Friday, February 07, 2014

NEW REALITIES.

Remember when conservatives considered Costco as American as cheeseburgers and credit default swaps? Some, like Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, preferred Sam's Club, but I assume that was for onomatopoetic reasons -- the basic idea was, large stores selling large lots at large discounts was what excited the Common Man and that was what conservatism was all about. (Rick Santorum tried to split the difference in his last Witchfinder General campaign by calling his chosen people "Sam's Club and Costco folks.")

National Review writers certainly knew the metaphoric weight of Costco. Back in the old days, NROniks like Jennifer Graham sneered at a feminist who didn't want to have kids and wind up shopping at Costco; Shannen Coffin piled on, "Costco would have been Bloomingdales to us back" when she was potential abortion fodder. Carrie Lukas defended the chain against claims of gender discrimination by its female employees, Greg Pollowitz cheered its resistance to foofy electric cars, etc.

It was a valuable signifier. In 2004 Larry Kudlow protested John Kerry's NAFTA stance as "trade protectionism" that "undermines the living standards of the near 135 million Americans who shop at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Costco, Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy."

This schtick persisted into the early Obama era. In 2009 NR's Jim Powell added Costco to the honor roll of big companies "in Obama’s crosshairs" for high socialist taxation. Wingnut bottom feeders announced that Americans "are buying physical gold and silver in an attempt to shelter themselves when the U.S. dollar becomes worthless. Now retail giant Costco is getting in on the action by selling survival kits of dehydrated food in preparation for Obamageddon." Mitt and Ann Romney went shopping at Costco and gushed about all the stuff they'd bought and would keep in a shed till the election was over and they could quietly get rid of it.

But this week, National Review's Alec Torres headlines,
Costco: The Arugula of Chain Stores
Arugula -- the most dreaded of conservative curse-words! Their membership fees are apparently elitist: Costco, Torres has discovered, "is largely found in middle-class and affluent communities, where residents can afford to front $55 to $110 before purchasing a single item."

What happened? The answer's in Torres' subhed:
Obama's choice for shopping is great if you don't know any non-rich non-liberals
Since the President and others started pointing out that Costco pays its workers okay and still makes money, and wingnuts have had to devote precious propaganda resources to explaining why we can't let that kind of thing get out of hand, the company has apparently lost its cred with the community.

I look forward to the 2016 speeches when Republicans are instructed to refer to real Americans who only shop at dollar stores, Rent-a-Centers, and payday loan outfits.

UPDATE. Chris Walker from 2nd Vote -- the "revolutionary new app that keeps your spending aligned with your conservative values" -- writes, "2nd Vote classifies Costco as 'Passively Liberal' but, after taking a second look at Costco’s CEO activism, it is safe to say we will be updating their score and moving them into the 'Actively Liberal' category." Gasp! From the boards at Free Republic, though, it appears the brethren are already enlightened to Costco's econotreason; I assume they'll just shop there on the down-low.

241 comments:

  1. and wingnuts have had to devote precious propaganda resources to explaining why we can't let that kind of thing get out of hand


    Jehosephat, King of Judea, she actually put "why my critics are wrong" in the title. Megan McArdle, flagrantly innumerate dumbfuck with no actual economics credentials, explains to people who can operate pocket calculators why they are wrong. You know, Megan, some of us relied on something besides Bazooka Joe cartoons to teach us economics.


    (Yes, yes, her masters said "Diss Costco and the very concept of living wages, and make it look at least superficially plausible to other stupid assholes with MBAs." And she complied. But on the "stupid or malevolent" question, I've always been a "both/and" sort of person.)

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  2. Susan of Texas1:28 PM

    To be a real American you have to be unable to afford to live in America.

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  3. Susan of Texas1:31 PM

    McArdle also told us that we need to leave payday loan businesses alone because otherwise the poor would have to go to a loan shark.

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  4. As an aside, I wonder if this might be a bridge too far** even for the pigshit funnel. Lots of middle-class folks shop at Costco. Many ordinary, non-arugula-eating*** Americans actually hold those nicer-paying Costco jobs. And red-blooded American gas guzzlers line up plenty for their cheaper gas. I mean, sure, the pigshit funnel got some seniors to frothingly burn their AARP cards, but I haven't seen any indications that it catastrophically impacted total membership numbers. I think a massive "And how about those stupid liberals, shopping at Costco?" campaign would be even less fruitful.

    **Yeah, yeah, I know. Hope something something.

    ***Heck, even froofyfood-bashing might be getting past its sell-by date. Plenty of pickups with GOP stickers in the parking lot at Panera Bread these days.

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  5. Similarly, any attempt to regulate retail prepared food providers with onsite dining will just drive people into the arms of restaurants instead.

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  6. harumph1:42 PM

    Real Americans just steal their toilet paper from Chik-fil-a restrooms.

    Waitaminute...Chik-fil-a? That sounds fuckin' French.

