Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.
Conventional economic models don’t necessarily capture the spiritual benefits of a wealth tax which would help the richest among us to benefit from enjoying the dignity of work.
Donald Trump Jr ventured on to the University of California’s overwhelmingly liberal Los Angeles campus on Sunday, hoping to prove what he had just argued in his book – that a hate-filled American left was hell-bent on silencing him and anyone else who supported the Trump presidency.
But the appearance backfired when his own supporters, diehard Make America Great Again conservatives, raised their voices most loudly in protest and ended up drowning him out barely 20 minutes into an event scheduled to last two hours.
……………………….. When the shouting would not subside, Trump Jr tried – and failed – to argue that taking questions from the floor risked creating soundbites that leftwing social media posters would abuse and distort. Nobody was buying that.
In minutes, the entire argument put forward by the president’s son – that he was willing to engage in dialogue but that it was the left that refused to tolerate free speech – crumbled.
“I’m willing to listen…” Trump began.
“Q and A! Q and A!” the audience yelled back.
“We’ll go into the lion’s den and talk …” Trump tried again.
“Then open the Q and A!” came the immediate response.
Guilfoyle, forced to shout to make herself heard, , told students in the crowd: “You’re not making your parents proud by being rude and disruptive.”
“He’s fucking destroyed this town,” says one V.C. “Any time there’s an inkling of innovation here, any time a new idea comes up, Zuckerberg either buys it and shuts it down, or copies it and shuts it down anyway.”
Yeah, cuz companies with monopoly power are bad for the market, duh.
So a weird thing about this new job is the dress code is generally bidness casual, but you’re kind of *expected* to wear Dark blue jeans. I’m generally not a jeans person. I need brand suggestions.
the only jeans I’ve bought in the last decade were a couple pair of Arizona, and they wore weird and got holes in the caboose.
Because hillbilly dipshits sometimes have hunting bidnesses, this is an actual conversation I overheard yesterday at the store:
Employee: have you tried calling customer service?
Customer: no I can’t understand em on customer service. They put me on with somebody in India or somewhere. One uh Obama’s relatives. (Chuckle chuckle)
I was going to make a point in another thread, but realized I am unsure of the factoid I was planning to use. I’d like to put it out for the commentariat here to pull apart and see if I’m missing something. Here it is: Banks are allowed to loan 10 times the amount of deposits they actually have.
I’ve seen this mentioned in many debates about banking regulations, primarily because banks think the ratio should be higher. But it is always treated as an accepted norm and the discussion is always about the ratio rather than about the counterintuitive idea that you can lend more than you take in. But this seems like such a big leap to me that I wonder if I’m missing something so obvious I will be justifiably embarrassed when you lot rake me over the coals about it. Have at it.
@OzarkHillbilly: thanks for the suggestion. The advice I’ve gotten on Facebook so far is Wranglers, and Levi’s. Men’s Health had a best jeans list an Carhartt was on it.
@Teve: So, 30-35 years ago there used to be a column called Dress for Success and this exact question came up. Basically it boils down to “Everyone is pretending to be casual when in fact we are actually wearing a uniform, but there is a test to see if you can figure the uniform out.” Nothing changes…
I would recommend taking a (discrete) look at the asses of your office mates of the same gender, and seeing what tags you spot there. Especially if there happens to be a person with the same general body style and who you think looks put together well.
@MarkedMan: Banks keep 10% of the deposits on hand. So imagine a bank that takes in $1,000 of deposits. It lends out $900 in loans and keeps $100 as fractional reserve. So it’s not ~10 times what they have in deposits, it’s 9 times the cash reserve from their deposits.
There are all kinds of complexities like where Banks borrow from other Banks etc but this is the 101 answer to your question.
@Teve: I was wearing Carhartt whites for decades as a union carpenter and started wearing their jeans socially in the past 10-15 years. Almost as comfortable to me as the whites were. (wearing carpenter whites 5 days a week they became my default setting for comfort. I’m sure a lot of carpenters would argue that point with me). They take a lot of wear and tear without showing it.
Wonder if the Brexit candidates he says are not contesting the 371 seats are going to ask for their 500 pounds back that The Brexit Party (TM)(a.k.a. Nigel) demanded they pay?
(Aside from such jollies, it looks like neither the Tory nor the Labour candidates have the foggiest idea of how to deal with Brexit. Both are making totally unrealistic predictions of what will happen in negotiations with the EU.)
Forget about brands and privilege fit above all else. How do those jeans look on you? In fact, before even trying anything on, find someone with the same body type and with a look you admire, then figure out what makes it work. And do not hesitate to take your clothes to the local tailor for alterations. How well do your shirts fit? An expensive dress shirt with sleeves that are too long, a collar that curls, and excess material that billows at the waist is an embarrassment, no matter what you paid for it.
So a weird thing about this new job is the dress code is generally bidness casual, but you’re kind of *expected* to wear Dark blue jeans. I’m generally not a jeans person. I need brand suggestions.
Is denim mandatory, or could you wear moleskin instead? I find it much more comfortable, but it’s definitely a jeansish look. I got mine from Samuel Windsor (who also does jeans) and I love them.
For me, the most important question is the rise. I hate high-waisted jeans.
So, I’m on the hook for appetizers at an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving family dinner. Any suggestions? What are your favorites? Portable foods preferred; soup is not an appetizer.
