.
I don’t know how non-tech people deal with tech companies.
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Sherri said on September 9, 2016 at 9:07 pm
More on the Wells Fargo fiasco. I wish all the people calling for standardized testing to evaluate teachers would read and understand the opening of this article.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts#footnote-1473363562477-ref
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basset said on September 9, 2016 at 11:17 pm
Movies… saw the first minutes of “Revenant” at our neighbor’s house tonight and came home, not interested in the rest.
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David C. said on September 10, 2016 at 7:00 am
Do bankers sit around and wonder why people who just want a place to park their money until bill paying time go to credit unions? It’s really nice to deposit a check and at the end hear “see you next time” instead of “you need to sign up for…”.
I saw this WSJ article recently about toilet paper company Kimberly-Clark. They’re in Neenah, just up the road from here (although the HQ decamped to Dallas because the CEO had a hissy fit about taxes), so I know quite a few people who work there. It looks like they’re falling for someone’s software solution to constantly monitor employees to cut out the so-called deadwood. They probably need to read the beginning of the article Sherri posted. I’m sure people are already figuring out how to game that system. So instead of finding the best employees, they find and keep the best schemers, which seems like it would make it a pretty toxic place to work.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/focus-on-performance-shakes-up-stolid-kimberly-clark-1471798944
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Connie said on September 10, 2016 at 7:09 am
I wish I could *like* all of your comments.
From the Texas school shooting story: “In the confusion that followed, numerous law enforcement officers rushed to the scene and a US marshal accidentally shot a Homeland Security agent, Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said.”
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 10, 2016 at 8:16 am
I thought that some of y’all here might appreciate hearing how the argument “contra Trumpum” sounds coming from the right.
The first link is Jonah Goldberg’s latest attempt (in many iterations; he’s been vehemently #NeverTrump from the earliest moment) to stand against the argument from some in the conservative movement that we must “vote Trump or die in shame.” What he’s responding to specifically here is what I see as a last histrionic rage from the rightist contingent hell-bent on making their peace with orange-haired populism, the now-infamous “Flight 93” essay from Claremont which you can find linked within the G-File, but can safely skip (IMHO). What Jonah says that I agree with most strongly is early in the essay: “But America is larger than one election for one office in one branch in one of our many layers of government. Indeed, if it’s true that America is one election away from death, then America is already dead. Because the whole idea of this country is that most of life exists outside of the scope of government.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/439906/flight-93-election-hillary-clinton-threat-america
And Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic takes his own, more centrist conservative tack on refuting the “Flight 93” screed:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/an-attack-on-founding-principles-at-the-claremont-institute/499094/
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 10, 2016 at 8:29 am
Sherri, I did appreciate the link to your congregation’s innovative approach to feeding the hungry. Good stuff; congregations are more and more finding that if they just look (and pray, then look again with new eyes) at what’s happening in their contexts, and consider how they can respond as themselves to their reality to bring healing, hope, help — good things happen. If you just try to follow corporate models and package programs of revitalization and outreach, you go in rote circles of mild helpfulness.
Which is why, as you note in the WaPo piece on prosperity gospelism, which is hamstringing the charismatic movements in American Christianity — which had an opportunity to break the racially segregated bind of US church life — and in the culture warrior model of conservative segregation-affirming churches, both existing in parallel if not identical orbits with the gospeltainment models of worship and church planting, I think the future of Christianity in this country is going to end up, at least some hundred years or so from now, in the hands of modest-sized, humble, relationally-balanced congregations who read the stories and narratives of the Gospel in the light of where they’re planted, who they’re neighbor to, and focused on how they can care for those nearest them with the gifts and the graces they’ve been given. Jeremiah 29:7 is going to be the key, building up communities by being a community and sharing the blessings of that community life without distinction with those around them.
These other forms of “church”? They will leave behind impressive ruins and little legacy to speak of beyond a staggering waste. There, that’s my sermon for the weekend. Here ends the reading, go now in grace and peace to love and serve the Lord.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2016 at 9:43 am
Jeff tmmo, I really tried to read the Jonah Goldberg link, I gave it a try but I couldn’t get through the whole thing, especially the part about sexism. He doesn’t get it. So I ask you this: just what does the right think Hillary is going to do that will ruin this country? Please spell it out because from my point of view there is nothing there. I really want to know.
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David C. said on September 10, 2016 at 10:21 am
The Marmalade Malefactor says she doesn’t look presidential which, I guess, means she isn’t a black man. I’m going to overlook that and vote for her anyway.
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Scout said on September 10, 2016 at 11:26 am
While it should be of comfort that the POTUS is not an absolute ruler (although the Tangerine Hellbeast doesn’t seem to realize that) the fact that she/he makes lifetime appointments to SCOTUS has tremendous repercussions for the future of society. It is very important that HRC and not tRump make the next few. And yes, I know I’m preaching to the choir here!