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  7. Susan of Texas1:46 PM

    Costco has $1.50 hotdogs with sodas. Nobody is going to top that. I saw a CNBC show on Costco and its then-head said that most people would be trying to find out how much they could charge for that hotdog while Costco tried to figure out how much they could offer for the cost.
    McArdle would try to figure out how many people she could kill with food-borne diseases while still making maximum profit.

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  8. The first thing I ever knew about Costco came from the documentary, "The Corporation," where they said that Costco paid its CEO only 10x what their average worker made.


    I was surprised that conservatives didn't open fire for that alone, since clearly, CEOs can't be expected to get out of bed in the morning for only 10x what the rest of us make.


    But it's taken another decade and Obama before anyone has gone after Costco.


    That being said, i bought a Costco membership a couple years back and then only ended up buying a huge carton of mustard. That turned out to be some expensive mustard.

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  9. Odder1:54 PM

    Not arugula again! Do these clowns realize that arugula is merely a form of mustard green, varieties of which have nourished red-blooded American po'folks for generations? Hell, I've eaten arugula for thirty years, while never grossing thirty grand in any single one of 'em.

    Also, guess what my local smaller, grocery-store style Wal-Mart has in its produce section?

    This reminds me of when John Kerry was reviled for requesting green tea in a Midwestern small-town diner, rather than good old blue-collar Lipton's. Meanwhile, the Safeway in that very same town had green tea on its shelves... manufactured by Lipton's.

    They never let go of these totemic idiocies, no matter how absurd they're shown to be.

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  10. trentness1:55 PM

    I can't shop at Costco because I live in sinful Brooklyn and their bulk products won't fit in my apartment, but I've been a fan for a while, ever since reading this article and others like it almost ten years ago:

    http://teamster.org/content/ny-times-how-costco-became-anti-wal-mart

    My favorite bits are the sky-is-falling quotes from Wall Street analysts: "One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco 'it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder,'" Heaven forfend.

    Better yet: "Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco's workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent. 'He has been too benevolent,' she said. 'He's right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden.'"

    What's funny to me is, I would think Republicans would point to Costco as a trickle-down success story. The store does good business, stocks go up, everyone gets bonuses. That's how they keep telling us it's supposed to work, then they complain when it works.

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  11. Nobody is going to top that.


    Er, what I was clumsily trying to do was underscore your presumed point that payday loan businesses == loan sharks. Unfortunately, my example of "retail prepared food providers with onsite dining" failed, because it can describe Costco as well as a restaurant. I would edit it, but I couldn't bear to make your reply a non sequitur.

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  12. Susan of Texas1:59 PM

    No, I read carelessly. Or I was really hungry and wanted to talk about hotdogs. Did I mention their inexpensive ice cream and churros?

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  13. j_bird2:02 PM

    Yeah, well, they Americanized it with a corny sorta-phonetic spelling, so it's ok.

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  14. This reminds me of when John Kerry was reviled for requesting green tea
    in a Midwestern small-town diner, rather than good old blue-collar
    Lipton's.


    It was worse than that. It was the restaurant of the Holiday Inn in Dubuque, the hub of a metropolitan area with 100,000 people in it. Yet here was John Kerry, coastal elitist, not realizing that these quaint Midwestern savages had only discovered fire five years previously.

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  15. Oddette2:04 PM

    My memory of the setting was inexact; thanks.

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  16. I realize that this is ancillary to the actual content, but that arugula thing? Needs to fucking stop. I can sense through the ether that the cons are warming up for another round of Elitism Trumps, and every time it happens I get a little irked because it means I get a bunch of party insiders and cheap political hacks telling me what Middle America is like.


    That "arugula" thing was a goddamn disgrace. It's been so many stupid little controversies ago that it's hard to remember where it came from: Obama mentioned it, and the usual suspects jumped on him for talking his elitist talk in front of a heartland audience (never mind that that's where they fucking grow it). The implication was that his audience was a bunch of dumb hillbillies who don't know from good food. You know what? If you look at a group of individuals and your first assumption is "Clearly they eat and watch trash, so let's not talk about anything about that"? That's elitism. That's snobbery.


    You don't get to do that, okay? You don't get to hear where I come from, assume that I'm a soft-brain hick who doesn't understand fancy city things, and then claim the mantle of the "real America." Fucker, I lived in Shanghai - the "big city" is not a mystery to me. But I also lived in the ass-end of nowhere, Western Kansas, and I can tell you that your simplistic little stereotypes are true for some people but by no means everyone. Yeah, we have hillbillies-and-proud-of-it, but we also have artists, snobs, nerds, socialists, burnouts, world travelers, amateur scientists and con men. People who are educated, and who want to be. People who want badly to reach the big city. People from the big city who ended up in the country for whatever reason. We're not stamped out of a fucking mold.


    As far as I'm concerned, the whole lot of them can take that Bobo Brooks "I understand the Heartland" bullshit and cram it up their asses sideways. I hope the hemorrhoids are worth the dollars your paymasters fling at you, you cheap hacks.

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  17. That turned out to be some expensive mustard.


    Elitist. I'll bet you put it on your fancy-schmancy German "hamburger sandwiches," just like that snooty Barack Obama.

