Splitsville.

The mail is so exciting in campaign season.

trumpnote

Do you think it’s an invitation to the inaugural ball?

Alas, he just wants some money.

I’m so OD’d on you-know-who that I’d like to talk about something else: Brangelina, kaput, at least temporarily. Am I the only one who thinks Jennifer Aniston is still pretty hot, while Angelina Jolie has starved herself into a bundle of sticks and a jawbone? And while Brad Pitt is still capable of being kinda sexy onscreen, when I see him I mostly imagine he is the sort of guy who has near-constant B.O., but no one around him will say anything.

Jen, on the other hand, while extremely thin and no slouch at jawbone projection herself, at least looks like she had maybe half a sandwich — cucumber, on extra-thin bread, with low-fat cream cheese and just a tiny bit of it — in the last 24 hours. And she has those great blue California-girl eyes, plus excellent comic timing. Who doesn’t like a girl who can be funny more than one who is obsessed with saving the world?

Meanwhile, this guy:

Sorry, I was looking for a picture of Brad looking all scruffy, but even then, he’s still pretty cute.

Whenever celebrities divorce, somebody always expresses disappointment and the belief that these two were “for real.” I’m reminded of something Anna Quindlen wrote, I believe about the severing of Brigitte Nielsen and Sylvester Stallone, who were briefly married. She was said to have met him after she sent a nude photo of herself up to his hotel room. After they split, Quindlen wondered how people could express the slightest surprise. You want to be surprised? How about a man who walks into his kitchen after 15 years of marriage and three kids, announces he’s leaving because he just now realized he doesn’t love his wife and never did. Now that should be news. And it never is.

I’m sure Brad will land on his feet, maybe after spending the fall with his buddy George Clooney, at his Italian villa. And then Clooney will get divorced, too.

Wednesday is looming, and I have no bloggage, because I was Truth Squadding all day and will continue tomorrow. You guys always have better ones, anyway.

Posted at 12:10 am in Popculch |
 

131 responses to “Splitsville.”

  1. Dexter said on September 21, 2016 at 2:40 am

    The only source I have is a radio comment from a guy who looked up the news on some gossip site: Angelina suspected Brad, after being tipped off by someone (no idea who) of being unfaithful (NO! How can it BE?)
    Angie hired a spy who came back to her with evidence…Brad has been sleeping with his co-star on his new movie shoot set. And that’s all there is, as they say.

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  2. Linda said on September 21, 2016 at 5:04 am

    ….and supposedly, the object of Brad’s affections is Marion Cotillard, a skinny, darkly exotic actress, though she and her peeps hotly deny it. Who could have seen that?

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  3. Linda said on September 21, 2016 at 5:05 am

    …and she is an environmental do-Gooder too. It’s like he went to the Xerox machine.

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  4. adrianne said on September 21, 2016 at 6:47 am

    All I can say is, Brad, honey, I’m here for you in your time of turmoil. No judgments! My fave take on their breakup was a whirlwind photo package of all the gals Brad has dated. It’s quite a collection.

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  5. basset said on September 21, 2016 at 7:00 am

    I have about as much chance of going to this event as I do of dating one of the actresses just mentioned, but it des look like fun:

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/automobiles/collectibles/a-tweedy-gathering-of-vintage-cars-at-goodwood.html?smid=tw-nytimeswheels&smtyp=cur&module=Slide®ion=SlideShowTopBar&version=SlideCard-5&action=Click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&slideshowTitle=Two%20Days%20at%20the%20Races¤tSlide=5&entrySlide=1&pgtype=imageslideshow&referer=

    how can I shorten these long addresses?

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  6. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 7:07 am

    My wife would be unhappy about forays into cocaine and Russian hookers, too, but my workplace doesn’t tend to provide such temptations. My wife was unhappy about getting that same piece of mail marked “Personal” but it did make a satisfying “thwack” in the recycling bin. I think it was her wrist action.

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  7. Suzanne said on September 21, 2016 at 7:10 am

    I keep getting mail from Donald J. too. I cut my name off everything, stuff it all in the postage paid envelope and sen it back. Makes them spend postage and is my small protest.

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  8. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 7:15 am

    Oh, and I have to post this 50’s era picture of a Dairy Queen for Sherri, because in the endless tidal surge of the internet, it drifted by and had the caption “Redmond, WA” on it.

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  9. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 7:19 am

    HTML tags are fun, Basset – Just put in this, without the asterisks:

    Blah blah blah, then words about the website that will end up in bold and then blah blah blah.

    It’s the tag closer — — that when missing can create interesting havoc downstream.

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  10. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 7:20 am

    Dang. I didn’t put the blocking symbols in the right place. Help!

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  11. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 7:21 am

    Let me try showing the tags with returns:

    W3C organization website

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  12. alex said on September 21, 2016 at 8:08 am

    I didn’t bother to cut my name off of the materials in that Personal letter before scrawling insults on it and sending it back postage-paid. If it lands me on some McCarthy-ish list of un-Americans, so be it.

    A Hollywood marriage down the shitter and people are surprised and go into mourning? Whatevs. If you want to know why half the people in this country never bother to vote, it’s because they think celebrity gossip suffices for news consumption and their world revolves around it to the exclusion of anything that really matters. If religion is the opiate of the masses, Hollywood is their caffeine.

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  13. Deborah said on September 21, 2016 at 8:14 am

    Jeff tmmo, I heard that thwack from here.

    Marion Cotillard, another young actress I had never heard of and had to google. Angie must feel pretty bad, after having her boobs removed and rebuilt and all. Here’s hoping she goes on to make some good movies.

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  14. Heather said on September 21, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Brad cheated on Jen with Angelina–the way you get ’em is the way you lose ’em. I was always Team Jen. Angelina is a boring actress and just doesn’t seem like a lot of fun to hang out with.

    Brad is not my type but he has been looking very Old Hollywood movie star attractive lately when he makes an effort. He cleans up nice.

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  15. Dave said on September 21, 2016 at 8:57 am

    Basset, go to tinyurl.com and paste in the address, then copy the shortened address.

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  16. Kirk said on September 21, 2016 at 9:01 am

    Aniston: hot.

    Jolie: still ugly, with those ridiculous lips.

    I registered Republican to vote for Kasich, but am yet to get anything from Trump. Abbie Hoffman suggested taping the return envelope to a brick and tossing it in the mailbox, in hopes that it would be delivered with postage due.

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  17. Icarus said on September 21, 2016 at 9:34 am

    Maybe Hollywood people should have had to fight for the right to marry more than same-sex couples.

    I got the same letter from Trumph. Last year I got a survey from the Republican Party, which was really a veiled attempt to ask for money. I filled it out the way a very liberal republican might answer the questions and sent it back.

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  18. Deborah said on September 21, 2016 at 9:39 am

    Tired of politics? Here’s a cute article http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-kc-super-hero-window-washers-met-20160919-story.html

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  19. Julie Robinson said on September 21, 2016 at 9:58 am

    Gutted! I’m not getting anything from Trump. I just get those darn right-to-life letters, the ones with the little fetus on the envelope. Lacking a paid return envelope, they too make a satisfactory thwack.

