@heathercampbell @ziyatong @McDonalds mittens pic.twitter.com/3nysv4LThY
— Andrew B. (@littlebitykitty) December 12, 2016
A generic silhouette of Holiday Cheer, made vulgar by the limitless imagination of American consumers. Because what use are mittens, without hands? [NSFW]
Um… @McDonalds methinks you need help with your graphics. pic.twitter.com/h1i88R7mLs
— IM?HIM (@ziyatong) December 11, 2016
***********
Apart from appreciating the effort, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
BGinCHI
Truth in Advertising, given the taste of their coffee (so I hear, since I would never drink it).
albertZ
That graphic pretty much sums up my opinion of 2016.
Some Dude
Bad moon on the rise?
Betty Cracker
I did this to a Starbucks cup once:
Baud
That coffee has a nice ass.
jl
What, no French tickler?
BGinCHI
Imagine the carnage if we could all post pics in the comments.
–shudder–
Baud
@BGinCHI: Stop sneering!
Chris
@BGinCHI:
McDonalds coffee is just foul. Bigly foul.
hovercraft
The GOP has taken over the McDonald’s graphic shop now? I know they “won”, but really is this necessary?
jl
We need an emergency blog fix so we can all post pics in the comments. Where is ‘Alain the blog fixer’ (that’s his handle, right?)
BGinCHI
@jl: It was “Alain the Bog Fixer,” but he traded up to Balloon Juice.
Not sure he made the right choice.
Mike in NC
Here’s a story so absurd I need to share it with the world. Went to a hospital this morning for a routine procedure. Advised to put on a gown and lie down so the nurse could insert an IV in my hand. So I was left lying there staring at the ceiling for over an hour. Placed my free hand on my chest and noticed there was a pocket, and there was something in the pocket. I reached in and pulled out a folded piece of colored paper. Assumed it to be an empty candy wrapper or the like, but when I unfolded it damned if I wasn’t holding a crisp $100 bill. Cannot imagine how that got there.
BGinCHI
@Baud: Figured you for a Dunkin’ Donuts guy.
Chris
@Mike in NC:
Well, did you keep it?
Yarrow
@Mike in NC: Wow! A Christmas elf, perhaps? What did you do with it? Buy some chickens so you could barter for your healthcare?
bystander
There was a billboard ad featuring Macauley Culkin sitting on Ted Danson’s lap all over the subway for some execrable movie. A few deft moves with a marker would have made them obscenely hilarious. Or hilariously obscene. Either way, there were even then cameras on the platforms, so I restrained myself.
PST
@Mike in NC: This is going to sound so weird, but I left a hundred in a hospital gown by accident yesterday. We both should be angry that they aren’t laundered more often. Would you mind returning that?
trollhattan
Holy shit, that’s funny. Graphics fail? Graphics triumph!
Just learned the Friedman Unit (FU) has its own Wikipedia Page.Also, too, for the first time in six years (I think) we have a flood warning forecast in northern California. I blame Obama (while there’s still time).
J R in WV
@Chris:
Hell, yes, he kept it! How would they have found the source, who may have intended the bill as a gift to the next person to wear that gown.
BGinCHI
@Mike in NC: Are you kidding?
That’s your healthcare voucher for 2017 from the US Government. Spend it wisely.
Kay
Oh, thank God. Americans get the first bit of information on the new President.
Go lawyers! I’m pulling for you! :)
We all have to sue him, one by one. That’s the only shot we have. You all must retain private counsel immediately.
Keith P.
Damn, am I the only person who thinks McDs sells pretty good coffee?
jl
@BGinCHI:
” Truth in Advertising, given the taste of their coffee (so I hear, since I would never drink it). ”
Oh, damn, I missed your first comment. So, you are asking, where is the golden stream? I guess the customer didn’t have a yellow pen handy.
debbie
@Kay:
I’m hearing the insanely angry Tweets already!
Brachiator
The LA Times Reader’s Rep is trying to deal with the shit storm arising from the publication of noxious letters suggesting that the internment of Japanese Americans was a good thing. Some extracts:
And in related news, PEW research notes this stunner:
I actually think that some people are lying or have their heads up their asses. There is this stark difference in attitudes:
Steeplejack (tablet)
@BGinCHI:
See, first comment, and you’re already looking down on the WWC. Sad!
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack (tablet): I have judged their coffee tastes, and they have come up wanting.
mai naem mobile
@Mike in NC: wow! Pretry cool. Hopefully good omen for whatever you were getting done. I’ve found a ten dollar bill and twenty dollar bill on the ground but never a hundred.
JanieM
@Brachiator: The LA Times excerpt reminds me that I’ve been wondering: what did those letters, or that topic, have to do with the travel section in the first place?
Yutsano
@BGinCHI: I had some frappé thing from there once. It literally had no coffee in it and was pure sugar.
@Steeplejack (tablet): Fuck the WWC. Sooner they kill themselves off the better.
