JUST IN: Trump aide submitted drafts of 2016 “America First” energy speech to senior United Arab Emirates officials for edits, according to emails and text messages uncovered by a House Oversight Committee investigation.
Thought from this morning’s commute: What are the discussions inside Fox’s producers room like right now? On one hand, promoting bigotry, fear and decisiveness is their business model and being able to literally program POTUS’s tweets has to be amazingly ego-building. On the other, the more Trump echos their racism and bigotry in his tweets, the lower his chances of winning suburban white females and the election are – and he may take the GOP Senate down with him. Quite the conundrum for them…
McConnell must really be concerned about the Moscow Mitch meme. The typical McConnell response to political attacks have been to either ignore them or dismiss them a partisan. Taking to the Senate floor to defend himself indicates that Moscow Mitch attacks are drawing blood.
While McConnell is a near lock to win reelection, his approval rating in Kentucky is abysmal enough, that if KY Repugs decide not to “hold their nose” and vote for Mitch he could be in trouble.
This is an absolutely crazy paper that demonstrates the Fed cuts rates in response to output gaps when Republicans are President and raises rates in response to inflation when Democrats are president, but not vice versa. Can’t believe it only has 27 cites:
Three people were killed and many more were wounded.
So all it takes is one good guy with a gun, for the murder rate in a mass shooting to what? Drop to acceptable levels? Leave the news cycle within a day? Not cause a strong public backlash against guns?
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is offering to buy Rep. Ilhan Omar a ticket to Somalia so she will “appreciate America more,” echoing President Trump’s racist statement that the Minnesota Democrat and three other congresswomen should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Yep, libertarian Republicans are the same racist trash as the rest of the GOP.
On the premise that Republicans are dumb assholes, it really wouldn’t surprise me to see if McConnell responds to all this by cooking up an “election security” bill that requires voter ID and maybe contains some other disenfranchisement mechanisms.
[…] McConnell responds to all this by cooking up an “election security” bill that requires voter ID and maybe contains some other disenfranchisement mechanisms.
Except that he really can’t dictate what states do when they run elections–the federal role here is to provide funding for states to secure their systems. I’d have to dig a bit, but I’m pretty certain that how states run elections is solely within state purview.
Earlier in the year we got samples of shredded chicken in one kilo pouches. There was a general consensus in the office more or less that “eew!” But I was curious to try it. It’s just boiled chicken meat, after all, not disimilar, in principle, from boiled tuna in a can.
It turned out to be perfectly edible, and it tastes like chicken 😉
Oh, it’s bland, but that’s true of all boiled chicken.
I took some left over samples home. I’ve made red chilaquiles with green salsa and chicken, chicken in salsa and rice, chicken with mole, cornbread with chicken with mole, and even my interpretation of chicken chili.
About the only problem is that a one kilo pouch is a bit much for most of my recipes, so I wind up freezing a portion.
I still have like three pouches left, so I thought I’d make enchiladas next week.
@Kathy: Are you supposed to cook it in the pouch? I always worry about plastic leaching in that case. In fact it might have been hot when they stuck it in the pouch. Whether that’s worse than BPA-lined tuna cans, I wouldn’t know.
Paul’s state, Kentucky, which is 88% white, is ranked 46th in terms of income. So he’s really one to talk.
That reminds me that a lot of conservatives who have jumped on the Trump bandwagon of trashing Baltimore don’t say anything like that about paradises like Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Alabama…Baltimore does have a lot of issues but the city and the state it is a part of are in much better shape than many of those other places…
@michael reynolds: Who knew that the guy who launched his 2010 Senate campaign attacking the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and whose dad once ran a newsletter that described teenage black robbers as “fleet of foot,” could be a racist?
No. You’re supposed to take it out of the pouch and crumble it, as it tends to form large clumps. The pouch is metal foil and plastic, too, so it’s not a good idea to heat it or, worse, put it in the microwave. Typically I make the sauce and add the chicken to it.
I don’t know about the packaging process, but I could ask the supplier.
At the supermarket there are re-fried beans and other things sold in pouches, which instruct one to heat the pouch in the microwave. I’ve never done that, even when I will consume only the contents of a pouch. I put the contents in a bowl or plate first.
@michael reynolds: Well to be fair ( 😉 ), Rand Paul is the guy who went on record as being a vote against the Civil Rights Act in the 60s if he’d been there to do it. So, he could be an outlier.
I don’t believe that he is, either, but he could be, and so in this case, I will opt for taking Doug as our more normative example.
Rand Paul is the guy who went on record as being a vote against the Civil Rights Act in the 60s if he’d been there to do it.