    And I’m ashamed to say I clicked on a couple of the splitsville stories yesterday, as a palate cleanser in a rough day at the office. My thoughts were along the lines of Heather’s–he was married when they hooked up, and there was a clear pattern of womanizing, so what else would you expect? And they are in a movie together coming out soon, which should make for interesting publicity tours in which one is carefully whisked out before the other is whisked in. Beats the election for sure.

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  20. Dorothy said on September 21, 2016 at 10:07 am

    Boy, great minds think alike around here. I’ve done the same thing but I’ve added a few choice words. I’m a Democrat. These mailings are coming addressed to my husband’s aunt, whose legal address is our address (he’s her Power of Attorney). But she’s wearing diapers and making enemies of everyone she comes in contact with at the VA in Pittsburgh (she’s a nasty, racist snotnose of a woman) and not really capable of making important decisions like voting for president. Therefore I’m being free with a Sharpie marker and writing as many nasty things I can. His Royal Orangeness will never see it but I wonder if his envelope opener flunkies have a pile of the ones they trade around for laughs?

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  21. Jeff Borden said on September 21, 2016 at 10:19 am

    The state of Illinois is in an awful mess financially as is the City of Chicago and the County of Cook. We’re broker than broke and looking at tens of billions of unfunded pensions in addition to the gang wars and killings that are bringing such misery and shame to my city. That said, as a solid blue state, we get none of the robocalls, mailings or radio and TV commercials the poor saps in swing states must endure.

    So we have that going for us. . .which is nice.

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  22. Jolene said on September 21, 2016 at 10:20 am

    I’m quite amused by your postal protests. The idea hadn’t occurred to me, but maybe I’ll take it up.

    Dorothy, you could Mike’s aunt back for her nastiness by filling out an absentee ballot on her behalf with your political choices, not that I’d advocate undermining the integrity of the election, of course.

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  23. jcburns said on September 21, 2016 at 10:34 am

    Basset@5: everything after the .html, beginning with the ? is just tracking crap that lets them keep an eye on you.

    So:

    http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/automobiles/collectibles/a-tweedy-gathering-of-vintage-cars-at-goodwood.html

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  24. LAMary said on September 21, 2016 at 10:35 am

    I get a lot of mail about the propositions that are on the ballot. California loves their propositions. I also have been added to the Scientology mailing list by someone. It may be the same person who signed me up for a four year subscription to O magazine.

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  25. Mark P said on September 21, 2016 at 10:50 am

    I always send crap solicitations and political mail back if there is a postage-paid envelope. I suspect that the openers do like a well-known church that checked for money and immediately threw the prayer request into the trash. At least there is some cost to them.

    I always preferred Jennifer to Angelina, but then who knows what either is like as a person, in person.

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  26. LAMary said on September 21, 2016 at 10:54 am

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk

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  27. Joe Kobiela said on September 21, 2016 at 10:54 am

    Waiting in Elmira NY and who do you think is coming in?
    Why it’s the Governor Mr Quomo, should I shake his hand?
    Sure are a lot of people with things in there ears walking around.
    Pilot Joe

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  28. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 11:41 am

    Thanks for the photo, Jeff. There’s still a DQ in Redmond, but it doesn’t look like that! We also have a local gourmet ice cream store that’s more likely to have a crowd standing in line for scoops.

    As I understand it, Trump has scooped up mailing lists from unusual sources in this campaign, i.e. cheaper sources, so they aren’t targeted very well at all.

    Brad Pitt has never been all that much to me, but if Matt Damon ever leaves his wife, I’m ready to comfort him.

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  29. MarkH said on September 21, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    Jeff, Looks just like the DQ my Uncle John and Aunt Mary Lou owned in East McKeesport, PA back in the day. Actually they owned two, the other in Monroeville. Nothing like being a kid with relatives in the DQ business.

    Basset – Goodwood has been at the top of my bucket list for YEARS. No better gathering if vintage cars and racers, that still are raced! Like you, maybe not in my cards (sigh). Will look forward to settling for the video report on Velocity channel, though.

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  30. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    You’ll never guess who Ross Douthat blames for the current state of affairs, including Trump! Liberals, of course, for being so liberal and taking over his TV with all their late night shows, especially that Samantha Bee.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/opinion/campaign-stops/clintons-samantha-bee-problem.html

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  31. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    Is anyone surprised that Douthat singled out Samantha Bee, among all those male late night hosts, for special opprobrium? Will the NYTimes ever assemble a roster of opinion writers whose OpEds couldn’t be generated by not very good AI? I know it’s hard to write something good every week, but when’s the last time Douthat, Dowd, Friedman, or Brooks wrote an interesting column?

    The Times isn’t alone, of course. Papers hang onto columnists long after they’ve ceased to produce anything interesting or even worth reading, just like they keep comics that haven’t been funny in two decades. You’d think they might try something new, since their business model has been falling apart, but evidently not.

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  32. St Bitch said on September 21, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    As an introvert who craves solitude, I vacillated about joining the canvassing effort for Hillary last weekend, when my friend declined to join me (“It’s not my thing”). However, with the polls tightening, Nate Silver telling us we should panic if the trend continues, and my innards getting gnawed at by the mutant orange rat; I bit the bullet and signed up for a 3-hour shift.

    It turned out to not only to be painless, but somewhat rewarding, on a gorgeous Iowa Indian summer afternoon that invited any excuse for being outdoors. A mere baby of a girl (high school or college-age), scrub-faced with long strait hair and a sweet smile, was in charge at the Bagel Diner where we gathered. Those on the “phone banks” were given cells, and settled in. We foot-soldiers were given clipboard kits, with scripts and lists of Democrats with names, addresses, gender and age, grouped by precinct. Mine had 34 doors.

    We weren’t a large group, most of us dressed as if going on a picnic. One woman was in running shorts. Two women went as a team. One middle-aged guy obviously knew his way around a canvass, suggesting to a few of us that we lose the script…keep it short and to the point…that most people are in a hurry to be doing something else. I took him for a mentor.

    The main thrust of the ground game is to get absentee ballots out to potential voters, and to gather updated data. It’s savvy and well-organized, but depends on there being enough volunteers to have an impact. My own contribution wasn’t as robust as it should have been because I only got to half of the doors on my list. After giving out a few absentee ballots, and one registration form, I got hung up at a door that had a yellowed hand-lettered sign that said “TIMES”, with a down-pointing arrow, taped to it.

    If the listed resident was still there (many have moved), he was a 93-year-old Democrat. I rang the doorbell and knocked several times….was just retreating while checking off the ‘not at home’ box, having waited long enough for someone elderly to cross the endless desert and obstacle course of their square footage, when the door opened a crack with the chain on. I introduced myself and asked him if he was who my info said he was.

    …to be continued soon (I want to do this story justice)

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  33. brian stouder said on September 21, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    St B – an excellent cliff-hanger! (and I want to find out about the sign of the “Times”)

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  34. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 2:12 pm

    Can’t wait for the rest of the story! I feel you, St. B, I always have to really psych myself up to doorbell or phonebank because I really don’t like having to interact with strangers that much.

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  35. Dexter said on September 21, 2016 at 2:20 pm

    Just a point of emphasis: Dave at #15 has the best solution…I have used Tinyurl for many years and never yet has it failed.
    And from left field: Werther’s Original Creamy Caramel Filled Hard Candy is the best old people’s candy this side of a confection shoppe that makes their own fresh candies. I allow my self a 2 ounce bag of them sometimes when I get a perfect reading on my A1C test. Perfect score, bag of Werther’s, which I stretch out over a week. There goes another one, damn fine they are.