(Kidding. Sort of.)
Kay
@debbie:
Notify Jake Tapper:
Weird how media and Republicans doggedly pursued that for exactly the period Hillary Clinton was running for President. Vital matters of national security have certainly taken a back seat now that the she-devil is gone!
Baud
@Kay: I can’t believe the Benghazi mom won’t receive justice.
Alain the site fixer
@jl: no can do. We’d need to enact registration and that’s not in johns value set, nor many of the regular commenters.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Kay:
Will you represent me, Kay? We’d have to do it on a contingency basis, but I think I have a solid case. We’ll sue Trump bigly!
Kay
@debbie:
People really could sue him weekly. He has no intention of getting rid of those “businesses” (or whatever they are!)
We can all fund lawsuits against the President. It’s the only way we’ll ever find anything out.
BGinCHI
@Alain the site fixer: Also, naked butts.
Trust me.
Alain the site fixer
@BGinCHI: my last engagement was the Bog of Eternal Stench; I failed.
ETA damned auto-correct
Eric S.
The bartender showed me a photo of the cup, unaltered yesterday. Just about everyone saw it with the hands.
Kay
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Oh, God no. Get someone fancy. Plus I have houseguests for Christmas.
Alain the site fixer
@BGinCHI: not Johns nor mine, I should hope! We love you folks, after all.
Baud
@Alain the site fixer:
You’re making the right call, both in denying the request and in explaining it to us in gibberish so that we don’t bitch about it.
jl
@Alain the site fixer:
” no can do. We’d need to enact registration and that’s not in johns value set, nor many of the regular commenters. ”
Thanks for your prompt response. I’m glad someone understands the responsibilities involved in running a full service blog.
I only made the inquiry in the best Holiday Spirit.
I had to drink some swilish McD’s coffee to get a cup to scrawl filthy things upon…. but, don’t worry.. it’s… OK. I guess.
@Baud:
No leadership from Baud, yet again!
Baud
@Kay:
Paging Mr. Omnibus. Mr. Omnes Omnibus.
Baud
Speaking of fancy lawyers, didn’t LAO have an argument in the 11th Circuit?
BGinCHI
@Baud: He should be coming out of his coffin about now….
Brachiator
@JanieM:
Some asswipe readers wanted to rewrite history:
So, a travel article dealt with the area where Japanese Americans had been imprisoned:
Some jackass readers felt that the truth of American racism was un-American.
We are going to see more of this, where faux patriotic fools try to justify or minimize any wrong that America has ever done.
Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima? We were just helping the Japanese to clear the land for rebuilding.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Aren’t you a lawyer too? Nothing fancier than an ex-Presidential candidate.
jl
@Brachiator:
” Some jackass readers felt that the truth of American racism was un-American. ”
You forgot about the greed. Racism, and greed. Don’t sell our racists short, they wanted to make some bank out if too.
Edit: our alt right minders will be watching us to make sure we are respecting those traditional values, you know. One of Trump’s comments about his brilliant move against the One China policy on Taiwan was that, the whole issue was gonna be OK, it could be traded away as part of one of his Great Deelz.
debbie
@Kay:
I agree. There should be a constant stream of class action lawsuits.
James
Back when in college, I found $786.00 in my freshly laundered jeans after my mother washed them with my Dad’s pants. I returned the money of course.
geg6
@Keith P.:
No, it’s the only thing I’ll buy there. I don’t think it’s bad at all. Better than Starbucks’, that’s for sure.
Alain the site fixer
@jl: I am not here all the time and certainly do flake out here and there, but I’m always up for good ideas. I fought for pictures but we figured that it would only work without abuse if registration was required. And so values won over function. Which is nice, really.
NR
Here’s a little something for the “Every Trump voter is a dirty, dirty racist” crowd:
But I’m sure that the way to win this guy back is to tell him that all the pain he’s feeling is just a misguided yearning for white privilege.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Kay:
Okay, Omnes it is. Although I have a few concerns. He might be too fancy.
debbie
@Baud:
Wow! You’re dissembling just like a real politician! ;)
jl
@Alain the site fixer: Now I feel bad. I was joking. No way commenters should be able to post pics for a post like this. All hell would break loose.
Would be nice to post pix, but on a site like this, Mr. Cole probably has his value set adjusted about right. As much as I hate to admit that.
JPL
Harry Reid is opening up
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-russia-donald-trump_us_584f0df0e4b0e05aded537cd?6e134pod9rxktvs4i
Baud
@debbie: Thank you! I need to fit that on a bumper sticker somehow.
geg6
@JPL:
I love Harry and will miss him desperately when he is no longer running our side of the aisle in the Senate.
japa21
@NR: Unfortunately, he voted for the candidate who really doesn’t give a fuck for his problems instead of the one who not only cared but laid out specifics about doing something about them.
