Since this is the Jewishest thread, happy Purim.
Everything Alaska has to be Jewish for you, now?
There was a novel, but I can't remember the name anymore.
Oh, maybe I'll find someplace to buy some hamentaschen. I love them, but Purim isn't a holiday I successfully keep track of.
I just use it as an excuse to accuse Iranians of plotting genocide.
I've never had hamentaschen, but it looks basically the same as kolach, which I've had before.
I'm sure E. Messily will make us some hamentashen as soon as she reads this thread.
They are nothing like the kolaches down here, but when I googled "kolaches", I saw a bunch of pictures that look nothing like the kolaches down here. They looked like circular hamentashen.
I don't know kolach, but looking at pictures they're bready. Hamentaschen are more sweet pie crust. Looks like the same fillings, though.
Down here, kolaches are a sausage wrapped in a bun, often with jalapenos or cheese or something. Sometimes they're sweet instead, though.
Go to the caucus, hang out with the Bernie Bros, and mos
t importanly, liveblog. We're counting on you.
Northern Exposure was a fine television treatment of the Jew in Alaska thing. I don't recall a Purim episode, but there was a good one about raising a minyan from across the tundra.
I'm sure E. Messily will make us some hamentashen as soon as she reads this thread.
Maybe tomorrow
I think super religious Jews make all the holidays 2 days long if they're outside Israel, so that'll be our cover.
My understanding of the Purim story, solely based on the costumes, is that it involves princesses, kings, pirates, and ninja turtles.
They have ATMs in Alaska? I thought everyone went down to the docks and/or airports when they received word the next cash shipment was near.
Hebro solidarity with Bernie, teo! Chag Purim Sameach. I'll be seeing him here tomorrow morning.
Derailing before comment 40 is deprecated, but teo is really far away so he can't do anything about it.
I would say, 'Yes civic engagement yay!' but I never bother doing that myself, so I won't.
I'm having the same debate. I went 8 years ago and it was long and kind of a pain in the ass. I believe in the civic engagement thing in theory, but in practice I'm not sure it's worth several hours of my time when the outcome has already been determined.
That's what I love about young teo. I get older, he stays the same age.
24: So young! So angry! Damn that rap music!
From the fact that you bothered to ask, I assume you've really made up your mind and are just fishing for confirmation. But I don't know what you want confirmed, and so can't help.
Or I could just flip a coin, I guess.
Every time the word 'caucus' comes up be sure to pronounce it as 'cock-ass'.
That reminds me of a binge drinking/fishing trip that occurred during or shortly after the 1988 election. We stopped for bait at a store that helpfully labeled the restrooms as "De-cockus" and "De-Bush".
(On topic because Nebraska rhymes with Alaska and because both now have caucuses.)
Go! Liveblog!
I've ended up in charge of arrangements for our county delegate selection convention two days after the primary. I won't be surprised in Sanders wins 2 or 3 to 1. In a county of 110k, how many people do I need to expect to show up to vote on the 30 delegates and 30 alternates?
Go to the cactus. The cactus is calling you.
Wait, they have cactuses in Alaska?
26 is very astute. However, I had decided not to go, so 28 is not helpful. I had considered putting in more detail about the pros and cons as I see them, but I decided to just go with the simple question to see if I would get any useful feedback to inform my decision. (I did not.)
Doesn't Purim make you feel lazy for not even bothering with a caucus when Ester did so much? It's not like you have to fuck a king.
We don't know that for sure. It's a confusing process.
And I still might decide to go. I just registered as a Democrat (while changing my registration address since I just moved), so I at least have the option.
"I will sex royalty" is on the registration form?
I haven't looked at it yet, so we can't rule it out.
I mean, the timing is certainly suspicious. So close to Purim.
Haman' Eggs would be a really inappropriate breakfast special for this morning.
It's possible I made that joke last year. In my defense, I've never tried a genocide.
It's not like you have to fuck a king.
Now I've got an "I've been to paradise (but I've, never been to me)" earworm. I hope you're happy.
I only know it as a joke on the Simpsons.
Goodnight internet. I had a long week.
That's almost certainly the wisest thing to do.
46: So, basically A Doll's House set to bad music?
Yep. Seriously, literally everyone doesn't know this song in a horrified kind of way? Or at least everyone my age or older?
I only learned of the song from Ogged mocking Labs ten years ago.
It's the title song to the Aussie drag musical "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of Desert". I think the high camp redeems the song somewhat, but it's still a bit obnoxious.