Just a tad more complicated. In 2010 he criticized parts of the CRA but declined to say whether he would have voted for it. He went on Rachel Maddow’s program and basically just hemmed and hawed for 10 minutes straight. But after getting raked over the coals by the media for several days, he finally came out and said, yes, he would have voted for it.
@Kathy: Back in the dark ages, I tried canned chicken. It was a product–canned whole chicken–with a boiled chicken canned and packed in gelatin. Overall it was sort of like canned salmon or canned whole mackerel, with the same gross appearance but decent flesh once you got all the “packing material” off.
If I had been as smart (and as good a cook) as I am today, I would have figured out how to cook the carcass in the melted gelatin to make a bone soup stock, Too soon old, to late wise, I guess.
Compared to being arrested at a Klan rally, and housing discrimination based on race, referring to black armed robbers as “fleet of foot” seems quaint, even if “fleet of foot” has some obscure racial meaning. Referring to armed robbers as black seems worse. Were there no white armed robbers? Were white armed robbers slow and bumbling? Why is he denigrating our white armed robbers?
The takeaway is that Baltimore really does have a lot of rats. I has assumed they didn’t based on the lack of right-wingers trumpeting this data, and disingenuously claiming that Trump really was discussing rodent infestations. I overestimated them. Live an learn.
@Gustopher: Did you follow the whole controversy of the Ron Paul newsletters? They were filled with massively racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and conspiratorial content. To quote Wikipedia:
Many articles in these newsletters contained statements that were criticized as racist or homophobic. These statements include, “Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.”[8][9][10][11] An October 1992 article said, “even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I’ve urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense… for the animals are coming.”[12] Another newsletter suggested that black activists who wanted to rename New York City after Martin Luther King, Jr. should instead rename it “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” “Dirtburg,” or “Lazyopolis.”[2] An article titled “The Pink House” said “I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.”[2][13][14] Another newsletter asserted that HIV-positive homosexuals “enjoy the pity and attention that comes with being sick” and approved of the slogan “Sodomy=Death.”[2]
A number of the newsletters criticized civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., calling him a pedophile and “lying socialist satyr”.[2][15] These articles told readers that Paul had voted against making Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a federal public holiday, saying “Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for that pro-communist philanderer, Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day.”[2][16][17]….
In a January 2008 article in The New Republic, James Kirchick, who studied hundreds of Paul’s newsletters held at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, and at the Wisconsin Historical Society, wrote that the newsletters “reveal decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays”.[2][21]… One investment letter called Israel “an aggressive, national socialist state”; a 1990 newsletter discussed the “tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to work for the Mossad in their area of expertise”; one quoted a “Jewish friend” who said the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a “setup by the Israeli Mossad”.[2]
I mentioned the “fleet of foot” comment mainly because Paul is on record having explicitly defended it in the 1990s, before he finally disowned the newsletters and claimed the articles under his name had been ghostwritten.
Paul’s 2008 candidacy was in many ways a precursor to the Trump movement. Certainly, it was the first major political movement in some time to seriously attract white nationalists, though Paul was a lot less explicit than Trump, and plenty of his supporters were just starry-eyed libertarian fanboys. According to David Neiwert’s book Alt-America (which I highly recommend):
Rather quietly and under the radar, Paul managed to unite nearly the entire radical right behind himself, more than any presidential candidate since George Wallace in 1968…. Virtually every far-right grouping–neo-Nazis, white supremacists, militias, constitutionalists, Minutemen, nativists–in the American political landscape lined up behind Paul. White supremacists from the Nationalist Socialist Movement (NSM), the neo-Nazi website Stormfront, National Vanguard, White Aryan Resistance (WAR), and Hammerskins became outspoken supporters of Paul and turned out to rally for him at a number of different campaign appearances. At a Paul rally in August 2007 in New Jersey, a sizable number of Stormfronters showed up. Paul made no bones about welcoming this source of support. Paul made headlines by declining to return a donation from Stormfront‘s proprietor, Don Black, and later posed with Black and his son Derek at a Paul event in Florida.
Paul’s appeal to the extreme right was a natural outgrowth of his identity. Much of his popular image was predicated on the idea that he was a libertarian Republican–he was the 1988 presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party…. But a closer examination of Paul’s brand of politics showed that he had a closer affinity to the John Birch Society than any genuinely libertarian entity. His declared goals of fighting the New World Order; eliminating the Federal Reserve, the IRS, and most other federal agencies; getting us out of the UN; ending all gun controls; reinstating the gold standard–all were classic elements of far-right populism…. Paul’s multiple appearances on Alex Jones’ radio programs were the best evidence of his close relationship with the conspiracist right.
That kind of gelatinous stuff is rather icky, IMO.
I tend to stay away from canned vegetables, except tomato sauce or puree. Canned fruits are ok, but with the loads of sugary syrup they’re packed with, they all tend to taste alike.