MissBarbie
@Keith P.: @jl: No, you’re not alone. They have Paul Newman Organic that is delish.
Corner Stone
Oh, Trump cancels his “press conference” in a couple days. HOOCOODANODE??
D58826
I’m sure everyone on BJ will be shocked, shocked, horrified, and saddened that der Fuhrer has had to postpone the press conference where he would reveal how he will remove himself from operational control of Trump. Inc. The presser has been rescheduled for some unknown date in Jan. of some as yet to be determined year.
jl
@MissBarbie: Sorry, I’ve gotten some pretty bum coffee at McDonalds, at least in the US. Better in Europe.
Do they have a special brew I have to ask for?
For some reason their iced coffee, black, is much better.
Corner Stone
@NR:
What in the fuckety fucking hell? What? Really?
MisterForkbeard
@japa21: You know, I could take this kind of argument seriously if these people feeling economic pain hadn’t just voted for the personification of “rich dude who lies, screws his employees and investors, and runs off with all the money.”
Because believing that Trump would help the WWC was such a huge reach to begin with, I don’t know what else could have motivated it other than some kind of bigotry. Or rank stupidity, I suppose.
@D58826: Yeah, but when was the last time Hillary had a press conference, huh?
Iowa Old Lady
@Corner Stone: That’s ridiculous. $20/hour = about $40K/year before withholding.
NR
@Corner Stone: Yes, really.
debbie
@Baud:
Change “dissemble” to “lie” and you’re there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Trump: Make America Twinkies Again!
goblue72
@Keith P.: Personally no, but McD’s McCafe coffee has generally been acknowledged in the food industry trade press as being a fairly decent cup of coffee, for its price point. They source from three regional coffee bean suppliers (on the West Coast, its Gavina). Their blend is a medium-roast, which probably hits the palate of the average coffee drinker as tasting smoother and less bitter. (In contrast to the dark roast (aka Charbucks) style popularized by Peets and later Starbucks).
So, yeah, not surprising. McD’s prepared coffee drinks (latte, cappuccino, etc) in comparison to Starbucks range from middling to garbage though.
That said, McDs, Peets, Starbucks – its all variations on crap coffee.
Baud
Baud! 2020!: The Lies You Want to Hear
rikyrah
@Kay:
Uh huh
Uh huh
debbie
@Baud:
Even better!
Corner Stone
@NR: I’m not beating on anyone who can raise their quality of life. More power to that guy. But there ain’t no fucking way in hell he vacationed every year in the Bahamas or St. Martin on $20 an hour.
Let me be a snooty elitist for a second. My house is paid for. My 2008 Honda CrV is paid for. I make more than $20 an hour. I saved for 10 years to go on a vacation that wasn’t in the state of Texas.
jl
@Corner Stone: Packages aren’t that expensive. I know a lot of 40K income people who do a package from CA to Hawaii or Central American resort every year. I can see a person on 40K and part time working spouse with good benefits being able to afford that.
Edit: forgot to say I just checked, can get one from Midwest for around $2000 if you plan ahead.
NR
@japa21: You’re missing the point. The Democrats have been in power for eight years and they did fuck-all to stop the kind of corporate looting that cost this guy his job. In fact, Hillary Clinton actively courted those kinds of firms in her campaign.
There are a hell of a lot of people in economic pain in this country that the Democrats have done little or nothing to assuage. Trump’s bullshit spoke to those people. And calling them all racists is not going to win them back to our side.
Baud
@Corner Stone: If he invested in a cheap timeshare, the vacation would mostly be the cost of a plane ticket and food and entertainment. I’m not astonished.
D58826
@MisterForkbeard:
You mean selfies in the woods don’t count :-)
jl
@Corner Stone: Maybe you don’t like cheap package vacations?
Corner Stone
@Baud: “I.Blame.Hillary.Clinton!”
jl
@NR: I agree with you, but better to talk about how to proceed from here than hectoring people, seemingly out of the blue in this post.
Corner Stone
@jl: That’s true, I guess. I prefer packages that include young ladies in bikinis hand peeling grapes and feeding me poolside.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone, @Iowa Old Lady:
I’m wondering if he has a wife bringing in a second income.
Baud
@Corner Stone: The Deluxe Package is where they get you.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Dude, a couple thousand disposable dollars every single year? On $40K?
I am doing this whole thing waaayyyy fucking wrong.
Alain the site fixer
@jl: don’t feel bad. Good ideas are great, so please always offer them! Even if it doesn’t work today, things change and so an idea previously considered, when offered by a new voice, often leads to re-thinking of the “problem” and a solution.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (tablet): Maybe he’s married to Heidi Cruz?
jl
@Corner Stone: We have the same tastes in package vacations. We agree there.
GregB
Why has Chris Christie been so quiet? Stuck in a debriefing room at Langley?