(I’ll skip the long list of things my various brothers and sisters-in-law won’t eat; that’s for me to deal with…)
@DrDaveT: Bacon-wrapped brussel sprouts! Use the cheap bacon, wrap the brussel sprouts with it, stab it with a toothpick, then drizzle it with maple syrup and put it in the oven at about 250 for 20-30 minutes, then turn it to 200 and turn them over every 15 minutes or so until the bacon looks done and the sprouts are tender. They taste like candy.
Something interesting (to me, anyway) that I just learned. We all know the V for victory sign made famous by Churchill. You hold up your index finger and middle finger with your palm facing out. The Brits also indicate “Fuck you” by holding up the two fingers with the knuckles facing out. This is the origin of that gesture (or so I have read).
Before the battle of Agincourt, the French communicated to Henry’s army that after they, the French, had won the battle, they were going to cut off the index and middle fingers, the fingers used to draw the bow string, of every English archer they captured alive (English archers, armed with the longbow, composed about 80% of Henry’s army).
Things didn’t work out that way. The French were almost annihilated by the English bowmen. After the battle, the bowmen signaled the victory by holding up the two fingers: “Fuck you. We won.”
@DrDaveT: @Jax: (bacon-wrapped ANYTHING is tasty….)
My aunt used to get a large jar of pickled asparagus and wrap the spears up in strips of ham together with cream cheese. Hold together with toothpicks. If you can get your hands on the ingredients this is incredibly quick to put together.
Other suggestions (traditional): devilled eggs, phyllo dough triangles stuffed with spanakopita filling, stuffed grape leaves….meatballs in barbecue sauce….one year I made Chinese dumplings with turkey as an appetiser because I wanted some turkey and there was no way I was going to roast a whole bird. Then there’s the old standby: raw veggies and (French onion soup mix + sour cream = dip.) Or you can go Russian: marinated mushrooms and pickled beets offered together with crisp bread and sour cream. Add chopped onion and a small jar of lumpfish caviar.
Depends on what you think your relatives will eat and how you want to balance the appetisers against the rest of the menu. I’d probably go for something light and crisp (a.k.a. the veggies + dip) or the phyllo dough triangles given that you’re going to be chowing down on more turkey than you can shake a stick at.
@Teve:
Back in the 1990s when my job required me to pay closer attention to what was happening in part of the software space, the first question VCs asked start-ups was, “What’s your plan for being acquired by Microsoft?” Not whether you could be successful enough to become a big player on your own some day, but could you convince MS that you were enough of a threat for them to buy you out.
@MarkedMan: don’t be embarrassed, nobody is born knowing this stuff. I just read about it as a hobby. Got the Ascent of Money on the floor near my couch right now. So far it’s got a clear right-wing bias but seems pretty accurate re the basic subject matter.
If I put 10,000 down on a 100,000 dollar house, I have invested 10K, but I own an asset worth 100K, I’m leveraged 10:1. But I owe the bank 90K. If I sell the house for 110, I pay the bank 90 and keep 20. I made a 100% profit on my 10K and I’m a financial genius. But if the value of the house drops to 89K, I owe 90, and I’m “underwater”. If the bank demands their 90, I’m bankrupt. When the 08 crisis hit the big banks were leveraged over 30:1. If the value of their assets dropped 3% they were technically bankrupt. They dropped way more than 3%.
The book is a history of banking, and therefore of bank failures. The gist is that leverage is so profitable that banks will always push it as far as they can. The moral is that therefore banks must be tightly regulated.
The book was written during the high inflation of the 70s, hence the subtitle of the book. Galbraith had a line, ‘In a time of high and rising inflation any reckless fool can be a great financier.’ Trump joined his daddy’s business in ‘68.
The latest episode of The Good Place managed to subvert my expectations again. no spoilers, so I wont’ say how. but in the grand story arc, it wasn’t much. But int he end, I did believe Eleanor was being truthful, even though I knew she was lying.
What I can’t see is any further surprises. But there was one in each of the prior three seasons. These are listed under the spoiler alert:
SPOILER ALERT:
First season surprise: you’re actually in the Bad Place.
Second season: Michael has no clue how to get to the Good Place.
Third season: no one gets to the Good Place any more.
@gVOR08: That’s why Warren Buffett said “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” The splendid mess called Long-Term Capital Management collapsed because they had leverage on top of leverage which meant trying to make money off a ridiculously over-geared financial product. Great when the prices of bonds go in the direction you want; an instant bomb in its guts when otherwise.
Great political snark from Marina Hyde over at The Guardian:
The Brexit party leader is one of those hapless movie villains who tells a millionaire he’s kidnapped his wife, and the millionaire goes – great, you can keep her.
Random bit of data: yesterday while driving past the big mall in Annapolis, we noticed a group of people waving Biden signs. The two that I could see and still safely navigate the intersection were late middle-aged African American men.
Thought of @Steven Taylor when I saw this cartoon on voting systems. (For those unaware, hover over the comic to get the punch line as a tool tip) https://xkcd.com/2225/
‘In a time of high and rising inflation any reckless fool can be a great financier.’
Being able to roll over debt at a steadily decreasing cost of servicing it — the long period of declining interest rates from about 1980 to 2000 — also covers up a lot of stupidity.
@Teve: I agree. The whole thing reeks of a false flag operation of the highest order. I suspect that some Antifa activist had a bunch of fake MAGA caps made in China and smuggled in for the event.
Both are making totally unrealistic predictions of what will happen in negotiations with the EU.