I’m just finishing up the John Adams biography by David McCollough (it was published in 2001, so I’m 18 years late, but I retired last year and finally have more time for reading for pleasure). Excellent read, two things really strike me: 1. how incredibly accomplished and active Adams was, and 2. without him the chances of the US coming into being when it did, and existing as it exists today would be much, much lower.
It is somewhat depressing to read about a man like Adams and then consider Trump (or McConnell, Pence,etc.). I have no illusions that the senior Democratic leadership always does the right thing, but they do actually care about the long term well being of the country, something that no longer can be said about the GOP leaders.
I wonder if Adams knew something when he wrote to his wife, Abigail, after he spent the firs night a US president ever spent in the White House:
I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
@Kathy: I worked in the wholesale produce business for 15 years, so I eat mostly fresh, or frozen if I’m in a hurry, and metabolic syndrome leading to Type-2 diabetes argues against eating canned fruit at all, but I never was a fan.
I do reheat microwavable pouches in the microwave, but since there are only about 4 things of that sort that I eat at all and only eat about 2 or 3 times a year, I don’t stay up worrying about the cancer risk. With both COPD and the return of chronic asthma, a diagnosis of a good fast growing cancer might be worth considering. I don’t like traveling enough for jet plane crash to be a viable alternative*.
(* an old joke about plane crashes being the second leading cause of death in asthmatics.)
It is somewhat depressing to read about a man like Adams and then consider Trump
As an amateur student of the Revolution, I am constantly struck by this same idea.
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, the list goes on ad nauseum.
And today we are saddled with people like McConnell and Barr and Trump who have sold out their country to it’s greatest adversary.
I’d be happy if we could get back to simple mediocrity.
Except that he really can’t dictate what states do when they run elections–the federal role here is to provide funding for states to secure their systems. I’d have to dig a bit, but I’m pretty certain that how states run elections is solely within state purview.
Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.
Direct election of Senators does in that last bit, as well. The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution imposes a number of other restrictions on what states can do (eg, “One man, one vote” and state legislative districts must have roughly equal populations). Then there’s the fiscal reality that most states are simply not going to pay to run their federal and state/local elections differently.
@Franklin: Thanks. I don’t see it as “rough shape” since my situation has always been this way (the asthma started shortly after birth). That the asthma came back after I’d been asymptomatic for 10+ years was disappointing though.
On the more positive side of “rough,” before the new types of medications came along, the prognosis was emphysema in one’s mid to late 30s, so I’ve been playing on the house’s money for nearly 4o years now. That’s pretty good!
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It blows me away how expensive asthma medications are these days. My daughter requires Advair and Singulair daily, plus the rescue inhalers. If they all go out at once, it’s $500, easy, with no insurance and at our local pharmacy. Our local pharmacy also has a bad habit of not keeping this kind of stuff in stock….I mean, HELLLOOOOO!!!! If they can’t breathe they die!!! I’ve since discovered that the pharmacy in the next town over is almost $100 cheaper for the Advair, and they deliver twice a week, so that helps.
@Michael Cain: Right, but it’s a bit more complicated–you can’t take that and infer that Congress gets to call all of the shots. If you could, we wouldn’t have differing state-by-state requirements on voter ID.
The power of states and Congress to regulate congressional elections under the Elections Clause is subject to express and implicit limits. Fundamentally, neither entity can enact laws under the Elections Clause that violate other constitutional provisions. For example, the Constitution specifies that anyone who is eligible to vote for the larger house of a state legislature may vote for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate as well. The Elections Clause does not permit either the states or Congress to override those provisions by establishing additional qualifications for voting for Congress.
States can’t pass undue burdens on voting, and state voters can’t pass higher restrictions on who is eligible to run for Congress, such as limiting Congressional terms at the state level. However, they *can* pass laws term-limiting state legislators.
Also, from that same piece:
One unusual feature of the Elections Clause is that it does not confer the power to regulate congressional elections on states as a whole, but rather the “Legislature” of each state. The Supreme Court has construed the term “Legislature” extremely broadly to include any entity or procedure that a state’s constitution permits to exercise lawmaking power. Thus, laws regulating congressional elections may be enacted not only by a state’s actual legislature, but also directly by a state’s voters through the initiative process or public referendum, in states that allow such procedures.
It isn’t cut-and-dried, but most power to set elections and determine the qualifications of voters in each state is with the states, not the US Congress.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: About 8 years ago, I had a massive pulmonary embolism. Nearly died, etc. Great fun. Anyway, everything since then has been bonus time. And every day I have to eat a little bit of rat poison, just to remind myself that I’m in bonus time.
Good job on beating the house for 40 years. I hope your run keeps going for a bit more. If not, I hope the end is either peaceful or spectacular.