Baud
@Corner Stone: Maybe he doesn’t have kids? That’s a big pot of money right there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GregB: the gossip about why he got shitcanned by Trump coming up on MSNBC. I admit, I wanna point and laugh
goblue72
@Corner Stone: Yes, quite possibly. Assuming he worked full time, its about $41k a year gross income. Article indicates he was in a union, so with seniority, he was probably getting fairly regular ability to pull overtime. And also entirely possible that like many working class men, he had a full-time wage earning job for his base 40 hours a week (and some OT), and then held a part-time job on the side for the “extras”. Article also indicates he’s married, so entirely likely his wife held at least a PT job. Add it all up, and entirely in the realm of possibility that their combined gross income somewhere in the $60k – $70k a year range.
And in the Rust Belt, that’s pretty much a middle class income. Article indicates his Hostess job was in Northwood, Ohio. Housing costs – the biggest single household expense – are quite low in that area. Average rent in that area appears to be under $600 a month. Median sales price for a home in the area appears to be just under $120k. And if he bought a home 20 – 30 years ago, he likely paid far less than that – easily $20k-$40k if he bought it in the 1980s. But even if he bought a $120K home TODAY, with 20% down, his monthly payment on a $96k mortgage is only $460.
His health insurance appears to have been fully paid for under his old union job. Ditto his retirement plan via a pension. Let’s say their combined household income is $65k. Married, no dependents, living in Ohio, their take home pay about $52k. That’s $4,330 take home a month. Again, let’s say $600 for housing. Leaves $3,730 for everything else. They are working stiffs, so there’s no student loans. They live in Ohio, so they either own one or two cars. But they are working stiffs, so they bought both cars used, and quite possibly just saved the cash to buy them, so likely no car loans. So entirely possible they are able to squirrel enough away with that $20 per hour job (plus OT or second PT job) to take a one week splurge vacation each year on some package vacation trip.
But hey, its much more fun to engage in the “liberal” version of counter-top criticizing.
And you fools, with your first instinct being to pile on the working guy’s life, wonder why you lose so many elections.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Kids. Kids are the worst.
Kay
I knew he’d tell them to fuck off. The only way to reach him is to sue him on one of his crappy, sleazy businesses.
Baud
@Corner Stone: I’m ashamed that I was one.
Kathleen
@Keith P.: I like McDonald’s coffee. But I drink Starbuck’s every morning because it’s convenient and I get “rewards”. We old people will sell our souls for “rewards” points (I’m an unabashed Kroger fuel points whore).
D58826
@GregB: Well Grand Jury testimony is supposed to be secret.
Corner Stone
@goblue72: Shut up you stupid douchebag.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: unproductively hectoring people out of the blue is all NR does, though.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Hey, you’re here.
Can you really create a roboBaud?
Corner Stone
@Kathleen: I…uhhh…actually have a few of those…hrrrmmm.
Baud
@Kathleen: I’m the same way. I’ll go to Starbucks for the points and the convenience, usually while wearing socks and sandals. [Shakes fist at Suzanne]
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: it probably wouldn’t be very good.
Mart
@Keith P.: Damn, am I the only person who thinks McDs sells pretty good coffee?
I am a bit of a coffee snob. The Aeropress and ceramic grinder kind. I travel a lot in the country. When I want a coffee in the middle of nowhere and see a McDonald’s, it is a good thing. Not great, but good enough.
Kropadope
Huh, I couldn’t tell what was supposed to be obscene about it until I read the comments.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: So you’re saying no one would be able to tell the difference?
goblue72
@Corner Stone: I know, I know. Your cluelessness, it burns.
Kay
@Baud:
I have to go to Starbucks although I prefer McDonalds or Paul Krugman will be mean to me.
It’s so sad.
jl
@Baud: I thought Baud was the roboBaud. I R confused.
Baud
@Kay: You don’t want to make Krugman angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: i would know. Me and god too.
Baud
@jl: I don’t know I’m a robot. Like in Blade Runner.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: God supports this plan. You can deploy it in daytime and overnight threads when I’m at work or asleep.
Morzer
@Baud:
So you look down and see a Mitch McConnell. It’s crawling toward you…
jl
@Baud: So, you were only virtually a virtual candidate.
These crummy politicians are liars, all of them. Lars, I say.
Kathleen
@JanieM: @Brachiator: This is surreal. First, it’s in the “travel” section. Why? Second, if I read this right, the editor thought it acceptable to publish a pile of excrement but got upset because letter writers objected to maggots and flies. Or did I misunderstand her reaction to the letters? ETA just saw Brachiator’s follow up post. Hamm is talking about THOSE letters. Thanks for clarification.
NR
@jl: Okay, fair cop. But I wanted to point out how wrongheaded and destructive some of the attitudes around here are. “Oh, look at all the economic anxiety!” is becoming a meme around here whenever some Trump voter says or does something racist. Yes, a lot of Trump voters are racists. No, not all of them are, and acting like they are is only going to push them further into Trump’s arms.