And TIL that the song predates the musical by at least a decade and seems like it was originally meant to be serious. I like the drag version better.
||
OT (Old Topic)
These photos of how the Bundy gang left the Malheur refuge are appalling.
|>
This Ted Cruz mistress story, holy shit.* Wasn't this supposed to happen to Rubio?
*Apologies for linking that site. I blame Jeb L/und.
I honestly did not expect that sort of thing. Not about Cruz. Any of the others, yes, but Cruz? I mean look at the man.
The thought is gross. We live in a gross, disgusting world where nothing makes any sense. Maybe the Gnostics were right that we live in a corrupted world created by the Demiurge.
Hey ajay, I thought you'd appreciate this: https://twitter.com/amendlocke/status/712697575632191488
(in response to my mentioning the Nixoniad https://twitter.com/BarryFreedNYC/status/711174542006358017 )
56: Holy crap.
I mean, sure he's slimy as all get out and at the very least has spent most of his marriage living in a different city as his wife and children. But that's still an impressive number of women who are willing to (or even interested in!) sleeping with Ted Cruz. I do kind of love the fact that the person they get from Breitbart who both knew perfectly well what was happening and was part of the coverup was Ben Shapiro, who recently resigned from Breitbart in a snit about their lack of integrity and claimed they were being deeply unprofessional in their attempts to promote Trump as a candidate.
60.1: exactly. Frankly any non-zero number surprises me but six??
With any other politician it would be like "OK, maybe they're obnoxious politically but they have to be charming and engaging personally, because that's just part of being a successful politician." But Cruz is famously unspeakably unpleasant even in person.
56: And Trump boasts about all his affairs without apparent consequence.
Wow. So, Trump's the nominee, barring extreme shenanigans at the convention -- this is going to drag Cruz down enough that Trump will come in with enough delegates to take the nomination cleanly, right?
It's not mathematically impossible, but I don't think anyone's going to vote for him.
I'm thinking this makes extreme shenanigans more likely. Say Trump wins a plurality, but can't get a majority (because Cruz has 500 delegates), so the second ballot goes to Kasich (who only has enough delegates that this isn't laughable because Cruz imploded).
I'm thinking he picks up all the anyone-but-Trump share of Cruz's support and a lot of the evangelicals too?
I meant Rubio but that goes for Kasich too.
Rubio barely has more delegates than Kasich and has already dropped out.
I thought the 69 scenario was what we were assuming was going to happen before this broke (don't remember the necessary numbers, but that Trump would go in with the most delegates, but not enough for a first ballot).
But then Jeb endorsed Cruz (because the man is literally the worst person in the world at timing).
55: That was horrible. But maybe "the trench of feces" doesn't count as deliberate damage. If the feds shut off the water, that would be the best way to handle the feces.
I thought the 69 scenario was...
Please LB, a Ted Cruz sex scandal with 4 different mistresses was quite enough already.
Amazing. I'd been thinking Cruz had 2020 all but sewn up. No way he survives this. Lyin Ted Cruz, just like Little Marco, is done.
Trump is counting, obviously. Any number between 0 and the number of mistresses Trump has is a win for Trump.
I'd thought that "Lyin' Ted" was the weakest of the Trumperic epithets, but if he knew about this ahead of time, or at least the likelihood of it, which is absolutely a possibility then it's a pretty solid one. It makes him sound like the bad guy in a country song.
So, NRO picked today to start "A vote for Kasich is a vote for Trump." Three articles at the top of the page on this.
Will this truly wonderful story -- rule 34 in real life -- leak into the respectable American media?
84 is touching in it's deference to the idea that the National Enquirer is somehow outside of the "respectable American media".
86 is touching in my commitment to full employment for apostrophes.
Gawker is already on it, of course. I'm curious to see how Vox handles it. They've had a couple articles that are "here are the totally unsubstantiated rumors that people are referring to" both with Kevin McCarthy and Rubio. I'd be pretty surprised if they don't have an explainer up today, but perhaps their lawyers have different opinions.
Remember back a few years ago when some people in Taiwan would make an animated reconstruction of events in the news? I hope they've stopped.
I don't know how much time all of you spend in line at the supermarket, but my impression from the time I spend there is that that tabloids love Donald Trump. Scared to see the kind of stories they will run about Hillary once the general election gets going.
Batboy will come around once he realizes that only her health plan covers pointed ears.
The New Republic covers it -- with some bonus behind the scenes insight?
But they use the fig leaf of reporting about the story, not the story.