I was somewhat distraught when I discovered the headlines “Gordon Ramsey’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead In Badger Aden” was revealed to be a hoax, because that’s how I wanted to die — not torn apart by badgers, but in a manner that brings joy to millions of people around the world.
(I’m betting that however Donald Trump dies, his death will bring joy to millions… but I’d like to do that without being horrible and hated beforehand)
@Jax: There is a generic for Advair now. It goes under the name “Wixela” and uses a similar discus delivery method and Singulair is generic as Montelukast. (If either of these two pieces of information help. Good luck. I know how expensive it is–even with insurance. Without…)
ETA: @ Tyrell:
“Guadalarjara, Mexico covered in ice after freakish summer hailstorm” (CNN) Three feet of hail! Are you kidding me?
Good thing climate change is a hoax, huh? I know I’m relieved about that.
@michael reynolds: The idea that a Senator from the failed Trump state of Kentucky is lecturing a Rep from a decent state about anything is beyond ludicrous. Kentucky is the second most drug abusing state in the union. Eighth in morbid obesity. Fourteenth worst employment rate. (And lest the Trumpers here try to use the Alabama/Mississippi excuse for why their states are failures, the population is only about 10% black.) Kentucky is the third most parasitic state, receiving vastly more from federal coffers than the residents put in.
Interestingly, they punch well above their weight in better than average statistics for infant and maternal mortality. For whatever reason their health care system resembles a decent state (like say, Maryland) than it does the other failed Trump states. And this is reflected in it being one of the few backward states to enact Obamacare.
@Gustopher: I’ve been very lucky–only two cases of anaphylaxis and no pulmonary embolisms during my 67 years. Wa! Pulmonary embolism is big time! Worse than pneumonia, from what I’ve heard. Glad you survived! Continued good fortune (and don’t forget the rat poison 🙂 .)
The rise of the Democratic left, personified by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), has raised a serious question: Should Democrats lean away from market-friendly stances and get comfortable with big government again? Should they embrace an ambitious 2020 candidate like Sanders and policies like the Green New Deal, or stick with incrementalists like former Vice President Joe Biden and more market-oriented ideas like Obamacare?
One of the most interesting takes I’ve seen on this debate came from Brad DeLong, an economist at the University of California-Berkeley. DeLong, who served as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy in the Clinton administration, who is one of the market-friendly, “neoliberal” Democrats who have dominated the party for the last 20 years. The term he uses for himself is “Rubin Democrat” — referring to followers of finance industry-friendly Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
Yet DeLong believes that the time of people like him running the Democratic Party has passed. “The baton rightly passes to our colleagues on our left,” DeLong wrote. “We are still here, but it is not our time to lead.”
It’s not often that someone in this policy debate — or, frankly, any policy debate — suggests that their side should lose. So I reached out to DeLong to dig into the reasons for his position: Why does he believe that neoliberals’ time in the sun has come to an end?
The core reason, DeLong argues, is political. The policies he supports depend on a responsible center-right partner to succeed. They’re premised on the understanding that at least a faction of the Republican Party would be willing to support market-friendly ideas like Obamacare or a cap-and-trade system for climate change. This is no longer the case, if it ever were.
“Barack Obama rolls into office with Mitt Romney’s health care policy, with John McCain’s climate policy, with Bill Clinton’s tax policy, and George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy,” DeLong notes. “And did George H.W. Bush, did Mitt Romney, did John McCain say a single good word about anything Barack Obama ever did over the course of eight solid years? No, they fucking did not.”
The result, he argues, is the nature of the Democratic Party needs to shift. Rather than being a center-left coalition dominated by market-friendly ideas designed to attract conservative support, the energy of the coalition should come from the left and its broad, sweeping ideas. Market-friendly neoliberals, rather than pushing their own ideology, should work to improve ideas on the left. This, he believes, is the most effective and sustainable basis for Democratic politics and policy for the foreseeable future.
What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
This hit the mark with me, and I’m sure it’s how a lot of Democrats feel:
“Barack Obama rolls into office with Mitt Romney’s health care policy, with John McCain’s climate policy, with Bill Clinton’s tax policy, and George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy,” DeLong notes. “And did George H.W. Bush, did Mitt Romney, did John McCain say a single good word about anything Barack Obama ever did over the course of eight solid years? No, they fucking did not.”
There is a flip side to this though. Somehow Democrats have to figure out how to message how they are going to: a) sell these policies in a way that gets them elected *without* allowing themselves to get bogged down in discussions about the price tags; and b) figure out how they are going to get even some of this stuff passed. If you run on big ideas, and get elected on big ideas, and then can’t even pass small parts of it, voters get discouraged. Actually, it’s worse–you get tagged as “lying” or over-promising and not delivering.
