I've had people say it's a hardening, actually ~ US presidential election 2016 part 9/11 never forget

i was about to say it wasn't THAT bad, but "land of the free" to the end went to a new level

the breathing three times in one phrase is, I suspect, something that will bother DJP and I more than most of the other posters itt.

but yeah, the end was...Bleeding Gums Murphy territory.

and the home of the brave

...
the brave

Apparently Trump is saying he'll roll back the opening to Cuba - Will this be meaningful? (deferring to our resident expert)

Pledges/anthems aren't necessarily the problem - it's their use as a litmus test to identify internal enemies.

My school pledges every morning, it's gross. The most annoying, fake ppl are the first ones to stop your conversation and ostentatiously face the nearest flag with their hand over their heart. I'm sure the principal doesn't really care but it would be UPROAR if she stopped doing it.

In fact I heard something the other day about how some students are refusing to stand, and the principal had to MAKE AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT that the teachers aren't legally allowed to FORCE students to stand and pledge.

o'er the laaa...and ofthe FREEeeeeeEEEuhEEEEEuhhEEEEEEEEUH

ILX introduced me to this gem a few years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDDvlcNSMo

dig his imitation of Link holding up the triforce at the end

Good piece on Marvin Gaye's rendition:
http://grantland.com/features/the-marvin-gaye-national-anthem/

that madison rising version is pretty special

We did the pledge at elementary school (minus the God line, which is a McCarthy-era add-on anyway) but not in junior and senior high school. Anthem only at games, never more than the first verse.

i don't think the SSB has verses ?

we did the pledge though high school. i remember a good friend of mine was the guy who would do the morning announcements on the PA, which included doing the pledge -- one morning, because he was a goofball, not necessarily a provocateur, he performed some sort of irreverent version of it and there was talk of him being disciplined. it was a huge deal, the health teacher (who, looking back, was a good dude) was passionately standing up for his right to free speech, etc...ah, small town america

i'm gonna go see a lynda barry gallery show here in a minute and one of the endearing/enduring images from the Marlys stories is when a pair of kids visit the grave of one of their father and they approach it, stand silently and then the son puts his hand over his heart and they both say the pledge of allegiance over his grave because it's the only words that feel sacred enough to matter

btw, thanks for giving me a reason to revisit Marvin's rendition. it's been too long.

SSB has at least three verses, one of which says "and this be our motto, in God is our trust"

Google says 4. Hmm

My younger daughter says they got the pledge in 1st and 2nd grade, but not in 3rd or (so far) 4th. So file it under one of those "now that we've got that shit out of the way, let's get on to important" things. I've always thought that the worst thing about the national anthem (forgetting for the moment that there are apparently verses that literally no one knows about, let alone sings), is that the fucking song is unsingable.

I did some minimal research and learned that national anthems around the world, as a thing, are by and large only from the last 150 years or so.

SSB has at least three verses, one of which says "and this be our motto, in God is our trust"

― Neanderthal, Saturday, September 17, 2016 3:57 PM (twenty-three minutes ago)

huh i feel as though i must have known this bit of trivia at some point in my life but that's all it is -- trivia -- no one ever sings those other verses

SSB has that verse about killing slaves, that's a nice bit.

SSB has a bridge in 5/4, almost always omitted

SSB has a wicked drums and space section, only present in versions by the Grateful Dead.

SSB has Forever Changes inspired bit where some of the singers say 'air' and some of the singers say 'earth' at the same time

SSB covered by James Brown as "Funky Banner, Pts. 1 & 2"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM9oIJgk1Y

All this reminds me that, growing up as an Army brat, when we went to see movies at the post theater, they played the anthem before movies. And everyone stood, took off hats, hands over hearts. Etc.

They should change the National Anthem

That verse is comparably offensive to the Washington Redskins.

Trump's had a particularly glorious day on Twitter.

Saw some of that earlier...He keeps the best running enemies list since Nixon, easy. His timing, as always, is unfathomable.

"Crazy Maureen Dowd, the wacky columnist..."

Dopey Robert Gates. Failing NY Times. Boring Anti-Trump Panelists. Losers in Life.