Wait a second, didn’t the EU specifically say that the flextension was for the purpose of writing the complete agreement so that Parliament could make an informed vote and that no further negotiations would be considered?
Do they not sell hearing aids in the UK? Or Q-tips?
@DrDaveT: The bacon wrapped brussel sprouts are new to me but sound delicious. In terms of things you don’t have to make yourself, it’s hard to go wrong with stuffed mushrooms or mini quiches. There are also large numbers of Asian-esque dumplings, mandoos (mandus), pot stickers, and such that can be bought several dozen to the bag (since I don’t know how many you’re preparing for. I like ones with kimchee in them, but that may be an acquired taste on my part.
The Brexit party leader is one of those hapless movie villains who tells a millionaire he’s kidnapped his wife, and the millionaire goes – great, you can keep her.
Heh. She was probably thinking of the Bette Midler/Danny DeVito movie, Ruthless People. Upon hearing the kidnappers’ small asking price for her return, Midler’s character screams: “I’ve been marked down?!!!” (Which, when you think of it, may well describe the UK post-Brexit.)
Got the Ascent of Money on the floor near my couch right now. So far it’s got a clear right-wing bias but seems pretty accurate re the basic subject matter.
Good.
Just to repeat the disclaimer: I recommended it because (A) it seems like a sound history book, and (B) it is the only book I’ve seen that explains not only what each innovation (e.g. money, loans, bonds, etc.) was, but also what economic problem/constraint it addressed. No endorsement of Ferguson as either person or economist was intended.
The bacon wrapped brussel sprouts are new to me but sound delicious
I gotta try that. Was looking for veggies to roast with a chicken the other day and Walmart… has… none. It’s frickin’ November! Sometimes, only a Brussels Sprout will do.
Apparently Deval Patrick is now ALSO considering a White House run and noooooo someone please make it stop.
Charlotte Clymer pretty much captured my feelings on this with her tweet that we are about 72 hours from Al Gore announcing a run.
Democrats are so desperate to get rid of Trump they are hoping for the Second Coming, and by that I mean Obama 2.0.
Dems need to get it through their skulls: there is no perfect candidate. In 2008, there were plenty of prognosticators who thought that nominating Obama meant a loss.
Get. A. Grip. Any one of the Dem candidates is FINE. Yes some are more exciting than others but we do not need more entrants further fracturing the vote.
@OzarkHillbilly: I really love them wrapped in bacon, but if you don’t want to take the time to do all that, you can slice them in half, add some chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, cooked bacon bits, handful of brown sugar and cook at 350 in the oven til they are tender. My youngest kid and I love them either way, but the bacon wrapped ones are the best, even if they take a little longer.
My grandma always made brussels sprouts for holiday dinners, I’ve made it my life’s mission to try every brussels sprout recipe on the planet. Not all are as good as the others! 😉
I dare say many, many times more money than 99.999% of all people will ever see.
On other things, I had to take a break from early XX Chinese history to catch up with The Age of Napoleon podcast, then with Revolutions. It’s amazing that 21 episodes into the Russian Revolution, Duncan is just reaching the XX Century. If he’s not careful, he’ll break his own record (The French Revolution)
The background music was Garbage’s Special. Which is of the world’s best songs ever.
“That’s tres cool ” I thought: an anomaly.
Next song up was Talking Heads Wild, Wild Life. It’s now a pattern.
I truly stopped and listened. It wasn’t a local radio station. It was a manager decision.
Now lots of folks despise True Stories as non-canon.
I know that the band was disintegrating at the time and True Stories was David Byrnes’s joint entirely but with a Talking Heads moniker, but good freaking damn I loved True Stories’ s songs.
I am totally jacked in a grocery store.
My walk to it in 5 minutes grocer played Garbage and Talking Heads as background. This is what being old feels like; your youthful favorites become golden oldies as you age.
Younger ones; this will happen to you one day. You are not immune to this process.
You will be an old in a grocery store reliving your vital youth via pop songs.
@DrDaveT: I remember not liking them when I was young, then I hit a “vegetarian” stage (we’re cattle ranchers, so good on my parents for not force feeding me meat), and Grandma’s brussels sprouts suddenly became the highlight of my visits with her. She didn’t add bacon until after I started eating meat again.
We could’ve had some real fun cooking them if we’d had all these internet recipes available!
@de stijl: In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps toniiiight…..
My kids both do facepalms when it comes on in public spaces, because they KNOW their mom is about to mightily embarrass them.
Oh, I’d like to write something down, for the record…..on this day 11/11/2019, at approximately 5 pm MST, my teenager admitted I was right about something. If we were at a bar, I’d be buying the whole bar a round and wearing a crown and stuff. 😉
While watching Monday Night Football in a bar in Seattle, surrounded by Seahawks fans, I had a thought:
If Democrats in Texas boycotted the next census, they would not only reduce the Republicans’ total electoral votes and house seats, but they would also completely screw up the redistricting which might end up creating more competitive house districts.
Also, I don’t give a shit about football. If it wasn’t for overtime, I would have missed this entire game. People seem happy though.
I don’t know. Mexico is a rather good place for asylum (though Leon Trotsky might disagree), but we don’t let foreign former heads of state plot and use the country as a base of operations. On the other hand, the same government that gave him asylum also condemned what they are calling a coup, and said government is also sympathetic to left wing dictators.
And I do hope they charge him for the nice air force plane that picked him up, and whatever security measures as are provided (I know he’ll pay for his own accommodations).