Despite Republicans being the ones who run up all of the bills, Democrats get labeled as tax-and-spend. If progressives ever want to get elected nationally, they’ll need to figure out how to sell big ideas and make voters comfortable that their taxes won’t skyrocket.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Well that’s a bit more encouraging, despite the recurrence of asthma symptoms. My son does technically have asthma, we just haven’t seen any symptoms lately. He’s usually on Singulair, but my wife and he decided to give it a break this spring and summer and so far he’s been *mostly* fine (he has eczema as well which has flared up a bit).
A day or two ago we had a post and thread about journalism, in which there was some criticism of FTFNYT. Their deputy Washington editor tweeted a perfect example of how deeply they have absorbed GOP framing and NYT’s brand of NY/Beltway provincialism.
Via Eschaton,
Saying @RashidaTlaib (D-Detroit) and @IlhanMN (D-Minneapolis) are from the Midwest is like saying @RepLloydDoggett (D-Austin) is from Texas or @repjohnlewis (D-Atlanta) is from the Deep South. C’mon. https://t.co/C8d8OWHu3j
— (((JonathanWeisman))) (@jonathanweisman) July 31, 2019
The tweet has been deleted, having been rationed and ridiculed.
Hoping there will be a post re: the Feds rate drop today…but in the meantime…why do you drop the interest rate in the midst of the greatest economy in history? Someone is lying…is it Powell or Trump? I suspect Powell is knuckling under to pressure from Trump, and I think Congress should look at this very closely.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: I posted here a link to some academic research that just came out showing that the Fed Reserve takes actions to boost Republican presidents and harm Democrat ones.
@Franklin: Had eczema, too. Hated that more than the asthma. :-/
On a more cheerful note, finally got to Portland a lunch time so I could try impossible burger. I think it’s the best of the pseudos, but I probably won’t be willing to pay $3.50 in upcharge to eat it another time. But it is the thing that most has the flavor, texture, and mouth feel/moisture of ground beef most* of any of the products.
* Edit courtesy of the Department of Redundancy Department.
I’ve been posting for weeks on this site that Elizabeth Warren is going to be the nominee and Biden is going to fade, and nothing in tonight’s debate is changing my mind.
@Teve: Burger King isn’t test marketing Impossible where I live. 🙁 And yes, $3.50 is outrageous. Carl’s here upcharges $2 for Beyond (I think), and it isn’t as good.
Thought from this morning’s commute: What are the discussions inside Fox’s producers room like right now? On one hand, promoting bigotry, fear and decisiveness is their business model and being able to literally program POTUS’s tweets has to be amazingly ego-building. On the other, the more Trump echos their racism and bigotry in his tweets, the lower his chances of winning suburban white females and the election are – and he may take the GOP Senate down with him. Quite the conundrum for them…
Mitch McConnell freaking out now that #MoscowMitch is trending
He’s so used to the fake-balance media covering up his shittiness that he thought he was immune.
McConnell must really be concerned about the Moscow Mitch meme. The typical McConnell response to political attacks have been to either ignore them or dismiss them a partisan. Taking to the Senate floor to defend himself indicates that Moscow Mitch attacks are drawing blood.
While McConnell is a near lock to win reelection, his approval rating in Kentucky is abysmal enough, that if KY Repugs decide not to “hold their nose” and vote for Mitch he could be in trouble.
About that “one good guy with a gun” trope, Sunday there was a shooting where not one, but several good guys with guns were present.
Three people were killed and many more were wounded.
So all it takes is one good guy with a gun, for the murder rate in a mass shooting to what? Drop to acceptable levels? Leave the news cycle within a day? Not cause a strong public backlash against guns?
A ‘Libertarian; perspective:
Yep, libertarian Republicans are the same racist trash as the rest of the GOP.
Paul’s state, Kentucky, which is 88% white, is ranked 46th in terms of income. So he’s really one to talk.
On the premise that Republicans are dumb assholes, it really wouldn’t surprise me to see if McConnell responds to all this by cooking up an “election security” bill that requires voter ID and maybe contains some other disenfranchisement mechanisms.
@Teve:
Except that he really can’t dictate what states do when they run elections–the federal role here is to provide funding for states to secure their systems. I’d have to dig a bit, but I’m pretty certain that how states run elections is solely within state purview.
Has anyone ever tried canned chicken?
Earlier in the year we got samples of shredded chicken in one kilo pouches. There was a general consensus in the office more or less that “eew!” But I was curious to try it. It’s just boiled chicken meat, after all, not disimilar, in principle, from boiled tuna in a can.
It turned out to be perfectly edible, and it tastes like chicken 😉
Oh, it’s bland, but that’s true of all boiled chicken.