He's pissed at the Times because they published a huge article on all the tax breaks he's gotten from New York City since the '70s. The best quote, IMO:

“Donald Trump is probably worse than any other developer in his relentless pursuit of every single dime of taxpayer subsidies he can get his paws on,” said Alicia Glen, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, who first battled Mr. Trump when she worked in Mr. Giuliani’s administration.

He needs to settle on which epithet to use for Maureen Dowd.

Mel said Brendan Behan was a big fan of the 2000 Year Old Man anthem joke

Good thing he talked his lawyers out of suing. Make America Calm and Reasonable Again.

very presidential

The most presidential

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/elections/mc-pa-trump-clinton-poll-20160917-story.html

This is worth a read for LOLs.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0918-lopez-spencer-election--20160916-snap-story.html

Especially:

Every year, he said, he and President Reagan would drive out to see the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and every year, Falwell would implore Reagan — who was an abortion foe but had signed an abortion bill as governor — to take up abortion and repeal Roe vs. Wade. Reagan would listen politely but commit to nothing.

On one trip back to the White house, Spencer turned to Reagan and said:

“’Mr. President, are you giving serious thought to trying to repeal Roe v. Wade?’ He turned to me and said, ‘Stu, do I look insane to you?’ I said, ‘No sir, you look wonderful.’”

So bomb in NJ today and explosion on 23rd st?

don't tell Democratic voters that Reagan story; print the legend

"I must tell you that just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows exactly what’s going on. But boy, we are living in a time — we better get very tough, folks. We better get very, very tough."

Holy shit, I came here to paste that exact quote.

But boy, we are living in a time

booming

I've so internalized Dr. Casino's spot-on Trump imitations, I actually thought that quote was written by you.

may you live in times

Elsewhere: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/politics/donald-trump-presidential-race.html

WASHINGTON — When Donald J. Trump descended on the capital Friday, he was expected to finally concede that the racially tinged falsehood he had gleefully propagated, that President Obama was born outside of the United States, had in fact been a lie.

But before Mr. Trump got around to what was a grudging and terse admission, which itself included a falsehood about the provenance of so-called birtherism, he had some business to tend to.

“Nice hotel,” said Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, delighting in his newest property and the opportunity to plug it free on live television. He was holding his news conference at his new hotel in the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which, he promised, is “going to be something very special.”

He seemed untroubled in using an ostensible campaign event just a few blocks from the White House to openly promote his personal commercial interests 52 days before the election.

In fact, this past week offered a vivid illustration of how little regard Mr. Trump has for the long-held expectations of America’s leaders. He is not only breaking the country’s political norms, he and his campaign aides are now all but mocking them.

Etc.

The Trump hotel in question will likely be a financial flop.

After the project was awarded to Trump, a Washington Post columnist calculated that Trump's new hotel might have to charge average rates of as much as $750 per night. At the time, Ivanka Trump responded angrily that "his numbers are pure speculation and, simply put, wrong." Yet it was Ivanka who was wrong. On weeknights this fall, the hotel's least expensive rooms will go for between $735 and $995 a night.

Trump had said his DC hotel would feature two high-end restaurants. He had originally signed up two celebrity chefs, José Andrés and Geoffrey Zakarian, to open highly anticipated restaurants in the hotel. Then Trump launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, and both restaurateurs backed out. Trump is now suing each of them. ... (Tom) Colicchio is just one of several chefs who declined to get involved with Trump's DC hotel. As a result, the hotel will open with no top-drawer destination restaurant. Instead, it will feature just one establishment: BLT Prime, a chain steakhouse.

Perhaps worse for the Trump clan, there are signs that Donald Trump's divisive political campaign is turning off consumers. One industry site estimates that Trump's hotel business overall may be down by almost 60 percent.

I'm going to enjoy watching the post-election denoument for the Trumps, as his name becomes synonymous with racism, and importantly, losing, every hotel that licensed his brand (he owns few) gets out of their contracts as soon as legally possible, and he still has to endure that rape trial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/chelsea-explosion-new-york-city.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

On the hotels, I've been looking at travelling to New York next year and the Trump hotels are all on offer, like 30-40% off. What a bargain I booked right away!

Seriously tho of any industry, the hotel game is so competitive and you have so many options in big cities that this is surely going to crucify the Trump brand, even the most politically ambivalent person hates him, leaving aside the huge numbers of wealthy people who he's racially slurred.