Mike in NC
Cruises from Florida to Nassau can be dirt cheap. We know retirees who do it every year. Of course, once you’ve seen Nassau a couple of times there’s not much point in ever going back.
Kay
You could literally play this game all day and every word would be true. Just pick your “crisis”. No longer a crisis now that Trump is in power. He really did make America great again. All the fake issues disappeared and now it’s smoooth sailing.
Baud
@Morzer: What desert?
Clem
@Alain the site fixer: Am new to dynamic web pages but can’t you just use an image tag with a user provided link? You don’t have to upload an image. Would that be a security problem? Just give the posters access to the image tag?
Kropadope
@NR:
The way to win that guy back is to make it clear to him which party is responsible the financial forces impacting his life. Hostess’s temporary fall was largely designed by Romney-style vulture* capitalism which is heartily embraced by the Republicans, including Trump. Now Trump wants to undo the minor levelling of the energy playing field, courtesy of Obama, that has allowed alternative energy to get a foothold and is providing him his current job, which it states pays better than the other jobs he’s had since Hostess.
This dude’s an exemplar of how Republicans convince people to fuck themselves.
ETA: *Sorry, Rick Perry got in my head, but vulture capitalism isn’t the right word. It’s vampire capitalism. They don’t prey on the dead, they kill the living, leaving behind an occasional new one of themselves.
Major Major Major Major
@Morzer: some newspaper out here interviewed all the SF mayoral candidates with that test one year. IIRC only the big pro-pot guy caught on.
@Baud: is this the Cylon god? Because it sounds like the Cylon god.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Mmmmm . . . . maybe?
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: reminds me of the old Mitch Hedberg joke. I used to have so many problems, but then I started doing heroin and now I just have the one!
Baud
@Kay: I miss “both sides.”
Kay
@NR:
NR, they’ve dropped the whole “economic anxiety” thing. They never gave a rat’s ass about the white working class- none of them.
After January 20th you won’t hear another fucking word about them out of media OR Republicans. They were convenient, useful for 6 months. Now they’re back to the white upper classes.
Remember “soccer moms” after 2004? Same thing. When’s the last time you heard a word about a “soccer mom”?
Mnemosyne
@NR:
So, just to be clear, dude loses his longtime job thanks to incredibly poor management dating back to 2004, at least, and his solution is to vote for a corporate asshole just like the ones who cost him his job?
Yeah, that’s logical. I’m sure we’ll be able to win over someone who didn’t bother to listen to his own union about what actually happened so he could instead blame the black guy.
Morzer
@Baud:
It’s completely hypothetical.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne:
Uh, he voted for the black guy twice and then the black guy ceased to be on the ballot.
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
For once, we agree.
Kathleen
Deleted. Bottled Blonde Moment.
Baud
@Kropadope: He lost his Hostess job in 2012, so this is the first election when his financial situation really came into play.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, well maybe now that you’re not so aggressively attached to helping the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot that you won’t consider a counter-argument…
Kropadope
@Baud: Do we know what he did during the midterms?
Kathleen
@Corner Stone: Points? Stars? Souls? Inquiring minds want to know!
Baud
@Kropadope: I don’t.
Yarrow
Oh, this is good. It’s about the upcoming meeting of the tech people with Trump. Go read the whole thing.
She couldn’t get an on the record quote from any of them.
Kathleen
@Baud: Mwaahhhhh haaaaaa haaaaaaa!
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
“This guy got screwed by the Republicans” is a counter-argument to supporting the Democrats?
Never mind, I don’t even want to know how you manage to square that circle. I know it’ll kill some brain cells just to read it.
Schlemazel
Apparently corporations need to hire a pervert to help them not make mistakes. I am available for a very reasonable salary and benefit package
Here is what Makers Mark sent me as a Christmas gift for being one of their “ambassadors”
http://i.imgur.com/jpIjizB.jpg
You tell me what you think that is supposed to be for!
NR
@Kay: Oh, I completely agree. Trump never gave a shit about the working class. And when the things he promised don’t materialize, we’ll have an opportunity to win back some of those voters. But we won’t do it by screaming that they’re racist, sexist, deplorable, or whatever else we want to call them.
JGabriel
@bystander:
Reminds me of a graffiti I saw on a subway platform once. This would have to be back in 1992 or 93. It was on a poster for Scent of a Woman – which featured a white background with Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell in the lower right corner of the poster, facing/walking leftward. Someone had taken advantage of all the white space above and to the left of them to draw a word balloon, emanating from Pacino’s mouth, which read:
Kathleen
@Baud: Or is that “Baud” Runner?
NR
@Kropadope: The article said that Trump was the first time he ever voted for a Republican.
Baud
@Kathleen: I’d watch that flick!
Yarrow
I’ve seen the clip of McConnell today when he called for the investigations into the Russian hacking. There’s something about his body language – he doesn’t look confident. He looks like he’s been forced to go out there and say all that stuff. Like someone’s got something on him. Hmmm….