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Jakash said on September 10, 2016 at 1:23 pm
Deborah,
I’m sure Jeff will have a much better answer than I do, but many of the folks supporting Rumpelthinskin think the country is MUCH worse off now than in 2009, when Obama took over. Thanks Obama! The primary thing that they’re actually logical about is that Hillary will continue down the path that he’s charted. Obviously to us, one is hard pressed to find a measure by which the country is not actually a whole lot better off than when Obama took over, so continuing his policies, especially when contrasted with empowering an egomaniacal, racist, xenophobic incompetent like Rump seems like a no-brainer. But many of his supporters believe Obama is a Muslim, e.g. Lots think the world is 6,000 years old. Not a whole lot of room for rational persuasion with folks like that.
As I’ve said before, ad nauseam, what bothers me more are the lefties who think it’s a legitimate choice to support anybody other than Hillary. As if Johnson and Stein aren’t much more problematic candidates than she is, in the first place. The only thing that keeps Hillary from running away with this stupid election is the 24 years of folks bashing the Clintons for things that other politicians are never called on, leading to the popular impression that she’s somehow uniquely untrustworthy. Which is BS.
On a lighter note, as for Hillary not “looking Presidential,” here’s a fun romp through the photo gallery of our fearless leaders:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/09/07/how-hillary-clinton-can-get-that-presidential-look/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b&utm_term=.eee7dc8f8973
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Sherri said on September 10, 2016 at 2:25 pm
I read the Goldberg and Friedersdorf essays. I can never really get what Goldberg is writing about, usually, because it often feels like he’s writing for himself, to show himself how clever he is. The line you highlighted is a good one, but mostly he just asserts things as self-evident without argument. Which is why I read Friedersdorf much more often than I read Goldberg; I may disagree with him regularly, but at least he makes arguments.
On the other end, how do people feel about Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” line?
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Deborah said on September 10, 2016 at 2:34 pm
I get it that the right isn’t going to like the SCOTUS judges that Hillary will appoint and that they won’t like an extension of some of the things that Obama put into place, mostly Obamacare. Got that. But what pray tell do they think she is going to do that will RUIN this country, that will actually bring it to its knees? What do they think is going to happen, for reals??? I mean like the guy who compared this country to flight 93, what do they think is so wrong with this country that it’s like a 911 aircraft headed for a building? It’s like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling, IMHO. Somebody please explain their dire predictions to me. It makes no sense. Is that it? That it makes no sense and they don’t care that it makes no sense?
I honestly don’t think Trump is going to blow up the world. I think he is an embarrassment and he’s going to set a lot of things backwards like civil rights, women’s rights, healthcare etc, which will be a crying shame. And I would be worried about the economy which I always am with Republican presidents. I really, really hope he doesn’t get elected but if he does, I’m going to be very, very sad for a lot of people (myself included) but it won’t be the end of the world or the end of civilization as we know it, which to me is what the right is saying about Hillary, if she wins. Why is that?
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Deborah said on September 10, 2016 at 2:41 pm
Sherri, in answer to your “deplorables” question. I agree with Josh at TPM http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-critical-hillary-can-t-back-down
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alex said on September 10, 2016 at 3:00 pm
I think “basket of deplorables” is lame. I think she should have said “legion of assholes.”
53 percent of Trump supporters think Obama’s a Muslim. You can’t pretend that these people don’t harbor racial and religious animus.
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Sherri said on September 10, 2016 at 3:44 pm
I think that it’s demonstrating that once again it’s perceived to be worse to call people racist than for people to actually be racist. I don’t think this was a gaffe, I think it was intentional. It was at a fundraiser where the media was present, she knew it would be reported. It’s a reminder to the base, which is made up of women, POC, Jews, Muslims, a multiracial, multiethnic coalition, that she’s got our back, that she’s going to fight the white nationalists that Trump has whipped up.
It’s a GOTV message.
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Suzanne said on September 10, 2016 at 3:49 pm
I know so many Trump supporters, but I still can’t really explain their love of him. They truly live in an alternate universe. Facts are subjective, so proving that the economy has improved, unemployment is down, gay marriage has not brought the wrath of God upon us won’t matter. They love Trump because he tells it like it is, but when Hillary tells it like it is, she is evil. They believe that the Clintons have had people killed, but Trump waxing eloquent about Putin, under whose watch journalists and political enemies have mysteriously disappeared or died, does not raise an eyebrow. They point out that Bill Clinton is a terrible womanizer, possibly rapist, but it doesn’t faze them that Trump has bragged about this very behavior. I know plenty of people who still believe Obama is a Kenyan born Muslim and that he thinks he’s above the law because of his use of executive orders even though it is proven fact that he has issued fewer than the past 4 or 5 presidents. I know plenty of people who believe GM should have been allowed to collapse even though their own jobs may have been jeopardized by that collapse.