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  18. Hey, you two, get a room already....

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  19. Odder2:08 PM

    And come to think of it, I've drunk green tea since the mid-60s, when our parents would take us to "Johnny Wong's Chinese and American Food" and the like...

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  20. KatWillow2:11 PM

    I like Costco, but their hotdogs are like rubber. I'm just sayin.

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  21. I completely forgot about that one. Funny part is, I actually drink imported green tea that I pick up at a Chinese market that's about eight blocks from my apartment. I plan to swing by there as soon as the roads are clear.


    Seriously though, what kind of snob assumes that Midwesterners are so backwards that we don't know that there are different kinds of tea? It's not like he asked for Pu'er (which I can also get here, FYI).

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  22. KatWillow2:13 PM

    A lot of small, independent businesses buy their supplies at Costco. (To the dismay of some... conservatives?)

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  23. Seriously though, what kind of snob assumes that Midwesterners are so
    backwards that we don't know that there are different kinds of tea?


    That would be Candy Crowley, salt of the earth. In the apocryphal Carthaginian sense.

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  24. KatWillow2:14 PM

    I like to stock up on Toilet Paper, tho I fear its made by a Koch company.

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  25. look forward to the 2016 speeches when Republicans are instructed to refer to real Americans who only shop at dollar stores, Rent-a-Centers, and payday loan outfits.

    I doubt it. Most of the folks that shop at those establishments tend to be too duskily hued for the GOP, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

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  26. Susan of Texas2:18 PM

    Does it have room service?

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  27. Not in Middle America. Every time Wal-Mart kills a business, it's swiftly replaced by a rent-to-own place, a consignment store, or a payday loan place. They're the vultures circling over the small towns of this country.

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  28. Barry_D2:23 PM

    "What's funny to me is, I would think Republicans would point to Costco
    as a trickle-down success story. The store does good business, stocks go
    up, everyone gets bonuses. That's how they keep telling us it's
    supposed to work, then they complain when it works."

    Because 'trickle-down' is a lie, intended to keep people happy while being ripped off.

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  29. j_bird2:24 PM

    Then I await the rehabilitation of these fine models of entrepreneurship in the conservative press. McArdle has apparently already gotten started, according to Susan of Texas in an earlier comment. Apparently the kind-faced gentleman at Ye Olde Payday Loan Shoppe would never think of charging you more than 400% APR, unlike a loan shark.

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  30. carolannie2:25 PM

    I am baffled about the Costco membership fee sneer since Sam's Club charges the same

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  31. Barry_D2:26 PM

    Nah, there are more ligher-hued folk Real Americans shopping at those places every day.

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  32. Odder2:32 PM

    Yes, but at Costco too high a percentage of that fee trickles into the actual employees' pockets, so creeping socialism.

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  33. Yes and what abput bank and credit card fees? I dont hear the republicans complaining about them.

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  34. brandonrg2:37 PM

    Assuming that people in fly-over America aren't a bunch of backwoods hicks who don't know nuthing 'bout no fancy teas is deeply insulting.

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  35. she said it was unbelievable how many customers inquired about the "crab quickie."


    Gad, that takes me back to the good old days of army hygiene films.

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  36. Cross country, eh? So, you think everything should be level and equal in height. Downhill skiing is for those who realize that some terrain actually worked to get to its current elevation.

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  37. tigrismus3:31 PM

    Pfauh. Cross country is where YOU actually work to gain any elevation, rather than merely being lifted.

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  38. NonyNony3:37 PM

    Yes. This is what I was going to post. Sam's Club has a $45 membership fee or a $100 membership super-double-plus-good membership fee. It's the same goddamn model, except Costco pays their workers more per hour, offers better benefits, and doesn't muck with just in time scheduling stupidity.

    I mean - I don' t know what they're getting at here. Costco is Sam's Club for people who want to shop in bulk but also like to have decent customer service.

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  39. after taking a second look at Costco’s CEO activism, it is safe to say we will be updating their score and moving them into the 'Actively Liberal' category This is something I've run into and never understood. The Cosco CEO is willing to live on less so his employees can have a living wage, nobody has lost by this whole transaction and yet he must be punished for doign the unpossible and for successfully calling the whole basis of their morality into question. It's always a shock to see how easily really grotesque perversions of ordinary basic morality can become normalized.

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  40. Susan of Texas3:54 PM

    Christ.
    It looks like the McArdles will win. Corporations will have all the rights, citizens will have all the responsibilities.
    When will we learn that you don't have any rights unless you are willing to fight, kill and die for them.

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  41. XeckyGilchrist3:56 PM

    But they serve Coke, which means they don't sufficiently hate foreigners on account of that Superbowl ad, therefore they hate America, therefore they might as well be French. QID.

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  42. redoubtagain3:57 PM

    Suggestion--try the all-beef polishes.
    (Only thing I don't like is their changing from Coke to Pepsi products in the cafe area.)

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  43. redoubtagain4:06 PM

    As someone who saved three thousand dollars on a new car last month thanks to Costco's Auto Buying Club (which service Sam's Club doesn't seem to offer), all I can think to say is "A conservative fool and his money are soon parted."