I had to take a break from early XX Chinese history
Every time that I’ve tried to get a handle on Chinese history, I’ve come away discouraged. The interminable stability turns history into a chronicle of emperors and battles. However one wishes to make sense of European history (politics, ideas, economics, religion, social), it tends to come down to the same basic roadmap. But Chinese history… even the costumes look the same! If one strips away all the individuals, what are the big impersonal forces at work in Chinese history, and how are those to be understood? I’m sure there must be a way into the subject, but I’ve yet to find it.
Cruciferous vegetables are the issue. Lots of folks cannot appreciate them and are tagged and disdained as abnormal, or tagged as not willing to try new things, or picky eaters.
Why is it that saying I dislike most vegetables a quasi political statement? It isn’t.
It’s just not my thing. I don’t enjoy it. Please stop pushing. I am very adventurous, probably much more than you, statistically. Just not in this realm.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
· 12h
In order to continue being the most Transparent President in history, I will be releasing sometime this week the Transcript of the first, and therefore most important, phone call I had with the President of Ukraine. I am sure you will find it tantalizing!
raise your hand if you’re stupid enough to believe that this guy is the most transparent president in history.
@Teve: As Goethe had it in Faust: A bald and thorough contradiction holds mystery for fools and clever men alike.
After 5 or 6 years, every kid learns that lying is an art. So it always takes my breath away when I see Trump peddling such transparent BS, and knowing that it will work with the intended audience. No burying the truth in endless words, no dog whistles, just… obvious lies, straight up, no chaser. Wow!
Just ordered a used hard-cover edition from AbeBooks, $5 delivered. In the worst case, it will be in good company with all the other interesting books I’m not reading.
Scott Galloway
@profgalloway
·
5m
Self-appointed spokespeople for the economy have been fearmongering about the markets being cut in half if Warren is elected, which is ridiculous. Data shows that Dem administrations register greater gains in the markets than Republicans.
Katie Mack
@AstroKatie
·
7m
In its latest attack on science, the environment, and your ability to breathe, the Trump administration plans to disallow EPA safety regulations based on any research that doesn’t reveal the confidential medical information of participants.
E.P.A. to Limit Science Used to Write Public Health Rules
nytimes.com
Katie Mack
@AstroKatie
·
5m
As far as I can tell, that will include pretty much all (rigorous, peer-reviewed, published) public health research. And it may be retroactive. Those studies showing that lead is bad for you? That you shouldn’t drink mercury? Not transparent enough to base regulations on now.
@Jax: I love Brussels Sprouts, even as a kid. I will eat them anyway I can get them. For quick and easy I cut up a slice or 2 of bacon and saute them halved in the grease.
ETA I cure and smoke my own bacon. That probably has something to do with how good this is.
Matt Viser
@mviser
·
12h
Joe Biden remarks that he called about a dozen Senate Republicans to encourage them to vote on Merrick Garland. Then he says with Trump gone, Republicans will again find political courage.
Left unsaid: Republicans stalled on Garland before Trump was nominated, or elected.
Gaaaaaaa I can’t stop accumulating. The Ascent of Money is due back next Thursday, I have two months of New Yorkers, Vanity Fairs, and Wireds to read, and I just downloaded Station Eleven.
If anybody loves sweet corn casserole like I do, I have FINALLY found one that I love. I’ve run the whole gamut, easy to hard, and THIS one is the best, I put 3 together and it was fabulous!
It’s just not my thing. I don’t enjoy it. Please stop pushing. I am very adventurous, probably much more than you, statistically. Just not in this realm.
Um, if you read something I posted as somehow pushing any vegetable (much less Brussels sprouts) on you, you have misread. Please go back and check again.
@Ms. Cris Ericson: Quit yer bitchin. First you weren’t happy because it was secret, now you’re not happy cuz it’s open. And you’re still posting spammy shit across platforms that none of us care about.
Jesus was a character in Henry VI?
Heh:
-Matthew Yglesias.
@OzarkHillbilly: those were clearly Antifa thugs.
Only unions have thugs. Just look at a public school’s teacher picket line, absolutely terrifying. Antifa has violent leftist revisionist snowflakes.
Yeah, cuz companies with monopoly power are bad for the market, duh.
Vanity Fair
The headline of the day-
Virginia doctor allegedly performed hysterectomies, tied fallopian tubes without consent
So a weird thing about this new job is the dress code is generally bidness casual, but you’re kind of *expected* to wear Dark blue jeans. I’m generally not a jeans person. I need brand suggestions.
the only jeans I’ve bought in the last decade were a couple pair of Arizona, and they wore weird and got holes in the caboose.
Because hillbilly dipshits sometimes have hunting bidnesses, this is an actual conversation I overheard yesterday at the store:
Employee: have you tried calling customer service?
Customer: no I can’t understand em on customer service. They put me on with somebody in India or somewhere. One uh Obama’s relatives. (Chuckle chuckle)
@Teve: Carhartt Jeans.
I was going to make a point in another thread, but realized I am unsure of the factoid I was planning to use. I’d like to put it out for the commentariat here to pull apart and see if I’m missing something. Here it is: Banks are allowed to loan 10 times the amount of deposits they actually have.
I’ve seen this mentioned in many debates about banking regulations, primarily because banks think the ratio should be higher. But it is always treated as an accepted norm and the discussion is always about the ratio rather than about the counterintuitive idea that you can lend more than you take in. But this seems like such a big leap to me that I wonder if I’m missing something so obvious I will be justifiably embarrassed when you lot rake me over the coals about it. Have at it.