Kay
@NR:
I don’t care who you are, white working class, recently fired Hostess worker, whatever. Donald Trump is a liar and a con man. He’s a bad person. You didn’t need a college education to see that.
I’m sorry Trump conned all those people but my acting as if I was conned isn’t going to make it any better for them. I wasn’t conned and they didn’t have to be either. It’s not that fucking difficult to recognize a bad person. Clinton was not only more experienced and would have been better for Hostess workers, she’s a better person. And that was obvious. To anyone who cared to look.
They’re not children. They should be able to recognize a lying, sleazy con man. If they can’t they have bigger problems than the Democratic Party.
MJS
@NR: A large portion of Trump supporters are racists. Those who aren’t racists but voted for Trump are irredeemably stupid to have believed anything he said, and not notice the countless inconsistencies. And news flash – Clinton won significantly more votes than Trump did. So what exactly is your strategy for getting racists or imbeciles to vote Democratic? Lie to them? Or start to throw some constituencies under the bus?
jeffreyw
@Kathleen:
Jumps up and down and waves while nodding like a hula girl bobble-head!!
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: According to my model, you would say that.
@Mnemosyne: There are better ways to kill brain cells. Like watching Baud! Runner.
Mnemosyne
Also, let me be clear: I’m happy to welcome any Trump voter who says, “Holy shit, I got conned!” I won’t even mock them (to their faces) because Trump was telling them something they wanted to hear, like all con men do.
But the people who continue to insist in the face of all of the evidence that Trump was a better choice than Hillary? Fuckem. They’re not worth a millisecond of my time.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne:
What the flying flowers does that even mean?
See? This is why you think you disagree with me on so much, because if you read something you disagree with, you fly off the handle and invent some crazy statement to argue with (or deem unworthy of argument in this case). You straw-man as well as the best of the Republicans. Why not debate what was actually said on the merits sometime? You’ll find yourself less frequently needlessly antagonizing your own side.
JGabriel
@Keith P.:
I’ve only tried McD’s coffee a few times, and haven’t had any in years (probably over a decade). That said, I seem to remember that it wasn’t actually good, per se, kind of thin and a touch cardboardy, but it also had a fairly low level of bitterness that made it very drinkable. And it seemed to contain a surprisingly strong shot of caffeine. Your basic rocket fuel in other words – not all that different from NYC diner/deli coffee, or Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for that matter.
Again, that’s if I remember correctly. Like I said, it’s been a few years. Also, they may have changed the beans they use since then.
nastybrutishntall
@Yarrow: This Guardian article on how Google search is hate’s new weapon of choice makes Trump’s diversionary idiocy pretty clearly a savvy move. Bannon is Goebbels, softening us up for the big con, while Trump runs the breadless circus. That article freaks me out. We are losing the propaganda war. We are about to flip into a Nazi mindset in this country, aided and abetted by tech.
seaboogie
@jl:
Especially the Scandinavian ones, I presume.
Kathleen
@jeffreyw: I am amongst my people!
Kropadope
@NR:
You see this shows better how false narratives, carried primarily but not entirely by the MSM, helped to fuck up the election. The deplorable statement is held up as showing as how the left looks down on the rest of the country. The thing of it is, though, that Hillary didn’t call Trump voters deplorable. She called racists and misogynists deplorable and said that we should reach out to the Tump voters who aren’t.
This got twisted in the media and people were just so eager to buy into any anti-Hillary messaging available.
jl
@NR: @Kay:
The great HRC/Bernie wars drove me away from the blog for awhile. Just couldn’t take it anymore.
I suppose the reasons for the 2016 mess have to fought out, but I’d prefer to fight them out in terms of how to proceed going forward. Might be just a matter of framing, but we are in for the fight for our lives. Literally if they they try to kill Medicare and Social Security, that could touch every non filthy rich plutocrat. I ain’t rich and I’m in very good health (as far as modern science can determine), and the news of the GOP berkers’ plans sent a personal chill up my spine.
I think the Dems have to be very aggressive in pointing out the massive betrayal that started two damn days after the election, IIRC.
I hope Schumer is sincere in his moves so far.
Now, I will go back to listening to classical and Tejano music to calm the F down. Except my Spanish is coming back and soon I will understand the Tejano stations’ commentary on el senor presidente Pavo Trumpo. Then I will have pull my socks up and deal with reality.
When they decide they need to register more groups until we find out what just what the hell is going on, I want to wear by Bernie and Spanish Speaker badges with pride.
BTW, I really like these guys
Eddie G Y Grupo Vida
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iv3YZ6mvS0
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
You said:
So what the fuck are you going on about? Really, in the face of Trump we’re supposed to be less aggressively attached to the Democrats? We’re supposed to ignore the fact that Hillary got 3 million more votes? What the fuck are you trying to say? What is the “counter-argument” that you think you’re making?