I wonder what Gawker's pre-publication legal review is like now. A rubber stamp reading "What have you got to lose?"
90: Well, we'll certainly get to learn who Bill Clinton's current girlfriend is.
When have affairs with women hurt the political chances of Republican men?
Who knows, maybe the Cruz campaign planted the story to make him seem less monstrous.
It doesn't seem to be on the Knifecrimean NE website, which suggests a certain wariness of the local libel laws
A woman could probably get huge damages for having been falsely associated with Ted Cruz.
When have affairs with women hurt the political chances of Republican men?
Mark Sanford?
Being correctly associated with Ted Cruz is more damaging, if not actionable.
95: Nelson Rockefeller, broadly speaking.
Rockefellar's probablem was divorce, wasn't it? Sanford might be a good example. I can't remember how he actually left office, just how the scandal broke.
He might have overcome the divorce issue, but having a heart attack at the house of another woman was something he just couldn't overcome, biologically.
104 was wrong. According to Wikipedia, he was in his own house. Still, he did die.
I thought his political career was over before then.
He was a scrappy 70. He could have made a comeback.
Supposedly the Rubio campaign knew about this weeks ago?
There's at least one 10 day old tweet that actually has one of the names in it. What do I read unfogged for if I have to wait for the NE for rumors like everyone else? It was talked about on Twitter as #TheThing.
Does CNN count as "respectable American media"?
They are gradually coming on line, as the lawyers complete their reviews. New Republc reproted on the Inquirer story early this morning. NY Magazine at 11:30, and Slate got to it at 2:30 in an extremely vague report. You still have to go to blogs to get the names of the sluts unjustly accused campaign manager, right wing pundit, and prostitute.
"The Cuban Mistress Crisis" is a genius name. So much cleverer than the usual -gates and -ghazis.
111: Apparently a metaphorical circular firing squad is not enough for some in the GOP.
112: Maybe.
I strongly suspect that the majority of the signatures on that petition are from liberals excited at the idea of trolling the GOP. But if they did actually allow people to carry guns around the convention I think it would make for a hilarious atmosphere, even if nothing actually happened. The Secret Service would probably not be happy with the idea at all, and having all the candidates unable to show up would add really wonderful layer of irony to the whole thing.
Or from Pittsburgh fans who are hoping to catch a Browns fan in the crossfire.
117: Why would a Steelers fan want to put Browns' fans out of their misery?
118 demonstrates a higher level of fandom than Steelers fans are actually capable of.
112: The Trump-woman there is a real piece of work.
Is Carpenter always on that show or is the CNN anchor just fucking with everybody when she says she didn't want the affair rumors to come up?
I think they wanted it to come up - it's way too juicy and CNN isn't exactly the high road when it comes to journalism, though they like to play at it.
One thing that struck me when I did watch that video is how dishonest Carpenter seemed to me. My immediate reaction was "Oh wow, she's lying a lot". And while my sense of when people are lying is generally not that reliable it tends towards being unreliable at picking up when it's happening rather than thinking it is when it isn't. I was kind of enjoying the sheer carnival lunacy of the whole thing but now I'm actually left thinking that there really might be something there, which isn't as fun because "something" is mainly "Ted Cruz having illicit sex" and I don't really want to think about that.
I think of somebody asks you point blank if you had sex with somebody on TV, you're entitled to lie about it.
If I were me, I'd be making fun of where I placed the preposition in that.
Then again, it would have worked if I hadn't screwed up the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRIylF76-wc
124 There's a presidential exception to that rule though. Or there ought to be.
Get ready for R2AK 2016!
(I read some of the coverage of the debut race last year and it sounded like a great success.)
Portland is out of control with this "put a bird on it" schtick. At the Sanders rally I just attended, a finch interrupted him by landing at his feet and then flying up on the lectern.
St. Bernie. It made for a nice visual up there on the Jumbotron.
Honestly, I'm struggling to believe this story. I am really skeptical. It just seems too convenient.
And if it is true, I don't think it will hurt Cruz. I think the writing was already on the wall. Trump was going to win anyway, and Cruz will be around to fight again another day.
1. in portlandia, so they put a bird on it
2. birdie sanders
I was having a tough time trying to figure out why how Witt had already cooked up a conspiracy theory amongst little birdies...