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  36. Deborah said on September 21, 2016 at 2:41 pm

    St. B, I’m so glad you went canvassing, now you’ve convinced me that it might not be that bad. I’m anxious to hear the end of your story though. I’m glad I didn’t commit myself last weekend to go to whatever state they were going to bus us, the weekend turned out to be really busy, so next time…

    Not that I think about this a lot but since it’s a topic today, I’m on Angelina’s side. Mainly for the sake of the kids. When Pitt left Aniston there were no kids involved. I can’t imagine being the woman dallying with Pitt knowing he has that brood, shame on her.

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  37. Heather said on September 21, 2016 at 3:00 pm

    Illinois is a blue state, so no door-to-door for me, but I might sign up to do some phone banking. Then at least I can say I did something besides donate money. I don’t know what else to do.

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  38. adrianne said on September 21, 2016 at 3:03 pm

    In other news, Vox had an excellent story today on what a coward Liz Spayd is as the new public editor of the New York Times. Dithering over whether it’s a good idea to call Trump a liar? Have some courage, mate!

    She’s nowhere near as good as her predecessor, Margaret Sullivan, a no-b.s. editor from Buffalo NY.

    Here’s the Vox story: http://www.vox.com/2016/9/21/12999828/nyt-public-editor-trump

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  39. Jakash said on September 21, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    I’ve never used tinyurl, mainly because I’m a clueless twit. I’m aware of it, of course. The one thing I’d say is that I prefer JC’s @23 solution of lopping off the second half of the original url, because then you at least see where you’re headed and usually what the link is about. I usually won’t click on a blind link with a tinyurl, even here at nn.c, where I know nobody’s out to get us.

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  40. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    Full Marky! http://savetheday.vote/#The_Vids

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  41. Jakash said on September 21, 2016 at 3:10 pm

    As for Sherri’s NYT link @30, (which gives a good hint of the content, BTW), I gotta say that, while I agree with her that his picking Bee out of the bonnet of late-night entertainers is telling, I think he has a point that many on the left are proclaiming victory in the culture wars when the battle is far from won. I’m on the side of tolerance and acceptance, but I still squirm when I see some of the instances of what I consider over-reach, and the dismissiveness with which some treat middle-of-the-roaders for whom, say, “Transparent” isn’t their cup of tea. I actually agree that this “you’re with us or you’re a Nazi” is costing Hillary votes. But the irony still is that she could afford to lose those votes, if the freaking holier-than-thou lefties supporting Stein or suggesting that Trump wouldn’t be so bad, because the disaster of his presidency would pave the way for a socialist nirvana in 2020, would get on board.

    As for the triumphant left — yes, look at all the positive changes there have been since the 60’s. But look also at the income inequality that has only gotten worse, partly because the righties are better at voting, particularly on the lesser offices than President. Who’d have thought in 1980, say, that folks would still be arguing about freaking *contraception* in 2016? How did so many of the cool kids that I grew up with turn right into their parents? I can never understand that, but it seems to have happened…

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  42. Dorothy said on September 21, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    Jolene you sly fox, you!!! Not that I would ever do that, but man what fun it would be if I could pull it off! She resides in PA but our address is OH of course. We get tax notices every damn year saying she owes taxes in Ohio, etc. etc. Mike has to remind them of the situation by sending paperwork, etc. (I stay out of it but I hear him gripe about it). If I sent in an absentee ballot for her and they came researching it, my luck I’d be tossed in the clinker for a good while. (Not really but I’m just saying it’s not worth the potential aggravation.) I’m clinging to my belief that Hillary is going to hand Dumpy McDumpsterston his ass on a platter at the debates (all of them, unless he cries like a baby after the first one and refuses to participate in any more) and then again on election day. I don’t think I’ll stay up late on election night, but I probably will charge my phone on my nightstand so I can check it for updates in the middle of the night.

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  43. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 3:23 pm

    Jakash, what I disagree with is the idea, promulgated by Douthat and others, that the left created Trumpism. Conservatives have been on this,path for decades, and Samantha Bee calling out Trump’s racism isn’t the problem. As much as the Clinton-hating lefties would like to believe it, Democrats aren’t the big cause of income inequality either.

    The bigotry demonstrated in this campaign has been exceptional, and I think it’s important for what happens beyond this election that it be called out and made unacceptable for polite society. I know that makes some people uncomfortable. Nobody has to watch Transparent. All I ask is they treat other human beings, including trans people, with common courtesy and respect. Don’t carry your gun into the bathroom at Target because you’re afraid you’re going to be attacked by a trans person who’s just there for the same reason you are; to take care of her human needs with a little privacy.

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  44. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    And income inequality has worsened in large part because of globalism, which is something that has me unnerved by both candidates. Trump and Clinton as well are making some hay out of opposition to NAFTA & TPP, let alone the technical versus the visceral meanings of “most favored nation” in trade status talks, yet I don’t feel that anyone in either party has really tried to take on an honest discussion about trade and what it is doing, and will yet do, combined with the accelerating impact of internet sales and supply even on a more national and regional scale.

    I worry greatly that the hollowing out of most of truly rural America is going to continue hollowing out whole cities and at least neighborhoods, and the only new urbanism I see at work is the kind that makes professionals happy. Everyone else gets either old stock as cut-up rentals or large blocs of apartment/condo-mania, keyhole drive after keyhole drive until you get the last turn and the storm runoff pond surrounded by non-voting Canada geese.

    We’re going to need better housing policy than our current Metro-/Section 8 vouchers provide, and neighborhoods that can survive more than the initial selling period and inevitable sale of the whole complex to a holding company with a home address in Dusseldorf. And on trade, I think the only way out is through, not going back to tariffs and shoreline protectionism. Globalism is going to have to take on global standards of labor rights and environmental protection, and it’s going to get worse for the American middle class before it gets better . . . but trying to retreat into Fortress America is the only worse option.

    To be fair, our two senators from Ohio have not only each but even together tried to take this subject on, but not in the last nine months. Maybe Portman and Brown will pick up the roadshow again after Nov. 8. If there is an “after Nov. 8.”

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  45. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    Dang, I was just at a Target today buying alarm clocks, and forgot my gun. It’s a muzzleloader, so . . .

    Bought $50 worth of alarm clocks for “my” kids, started in on the first round of truancy interventions in our county middle schools. Honestly, if I wasn’t planning to do this job a few more years, I would write such a blistering essay on our culture of consequences — we are so damnably* addicted to consequences as the solution to everything, and it warps and contorts everything it touches, from child development to adult recovery programs and so many trolley stops in between. But if it becomes clear, if you mis-speak in front of the wrong assistant principals or (some of the worst) building secretaries, and they realize you think punishment and punitive measures, no matter how “humanely” applied on fully “in compliance with district and state policy” they are, they write you off as a softy, a lefty (you can imagine how THAT makes me feel!), a squish . . . and then they REALLY put up barriers and choke off the information flow.

    So my “culture of consequences” rant will have to wait for another day . . . while we wait for a sign of the “Times”!

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  46. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Maybe Douthat thinks that conservatives need some trigger warnings and safe spaces and that the liberals should be more politically correct when talking about bigots.

