Point of order: that money was awarded through a scholarship program run by Paul Soros (George’s brother) and Paul’s wife Daisy.
Still a touchy subject for Ramaswamy because the scholarship was specifically for immigrants and children of immigrants and Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate of ending birthright citizenship (without which he wouldn’t even be eligible to run).
you’ve got my vote! congrats, prez.
Indeed. I’d not heard of it before today. When it came up on this thread that there had been a cookie bake-off between the presidential candidates’ wives I thought:
“Oh, a bake-off. I wonder if that was around the LBJ era? No, it has a pre-Kennedy-assassination vibe. But obviously not Jackie; she didn’t need to bake to charm people. So who would that be? Would it have been a WWII-era thing, challenging each other to stick to rationing and still do well? Or maybe a depression-era ‘economical ways to bake cookies’? Let’s follow the wiki link…”
Pause. Holy fuck.
“1992?”
“1992!”
“Nineteen-ninety fucking two!!!???”
Yeah. That’s terrible.
I think we’re done here - you’re hired.
Yeah… I think this whole idea of the president needing to seem personable and relatable is a modern invention with the mass mediated era. With FDR, the fireside chats were more than enough to endear him to the public (plus, his many policies, too), But they would also do events at the white house that the media would cover. That really ramped up when TV emerged as the primary medium - JFK was young, attractive, had a lovely wife (who he was kind of shitty too), and adorable kids… I think that Reagan really took it to the next level… did you know that he befriended a kid in DC and was his pen pal for a while… he even spent time at the kids house and got some photos of them eating a TV dinner together…
Reagan really played up the old “grandpa” routine really well… it was certainly part of his popular appeal.
But these sorts of “humanizing” things are far more common now in presidential politics… but maybe that’s gonna change with Trump, since he did none of that.
Nice idea - here are my 20 songs, in no particular order:
Now, these are songs but I listen to other stuff too…
Like Microsoft when they made Start me up by the Rolling Stones the official theme song for Windows 95? That sounds like a great idea until you get to “You make a grown man cry”.
And not only did it start in '92 (which, let’s remember, is nearly a third of a century ago), it went on until 2016?? And only ended because the sponsor went out of business?
And of course it started because of a supposed “gaffe” by Hilary Clinton which was in reality just an unapologetic statement that she was her own person rather than having being her husband’s wife as her prime identity? Which was then twisted by the media until she was seen as full of contempt for “normal people”. Basket of deplorables, anyone?
Shocked, SHOCKED am I not to see in any lists
Or
Or
Or many, many more (as K-Tel used to say)
Ha! Right, forgot about that.
Also, the official music video when the song was released… Mick is like Popeye in parts of that where you hear him singing but his mouth isn’t moving and the other boys are not even close to making it look like they are playing the song. I always assumed that it was on purpose and they said, “let’s make a video super cheap” and did it in one take just fucking around.
I’m going to argue it’s an age thing. BtR: 1975. DotEoT: 1978. N: 1982. Christie is a little younger than I am…he was born in 1962, which means BtR would have been on the radio nonstop when he was in middle school, a formative time for pop and rock music appreciation. Three years later, he’d be halfway through high school. Still listening to Springsteen, sure, but it would have been that first album he heard when he was just starting adolescence that would have hooked him.
Yea, I could see that.
I listened to a lot of “classic rock radio” (though kind of just “rock radio”) when I was a kid, all the way through HS. He’s 4 years older than me. And for sure Born to Run got the most play. The first time I saw Springsteen live was around the time Nebraska came out, so that and The River were also in some rotation, then a couple years later, Born in the USA catapulted him into the stratosphere and the big stadium shows coast to coast (see below for my stub that survived).
However, as I became a fan, I realized that Darkness > BtR. 
I think Nebraska might be my all time favorite, though. It’s quite a brilliant record, IMO.
I think your mistake is presuming that Christie has the same introspection and intellectual curiosity that you do.
One of MerelyGifted’s playlists has been released:
Public Image Ltd - Public Image
Einstürzende Neubauten - Ende Neu [Special Gomez Mix]
Naçao Zumbi - Blunt of Judah
The Fall - Reformation
Tom Waits - Underground
The Gories - Ghost Rider
X - The Hungry Wolf
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (the heat goes on)
Naçao Zumbi - Propaganda
Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
Fleetwood Mac - Hypnotized
Cranberries - Zombie
The Fall - Telephone Thing (Extended Mix)
David Bowie - It’s No Game part 1
Bombay Rockers - Ari Ari
Suicide - Ghost Rider
Naçao Zumbi - Know Now
Fanfare Ciocārlia - Manea Cu Voca
Public Image Ltd - Lollipop Opera
Einstürzende Neubauten - Let’s Do It à Dada!
The Fall - (Jung Nev’s) Antidotes
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - All Tomorrow’s Parties
Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders
Lords of the New Church - Open Your Eyes
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
All these heavy duty tracks come from a much longer heavy duty playlist titled Impressive; all of 'em sure impressed me.
It’s quite a melting pot, too: UK, Germany, Brazil, Iceland, Detroit { 
}, Ireland, India/Sweden, Romani from Romania, Australia…
The order has been changed a little, but if my inner music player has it right, the segues are still valid.
ETA: Hardcore music addict and/or musician friends who are impressed by that playlist ask at least a couple times, “Who’s this?!” and/or “Where are they from?” 
I highly recco checking youtube for vids of the tracks w/whom yr unfamiliar - they are impressive, after all.
Looking at that ticket reminds me of two bands I knew at university: “Special Guests”, and “No Cameras or Recorders”.
Not that I’d ever vote anybody on that list (sorry, Cornell West… you seem like an alright dude but I don’t want you running things), but I’d definitely let Will Hurd program the iPod for my next road trip. There’s some certified bangers there.
Actually, I take that back. The fact that a Hootie song is anywhere near Boyz-n-the-Hood is completely disqualifying. Sorry, Will. You lost my vote and the job as my personal DJ.
Wasn’t there a “My Top-20 Playlist” topic once upon a time?
20 tracks? i can do that. i think these 20 tracks could work well for any US politician:
nicolette - no govenment
david bowie - i’m afraid of americans
depeche mode - where’s the revolution
zeal and ardor - servants
orbital - choice
the knife - marble house
ebba grön - staten och kapitalet
saul williams - the pledge (ill bootleg mp3 remix)
tracy chapman - talkin’ bout a revolution
sinéad o’connor - black boys on mopeds
björk - alarm call
moderat - bad kingdom
DAF - der sheriff (C90 version)
skinny puppy - assimilate
marianne faithfull - broken english
vuneny - movement (for sarajevo airport)
portishead - machine gun
nine inch nails - capital g (phones 666 revolutions)
rhythm & sound w/ the chosen brothers – mash down babylon
the cure - one hundred years
I’m not surprised that a publication that focuses on politics would also want some human-interest stories, those seem to be popular filler; but it seems somewhere between ‘misleading’ and ‘actively dangerous’ to waste time focusing on aspiring politicians as people; rather than just policy packages with either corroborating or suspect backstories.
Especially for national level stuff, or for people who have been in and around politics long enough that, if they are evolving, we can infer their trajectory from their past actions rather than trying to extract it from a sense of their character. Obviously politicians are people, as a matter of implementation; but (outside of particularly local offices) you’ll never actually be in a position to interact with them as such.
Indeed, it was always the point, too. But it’s certainly more dangerous now in our current environment, though it’s always been a real problem.