@OzarkHillbilly: thanks for the suggestion. The advice I’ve gotten on Facebook so far is Wranglers, and Levi’s. Men’s Health had a best jeans list an Carhartt was on it.
@Teve: So, 30-35 years ago there used to be a column called Dress for Success and this exact question came up. Basically it boils down to “Everyone is pretending to be casual when in fact we are actually wearing a uniform, but there is a test to see if you can figure the uniform out.” Nothing changes…
I would recommend taking a (discrete) look at the asses of your office mates of the same gender, and seeing what tags you spot there. Especially if there happens to be a person with the same general body style and who you think looks put together well.
@MarkedMan: Banks keep 10% of the deposits on hand. So imagine a bank that takes in $1,000 of deposits. It lends out $900 in loans and keeps $100 as fractional reserve. So it’s not ~10 times what they have in deposits, it’s 9 times the cash reserve from their deposits.
There are all kinds of complexities like where Banks borrow from other Banks etc but this is the 101 answer to your question.
@Teve: I was wearing Carhartt whites for decades as a union carpenter and started wearing their jeans socially in the past 10-15 years. Almost as comfortable to me as the whites were. (wearing carpenter whites 5 days a week they became my default setting for comfort. I’m sure a lot of carpenters would argue that point with me). They take a lot of wear and tear without showing it.
Nigel Farage, realising he may be splitting the Leave Vote, stands down a high percentage of Brexit candidates.
Wonder if the Brexit candidates he says are not contesting the 371 seats are going to ask for their 500 pounds back that The Brexit Party (TM)(a.k.a. Nigel) demanded they pay?
(Aside from such jollies, it looks like neither the Tory nor the Labour candidates have the foggiest idea of how to deal with Brexit. Both are making totally unrealistic predictions of what will happen in negotiations with the EU.)
@OzarkHillbilly: And don’t forget about the “radical militant librarians”
@Teve:
Forget about brands and privilege fit above all else. How do those jeans look on you? In fact, before even trying anything on, find someone with the same body type and with a look you admire, then figure out what makes it work. And do not hesitate to take your clothes to the local tailor for alterations. How well do your shirts fit? An expensive dress shirt with sleeves that are too long, a collar that curls, and excess material that billows at the waist is an embarrassment, no matter what you paid for it.
In Bolivia, Chavez Jr. (aka Evo Morales) is out.
The reason? The army asked him to go.
@Scott: They are the worst.
@Teve:
Is denim mandatory, or could you wear moleskin instead? I find it much more comfortable, but it’s definitely a jeansish look. I got mine from Samuel Windsor (who also does jeans) and I love them.
For me, the most important question is the rise. I hate high-waisted jeans.
So, I’m on the hook for appetizers at an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving family dinner. Any suggestions? What are your favorites? Portable foods preferred; soup is not an appetizer.
(I’ll skip the long list of things my various brothers and sisters-in-law won’t eat; that’s for me to deal with…)
@DrDaveT: Bacon-wrapped brussel sprouts! Use the cheap bacon, wrap the brussel sprouts with it, stab it with a toothpick, then drizzle it with maple syrup and put it in the oven at about 250 for 20-30 minutes, then turn it to 200 and turn them over every 15 minutes or so until the bacon looks done and the sprouts are tender. They taste like candy.
Something interesting (to me, anyway) that I just learned. We all know the V for victory sign made famous by Churchill. You hold up your index finger and middle finger with your palm facing out. The Brits also indicate “Fuck you” by holding up the two fingers with the knuckles facing out. This is the origin of that gesture (or so I have read).
Before the battle of Agincourt, the French communicated to Henry’s army that after they, the French, had won the battle, they were going to cut off the index and middle fingers, the fingers used to draw the bow string, of every English archer they captured alive (English archers, armed with the longbow, composed about 80% of Henry’s army).
Things didn’t work out that way. The French were almost annihilated by the English bowmen. After the battle, the bowmen signaled the victory by holding up the two fingers: “Fuck you. We won.”
@sam:
That gets mentioned in the film “The Darkest Hours.” The meaning of the two fingers, not the origin.
@DrDaveT: @Jax: (bacon-wrapped ANYTHING is tasty….)
My aunt used to get a large jar of pickled asparagus and wrap the spears up in strips of ham together with cream cheese. Hold together with toothpicks. If you can get your hands on the ingredients this is incredibly quick to put together.
Other suggestions (traditional): devilled eggs, phyllo dough triangles stuffed with spanakopita filling, stuffed grape leaves….meatballs in barbecue sauce….one year I made Chinese dumplings with turkey as an appetiser because I wanted some turkey and there was no way I was going to roast a whole bird. Then there’s the old standby: raw veggies and (French onion soup mix + sour cream = dip.) Or you can go Russian: marinated mushrooms and pickled beets offered together with crisp bread and sour cream. Add chopped onion and a small jar of lumpfish caviar.
Depends on what you think your relatives will eat and how you want to balance the appetisers against the rest of the menu. I’d probably go for something light and crisp (a.k.a. the veggies + dip) or the phyllo dough triangles given that you’re going to be chowing down on more turkey than you can shake a stick at.
@Teve: Thank you. That makes sense. And, as I suspected, leaves me sufficiently embarrassed.