    And while I’m ranting, I’m really tired of hearing the phrase “earn my vote.” It’s only slightly less annoying than “vote my conscience.” Voting is not some passive activity, where your personal shopper brings all the candidates by to see which one fits your individual style the best. Voting is participatory democracy, where you decide the best mechanism to improve your part of the world. You can’t send a message with your vote; if you want to send a message, call, write, email your elected official.

    You want change, do the work. .

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  47. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    Jeff, if you can stand to read some really squishy softy liberal stuff on the problems of using consequences and rewards, Alfie Kohn has written a number of good books on the topic. You might also find Brene Brown on shame interesting.

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  48. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 3:56 pm

    Look, the white supremacy element in this campaign is real and not normal. It needs to be stopped, and pretending that it’s the fault of liberal overreach or economic anxiety is ludicrous. This shit is dangerous.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/trump-supporters-neo-nazis-white-nationalists-kkk-militias-racism-hate

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/09/20/kkk-leaving-fliers-and-candy-lawns-across/GmR3RkRODAUYh1GEv42fbM/story.html

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  49. Jakash said on September 21, 2016 at 4:28 pm

    If my comment somehow read as if I’m not concerned about the *actual* racist and misogynist element of Rumpelthinskin’s support, then I wasn’t very clear. Of course the KKK stuff and Nazi memes should be called out. I surely agree that Sam Bee calling Rump on his racism is not the problem. But the economic element goes back at least to “What’s the matter with Kansas?” and is not *simply* explained by racism. And I’m not a fan of overgeneralization in service of arguments I agree with or disagree with.

    I don’t know how anybody can look at the campaign over the last year and even consider voting for Rump, myself. But, to try to be more clear about why I think some “regular” folks are; if I had to place the lion’s share of the blame, it wouldn’t be on liberal over-reach, but on the RealityTVization of America and the triumph of opinion journalism over the old-fashioned fact-based version.

    As for “see which one fits your individual style the best,” I also agree. I saw some piece where they interviewed some Ohio folks and the woman was waffling about maybe voting for Rump, because she can’t really cotton to Hillary, who then said that if Hillary came to her town, she WOULD vote for her. That “Oh, they shook my hand, they’re the one for me!” attitude is another thing I find disconcerting, though if it works, I wish Hillary would go to that town! : )

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  50. Heather said on September 21, 2016 at 4:41 pm

    Not depressed enough about what this election is showing about the mindset of some voters? Watch and despair.

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  51. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    I can’t find a set of economic conditions in which white people were willing to share anything with other people. When Truman began the first hesitant steps towards civil rights with the first bill and with desegregating the military, Strom Thurmond left the party and ran as a Dixicrat. In ’64, George Wallace tried a run for the Democratic nomination with the same kind of noxious racism he had made his brand, taking his rallies outside the South with success, and made his independent bid in ’68 with much the same kind of model Trump is running now: big rallies, a little violence for that “frisson of excitement”, earned media, and won 5 states. His rallies drew well not just in the South. The Southern Strategy wasn’t about the economy.

    Maybe Thomas Frank is just full of shit. The liberals are always accused of disdaining the white working class, but maybe Frank is the one who treats them like they’re stupid. If their economic conditions were that important to the voters of Kansas, then I suspect they were smart enough to vote like it. I suspect that they’re more afraid that “their America is being taken away from them”, by which they mean, white Christian America will no longer be the dominant culture in America. And they’re right; in another 25-30 years, America will be majority minority. California already is.

    As for rural America, there are no easy answers. The fact is, rural America has pretty much always been a shitty place to live. FDR made it better by bringing electricity everywhere, and when I was growing up in rural TVA land, that was still remembered. The free market has little to offer rural America, because rural America doesn’t have enough to offer the free market. Every improvement that has come to rural America has come with the heavy hand of government on it, but now rural America has decided that government is evil.

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  52. Dorothy said on September 21, 2016 at 5:12 pm

    Has anyone else seen this yet? Surely some of you have – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFQhw3VVToQ I told a friend that if I wasn’t so stunned by what these people are saying, I would probably cry.

    And on my way home tonight a car blew past me on the highway. In the back window painted in pink letters this message: ARREST THE LYING HAG ALREADY.

    I am really despairing for our country. Truly.

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  53. Deborah said on September 21, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    I am so happy that tomorrow is the autumnal equinox I can’t tell you. The older I get the more I hate summer, especially in Chicago. The heat and the humidity are unbearable for me. My future plans are to spend fall and spring in Chicago and summer and winter in New Mexico. It gets hot and cold in NM sure but the dryness makes all the difference. I had no idea this would happen to me in my dotage, but it has. I can’t imagine living in Miami again as I did as a kid, the humidity would kill me now. Friday, the 23rd is my 16th wedding anniversary, officially. Unofficially it’s my 26th because we lived together 10 years before we tied the knot. So Equinox has another connection for me. So looking forward to the fall colors and cooler temps.

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  54. Deborah said on September 21, 2016 at 5:17 pm

    And tomorrow it’s supposed to be 88 in Chicago. Ugh.

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  55. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 6:19 pm

    Here’s the t-shirt I’m wearing today: https://1drv.ms/i/s!Atkosto9G5MXmmnG9qjMRJLgl_U-

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  56. Jakash said on September 21, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    With all due respect, Sherri, truly, that comment (#51) represents just the sort of broad-brushiness that irks me. You talk about “white people” in the first sentence like they’re a monolithic group, then set-up straw-men Strom Thurmond and George Wallace as if they represent the aforementioned white people. Uh, neither of those guys really got very far on the national stage, which they would have if the majority of “white people” weren’t willing “to share anything with other people.” White people sharing things is largely what the war on poverty was about. Promoted by that white Southerner, LBJ. Truman was a white person, too, as were most of the folks who supported him. I think many of the voters of Kansas were worried that the economy was changing, and not to their benefit, about which they were right. Their belief that Ronald Reagan cared more about them than about rich people is where they seemed to be confused, IMHO. Was there way too much racism in America, then? Is there still way too much now? Yes, and yes. Are Hillary’s problems all about racism? No. We’re actually about to find out if sexism is actually a bigger detriment to winning the Presidency than racism, it seems to me.

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  57. David C. said on September 21, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    Sending nastygrams back in tRump business reply mail will work. Unfortunately, sending back heavy items with the label doesn’t work and the post office will treat it as trash and throw it away.

    https://consumerist.com/2007/11/01/update-taping-pre-paid-business-reply-envelopes-to-packages-does-not-work/

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  58. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 7:29 pm

    LBJ was a white person, and he knew that pursuing the path he did on civil rights would cost the Democrats dearly. He was rights. The Democrats haven’t won more than 50% of the white vote in a presidential race since 1964.

    Of course Hillary’s problems aren’t all about racism. If it makes you feel better, I’ll use bigotry instead. It’s fear of the other. You don’t have to tell me about sexism, I’ve lived it. But the fundamental fear that Trump is exploiting is the same fear that Wallace exploited, that Nixon exploited, that Reagan exploited. Nixon and Reagan didn’t use explicit racism; they talked about “law and order” instead.

    Don’t underestimate the impact of Wallace, either. Under the right set of circumstances, he could have been more successful. It took a particular set of circumstances to make Trump the nominee of a major party, but the underlying factors were there in 1964, too. Wallace kicked off his campaign in 1964 in Wisconsin, and drew a packed audience of white working class voters.