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  44. stepped_pyramids4:10 PM

    A decade ago or so I was reading the IWW newspaper and there was a little sidebar about Costco's decent treatment of their employees that concluded along the lines of "obviously in the long term the wage system has to be smashed, but in the interim some companies deserve less smashing than others". High praise.


    I live in affluent liberal sin-pit Portland, OR and I shop at Costco a decent amount. I also shop at the local New Seasons groceries, which undoubtedly serve a very affluent, probably liberal cohort. I'm sure there's crossover between the shoppers at both stores (like myself) but there's definitely a clear difference.

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  45. stepped_pyramids4:12 PM

    Also, green tea is something that people drink because of antioxidants or whatever, which is a health thing that women drink for their vaginas, because caring about your health is for women, and John Kerry is gay or something.

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  46. stepped_pyramids4:15 PM

    I have to admit to a fondness for their enormous, saucy, cheesy-gooey, insanely cheap pizza slices. It's not good pizza but coated in cheap parmesan and pepper flakes it is good to eat and calms the soul after trundling a cart the size of the monkey cage at the zoo down crowded aisles surrounded by five-gallon jars of pickles...

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  47. smut clyde4:20 PM

    It's always a shock to see how easily really grotesque perversions of ordinary basic morality can become normalized.

    They have moved on from "Treating workers badly in order to overpay the CEO is sad but it is a necessary reflection of economic forces" to "Treating workers badly in order to overpay the CEO is a MORAL OBLIGATION".

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  48. smut clyde4:21 PM

    to real Americans who only shop at the company store.

    Fiqsed for brevity.

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  49. Not only room service, to the dismay of those on the left behind, if ya know etc etc

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  50. dmsilev4:23 PM

    And then in 2008, Obama got attacked for the "elitist" sin of asking for orange juice instead of coffee in a diner.


    Peak Wingnut Is A Lie.

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  51. smut clyde4:24 PM

    to real Americans who only shop at dollar stores, Rent-a-Centers, and payday loan outfitsthe company store.

    Re-fiqsed for brevity and non-garblement.
    (can't edit because Disqust no longer allows me to sign in).

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  52. Senator Reid has refused to approve "fast-tracking" the TPP and the TTIP, which would sideline the Senate's ability to debate and amend them. And if senators start amending them, that could fox their final approval by the other signatories. So unless or until Republicans gain control of the chamber, it's not a given that these new NAFTAs will whiz through ... and I do mean "whiz."

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  53. High praise.


    Indeed. "You're a nice place, Costco; we like you. That's why we're going to kill you last," is about the best one could ever expect from the Wobblies.

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  54. Susan of Texas4:31 PM

    I hope you are right but like Citizens United, this is too lucrative a deal to go away.

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  55. ADHDJ4:40 PM

    http://www.instructables.com/id/May-Cthulhu-eat-this-house-last-cross-stitch/

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  56. Smarter than Your Average Bear4:48 PM

    And Satan created pretzels

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  57. sophronia4:49 PM

    I'm guessing they're all writing about that vast Real America of heartland values, but where none of the NRO staffers would ever so much as stick their little pinkie toes in. It's the Applebee's salad bar all over again.

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  58. Smarter than Your Average Bear4:58 PM

    Well I hope you responded that quickies are a good way to catch crabs :)

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  59. Bethany Spencer4:58 PM

    I wanna up vote this a bajillion times. As a small-town girl from the south, I always cringe at the way conservatives divide up the town from the country, the coasts and the insidey parts of the country. There’s a fair bit of diversity nearly everywhere. Which these people would know if they weren’t pig-fucking ignorant.

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  60. montag25:16 PM

    It was John Kenneth Galbraith who said, approximately, that the holy grail of conservatism was to invent a moral justification for selfishness. They've succeeded in doing that--the myth of the "free market"--and have spent forty-odd years getting everyone to believe it to be true. A necessary corollary of that free-market nonsense is that amorality is good, because it's profitable.

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  61. mgmonklewis5:17 PM

    The arugula thing is so damned stupid. My great-grandmother, whose parents were homesteaders, grew rocket — arugula! in her garden in rural South Dakota. That's about as un-elitist as you can get. If I mentioned how she also drank green tea, the wingnut commentators would be stacked up like cordwood on the fainting couch.

    Maybe we just need to revive arugula's old name of rocket. Rocket! Yeah!
    http://youtu.be/VWg_g7-sIn0

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  62. mgmonklewis5:18 PM

    The arugula thing is so damned stupid. My great-grandmother, whose
    parents were homesteaders, grew rocket — arugula!
    — in her garden in rural South Dakota. That's about as un-elitist as you
    can get. If I mentioned how she also drank green tea, the wingnut commentators would be stacked up like cordwood on the fainting couch.

    Maybe we just need to revive arugula's old name of rocket. Rocket! Yeah!
    http://youtu.be/VWg_g7-sIn0

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  63. mgmonklewis5:21 PM

    *I apologize for this weird double-post. I don't know how it happened. If someone can make the duplicate go away, that would be lovely.