Facts do not matter to these people. At all. Many are otherwise decent, responsible, hard working people. I can’t explain it. I wish I could because I am getting such a clear picture of how tyrants come to power and it scares me.
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Sherri said on September 10, 2016 at 3:56 pm
Clinton gave a speech laying out the case for Trump’s campaign as bigotedand the press treated it as on the same plane as Trump calling her a bigot. Now I see Brian Stelter of CNN saying we need facts to have this discussion. We do, but maybe you should have paid more attention in Reno.
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Sherri said on September 10, 2016 at 6:35 pm
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the “basket of deplorables” and the shortcomings of the political press: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/basket-of-deplorables/499493/
The people who are most offended, I think, by Clinton’s remark are the people who are supporting Trump but don’t consider themselves bigots. The white nationalists are proud of their beliefs. However, if you don’t believe that you are a bigot, you need to consider what you are doing supporting someone who clearly is. The only question that is under discussion is how many of Trump’s supporters are bigots, not whether there is a noticeable number.
If you support Trump, you are either a bigot, or tolerant of bigotry. That’s it.
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susan said on September 10, 2016 at 7:50 pm
Hughes High School, Cincinnati. (This comment actually goes with the preceding post, but I think the commenting is dead there.)
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Deborah said on September 10, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Sherri, I think her deplorable statement was calculated. She made headlines and she’s speaking to her base, even Bernie supporters, I think that kind of talk would make headway with them.
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Sherri said on September 10, 2016 at 8:38 pm
David Farenthold has done a painstaking job tracking down Trump’s (lack of) charitable giving. None of it would have been necessary has Trump released his taxes. Farenthold has a big article about Trump using his foundation to donate other people’s money, while doing things with that money like:
In one of those cases — not previously reported — Trump spent $20,000 of money earmarked for charitable purposes to buy a six-foot-tall painting of himself.
There’s more, including violating IRS regs, here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-retooled-his-charity-to-spend-other-peoples-money/2016/09/10/da8cce64-75df-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html
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Dexter said on September 11, 2016 at 1:04 am
Joe…I have heard and read from a couple sources that the crash scene in “Cast Away” was real as it gets…any thoughts? Also, I was in a troop transport plane…and I never could verify, but I think it was a C-130 aircraft, flying from Ton Son Nhut AFB to Cam Ranh Bay in a damn monsoon, when the pilot was experiencing all kinds of difficulties and found a remote airstrip and banged that plane down hard; we bounced twice and a hard gust hit the wing and spun us halfway around and the wing became part of the landing gear, but it did not break off. Several of the soldiers aboard suffered broken bones…my seat restraining belt-thing was broken from the start and I was hurled across the cabin into the lap of three dudes…we weren’t hurt at all. Well, the helicopters were called in but refused to land because it was too “hot” right there…we were hustled into some old buildings and had to hang out there for two days before support fire cleared a safe passage for some trucks to drive in and get us…the helicopters just refused. I and a couple other guys were medics but had not been issued any medicines yet, but the pilot had a kit with some morphine so the guys with the broken bones had a little relief…damn, that Vietnam war…always excitement. Or crushing boredom. One or the other.
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Dexter said on September 11, 2016 at 1:06 am
I saw photographic proof…Gidget learned to surf. Woot woot! (Facebook)
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Deborah said on September 11, 2016 at 11:05 am
I’m so glad this guy has been our president for almost eight years https://medium.com/the-white-house/behind-the-lens-from-lake-tahoe-to-laos-1362b3e53838#.5abebi8ne
I’m going to miss him, looking forward to seeing what he does with his life post-presidency. Hope he ends up back in Chicago.
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MarkH said on September 11, 2016 at 3:21 pm
Basset! You lucky car guy, you. Great Italian car designs in Nashville. Have you been to this display?
http://fristcenter.org/news/detail/bellissima-the-italian-automotive-renaissance-19451975
Just found out about it this morning that the Alfa BAT cars are on US soil as a part of all this. Incredible automotive design exercise from the ’50s and precursors to the great Alfa Spiders of the ’50s and ’60s, especially the ’66 Duetto (the Graduate car) and its successors. Would love to see them in (and everything else)in person. CBS had a nice feature on it this morning.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/italian-beauties-on-four-wheels/
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Deborah said on September 11, 2016 at 6:56 pm
I feel for Hillary at the 9/11 event today. She has been put through the wringer for 20+ years. I decided to double the amount I was scheduled to donate to her campaign for September. I can’t imagine having to endure everything she’s had to.
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St Bitch said on September 11, 2016 at 7:19 pm
Deborah – Consider yourself virtually hugged…partially for your staunch & compassionate support of HRC; but mostly for your unwavering optimism. When nausea ambushes me at random moments over the prospect of a tRump presidency, I invoke what I call my ‘Deborah Mantras’…
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