Friday links! Dudes who say “cheers” for Bernie Sanders edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 0 Comment
Now one screenshot ahead of "Bernie bro"

Now one screenshot ahead of “Bernie bro”

Did you study abroad in London or Australia? Are you active in the theater? Do you follow Major League Soccer? You could be part of a growing political revolution—a movement to wrest power away from moneyed interests and wrest it back toward the people. If you wear scarves in the summertime, want to make a difference, and know any Democrats over 45, join Dudes Who Say “Cheers” for Bernie Sanders today, meaning Friday. Today is Friday, and the world is full of brand new recognizable types. Won’t you wearily categorize fresh experience with me?

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Friday links! Perfectly cromulent words edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 0 Comment

Cromulent

The image above comes to us from the Frinkiac, a searchable database of the first 15 seasons of The Simpsons that matches lines of dialogue with frames from the episodes in which they appear. I think we can agree it’s the best thing that ever happened to Combat! blog, except for maybe Sarah Palin. We live in a golden age of memes, some of them pure and good but others products of our hideously mutual delusions. Today is Friday, and the internet is full of perfectly cromulent words. Won’t you remember a time before you moved to Springfield with me?

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Friday links! You wished for populism edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 1 Comment

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Wouldn’t it be great if the American people rose up? I’m talking about a popular revolution. I’m talking about a government, an economy, and a society run by regular folks for regular folks—a moment, a movement if you will, to throw off the yokes of political corruption and corporate greed and bring popular values to Washington. Of course I mean such popular values as thrift and hard work, not so much xenophobia or contempt for education. And I’m not saying I want populism in culture, either. Obviously I don’t want to see centuries of tradition reduced to The Big Bang Theory. Today is Friday, and I want a popular revolution without the racism, cultural repression, stupidity, or war of vengeance in the Middle East. Won’t you try to cram the genie back in the bottle with me?

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Friday links! The enemy of evil is good, right?

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 6 Comments
Moderator Maria Bartiromo contributes as much to this photo as she did the debate.

Moderator Maria Bartiromo contributes as much to this photo as she did the debate.

I tuned into the sixth Republican debate hoping to watch a spider fight a banana slug, and I was not disappointed. But I was also scared. Back in June, when Trump had yet to enter the race and governors dominated our nominating predictions, Jeb! Bush seemed like the saddest thing that could happen to the GOP. Now his warlike nepotism looks quaint. Ben Carson ventured into the realm of speculative fiction last night with his vision of a simultaneous cyberattack and electromagnetic pulse, but Trump and Cruz articulated the real doomsday scenario. Today is Friday, and the Republican nomination has become a contest between a billionaire too dumb to see the truth and a sociopath too smart to speak it. Won’t you choose the lesser evil with me?

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Friday links! Things unseen edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 0 Comment
Then angel in charge of making sure Iowa won the Rose Bowl

Then angel in charge of making sure Iowa won the Rose Bowl

There are no gaps in human understanding. Every empty space in the world as we know it contains its own daemon who make things go as we observe. The angels who were responsible for guiding dropped objects to the ground in the Middle Ages are busy now entangling quantum particles and propelling a better candidate toward the Republican nomination. They hold the jet stream in its place and dance around the foil we accidentally put in the microwave. Today is Friday, and everything is going to be fine, probably, thanks to whatever makes it so. Won’t you meditate on unseen forces with me?

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