Is there any chance that Ted Cruz did not at some point sleep with a prostitute or with an overeager worker? No there is not. Look at the guy. Of course he'd do shitty things with women. Of course he'd feel entitled and justified in taking advantage of a signal given after years of being called a creep. That's what people who are creepy in his way do. Will we ever get evidence demonstrating it? Probably not. So the conclusion will always based on speculation and rank stereotyping, which I guess are bad things to do. But between friends, come on.
|| I'm watching the new Peewee movie. I never watched him as a kid. I'm beginning to understand the humor of my elementary school classmates. |>
"People" there s/b "men." But come on. After 45 years of being Ted Cruz and devoting his life to being a power-hungry creep, he finally achieves power. Some delusional DC power junkie woman says "Senator Cruz, I want to fuck you" and instead of taking advantage he says "no"? No way in hell is that what he does.
I would never sink so low as to speculate on the personal lives of angry creepers.
Ha! Crypto ornithological ummmm ???
Video of 130. This is just one of the lines into the venue. The one I was in was at least as long.
So now I'm reconsidering and thinking I should go to the caucus after all.
Don't run for office if you keep flip flopping.
After Bernie wins, you guys are going to sign my petition to make the national anthem "The Internationale" right?
The Bernie bird bit reminds me of Fidel and the dove.
148: what do you have against woody guthrie?
I've decided not to caucus this morning. I feel slightly embarrassed, because it seems like a good thing to do, but I just don't care that much. I don't feel obligated to contribute my support to either candidate.
And you don't have a preference? Huh.
At my caucus. Wildly overcrowded, sort of organized, civil. Socialist party already organized as we elect a Socialist to city government.
Dear mercy, we have three stages of caucus and voting and leaving is, mm, perhaps strategically unwise.
Washington voted against the caucus system a while ago and the parties brought bit back. Hmph.
Very close tie between candidates, but we have three delegates to send to the next stage!
We might have to disagree with each other in public. This is why Seattle doesn't like caucuses.
So I did decide to caucus. Currently in a long line to get in.
It came down to those of us with open schedules being volunteered by our SOs. This after everyone speaking for their candidate for less than the required time, and then we all agreed we weren't going to change our votes and went 2:1 Sanders:Clinton. Mostly disagreeing about electability, with one person arguing that Clinton makes us look better internationally. OTOH, I think everyone cheerfully agreed to be working for whichever candidate got it.
Wow this is chaotic. The space is way too small.
Ours had to spread out into most of an elementary school. There are still people earnestly disagreeing with each other while folded into children's desks.
DEMOCRACY.
We're in a high school auditorium balcony. They're sending some people to an overflow room.
They just told one district to go to the parking lot.
160 is clearly the fault of either Goldman Sachs, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, or both.
Or maybe second wave feminism. Not sure.
clew, you wouldn't happen to be in precinct 1691, would you?
This is really a terrible process. What are the advantages supposed to be?
167: I think it's supposed to work like the birthright trips -- a chance for young liberals to meet and make more liberais.
Exclusion of the working poor?
And you don't have a preference? Huh.
I've written (too much) in the primary threads but it more or less shakes out to this: I find it easy to like both candidates. Bernie is closer to my politics, and I understand the wariness about Clinton but I don't have strong objections to her.
I'm happy that Bernie is doing well, and if I thought the vote here was likely to be close I would have been more inclined to go caucus for him, but I think he'll win easily here.
If you put a gun to my head and asked me to pick one of them to be the nominee tomorrow I'd pick Clinton, but that reflects risk-aversion* on my part as much as anything else, and that's fairly speculative, it's hard to say for certain what the risks are with either of them.
So, ultimately, I have my preferences, but they're split and I'm happy to support whoever is the nominee.
* The risks that I fear are a small element of electibility concerns but mostly concerns about the learning curve of being president and being worried that Sanders would spend more of his term figuring out the balancing acts involved.
Looks like Alaska's already been called for Sanders. Good work, teo.
Thanks. It was more than two-to-one in my district,
If they're just counting, why have a caucus instead of a vote?
Is it just a way for people with too much free time to fuck with the rest of us?
173: Very good question. Many of us who were there wondered the same thing.
I spent three hours waiting to get into the Sanders rally yesterday, then an hour waiting and an hour listening and birdwatching. But I get to vote by mail, so it seems like a fair tradeoff.
I literally did not hear a single positive comment about the caucus process from anyone, including the volunteers who were running it. Lots of negative comments, though.
Overall, it was just as big a pain in the ass as I expected it to be, but I'm glad I did do it just to experience what these things are like. It's not like I had anything better to do.
At least your post hoc rationalization still works.