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  64. mgmonklewis5:31 PM

    Agreed. It's bad enough having to live in a place (which I love!) that unfortunately elects too many Steve King wanna-be's to the state legislature, but I also have to hear about how they're the real Real Americans™. I've lived here all my life. They can peddle their "Real Mur'kans watch Fox 'news'" crap somewhere else. I'm not buying.

    It gets even more irritating when, after enduring Life In Wingnuttia day after frustrating day, a person has to put up with some liberals taking pot-shots at us too, as though we're all Louie Gohmert fans, because it's so much fun for them to get in on the bashing from the opposite angle.

    (Sorry for the rant. It's just that I read a story at TPM this morning about how even a Republican state legislator here was complaining about her fellow R's were getting too nutty, and the majority of the comments were of the Snottier-Than-Thou variety against everyone in My Fair State. Again, apologies; I'm better now.)

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  65. mgmonklewis5:33 PM

    CNN delenda est.

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  66. BigHank535:34 PM

    He's just lucky that crucifixion went out of fashion a couple eons ago. Nothing makes the elite happier than finding someone offering an alternative to the unwashed masses and nailing his fucking ass to a tree.

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  67. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person5:51 PM

    the "revolutionary new app that keeps your spending aligned with your conservative values"

    But-but-but...boycotts are BAD, right? Boycotts are LIBERASL not buying from good Conservative stores, or complaining so loud advertisers flee good Conservative radio programs, because they hate America, right? I'm so confyoozed...

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  68. The Producers, made real.

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  69. TGuerrant5:57 PM

    Can I have your autograph?

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  70. mortimer20005:57 PM

    From Roy's NRO link, an article that complains about Costco's business model because Obama/liberal/socialism:

    Costco not only pays wages above those of its obvious competitors — the average Costco employee earns $22.89 an hour, compared to $12.67 an hour at Walmart — but also offers health care to its workers, boasts a meager 5 percent turnover rate among employees, and has seen sales increase by 39 percent and stock prices double since 2009, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Conservatives think this is really bad. Don't you think that this is bad? Maybe even unAmerican somehow? Very very bad. Don't you want to vote for us now?

    Okay, I made up the last part. But I really hope they go with something like this because it's got to be a real vote-getter for them.
    (One commenter had the most sensible reason for opposing Costco socialism: Costco has a no weapons policy. I won't shop there. Bulk purchases can be really scary, so I understand.)

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  71. slavdude5:59 PM

    Interesting story on NPR this morning about bringing back post-office banking, which existed for most of the twentieth century. A person could go to his or her local post office (which exist in every ZIP code, unlike banks) to cash a check, pay bills, get a loan, etc. The banking industry, of course, is predictably hostile to this idea.

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  72. Magatha6:02 PM

    When I was a kid we only had uphill skiing.

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  73. ohsopolite6:02 PM

    Personally, I bought a pallet of popcorn, but that's because I like my snacks monochromatic.

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  74. TGuerrant6:06 PM

    And here we see the source of the madness - Wall Street greed.

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  75. TGuerrant6:11 PM

    And yet that means you are lazy. Pretty tricky thing, pleasing these conservative patriots.

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  76. TGuerrant6:18 PM

    The GOP suburbanite outreach begins, hard on the heels of the GOP libertarian outreach, the GOP homosexuals who hate buttsecks outreach, the GOP wimmin with non-sinning vaginas outreach, the GOP latinos who know their place outreach, and the GOP Herman Cain Fan Club of One outreach. Success everywhere you look.

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  77. ADHDJ6:19 PM

    It's only a violation of your first amendment rights if you were doing/saying something shitty. In this case, Costco's depriving shitty people of their first amendment rights by making them look bad in comparison.

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  78. Easier on your palate, no doubt.

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  79. icculus6:28 PM

    BY GOD IT BETTER OF BEEN YELLOW

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  80. M. Krebs7:13 PM

    So Costco is not only actively liberal, it's liberal fascist!

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  81. TomParmenter7:21 PM

    Once again, Dukakis was recommending endive as a high-markup crop that Massachusetts farmers were making money growing.

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  82. William Miller7:23 PM

    Wouldn't you just love to be a fly on the wall when these rich fucks start talking about how they're going to fuck the little guy? Oh, wait ... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/18/romneys-full-47-percent-speech-goes-public/

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  83. smut clyde7:29 PM

    In this case, however, CostCo is profitable. But that is not good enough; actual cruelty is now required to avoid Doubleplus-Ungood status.

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  84. JennOfArk8:32 PM

    I'll refrain from retelling my tale of horror from the Anniston, Alabama Chik-fil-a women's room. Let's just say that if the old woman in the story had used the toilet paper rather than doing what she did, my psyche would have one less scar on it today.

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  85. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:19 PM

    Your degree ... tells me you a liberal.

    Wingnuttia in a nutshell. With a side order of duh....