    [Wallace] pilloried the civil rights bill as an affront to the rights of hard-working Americans. For the heavily Catholic audience he ladled out attacks on the Supreme Court and its decision banning prayer in public schools. At the end, he told the crowd (which interrupted him thirty-four times with applause), “A vote for this little governor will let the people of Washington know that we want them to leave our homes, schools, jobs, business and farms alone.” After he finished, it would take Wallace more than an hour to wade through the throngs of well-wishers and autograph seekers.

    That’s from American Maelstrom, by Michael Cohen, about the 1968 election, which I highly recommend.

    It’s also easy to say not all white people when it comes to racism, but the fact is, our schools are more segregated than ever because even nice white liberals don’t want them to be integrated if it costs them anything. They don’t want to share; they don’t want to share the property tax revenue, they don’t want to share the resources their good suburban school has, they don’t want too many poor, ESL, below grade level kids in their school sucking down resources and causing test scores to drop driving down property values. If you want to watch a blue city full of liberals and left-wingers melt down into ugly fights, just start messing with the schools.

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  59. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 9:08 pm

    Here’s Douthat’s piece, only written by Damon Linker and with bigger words. It doesn’t read any better, but it still blames liberals and late night talk show hosts. However, Linker doesn’t even think Trump and his supporters are racist.

    http://theweek.com/articles/649886/liberals-keep-denigrating-new-nationalism-racist-nonsense

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  60. alex said on September 21, 2016 at 9:44 pm

    The most liberal of my white friends send their kids to the big private school in town, and the well-to-do conservatives who aren’t Roman Catholic or Missouri Synod Lutheran send their kids there too, because at the end of the day it’s all about prestige and having the right connections regardless of their political leanings. My hat’s off to our own Brian Stouder who walks the walk when it comes to exposing his children to the multiculturalism to which some only pay lip service. Public school is the last great equalizer.

    Jackash, consider this. The other dynamics that weren’t present in and didn’t affect the lowbrow populist campaigns of George Wallace or Strom Thurmond were the post-9/11 fear of Muslims and middle-easterners, or the recent acts of domestic terrorism (though infrequent and isolated) perpetrated by same, or the massive population of unnaturalized Hispanics. Wallace and Thurmond were all about keeping blacks in their traditional place in the social order and so had limited appeal on the national stage. These other developments have given candidate Trump a much bigger and broader list of enemies against whom to peddle fear and loathing in addition to the old resentments of African-Americans. It is he who is using a broad brush. It is absolutely about bigotry and even liberals can be in strong denial about it, though it’s the conservatives who tend to be the most defensive when called out for it.

    When we had a relatively content and prosperous white middle class, patronizing the downtrodden was an affordable luxury. Now that the white middle class is eroded and vulnerable and confronted with a multitude of “others,” it’s much different story and much easier for a demagogue to exploit prejudice.

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  61. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    Brene Brown (and Richard Beck) I know, Kohn I will have to look up. Thank you!

    As a recovering racist, my privilege is one of the biggest obstacles from any ongoing understanding of the experience of the racially disadvantaged, but it seems to me in a contingent fashion that there are too many political opportunities being exploited to maintain racial distinctions even as younger activists are getting less and less interested in fixed identities. I think the rifts in right-wing coalitions are going to be echoed in left-wing quarters over the next two election seasons as traditional definitions of voting blocs erode.

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  62. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 21, 2016 at 10:15 pm

    Noting this, too: “Nonetheless, with his followers—about whom one should not generalize, except to say that most of them would rather be waterboarded than sit through an episode of Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!—he has co-created a space in American politics that is uniquely transgressive, volatile, carnivalesque, and (from a certain angle) punk rock.”

    Weirdly interesting. I don’t know if I buy it, but it’s a complementary angle (not a contradictory one) to the framing of Trump as a simply racist phenomenon.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-sex-pistol/497528/

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  63. basset said on September 21, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    I may try tinyurl. HTML tags are not “fun” – they are too close to coding, which is too close to math, which in my world is a source of frustration and occasional humiliation which I do my best to avoid.

    Sending heavy objects back under a postage-paid label worked for me once, with the Columbia Record Club. Found a damp and mossy brick under the porch, wrapped it in plastic and then in paper, taped the “business reply envelope” on top and away it went. They sent me the label awhile later.

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  64. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    Nothing gets uglier than a school board meeting where the discussion is about changing attendance areas so that white middle class kids would have to attend a school that isn’t so white and middle class. I had two friends both move to other areas when their kids reached school age rather than send them to their assigned school. (They’re both good liberals, it wouldn’t even surprise me if one or both had been Sanders supporters.) I’ve heard people cite the amount they paid for their house as the reason their school shouldn’t have a bunch of Latino kids moved to their school. I’ve seen people use their kids to picket in front of a school board meeting to protest a proposed change in attendance area that would have sent a bunch of mostly white kids to the same school my friends moved away from. This school is not a bad school. It’s just more diverse, culturally and socio-economically. I’ve volunteered at the school. It’s not some hellhole where their precious snowflakes won’t get attention.

    When it comes to people’s kids, you find out exactly how far their liberal values reach.

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  65. basset said on September 21, 2016 at 10:30 pm

    JeffTMMO, I am about the furthest thing from a Trump supporter you’re gonna find and I don’t want any part of Wait, Wait either. Instant channel switch if I get in the car when it’s on. Maybe I’m just not clever enough.

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  66. Sherri said on September 21, 2016 at 11:06 pm

    Damn, people seem to be working hard to find a way other than racist to describe someone who started his move towards the presidency by declaring the current occupant of that office not a citizen and whose major policy focus has been “build that wall.”

    Yeah, it’s not nice to call people racist. It’s not fun to contemplate how many people might be racist. It’s even worse how much racism the Trump campaign has exposed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say again: to support Trump at this point is to either be racist or tolerant of racism. You can come up with all the backlash theories in the world, but that’s not going to change, and I see no reason to excuse it.

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  67. brian stouder said on September 21, 2016 at 11:51 pm

    Well, Alex is too kind – but thanks in any case!

    About 6 years ago, good ol’ Mitch Harper printed an essay I submitted, about how much I (genuinely) love Fort Wayne Community Schools, and the dedicated people (teachers and administrators…and the school board, too!) who make it work.

    And indeed, the evolution of that viewpoint originated from fear; I was genuinely scared when our (now 21 year old!) son was finishing at Towles Montesori middle school, and the prospect of attending (the definitively urban) South Side High School (my old school!) loomed ahead.

    Without re-hashing that essay, let me just say, quite simply, I love Fort Wayne Community Schools especially, and all genuinely public schools generally.

    FWCS has about 31,000 students, and English language learners within the student population show up with 70 different languages.

    We produce American citizens with those schools, despite an almost overtly hostile Indiana state legislature that pushed through an addition to the Indiana state constitution, creating what are called “property tax caps”, wherein homeowners’ property tax cannot exceed 1% of their home’s value.

    Result: affluent suburban schools, with high-value homes get the chrome-plated schools of their dreams, and urban/inner-city school districts can go pound sand!

    On top of that, Fort Wayne’s City Council is bandying about the notion of a major local tax repeal, which will (among other things) blast another gaping hole in Fort Wayne Community Schools’ budget.