@Teve:
Back in the 1990s when my job required me to pay closer attention to what was happening in part of the software space, the first question VCs asked start-ups was, “What’s your plan for being acquired by Microsoft?” Not whether you could be successful enough to become a big player on your own some day, but could you convince MS that you were enough of a threat for them to buy you out.
@DrDaveT:
Get some miniature bagels, plain, marble, or pumpernickel. Halve them.
Schmear the halves with cream cheese.
Top with a small slice of smoked salmon.
You can’t go wrong.
This is a little old, but that cop who arrested the nurse who refused to violate the law, and subsequently got fired, has been rehired.
@MarkedMan: I love that somebody downvoted it. 😀
@MarkedMan: don’t be embarrassed, nobody is born knowing this stuff. I just read about it as a hobby. Got the Ascent of Money on the floor near my couch right now. So far it’s got a clear right-wing bias but seems pretty accurate re the basic subject matter.
@Gromitt Gunn: Oh, ffs. The guy was a jerk.
@MarkedMan: Don’t ever be embarrassed for asking a question. My mother always said, “The only stupid question is the one that isn’t asked.”
@DrDaveT: As mentioned above, bacon wrapped anything. 2 of my favorites:
Bacon wrapped cheddar and cream cheese stuffed jalapenos
Bacon wrapped dates.
The first is a bit time consuming to make but oh so good. The 2nd is easy peasy and seriously addictive.
I just saw a meme that always caused me to split my sides. A picture of Stevie Wonder with the comment “Voting for Trump is like asking me to drive.”
@Teve: You’ve got some strange hobbies. 😉
@MarkedMan: @Teve: I recommend Money, from whence it came, and where it went, by J. K. Galbraith. It’s an old book, but the basics haven’t changed. Galbraith was the Krugman of my youth, but funnier, like really, really funny.
If I put 10,000 down on a 100,000 dollar house, I have invested 10K, but I own an asset worth 100K, I’m leveraged 10:1. But I owe the bank 90K. If I sell the house for 110, I pay the bank 90 and keep 20. I made a 100% profit on my 10K and I’m a financial genius. But if the value of the house drops to 89K, I owe 90, and I’m “underwater”. If the bank demands their 90, I’m bankrupt. When the 08 crisis hit the big banks were leveraged over 30:1. If the value of their assets dropped 3% they were technically bankrupt. They dropped way more than 3%.
The book is a history of banking, and therefore of bank failures. The gist is that leverage is so profitable that banks will always push it as far as they can. The moral is that therefore banks must be tightly regulated.
The book was written during the high inflation of the 70s, hence the subtitle of the book. Galbraith had a line, ‘In a time of high and rising inflation any reckless fool can be a great financier.’ Trump joined his daddy’s business in ‘68.
The latest episode of The Good Place managed to subvert my expectations again. no spoilers, so I wont’ say how. but in the grand story arc, it wasn’t much. But int he end, I did believe Eleanor was being truthful, even though I knew she was lying.
What I can’t see is any further surprises. But there was one in each of the prior three seasons. These are listed under the spoiler alert:
SPOILER ALERT:
First season surprise: you’re actually in the Bad Place.
Second season: Michael has no clue how to get to the Good Place.
Third season: no one gets to the Good Place any more.
@gVOR08: That’s why Warren Buffett said “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” The splendid mess called Long-Term Capital Management collapsed because they had leverage on top of leverage which meant trying to make money off a ridiculously over-geared financial product. Great when the prices of bonds go in the direction you want; an instant bomb in its guts when otherwise.
Great political snark from Marina Hyde over at The Guardian:
Random bit of data: yesterday while driving past the big mall in Annapolis, we noticed a group of people waving Biden signs. The two that I could see and still safely navigate the intersection were late middle-aged African American men.
Thought of @Steven Taylor when I saw this cartoon on voting systems. (For those unaware, hover over the comic to get the punch line as a tool tip)
https://xkcd.com/2225/
@gVOR08:
Being able to roll over debt at a steadily decreasing cost of servicing it — the long period of declining interest rates from about 1980 to 2000 — also covers up a lot of stupidity.
@gVOR08: that book is on The List.
@Teve: You’ve never read the extensive documentation on the subject “Falstaff as Christophany?” 🙂 😀 😛
@Teve: I agree. The whole thing reeks of a false flag operation of the highest order. I suspect that some Antifa activist had a bunch of fake MAGA caps made in China and smuggled in for the event.
@grumpy realist:
Wait a second, didn’t the EU specifically say that the flextension was for the purpose of writing the complete agreement so that Parliament could make an informed vote and that no further negotiations would be considered?
Do they not sell hearing aids in the UK? Or Q-tips?
@DrDaveT: The bacon wrapped brussel sprouts are new to me but sound delicious. In terms of things you don’t have to make yourself, it’s hard to go wrong with stuffed mushrooms or mini quiches. There are also large numbers of Asian-esque dumplings, mandoos (mandus), pot stickers, and such that can be bought several dozen to the bag (since I don’t know how many you’re preparing for. I like ones with kimchee in them, but that may be an acquired taste on my part.
@grumpy realist:
Heh. She was probably thinking of the Bette Midler/Danny DeVito movie, Ruthless People. Upon hearing the kidnappers’ small asking price for her return, Midler’s character screams: “I’ve been marked down?!!!” (Which, when you think of it, may well describe the UK post-Brexit.)
@Teve:
Good.