Schlemazel
@JGabriel:
I have McAwfuls coffee twice a year. Not really the bold aggressive flavor I like but low acid, decent flavor and for a buck a cup a good value.
I’d buy it before Staryucks
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Just imagine how many books you and I could have written by now if we spent half as much time on them as we do on troll-baiting!
Alain the site fixer
@Clem: technically, yes. It’s easy. But what about assholes and spammers and those who might wish the site illwill and so submit child porn or other obscene images. That would require some kind of approval, accountability/reputation or voting mechanism, all of which offer more angles of abuse or trollery.
japa21
@NR: Well, this is the first time I see you pretty much saying it wasn’t Clinton that was the problem, but that basically any Dem candidate, even Sanders, would probably not have been able to get this guy’s vote.
As others have said, he voted for a person who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about him who represented a party that has actively over the last 6 years (and even before that) hamstrung the economy to make it nearly impossible to improve his situation. The Republicans, after all, have been pretty much in total control since 2010 and have blocked every measure the Dems have put forward to improve the lot of the WWC.
You are excusing this guy’s total stupidity and trying to justify it.
jl
@seaboogie: No comment. I have been damned on this blog for committing cultural macroaggression against Sweden and their candy.
NR
@MJS: This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say this shit needs to stop. Mark Popovich is a lifelong Democrat. When he voted Democratic in every other election before this one, did he do it because he was a racist or an imbecile?
There are any number of reasons why someone might have voted for Trump even knowing what a shitty person he is. The fact is that even though he was completely full of shit, Trump was selling the right thing: Most people in Washington don’t care about you. People believed his “throw the bums out” message because Washington hasn’t done shit for them in a long, long time.
Shitting all over people like Popovich (again, he’s a lifelong Democrat) isn’t the way to win them back. The way to win them back is to finally start caring more about what they need than what the party’s corporate donors want.
jl
@japa21: Those people have the right to vote. We need to salvage every one we can using an honest message. (and, no, that does not mean blathering stupid White Heritage crap. And I think and any message that revolves around ‘white working class’ BS is a loser).
But some regions of the country have been economically devastated, and rather suddenly, since 2000 and that issue needs to be addressed aggressively.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne: Obviously I was talking about the primary. Democrats put up a weak slate and were at so many levels pushing for Hillary to be the only choice. If you even wanted to consider an alternative to Hillary you were a misogynist and, somehow more still, a racist. The primary tore the party apart and, from what I saw, the portion of the Hillary camp that was firmly ensconced within its Republican-scale impenetrable information bubble was every bit as responsible as the Twitter-addled Bernie bros.
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: would’ve helped if the loser had stopped once it was clear he’d lost instead of continuing for, what, two months.
SiubhanDuinne
@bystander:
As God is my witness, I really thought McCauley Culkin was dead.
Never could stand the little fucker. I hated Home Alone.
Corner Stone
@jl: Damn you!
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@NR: I doubt whoever runs will be doing that, so you’re worrying about nothing.
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: You mean… I’m not alone… there is someone else! Wow, just wow. Thank you.
I’m glad he is alive and hope he is doing well, in some productive work away from the movies, though. I try to be gracious and merciful.
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major: Hillary in 08 ran for a long time on a slim reed of a chance. Why begrudge that same behavior to Bernie? Oh, yeah, cuz everything HRC does is perfect and right and if you dare step a toe out of line, you’re a step away from joining a lynch mob.
ETA: Besides which, a lot of the same people so bent out of shape about Bernie staying in were trying to declare it over after Iowa (or even before!!!)
NR
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: The attitude of the party makes a difference.
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: 2008 was much closer and depending on what happened with michigan and Florida could still have gone either way before the meeting in May hammering that out.
ETA: i was not a Hillary fan in 2008 and didn’t begrudge her staying in at all.
Kropadope
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
But if they come close enough to doing so that the media can pretend they did, they’re screwed. For evidence, see this election.
seaboogie
@goblue72: Your whole post was useful and informative until the last sentences, when you had to go full douche-bag. Douche-baggery is an option in which it is not necessary to indulge. Consider that next time.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Kropadope: So we get to the crux of the matter. Lack of a messaging infrastructure for the left. No one is doing anything about this, that’s a huge problem.
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major:
And that was the fantasy thinking on Hillary’s team. Seat them for the convention? Sure. Let them participate in most things. But if two states where there was no active campaigning and, in one of them, the other candidate wasn’t even on the ballot were allowed to swing the primary, the Dems would’ve lost even that gimme of an election.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I KNOW, RIGHT!
And G keeps nagging me about the same thing.
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: and yet it was still more likely than Bernie catching up after mid April.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone.
Yes, can’t stand him as an actor or persona, but I don’t wish for his death. I really did think he was dead, though. I must be thinking of some other child star from roughly the same era. No idea who it might be, though.