I took some left over samples home. I’ve made red chilaquiles with green salsa and chicken, chicken in salsa and rice, chicken with mole, cornbread with chicken with mole, and even my interpretation of chicken chili.
About the only problem is that a one kilo pouch is a bit much for most of my recipes, so I wind up freezing a portion.
I still have like three pouches left, so I thought I’d make enchiladas next week.
@Kathy: Are you supposed to cook it in the pouch? I always worry about plastic leaching in that case. In fact it might have been hot when they stuck it in the pouch. Whether that’s worse than BPA-lined tuna cans, I wouldn’t know.
That reminds me that a lot of conservatives who have jumped on the Trump bandwagon of trashing Baltimore don’t say anything like that about paradises like Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Alabama…Baltimore does have a lot of issues but the city and the state it is a part of are in much better shape than many of those other places…
@michael reynolds: Who knew that the guy who launched his 2010 Senate campaign attacking the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and whose dad once ran a newsletter that described teenage black robbers as “fleet of foot,” could be a racist?
@Franklin:
No. You’re supposed to take it out of the pouch and crumble it, as it tends to form large clumps. The pouch is metal foil and plastic, too, so it’s not a good idea to heat it or, worse, put it in the microwave. Typically I make the sauce and add the chicken to it.
I don’t know about the packaging process, but I could ask the supplier.
At the supermarket there are re-fried beans and other things sold in pouches, which instruct one to heat the pouch in the microwave. I’ve never done that, even when I will consume only the contents of a pouch. I put the contents in a bowl or plate first.
Gee, Brad, don’t know what to tell ya. Again, my inner child of the counterculture replies “this is surprising because…”
@michael reynolds: Well to be fair ( 😉 ), Rand Paul is the guy who went on record as being a vote against the Civil Rights Act in the 60s if he’d been there to do it. So, he could be an outlier.
I don’t believe that he is, either, but he could be, and so in this case, I will opt for taking Doug as our more normative example.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Just a tad more complicated. In 2010 he criticized parts of the CRA but declined to say whether he would have voted for it. He went on Rachel Maddow’s program and basically just hemmed and hawed for 10 minutes straight. But after getting raked over the coals by the media for several days, he finally came out and said, yes, he would have voted for it.
His dad, however, has been a consistent opponent of the law.
@Kathy: Back in the dark ages, I tried canned chicken. It was a product–canned whole chicken–with a boiled chicken canned and packed in gelatin. Overall it was sort of like canned salmon or canned whole mackerel, with the same gross appearance but decent flesh once you got all the “packing material” off.
If I had been as smart (and as good a cook) as I am today, I would have figured out how to cook the carcass in the melted gelatin to make a bone soup stock, Too soon old, to late wise, I guess.
@Kylopod: is “fleet of foot” racist?
Compared to being arrested at a Klan rally, and housing discrimination based on race, referring to black armed robbers as “fleet of foot” seems quaint, even if “fleet of foot” has some obscure racial meaning. Referring to armed robbers as black seems worse. Were there no white armed robbers? Were white armed robbers slow and bumbling? Why is he denigrating our white armed robbers?
Kevin Drum is reporting on rats in American cities.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/07/who-has-the-most-rats/
The takeaway is that Baltimore really does have a lot of rats. I has assumed they didn’t based on the lack of right-wingers trumpeting this data, and disingenuously claiming that Trump really was discussing rodent infestations. I overestimated them. Live an learn.
@Gustopher: Did you follow the whole controversy of the Ron Paul newsletters? They were filled with massively racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and conspiratorial content. To quote Wikipedia:
I mentioned the “fleet of foot” comment mainly because Paul is on record having explicitly defended it in the 1990s, before he finally disowned the newsletters and claimed the articles under his name had been ghostwritten.
Paul’s 2008 candidacy was in many ways a precursor to the Trump movement. Certainly, it was the first major political movement in some time to seriously attract white nationalists, though Paul was a lot less explicit than Trump, and plenty of his supporters were just starry-eyed libertarian fanboys. According to David Neiwert’s book Alt-America (which I highly recommend):
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
That kind of gelatinous stuff is rather icky, IMO.
I tend to stay away from canned vegetables, except tomato sauce or puree. Canned fruits are ok, but with the loads of sugary syrup they’re packed with, they all tend to taste alike.
I’m just finishing up the John Adams biography by David McCollough (it was published in 2001, so I’m 18 years late, but I retired last year and finally have more time for reading for pleasure). Excellent read, two things really strike me: 1. how incredibly accomplished and active Adams was, and 2. without him the chances of the US coming into being when it did, and existing as it exists today would be much, much lower.
It is somewhat depressing to read about a man like Adams and then consider Trump (or McConnell, Pence,etc.). I have no illusions that the senior Democratic leadership always does the right thing, but they do actually care about the long term well being of the country, something that no longer can be said about the GOP leaders.