Just to repeat the disclaimer: I recommended it because (A) it seems like a sound history book, and (B) it is the only book I’ve seen that explains not only what each innovation (e.g. money, loans, bonds, etc.) was, but also what economic problem/constraint it addressed. No endorsement of Ferguson as either person or economist was intended.
So just how much is a billion dollars?
Let’s try a little exercise. If you made, somehow, $5,000 USD per day, in five hundred years you’d have:
5,000 X 365.25 X 500 = $913,125,000
Not quite one billion.
That’s how much money that is.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Ahem… Sometimes an elephant is just an elephant.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I gotta try that. Was looking for veggies to roast with a chicken the other day and Walmart… has… none. It’s frickin’ November! Sometimes, only a Brussels Sprout will do.
@Kathy: So, in other words, more money than I’ll ever see. Thanx for the visualization.
Apparently Deval Patrick is now ALSO considering a White House run and noooooo someone please make it stop.
Charlotte Clymer pretty much captured my feelings on this with her tweet that we are about 72 hours from Al Gore announcing a run.
Democrats are so desperate to get rid of Trump they are hoping for the Second Coming, and by that I mean Obama 2.0.
Dems need to get it through their skulls: there is no perfect candidate. In 2008, there were plenty of prognosticators who thought that nominating Obama meant a loss.
Get. A. Grip. Any one of the Dem candidates is FINE. Yes some are more exciting than others but we do not need more entrants further fracturing the vote.
@OzarkHillbilly: I really love them wrapped in bacon, but if you don’t want to take the time to do all that, you can slice them in half, add some chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, cooked bacon bits, handful of brown sugar and cook at 350 in the oven til they are tender. My youngest kid and I love them either way, but the bacon wrapped ones are the best, even if they take a little longer.
My grandma always made brussels sprouts for holiday dinners, I’ve made it my life’s mission to try every brussels sprout recipe on the planet. Not all are as good as the others! 😉
@OzarkHillbilly:
I dare say many, many times more money than 99.999% of all people will ever see.
On other things, I had to take a break from early XX Chinese history to catch up with The Age of Napoleon podcast, then with Revolutions. It’s amazing that 21 episodes into the Russian Revolution, Duncan is just reaching the XX Century. If he’s not careful, he’ll break his own record (The French Revolution)
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Falstaff was a big talkin coward, so nowadays he’d be a Trumper 🙂
I was at the local grocery store earlier.
The background music was Garbage’s Special. Which is of the world’s best songs ever.
“That’s tres cool ” I thought: an anomaly.
Next song up was Talking Heads Wild, Wild Life. It’s now a pattern.
I truly stopped and listened. It wasn’t a local radio station. It was a manager decision.
Now lots of folks despise True Stories as non-canon.
I know that the band was disintegrating at the time and True Stories was David Byrnes’s joint entirely but with a Talking Heads moniker, but good freaking damn I loved True Stories’ s songs.
I am totally jacked in a grocery store.
My walk to it in 5 minutes grocer played Garbage and Talking Heads as background. This is what being old feels like; your youthful favorites become golden oldies as you age.
Younger ones; this will happen to you one day. You are not immune to this process.
You will be an old in a grocery store reliving your vital youth via pop songs.
Guaranteed
@Jax:
I was in my 40’s before being convinced that Brussels Sprouts are even edible. Bacon was involved.
@de stijl:
I was at the dermatologist this morning and, I swear to god, the waiting room music included “I’ve got you under my skin”. Sinatra version.
@DrDaveT: I remember not liking them when I was young, then I hit a “vegetarian” stage (we’re cattle ranchers, so good on my parents for not force feeding me meat), and Grandma’s brussels sprouts suddenly became the highlight of my visits with her. She didn’t add bacon until after I started eating meat again.
We could’ve had some real fun cooking them if we’d had all these internet recipes available!
@de stijl: In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps toniiiight…..
My kids both do facepalms when it comes on in public spaces, because they KNOW their mom is about to mightily embarrass them.
Oh, I’d like to write something down, for the record…..on this day 11/11/2019, at approximately 5 pm MST, my teenager admitted I was right about something. If we were at a bar, I’d be buying the whole bar a round and wearing a crown and stuff. 😉
While watching Monday Night Football in a bar in Seattle, surrounded by Seahawks fans, I had a thought:
If Democrats in Texas boycotted the next census, they would not only reduce the Republicans’ total electoral votes and house seats, but they would also completely screw up the redistricting which might end up creating more competitive house districts.
Also, I don’t give a shit about football. If it wasn’t for overtime, I would have missed this entire game. People seem happy though.
@Jen:
Andrew Yang? Marrienne Williamson? Whatever Bullock? Bernie Sanders?
I’d prefer any of them to Trump, but they aren’t fine. Did you perhaps mean any of the plausible candidates would be fine?
(Bullock would be fine.)
Hmm. I wonder how effective a “Stand With Trump, Boycott The Rigged Census” ad campaign would be?
What states are on the cusp of losing house seats?
Evo Morales (aka Chavez the Lesser) is in Mexico, where he has been given asylum. He vows to return to Bolivia with ‘strength and energy’.
I don’t know. Mexico is a rather good place for asylum (though Leon Trotsky might disagree), but we don’t let foreign former heads of state plot and use the country as a base of operations. On the other hand, the same government that gave him asylum also condemned what they are calling a coup, and said government is also sympathetic to left wing dictators.
And I do hope they charge him for the nice air force plane that picked him up, and whatever security measures as are provided (I know he’ll pay for his own accommodations).