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  86. Derelict11:22 PM

    I want to buy this comment two rides on the electric pony outside the front door of the supermarket.

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  87. glennisw11:41 PM

    So now it's "liberal" to treat employees well? Mmmmkay.

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  88. AGoodQuestion12:02 AM

    From McMegan:

    All of which is to reiterate the point of the original post: Companies are complicated. Markets are complicated. You can’t just change the bits you don’t like and have the rest tick along exactly as before.


    If I wanted to be considered a serious writer on serious issues, I wouldn't duck out of my own analyses by saying, in essence, "Math is Hard." Seems to work for some of us, though.

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  89. AGoodQuestion12:04 AM

    That was beautiful. Thank you.

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  90. AGoodQuestion12:10 AM

    For the next time I'm out on the road, remind me. Smooth peanut butter. Chunky peanut butter. Which is American and which is socialist.

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  91. AGoodQuestion12:15 AM

    To be fair to Poppy, he was a naval aviator in WW2 and has flown with his plane on fire. After that I don't know why he thought being afraid of a vegetable would make him look mas macho.

    ReplyDelete
  92. MichaelNewsham2:52 AM

    Ooooh, I know, I know!! Because a lot of conservatives are idiots?

    I remember seeing a magazine cover during that election with a picture labelled "The Wimp Factor" contrasting rough tough Ronnie, who spent WWII making movies in Hollywood, with wimpy George, who was one of the youngest volunteers for combat (unlike a certain other George Bush.)

    ReplyDelete
  93. Jon Hendry3:20 AM

    Not long ago, Costco's website was selling a $60,000 original drawing by Miro.

    Right now, the most expensive art they have is a Chagall lithograph for $1589.

    http://www.costco.com/%22Sarah-and-the-Angels%22-by-Marc-Chagall.product.100028767.html

    ReplyDelete
  94. Jon Hendry3:29 AM

    And yet they don't seem to carry Pepsi products in 2 liter bottles, thus preventing me from serving my Diet Pepsi addiction at a lower price.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Jon Hendry3:32 AM

    "Lots of middle-class folks shop at Costco. "


    True. But Costco reveals their true allegiance on their website. The sort order defaults to "high price to low price".

    ReplyDelete
  96. Jon Hendry3:38 AM

    I became a member to get cheaper glasses. As a single guy I can't really buy most of their food products, as it'd go bad before I could finish the whole thing.


    But I did get some underwear and undershirts, which were cheap, and some cheap batteries, and some cheap metamucil-equivalent, and a cheap box of 200 eyeglass lens wipes. And I buy gas there when I happen to be there and need gas.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Jon Hendry3:43 AM

    Trick question! Nutella is socialist.

    ReplyDelete
  98. nanute4:39 AM

    Numbers tell the story: Since 2009 Wal Mart stock is up 48% from 49.63 to yesterdays close of 73.75. COSTCO is up 152.25% from 45.21 to yesterdays close of 114.04. Wal Mart pays a bit higher dividend, 2.55% v 1.09% at COSTCO, Now I ask myself why are people making the case that the CEO at COSTCO is a liberal? it's simple: These fuckwits know that it could never be a conservative who would treat their employees like COSTCO does.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Jeffrey_Kramer5:17 AM

    I really never knew that "rocket salad" was made with arugula. The Italian place I eat at pretty often has a special I almost always order, two slices of pepperoni pizza and a rocket salad. Have they been trying to turn everybody into a progressive metrosexual all this time, or does the pepperoni cancel out the arugulite tendencies?

    ReplyDelete
  100. Jeffrey_Kramer5:29 AM

    Smooth is socialist because it is represents the liberal illusion that life's challenges can be "smoothed" away by big government regulation, and that equality of outcome -- the "smoother" income graph -- is the ultimate desideratum of politics.


    I think that was actually the central thesis of George Will's last column.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Jay B.7:21 AM

    Plenty of pickups with GOP stickers in the parking lot at Panera Bread these days.


    I hope you key them.

    ReplyDelete
  102. TGuerrant7:25 AM

    Miz Ghettogloss of Silver Lake - I. had. no. idea.

    ReplyDelete
  103. In other countries too.

    ReplyDelete
  104. TGuerrant7:28 AM

    Painting them with faux compassion in a dark warehouse full of earring-pierced abominations! Have we no shame, sir? At long last, have we no shame?

    ReplyDelete
  105. Lurking Canadian7:54 AM

    The brown mustard "scandal" was the strangest of all of them, for me. I can sort of get bitching about "arugula". Sounds all foreign and exotic. But brown mustard...

    When I lived in Philly, I couldn't get the yellow stuff. Every cheesesteak shop, every dodgy food cart that sold hotdogs out of a steam tray, if I asked for plain old yellow mustard, I got dirty looks. Brown mustard, at least in Philly, is the condiment of the people. Chicago's not Philly, but it is at least plausible that this experience generalizes to other big cities.

    ReplyDelete
  106. At least you get a very large piece for that $7999.


    At five by seven and a half feet, you're practically buying a mural.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I love the fact that you can hear livestock when you walk in...