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major: Who gives a fuck? The same crowd of people were being ludicrous assholes well before Hillary clinched the nomination. Not all Hillary voters, but her devoted bots were literally a left wing equivalent to the Republicans; wouldn’t engage in an honest debate, aggressively guarded their shibboleths, and loved to harass “the other” as they saw it.
Major Major Major Major
@Kropadope: call me crazy, but a short acrimonious primary sure seems more helpful than a long one. Why draw it out?
Kropadope
@Major Major Major Major: Still you evade my point. I’m not arguing he was right to draw out the primary. Now I’m arguing two things. One, which I had to add due to your first evasion, is that it’s hypocritical of the Clinton camp to complain about drawing out the primary. My original point is that the hardened, epistemically closed portion of the Clinton camp was wrong to treat a huge part of the Democratic coalition as though they didn’t matter.
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
Really, Hillary called Obama corrupt and complained that the whole system was against her and the reason she was losing was because the DNC stacked the deck in Obama’s favor? And then her supporters booed all of the other speakers at the DNC while she refused to smile for the camera?
Funny, I don’t remember any of that happening in 2008. Links?
In case it wasn’t clear, Bernie did NOT behave as graciously in 2016 as Hillary did in 2008. Not by a long shot.
But I realize that you don’t want to remember it that way so you don’t have to admit that Bernie’s Putin-connected campaign manager encouraged Bernie to act that way rather than encouraging Bernie to suck it up and be a good loser like Hillary was once it was mathematically impossible for him to win based on citizens’ votes, not superdelegates.
You realize by now that Tad Devine encouraged the whole “corrupt Hillary and corrupt DNC” framing to flip voters to Trump, right? The calls were coming from inside the house the whole time, and even when Russian-connected hackers released emails “proving” what the Russian-connected campaign manager was claiming, Berniebots STILL didn’t get it.
seaboogie
@jl:
So I guess you won’t be quoting “…and Thanks for all the Fish”?
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne:
No, she made criticisms of Obama particular to him, but she DID criticize him. Funny how that works, huh?
bcw
MERRY CHRISTmASS
Central Planning
@NR:
Except they didn’t throw the bums out. They threw out the ones that were (to whatever degree you want to debate) trying to do help people. How do you reconcile “throw the bums out” when the majority of House and Senate members were republicans, and they still have the majority after the 2016 election, and now the presidency?
I think “Throw the bums out” is bullshit and cover for racism, misogyny, and bigotry. You could probably add stupidity into that as well.
The Dudeist
@Corner Stone: he probably got lots of overtime.
Kropadope
@The Dudeist: If that’s what he wants to do for a vacation he might’ve, you know, planned. If I had all the extra money I spend eating out and buying video games, I could probably go to the Bahamas too. I make less than he did (or does).
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
What’s really funny is that you think the problem was that Bernie criticized Hillary at all, and not that he used the exact same criticisms that Trump did.
Tad Devine handed Bernie the ammunition that would hurt Hillary the most in the general election, and Bernie threw it without thinking twice. And he never stopped throwing it until, what, less than a week before the DNC?
Face it, Bernie got played by the Russians. So did you. You bought into all of the propaganda about her purported “corruption” without ever pausing to consider the source.
What, exactly, makes you smarter than the Trump voter who believed the exact same “corruption” stuff about Hillary and the Democrats that you did?
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne:
You attributed all these beliefs to me that aren’t mine without ever pausing to consider what I’m actually saying. You’re still doing it.
ETA: What have I said that leads you to believe that I “bought in” to the corruption narrative?
Mnemosyne
@Kropadope:
Nope, you didn’t buy into the “corruption” narrative at all. Not you.
You got played, son, just like the Trump voters did.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne: How does any of that describe corruption? Bad decisions are not corruption. Prejudice is not corruption. But prejudice and generalized bad decisions are the two things I’m accusing the Democrats of.
Corner Stone
@The Dudeist: He probably fucked unicorns a couple times a week, also.
Lots of people reading shit into this clownshoe.
J R in WV
deleted
J R in WV
@jl:
dammed for “committing cultural macroaggression against Sweden and their candy. “???
You dissed the herring taffy> ??? DAMM You~!!! That’s horrid and vile treason against the Swedish Chef….
jl
@J R in WV: 5th still applies.l I have my rights until Jan ’17.
FlipYrWhig
I hope NR’s best hypothetical buddy is embarrassed by what an obvious sucker he was.
steverinoCT
Coffee: I am not a snob; I like the Newman’s Own medium roast bold (which is also Fair Trade and Organic) (and all profits go to charity) but that’s besides the point: I like the taste. McDonald’s here in New England at least used that coffee itself beginning a few years ago, until it later went with its own McCafe blend. On the road, I will look first for a Dunkin Donuts, then an Arby’s (few and far between, but fresh-ground), and then McDs. I drink it black and bitter, so the actual coffee taste does matter: no Starbucks at all: just too burnt.