@Kathy:
Every time that I’ve tried to get a handle on Chinese history, I’ve come away discouraged. The interminable stability turns history into a chronicle of emperors and battles. However one wishes to make sense of European history (politics, ideas, economics, religion, social), it tends to come down to the same basic roadmap. But Chinese history… even the costumes look the same! If one strips away all the individuals, what are the big impersonal forces at work in Chinese history, and how are those to be understood? I’m sure there must be a way into the subject, but I’ve yet to find it.
When I’m 80, Kanye’s Power will probably be playing at your grocery store. (Dude is such a tool, but I still love Power.)
The dude is a douche, but that’s a great freaking song.
No one man should have all that power
Young uns – this will def happen. You will be me. You too will be old.
@DrDaveT:
Cruciferous vegetables are the issue. Lots of folks cannot appreciate them and are tagged and disdained as abnormal, or tagged as not willing to try new things, or picky eaters.
Why is it that saying I dislike most vegetables a quasi political statement? It isn’t.
It’s just not my thing. I don’t enjoy it. Please stop pushing. I am very adventurous, probably much more than you, statistically. Just not in this realm.
This thing isn’t my thing, that’s all.
raise your hand if you’re stupid enough to believe that this guy is the most transparent president in history.
@Gustopher: Yeah, I meant plausible. Mostly.
I’d vote for a wet bag full of rotting fruit over Trump.
@Teve: As Goethe had it in Faust: A bald and thorough contradiction holds mystery for fools and clever men alike.
After 5 or 6 years, every kid learns that lying is an art. So it always takes my breath away when I see Trump peddling such transparent BS, and knowing that it will work with the intended audience. No burying the truth in endless words, no dog whistles, just… obvious lies, straight up, no chaser. Wow!
@DrDaveT:
Just ordered a used hard-cover edition from AbeBooks, $5 delivered. In the worst case, it will be in good company with all the other interesting books I’m not reading.
I highly recommend Little Fires Everywhere. I seldom read fiction, never read fiction of that type, but it was so good.
bursting the billionaire bubble: no, America isn’t waiting for a tycoon savior. by K-Thug.
Government by Lex Luthor.
@Jax: I love Brussels Sprouts, even as a kid. I will eat them anyway I can get them. For quick and easy I cut up a slice or 2 of bacon and saute them halved in the grease.
ETA I cure and smoke my own bacon. That probably has something to do with how good this is.
@Jax: Heh. It’s a moment. The next big moment comes when you admit your teenager is right about something. 😉
MFer needs to go.
@Teve: Yeah, that’ll go over like a lead balloon. Lawsuit filed in 3… 2…. 1….
@Teve: It’s his fantasy and he’s sticking to it.
Gaaaaaaa I can’t stop accumulating. The Ascent of Money is due back next Thursday, I have two months of New Yorkers, Vanity Fairs, and Wireds to read, and I just downloaded Station Eleven.
@Teve:
I have been were you are now.
No one cares that you haven’t read “everything”. If they “care” they’re fronting.
BTW, reading “everything” is physically impossible. Ignore the gatekeepers. Petty fools. PTA moms .
Read what you want. There is no obligation.
And it’s totally kosher to skim, or just read the headline and the first paragraph and move on.
Do not be a willing slave!
@DrDaveT:
Was it an ironic use of Under My Skin?
If so, tip them. Give them social network yummies or whatever.
That is meta-cool awareness.
@Jax:
I 80s white boi danced and karaoked to Wild, Wild Life in a grocery store aisle last night. I have watched that song a hundred times.
I have zero shame about good or neutral actions.
If you ain’t paying attention to the Stone Trial…you should be.
It’s doing a fuq-lot more damage to Trump than Mueller did.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: I haven’t heard shit about it.
To nobody’s surprise, it turns out Stephen Miller really is a total fucking racist.
Ohhhhhh nooooooes!!!! I accidentally clicked “notify me of follow-up comments via email” and my poor email inbox is blooooown up! 🙂
If anybody loves sweet corn casserole like I do, I have FINALLY found one that I love. I’ve run the whole gamut, easy to hard, and THIS one is the best, I put 3 together and it was fabulous!
@de stijl:
Um, if you read something I posted as somehow pushing any vegetable (much less Brussels sprouts) on you, you have misread. Please go back and check again.
@de stijl:
I was so hoping it was, but the next couple of songs were just random muzak, so it seems unlikely. Otherwise, yeah, I share your take.
@DrDaveT:..if you read something I posted as somehow pushing any vegetable (much less Brussels sprouts) on you,..
This is a song about vegetables, they keep you regular, they’re real good for ya’…
@Ms. Cris Ericson: Quit yer bitchin. First you weren’t happy because it was secret, now you’re not happy cuz it’s open. And you’re still posting spammy shit across platforms that none of us care about.
@Mikey:
Does recommending a VDare article and a piece authored by Steve Sailer make you a white supremacist racist?
Yes. It does.
The guy Trump wanted to run immigration policy was pushing Sailer. It fits.
It is as if there is a belief beyond mere policy preference that informs Republican choices on immigration.
@Jax:
Been there. It isn’t permanent.
Your inadvertent click is thankfully restricted to one thread.
@DrDaveT:
I have an idea how that happened. Apologies. Truly.
I likely was responding to something you said, decided to change up halfway through, and spaced on the reference link.
Sorry. And my “point” was stupid and banal.