I wonder if Adams knew something when he wrote to his wife, Abigail, after he spent the firs night a US president ever spent in the White House:
I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
@Kathy: I worked in the wholesale produce business for 15 years, so I eat mostly fresh, or frozen if I’m in a hurry, and metabolic syndrome leading to Type-2 diabetes argues against eating canned fruit at all, but I never was a fan.
I do reheat microwavable pouches in the microwave, but since there are only about 4 things of that sort that I eat at all and only eat about 2 or 3 times a year, I don’t stay up worrying about the cancer risk. With both COPD and the return of chronic asthma, a diagnosis of a good fast growing cancer might be worth considering. I don’t like traveling enough for jet plane crash to be a viable alternative*.
(* an old joke about plane crashes being the second leading cause of death in asthmatics.)
@SenyorDave:
As an amateur student of the Revolution, I am constantly struck by this same idea.
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, the list goes on ad nauseum.
And today we are saddled with people like McConnell and Barr and Trump who have sold out their country to it’s greatest adversary.
I’d be happy if we could get back to simple mediocrity.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Oh, my, hadn’t realized you sound like you’re in rather rough shape. Sorry to hear that.
I do, however, like the sound of going out in a plane crash. Preferably while sleeping.
@Jen:
Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators.
Direct election of Senators does in that last bit, as well. The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution imposes a number of other restrictions on what states can do (eg, “One man, one vote” and state legislative districts must have roughly equal populations). Then there’s the fiscal reality that most states are simply not going to pay to run their federal and state/local elections differently.
@Franklin: Thanks. I don’t see it as “rough shape” since my situation has always been this way (the asthma started shortly after birth). That the asthma came back after I’d been asymptomatic for 10+ years was disappointing though.
On the more positive side of “rough,” before the new types of medications came along, the prognosis was emphysema in one’s mid to late 30s, so I’ve been playing on the house’s money for nearly 4o years now. That’s pretty good!
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It blows me away how expensive asthma medications are these days. My daughter requires Advair and Singulair daily, plus the rescue inhalers. If they all go out at once, it’s $500, easy, with no insurance and at our local pharmacy. Our local pharmacy also has a bad habit of not keeping this kind of stuff in stock….I mean, HELLLOOOOO!!!! If they can’t breathe they die!!! I’ve since discovered that the pharmacy in the next town over is almost $100 cheaper for the Advair, and they deliver twice a week, so that helps.
Recent unusual natural events:
“Guadalarjara, Mexico covered in ice after freakish summer hailstorm” (CNN) Three feet of hail! Are you kidding me?
“Asteroid close call” (Vox) Detected only hours away.
“Locusts invade Las Vegas” (Paul Begley ) Arabia, Iran, now the US. These swarms are so thick they even showed up on the radar!
“Two nights, two fireballs: Back to back meteors lit up skies in the Northeast this week” (Washington Post) Huge explosion over Connecticut
“Has UFO struck Indian villagers or is it just bugs?” (Deseret News, Aug. 2002) This event is several years old, but still very interesting.
“Water turns blood red in Straits of Hormuz!” (Strange Sounds)
“Earth’s magnetic pole is acting up and scientists do not know why” (Nature Journal)
Cosmic rays increasing for fourth year in a row” (Space Weather) Effects on weather?
“Huge unusual Arctic fires seen from space” (Science Alert)
“Are the plagues of Egypt returning? Torah scholars say yes.” (Daily Express)
.
It does take a really shitty president like the current one to make, say, Millard Fillmore look good by comparison…
@Tyrell: Hey, maybe Jesus will be back soon…ya never know…
@Michael Cain: Right, but it’s a bit more complicated–you can’t take that and infer that Congress gets to call all of the shots. If you could, we wouldn’t have differing state-by-state requirements on voter ID.
For example:
States can’t pass undue burdens on voting, and state voters can’t pass higher restrictions on who is eligible to run for Congress, such as limiting Congressional terms at the state level. However, they *can* pass laws term-limiting state legislators.
Also, from that same piece:
It isn’t cut-and-dried, but most power to set elections and determine the qualifications of voters in each state is with the states, not the US Congress.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: About 8 years ago, I had a massive pulmonary embolism. Nearly died, etc. Great fun. Anyway, everything since then has been bonus time. And every day I have to eat a little bit of rat poison, just to remind myself that I’m in bonus time.
Good job on beating the house for 40 years. I hope your run keeps going for a bit more. If not, I hope the end is either peaceful or spectacular.
I was somewhat distraught when I discovered the headlines “Gordon Ramsey’s Dwarf Porn Double Found Dead In Badger Aden” was revealed to be a hoax, because that’s how I wanted to die — not torn apart by badgers, but in a manner that brings joy to millions of people around the world.