    The FWCS board is NOT sitting idly as this misguided(??) bit of policy ripens, but has actively and publicly attacked it….but I cannot help thinking it is very much a part of the unending test/grade/fail/close attack on real public schools, and (by extension) another major pipeline of money for for-profit voucher mills (who can then contribute some cash back to our worthless legislators)

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  68. Dexter said on September 22, 2016 at 1:50 am

    I just watched a great episode of “Weediquette”. It focussed on the Southern Nevada Paiute Indians, and their weed growing operation they so desperately need to stay afloat. Right now they only have 56 Paiute adults on the rez. Coincidentally, I was riding around in cars all over that area last month…the rez is really isolated , way out north of Las Vegas in the worst scrub desert…it struck me as a dismal place to exist. The Paiute also have tribal land right in Las Vegas and the main revenue comes from the Smoke Shop, where along with cigarettes they sell world-class cigars. Income from that store is divided up among the Paiute adults, about $30,000 apiece per annum, when they reach age 21. To be a tribal member, they must have 50% Paiute blood and be able to prove it. Just under 50%? You are just plain fucked, that’s all. It’s not like there’s any living to be made on the rez, so the able-bodied mixed-race young folks must go to Las Vegas to grind out a living. I thought the US government subsidized the tribes, but according to the show, the 30 grand comes from the Smoke Shop profits. Also, it appears it is always a hard fight to get Uncle Sam to approve housing for tribal members when their homes just wear out. The rez is a hard place…think Riverhaven, Indiana in the 1970s.

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  69. Jakash said on September 22, 2016 at 2:01 am

    Sherri, alex,

    “It is absolutely about bigotry.”

    “Damn, people seem to be working hard to find a way other than racist to describe (Trump)…”

    To whatever extent it seems that I require these reminders — uh, I don’t. I have no illusions about the Cheeto Charlatan, nor the “campaign” that he’s run. I can’t believe that I’ve somehow involved myself in a discussion of just how many folks belong in the basket of deplorables. I surely don’t know, though I’m not gonna concede that it’s *everybody* who might vote for him, even if that’s what it would take to make sense of our long, national nightmare.

    Anyway, my original comment was about how the culture wars continue to factor into all of this, and I certainly don’t intend to continue any further down this rabbit hole.

    On a cheerier note, kudos, indeed, to Brian and his family for their whole-hearted support of public education!

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  70. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 3:10 am

    Here are people doing good and cool things in the world: the 2016 MacArthur Fellows.

    Not everything is going to hell in a, well, you know.

    https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class/class-2016/

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  71. basset said on September 22, 2016 at 6:53 am

    My work includes some school outreach, and yesterday I was in an urban middle school, grades 5-8, where the school’s literacy coach – says something right there that they even need one – told me that a significant number, I forget the exact percentage, of students there read well below grade level. Not unusual to find an eighth-grader reading at first-grade level. No support or help from home, the parents are often in the same shape, distracted, and/or absent.
    This, of course, can be quickly corrected by Getting Rid Of Some Of Those Overpaid Teachers, Running Schools Like Businesses, and Applying Measurable Standards.
    Just thought I’d mention how to make our schools great again while the solution was right there in front of me.

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  72. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 22, 2016 at 7:22 am

    There are, however, a few building admins and secretaries I would get rid of this morning before 7:40 am if I could. Probably wouldn’t move the test scores much, but it would allow me to smile more and might get some kids enough breathing space to figure out what’s going on in their lives so they could actually show up to take the tests rather than get sorted into a basket of disposables before testing week rolls around.

    [grrrrrrrrrr……]

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  73. Connie said on September 22, 2016 at 8:18 am

    Dorothy, my despair began with the Syrian refugee uproar and continues due to the state of discourse in our country.

    I’ve only seen Trump signs here in one of the richest parts of one of the richest counties in the country.

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  74. Connie said on September 22, 2016 at 8:37 am

    I’ve seen only Trump signs. That works better.

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  75. Danny said on September 22, 2016 at 8:39 am

    Interestingly enough, I became acquainted with Marion Cotillard via her father, Jean-Claud Cotillard. He appears in a series of French learning videos, French in Action, created at Yake University by professor Pierre Capretz. Monsieur Cotillard plays the “the man in black” or the “mime” in this excellent series. His character is used for emphasis of language concepts that are being taught and the character is constantly breaking the “fourth wall” to speak directly to the learning audience. It’s an inventive use and has good comic effect too, which helps keep the learner interested.

    For anyone interested in learning French, I can’t recommend these videos highly enough. They are completely immersive and quite entertaining. The associated audio series and workbooks are also available.

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  76. Danny said on September 22, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Yale not Yake. Too early to see correctly on my iPhone.

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  77. Mark P said on September 22, 2016 at 8:51 am

    I hate to think it but I suspect that a large number of my former colleagues who are very well educated and otherwise not overtly racist will vote for Trump. There is only one I know who I would bet my life won’t. He’s black.

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  78. Julie Robinson said on September 22, 2016 at 9:08 am

    There aren’t many yard signs around here yet. Good thing, since I’m instantly enraged by seeing Trump signs.

    Jefftmmo knows this, but if you haven’t brought a kid’s reading level up by middle school, there’s almost no hope. Every year after first it becomes exponentially harder and more time consuming to teach reading. And if you can’t decode words and sentences, how can you learn math or social studies, or anything? It’s the cornerstone of all education.

    This leads me to think that early educators don’t get the respect or pay that they should. Not to put down high school teachers, but to recognize the importance of pre-school, kindergarten, and first grade educators.

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  79. brian stouder said on September 22, 2016 at 9:25 am

    I could not possibly agree with Julie more whole-heartedly!

    Our 12 year old, earlier on in her school career, has had a little harder time than her older brother or sister had – but more recently she has really bloomed. One key thing is – she has an excellent teacher, and in her school, you keep the same teacher (as you proceed from 3rd to 6th grade); and the other key thing is that her love for reading books has (concurrently) taken off over the past couple years

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  80. basset said on September 22, 2016 at 9:41 am

    Rule of thumb I have heard many times is that third grade is the tipping point – if they haven’t transitioned from learning to read into reading to learn, they start falling behind and it only gets worse from there. Third-grade reading proficiency is also a pretty accurate way of measuring risk of dropping out.

    Meanwhile, more about Goodwood:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/classic/goodwood-revival-armoured-amphibious-and-just-plain-weird—five/

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  81. Deborah said on September 22, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Considering the topic again, here’s a new term I saw on Slate “Brangelexit”.

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  82. Julie Robinson said on September 22, 2016 at 10:08 am

    For a time I was in the Bluebirds, which was the reading group for the slow learners, and don’t think we all didn’t know what those different names meant. Reading came hard for me at first, so when it also came hard for our daughter I supplemented with lots of extra study at home. Happily both of us transcended quickly and became enthusiastic and thorough readers.

    OTOH, our son just seemed to pick it up from being read to, and never had to be formally taught. All of which is to say, early reading difficulties are not a measure of either intelligence or family support. Some kids just need some extra time or a different approach.

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  83. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 22, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Julie, no, every child responds equally well to a single well crafted lesson plan that meets state content standards which align with the presented proficiency protocols for the upcoming spring testing season. Haven’t you heard?