    ReplyDelete
  108. Good point, but that mixed metaphor makes my brain hurt!

    ReplyDelete
  109. tigrismus8:40 AM

    What, you've never heard of ski ball?

    ReplyDelete
  110. Absolutely right!

    I remember David Brooks explaining the difference between Red States and Blue States using broad generalizations and not knowing what he's talking about.

    For example, he said that people from Blue States don't know what soy beans look like when they’re growing in a field… that sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete
  111. I was just trying to imagine such a thing!

    ReplyDelete
  112. I'm so glad somebody managed to record that stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  113. You're right; "Peak Wingnut" really IS a lie.


    It's like they say, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has limits.

    ReplyDelete
  114. I can't tell whether you're joking or not about George Will. He really is that asinine.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Maybe somebody discovered that Costco sold that spicy mustard that Obama likes.

    ReplyDelete
  116. salvagesalvage8:55 AM

    I've always thought of CostCo as the perfect merging of America and the Soviet Union; long line-ups for toilet paper and other staples but instead of empty shelves enormousness super-sized quantities.

    ReplyDelete
  117. BigHank539:06 AM

    Oh honey, you were in Alabama? I'm so sorry...

    ReplyDelete
  118. Jeffrey_Kramer9:13 AM

    Remember the guy who said it was a great thing that the richest 85 people in the world had as much money as the bottom 3.5 billion because it gave the bottom-most an incentive to get richer? He would tell you that Costco is mistreating its workers by giving them a greater piece of the pie, because how will they know that they should actually quit Costco and try to found their own companies, where they could be the boss and pay minimum wage to their employees, who will quit their jobs....

    ReplyDelete
  119. mgmonklewis9:28 AM

    Only if you eat the pepperoni by gnawing on the full roll of it, like Ricky from Trailer Park Boys.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Wingnut bottom feeders announced that Americans "are buying physical gold and silver in an attempt to shelter themselves when the U.S. dollar becomes worthless.


    Dunning-Krugerrands!

    ReplyDelete
  121. His smock has a picture of his face? Everytime I see clips from this movie, I see yet another flash of brilliance.

    ReplyDelete
  122. JennOfArk11:04 AM

    Not to worry. If any of the marks figure out they've been fleeced by Beck and his advertisers, Beck will quickly concoct a storyline explaining how Obamacare has destroyed the gold market.

    ReplyDelete
  123. With your permission I would like to repost this on newsvine. A great rant such as this deserves to be shared.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Susan of Texas12:04 PM

    It also takes away the freedom to have chunks in your peanut butter. And fosters a culture of dependency by doing all your peanut grinding for you.

    Wing nuttery. The Mad Libs of political theory.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Mooser12:28 PM

    Obama destroyed the gold market? I thought it was Mandela what done it.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Mooser12:34 PM

    "So now it's "liberal" to treat employees well?"


    Are they treating them "well" or are they simply paying an adequate amount to get and retain good quality employees?
    Maybe it's not a sign of rampant liberalism, maybe it's just the way the labor market is.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Mooser12:36 PM

    Some on the left are dismayed, or so I hear.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Mooser12:40 PM

    "When will we learn that you don't have any rights unless you are willing to fight, kill and die for them."


    Ha! If you were a fraction of the liberal you claim you are (or do you?) you would know that that is our only right!

    ReplyDelete
  129. Mooser12:41 PM

    Make me a pallet on your warehouse floor.

    ReplyDelete
  130. fascinating

    ReplyDelete
  131. TGuerrant2:15 PM

    They did it in between bouts of having global conspiracy buttsecks while talking commie Nazi talk.

    ReplyDelete
  132. Ellis_Weiner2:18 PM

    "Yeah, we have hillbillies-and-proud-of-it, but we also have artists,
    snobs, nerds, socialists, burnouts, world travelers, amateur scientists
    and con men."


    Wait--oh, you're talking about Kansas. I thought you were talking about the alicublog comment community.

    ReplyDelete
  133. TGuerrant2:27 PM

    But then I run into the pink salt conservatives with kitchen equipment that cost more than my car, and I wonder which Kansas I'm in...

    ReplyDelete
  134. sparks2:28 PM

    Eh, baloney. CA has the same law about prescriptions, and I used to get them filled at Costco - I just said "pharmacy" at the door and I got in without even slowing my walk.

    I have a membership now.

    ReplyDelete
  135. TGuerrant2:31 PM

    Well, if you're not going to use toilet paper on your koch, where are you going to use it? It really sucks for draining fried squirrel when it comes out of the popcorn popper.

    ReplyDelete
  136. smut clyde3:13 PM

    I rate for "Failing upward on skis" as the new Winter-Olympic sport.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Do whatever you want with it, it's out there.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Yeah, it's definitely a bipartisan affair. You've got commenters on left-of-center blogs who love to look down their noses at people they consider hicks, not to mention careerists like Kevin Drum who defend David Brooks's schtick to this day. There's little to do except stay away from assholes and communities that foster them. It's why this is one of maybe three websites where I pay attention to the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  139. PorlockJunior3:42 PM

    "A person could go to his or her local post office (which exist in every ZIP code, unlike banks)..."