(I’m betting that however Donald Trump dies, his death will bring joy to millions… but I’d like to do that without being horrible and hated beforehand)
@Jax: There is a generic for Advair now. It goes under the name “Wixela” and uses a similar discus delivery method and Singulair is generic as Montelukast. (If either of these two pieces of information help. Good luck. I know how expensive it is–even with insurance. Without…)
ETA: @ Tyrell:
Good thing climate change is a hoax, huh? I know I’m relieved about that.
@michael reynolds: The idea that a Senator from the failed Trump state of Kentucky is lecturing a Rep from a decent state about anything is beyond ludicrous. Kentucky is the second most drug abusing state in the union. Eighth in morbid obesity. Fourteenth worst employment rate. (And lest the Trumpers here try to use the Alabama/Mississippi excuse for why their states are failures, the population is only about 10% black.) Kentucky is the third most parasitic state, receiving vastly more from federal coffers than the residents put in.
Interestingly, they punch well above their weight in better than average statistics for infant and maternal mortality. For whatever reason their health care system resembles a decent state (like say, Maryland) than it does the other failed Trump states. And this is reflected in it being one of the few backward states to enact Obamacare.
@Gustopher: I’ve been very lucky–only two cases of anaphylaxis and no pulmonary embolisms during my 67 years. Wa! Pulmonary embolism is big time! Worse than pneumonia, from what I’ve heard. Glad you survived! Continued good fortune (and don’t forget the rat poison 🙂 .)
…Hey, maybe Jesus will be back soon…ya never know…
Jesus doesn’t speak English so it’s a good bet Trump’s Maga Morons will tell the Messiah to “go back where he came from”.
Liz 2020!
(Also RIP John Delaney 1963-2019)
A Clinton-era centrist Democrat explains why it’s time to give democratic socialists a chance
@Teve:
That’s interesting.
This hit the mark with me, and I’m sure it’s how a lot of Democrats feel:
There is a flip side to this though. Somehow Democrats have to figure out how to message how they are going to: a) sell these policies in a way that gets them elected *without* allowing themselves to get bogged down in discussions about the price tags; and b) figure out how they are going to get even some of this stuff passed. If you run on big ideas, and get elected on big ideas, and then can’t even pass small parts of it, voters get discouraged. Actually, it’s worse–you get tagged as “lying” or over-promising and not delivering.
Despite Republicans being the ones who run up all of the bills, Democrats get labeled as tax-and-spend. If progressives ever want to get elected nationally, they’ll need to figure out how to sell big ideas and make voters comfortable that their taxes won’t skyrocket.
I just found who the GOP can run in 2024 against President Warren:
@Jen: agreed.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: Well that’s a bit more encouraging, despite the recurrence of asthma symptoms. My son does technically have asthma, we just haven’t seen any symptoms lately. He’s usually on Singulair, but my wife and he decided to give it a break this spring and summer and so far he’s been *mostly* fine (he has eczema as well which has flared up a bit).
A day or two ago we had a post and thread about journalism, in which there was some criticism of FTFNYT. Their deputy Washington editor tweeted a perfect example of how deeply they have absorbed GOP framing and NYT’s brand of NY/Beltway provincialism.
Via Eschaton,
The tweet has been deleted, having been rationed and ridiculed.
Hoping there will be a post re: the Feds rate drop today…but in the meantime…why do you drop the interest rate in the midst of the greatest economy in history? Someone is lying…is it Powell or Trump? I suspect Powell is knuckling under to pressure from Trump, and I think Congress should look at this very closely.
@gVOR08: The takedown of this guy’s “apology” on Twitter is a thing of beauty to behold:
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: I posted here a link to some academic research that just came out showing that the Fed Reserve takes actions to boost Republican presidents and harm Democrat ones.
@Franklin: Had eczema, too. Hated that more than the asthma. :-/
On a more cheerful note, finally got to Portland a lunch time so I could try impossible burger. I think it’s the best of the pseudos, but I probably won’t be willing to pay $3.50 in upcharge to eat it another time. But it is the thing that most has the flavor, texture, and mouth feel/moisture of ground beef
most* of any of the products.* Edit courtesy of the Department of Redundancy Department.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: that’s a hell of an upcharge, I think Burger King was only up charging a dollar.
the best way to consume the democratic debate isn’t to watch the debate it’s to read a live blog like this one at Wonkette
I’ve been posting for weeks on this site that Elizabeth Warren is going to be the nominee and Biden is going to fade, and nothing in tonight’s debate is changing my mind.
@Teve: Burger King isn’t test marketing Impossible where I live. 🙁 And yes, $3.50 is outrageous. Carl’s here upcharges $2 for Beyond (I think), and it isn’t as good.