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  84. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 22, 2016 at 10:15 am

    In aid of nothing: http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2016/09/09/a-technology-dependent-lesson-plan-for-middle-schoolers

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  85. Bruce Fields said on September 22, 2016 at 10:24 am

    “And income inequality has worsened in large part because of globalism.”

    Why do you think that? The story I keep hearing is that it’s the robots, not the trade, and that if it doesn’t look like that from the point of view of a town that’s lost its factory, that’s because people don’t realize that if the factory came back it would employ almost nobody.

    But, I’m just another economic ignoramus attempting to cobble together some provisional opinions to make me feel like there’s some rational basis for my votes….

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  86. Julie Robinson said on September 22, 2016 at 10:34 am

    Jeff–ha!! Nutella will never hold the same appeal.

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  87. Judybusy said on September 22, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Like many, I’m fried on election stuff. But this just really blew me away. It’s so freaking stupid. Trump’s campaign manager in Ohio blames racism on President Obama. It’s particulary ironic because the person is a real estate agent, and industry with an incredible history of racist practices.

    In much more positive news, the non-profit I’m part of had an incredibly successful fundraising breakfast on Tuesday. Great program, and we increased our total raised by about $35,000 over last year, raising just over $231,000. And we won’t use any of it to pay off legal fees or fines we may have occured in our private lives! We close this week on another property and begin construction on a 36-unit building that will provide housing for people who are homeless and living with HIV.

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  88. Judybusy said on September 22, 2016 at 11:24 am

    Correction: the woman in the video is a campaign manager in one county, not the state.

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  89. Heather said on September 22, 2016 at 11:38 am

    Classic–“There was no racism/I’m not racist” and then say a bunch of racist stuff.

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  90. Bitter Scribe said on September 22, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    Apparently Pitt’s BO is not imaginary. He’s been hygienically challenged for years. His kids call him “stinky daddy.”

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  91. jcburns said on September 22, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    There was a noticeable and welcome influx of Clinton/Kaine signs here in the central Upper Peninsula just this morning. Signs of fall in the air! A couple of the Trump signs I’ve seen up here have the craftsmanship of “grumpy old guy just gonna stick this out here on my gosh darn property and to hell with everyone.”

    It occurs to me when I see so much stuff labeled “Donald J. Trump” that we don’t see many presidential candidates these days who put their middle initial on campaign material. Even “W” was just “W,” not “elect George W. Bush.”

    “W. Mitt Romney! Barack H. Obama! John S. McCain! Bill J. Clinton!”

    Is Trump so insecure he wants to make sure we know the correct one is running?

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  92. Heather said on September 22, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    That Ohio county campaign manager has resigned. I’m actually surprised Trump didn’t promote her.

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  93. jcburns said on September 22, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    BTW, she ran Mahoning County, as in Youngstown. One county south from Trumbull, which was the nexus of a really interesting PBS News Hour report by John Yang on how Trump’s people plan to capitalize on working class frustrations.

    (My Dad grew up in Trumbull County.)

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  94. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    Third grade is a really important point for reading because in fourth grade, the focus of the curriculum shifts to become much more dependent upon reading as an assumed skill for learning everything else. In the primary grades, the other areas of the curriculum are taught much more by doing, but after that, being able to read about a subject and comprehend it and draw inferences becomes more important.

    Other than some time I spent volunteering in an after school tutoring program where I mostly helped with math, most of my volunteering in school classrooms has been with younger kids and reading. With kindergarteners and first graders who are coming from richly literate environments, it’s usually just that they’re behind right now, and when the switch clicks on, they’ll be fine, unless there’s a learning disability. With kids who don’t come from such a background, it’s a much more difficult process, and the challenge is to keep them from giving up before they get there.

    But sure, more standardized testing and firing the bottom 10% teachers will obviously make up for the fact that those kids weren’t read to as much as my kid was.

    There is no one right way to teach reading for kids. There’s also no one right way to handle learning disabilities, like dyslexia, but that doesn’t stop one size fits all approaches from being used in those cases either.

    Jeff(tmmo), admins and secretaries can make your life wonderful or make your life miserable. When my best attempts at sweet talking got me nowhere, I resorted to flowers.

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  95. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    Jakash, I’m sorry I was harsh in my responses to you yesterday. I get a little passionate. I do believe that if we are ever to make any progress on reducing racism, it is incumbent on white people to recognize that overt racism isn’t the only kind of racism and that our desire for a “colorblind society” is really a desire for us not to have to think about racism, not a desire to change so that racism is gone. Racism will only improve when we change, and change is not easy or painless. Similarly for sexism.

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  96. Scout said on September 22, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    In my neighborhood in North Central Phoenix, there is one Trump yard sign. There are at least 30 Hillary signs. While it’s assumed there are a lot of people in this area who will vote for Trump, it is interesting to note the lack of public enthusiasm or support.

    The woman who claimed there was no racism before Obama has resigned.
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kathy-miller-mahoning-trump-chair-resigns-racism

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  97. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 1:49 pm

    The only yard signs near my house are for the local legislative race. This is a safely blue area.

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  98. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 22, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    Sherri: glass coffee mugs with a clear plastic bag full of jelly beans used to be a regular August drop off — but some folks are just mean, and don’t get beans anymore. And I’ve got enough evidence to convince me this one in particular is racially bigoted, enough asides and caustic observations to make me work at getting her out, even if I could never make it stick in court or a hearing. The building staff is afraid of her, because she’s been there so long and (reputedly) knows board members. I have a big sack of “not caring who’s mad at me” that I’m ready to dump on the superintendent’s desk. It’s not prudent to over-use it, but I do have a judge who’s got my back if a district tries to kneecap me.

    Some building secretaries, though, come off as mean and unpleasant because they are tragically overworked, and have no job security to speak of. So yes, you have to start with love and sunshine, and work at making sure you know their story. Often the friendly helpful person is just a couple of conversations and cups of coffee away.

    And sometimes, all you do is lift a corner of the mask to see that the reality is even nastier . . . the dark sarcasm in the classroom is just a hint of the subterranean depths of discontent. But if you’re watching this election, you already know that!

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  99. Sue said on September 22, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    I live in one of the reddest counties in Wisconsin, and have seen very few Trump signs; only one, now that I think of it. That might change as we get closer, I don’t know. What is surprising to me is that, living in a small town and knowing the vehicles of most of the hard-core conservatives around town, I haven’t seen a single Trump bumper sticker among the most faithful. Johnson, yes, but no Trump. It seems the most they can bring themselves to do is slap on a “Hillary for Prison” sticker.

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  100. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Yeah, Jeff, sometimes, you get one who is just mean and enjoys terrorizing people. And schools really are reluctant to fire people, in my experience.

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  101. Sue said on September 22, 2016 at 2:10 pm

    Here’s a hard-hitting interview with Hillary. Highly recommended.
    http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b2fc974d1d/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-hillary-clinton

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  102. Deborah said on September 22, 2016 at 2:33 pm

    Since all I have around me in Chicago are high rises there are no yard signs. And I don’t pay attention to bumper stickers when I’m walking around.

    I’m going back to Santa Fe in a couple of weeks where it will be interesting to see if there are signs in yards and stickers on cars. I’ll be returning to Chicago after only a couple weeks in NM. We’ll be officially “moving in” to the cabin in Abiquiu while there, it’s supposed to finally be finished, after 14 years of designing it and 2 years of construction.

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  103. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 2:39 pm

    The Clinton Foundation as a charity, not as a questions raised, clouds and shadows story.

    http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/9/22/12893444/clinton-foundation-effectiveness

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  104. brian stouder said on September 22, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    Deborah, that sounds marvelous!

    I betcha you’ll miss the forward-looking part of designing a future home, and within a year your husband and you will be batting around various renovation plans.

    Once a builder, always a builder, eh?

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  105. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 2:44 pm

    Speaking of racism: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local/twitter-suspends-glenn-reynolds-account-after-tweet-urges-motorists-to-run-down-charlotte-protesters-394398621.html

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  106. jcburns said on September 22, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    The right-wing Twitterverse is trying to say “He didn’t incite violence.” The tweet in question, in its entirety, was a photo of the protestors and the words “Run them down.”

    Facts? Anyone? Facts?

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  107. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 3:13 pm

    Reynolds now says that he meant that motorists should keep driving, for their own safety, and that the 140 character limit of Twitter limited his ability to express such nuance. When Eric Wemple pointed out that “Drive on” conveyed his point without urging the death of protestors, Reynolds said that he tweets a lot and his tweets can’t all be perfect.

    This is a law professor. He also tweeted earlier in the day, in agreement with the Douthat article, that “smug white overclass liberals are the main promoters of racism today.”

    I guess he’s just suffering backlash.

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  108. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 3:23 pm

    Trump says Hillery wants to take away your guns. Trump also says he wants to make stop and frisk nationwide, so if a cop finds a gun on you, he can take it away and then you can’t shoot anyone.

    His supporters see no conflict, because they know that Trump isn’t talking about stopping and frisking people like them. Just like a black man can’t really carry a gun in an open carry state.

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  109. Heather said on September 22, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    In Chicago and the surrounding area I think I’ve seen a grand total of one bumper sticker. No signs. But probably because most people are voting for her anyway. But no Trump signs/stickers either.

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  110. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 3:33 pm

    Hopeless and irredeemable: https://theringer.com/what-does-cnn-want-to-be-e72bb8ebbb1#.n52mldke3

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  111. Deborah said on September 22, 2016 at 3:45 pm

    Sherri, excellent Vox link about the Clinton Foundation. Saving millions of lives is huge.

    And Brian, we are definitely moving on to phase 2 of our building project, but it feels good to be about done with phase 1 after all that time.

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  112. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    Trump probably pays no income tax at all: http://prospect.org/article/trumps-riches-and-real-estate-tax-racket

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  113. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 4:10 pm

    If you read Twitter, and want a funny, profane look at the election, you should be following Owen Ellickson (@onlxn). He writes perfect 140 character dialogues between the candidates and their staff, mostly Trump, but some Clinton as well.

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  114. Jenine said on September 22, 2016 at 4:16 pm

    Deborah, congrats on the pending move in. I know you are working in stages so you’ll have projects to keep you busy. If you run out, I think you should consider building an horno (outdoor adobe bread oven). I miss Northern NM and always enjoy hearing your updates.

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  115. Deborah said on September 22, 2016 at 4:26 pm

    Jenine, we’re definitely building a horno at some point. One of neighbors ou there builds them for people. I’m looking forward to making bread that way, and wood fired pizza, yum.

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  116. Jakash said on September 22, 2016 at 4:56 pm

    Sherri @ 95,

    No problem. You’re always fighting the good fights and there’s certainly a lot to be passionate about these days. : )

    I’ve seen one Hillary sign, no Trumps around here. Of course, the north side of Chicago doesn’t need a lot of persuading. When I saw the Hillary sign I just laughed that somebody would even bother…

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  117. David C. said on September 22, 2016 at 5:52 pm

    I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard there are so few Trump signs because his campaign sells them where most give them away. So, if true, people will advertise they’re nuts for free, but not at any cost.

    I was a miserable reader all through school. I found out 4 years ago I’m dyslexic which made a lot of loose pieces fall into place. I was fortunate in that I was good enough at math and science that I wasn’t labeled too badly. It still can take me a long time to get through a book. I’m often right up against the time to return to the library before I finish.

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  118. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    A number of football players are showing themselves to be more articulate and informed and nuanced than the football fans who want them to stand for the anthem.

    Here’s Doug Baldwin, a Seahawks receiver, today: http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawks-receiver-doug-baldwin-asks-for-state-attorney-generals-to-review-police-training-policies/

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  119. Scout said on September 22, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    This is a righteous rant. And I really don’t care about the multitude of F bombs because that is exactly what this joke of a candidate and his dumbstupid racist sycophants deserve.

    http://www.gq.com/story/a-word-for-donald-trump-voters

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  120. Bill said on September 22, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    Seen at a popular breakfast restaurant this week: a TRUMP Make America Great Again cap, sitting on the driver’s side dashboard of a Mercedes Benz. I’m thinking he’s got it great, so why? Saw him and his wife leave and get into the car. They’re both seniors and I’m thinking they don’t like colored folk.

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  121. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 6:42 pm

    Interesting article about race relations and Charlotte: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/charlotte-race-history/501221/

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  122. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    Oh, I had forgotten that Glenn Reynolds was the “more rubble, less trouble” guy!

    http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-eliminationism-of-glenn-reynolds.html

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  123. Deborah said on September 22, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    Scout, that rant was righteous, and yes, I know we’re supposed to be kind and politically correct, even though the Trump supporters aren’t at all. I hope that rant goes viral. What can it hurt? Absolutely nothing.

    Speaking of the Glenn Reynolds mess, there was a you tube video a few months ago showing protestors getting mowed down by cars. I’d link to it only it was so disturbing to see I can’t bring myself to do that, or see it again myself. What kind of sadistic people actually do that to other human beings?

    Going to the symphony tonight, got to get ready.

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  124. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 7:08 pm

    Pence wanted to make sure everybody knew he was down with the racism of the Trump campaign: http://www.vox.com/2016/9/22/13022002/trump-pence-police-racism

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  125. Judybusy said on September 22, 2016 at 7:19 pm

    Scout, that was glorious.

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  126. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    Looks like Ailes dusted off that old Nixon playbook and handed it to Trump.

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/politics/donald-trump-crime-agenda-charlotte/index.html

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  127. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 8:12 pm

    A monthlong suspension from his column at USA Today, and maybe a word from his Dean?, produced an apology from Glenn Reynolds. Compare and contrast his blog post about his tweet, and his statement on USA Today.

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/244534/

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/09/22/statement-glenn-reynolds/90862300/

    Damn Samantha Bee and those smug liberals.

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  128. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 8:20 pm

    The big picture problem of charter schools: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/09/22/the_enduring_false_binary_of_the_education_reform_debate.html

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  129. Sherri said on September 22, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    Jonathan Katz is my go-to read on Haiti. He looks at the questions surrounding the Clintons and Haiti, and finds much to criticize, but also explains that it’s complicated.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/the_truth_about_the_clintons_and_haiti.html

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  130. ROGirl said on September 24, 2016 at 7:16 am

    Scout — fuck, yeah.

    But despite all evidence to the contrary, Trump IS human, which makes him that much worse.

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  131. David Edelstein said on September 25, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    I did a Q&A with Brad before The Big Short came out. His hygiene seemed just fine and he was quite handsome and “on” in person. Like many other stars I’ve met, the most identifiable scent is tobacco, although I’ve smelled far, far worse.

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