    No worry. Some of our best people are working on that probelm right now.

    ReplyDelete
  140. PorlockJunior3:53 PM

    You know who *else* treated employees well?


    No, not him. 19th-century Quaker businessmen, who invented the whole idea(1). The Commies of the day, obviously(2). Who got fabulously wealthy doing it, which made it all the worse.


    (1) Boycott Cadburys!


    (2) Reputation redeemed over here by Richard Nixon. Unless you've ever run into all those other Quakers.

    ReplyDelete
  141. David Brooks is easily the pundit I hate the most. He's not the most mendacious, nor the biggest sociopath, or the most obvious in his boot-licking. However, there is no one who dumbs it down more, and that is deeply ironic given his target audience. It offends me personally in a way that even a scumbag like Thomas Friedman fails to do.


    When I was in high school, I remember wanting to do a series of little character sketches of people and places in my town. I didn't do it, because I figured no one cared about life in small town Midwest. Little did I know that Brooks was doing the exact same thing - only he was making it all up, playing to the preconceptions of his audience. What I can see now is that the elites are endlessly fascinated by the common man, but only when the descriptions of the common man come from other elites. Shame I didn't have the connections.

    ReplyDelete
  142. I sense another porn novel plot line in the offing.

    ReplyDelete
  143. Or the Wolf of Wallstreet if the guy was really some kind of actual, human eating, werewolf? Again, I think this might be a good niche market for Jennof Ark.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Yeah, he's terrible. A real piece of work.

    And it truly is strange that someone who loves authority so much, and applauded Bush's "Imperial Presidency" as much as he did, would also extoll the virtues of the "common man."

    (photoshop credit goes to Driftglass, who hates David Brooks worse than anyone)

    http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2013/12/david-brooks-simple-solution-to-all.html

    ReplyDelete
  145. Yep.

    There's PLENTY of Rightwing columnists and pundits that make me think of the Dunning–Kruger effect.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Wow.


    Truly, the exact opposite of the Communist ideal must be the philosophy of "There Can Be Only One."

    ReplyDelete
  147. Why, what did YOU have to ski on?


    An empty stomach?

    ReplyDelete
  148. DocAmazing5:22 PM

    San Francisco's Costco has a wine steward; it's right there on his badge. He turned me on to some hella tasty Pinots for under twenty bucks a bottle. If this be elitism, count me in!

    ReplyDelete
  149. M. Krebs5:49 PM

    Holy cow, you can buy fucking casket from them -- and with expedited shipping, in case of an emergency.

    ReplyDelete
  150. JennOfArk5:52 PM

    What's that rule that says there's nothing sexually depraved that you can imagine that doesn't already have a website devoted to it? This one would have to be filed under "Incontinent Granny Porn."

    ReplyDelete
  151. M. Krebs5:56 PM

    Yep. And God forbid that real American farmers should grow sissy euro-veggies instead of tobacco.

    ReplyDelete
  152. Richard_thunderbay6:21 PM

    Elitist and commie-socialist at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Susan of Texas6:30 PM

    Chunky

    ReplyDelete
  154. PersonaAuGratin6:34 PM

    ... the slowpokes I was cursing as I zoomed past

    That's putting it mildly, and I question the ability to "zoom" anywhere at Costco other than the outer reaches of the parking lot. It wouldn't be a bad place to shop if they weren't so successful. I tried a membership for a couple of years and let it lapse because the entire experience was so time-consuming and unpleasant (me not being the "recreational shopper" type) that I expected I would sooner or later punch out another shopper. While they do have well-staffed checkout lines, the damned place is so huge and crowded that you have to allot an hour, minimum, even on their "slow"" days.

    So, I suppose we need one approximately positive take on Sam's Club, and here goes: I've had a membership for almost 20 years (they sent a free year's membership when I bought my house and were close to my then-workplace). The store I shop at (and only one I've been in) is a geographic outlier and smaller footprint, so doesn't enjoy the network effect and massive local membership of Costco. Consequently, I usually can shop mid-week, circumnavigate the store, fill up a cart, check out, and be back at my car within 20 minutes. Biggest gripe: checkout staffing can be spotty --- and infuriating--- when they're busy, though if an assistant supervisor is awake they have someone with a wireless handscanner scan your items while you wait in line and send tour total to the register. They also offer the option to shop online and pick up your pre-filled cart the next day (a convenience I can't see Costco offering, given their business model's reliance on maximizing shoppers' "in-store roaming around time" to tempt with pricy impulse buys.) They also bother with the little touches, like, say, having signage indicating each aisle's product categories (unlike Costco -- again, it's the maximizing roaming thing). An interesting thing I've noticed recently: whether due to new local management or Bentonville directive, there has clearly been a charm-school initiative of some sort for the employees. I hope it doesn't work, or I'll have to find somehwere else to shop.

    ReplyDelete
  155. Hecate_Demetersdatter6:35 PM

    Think Shannen Coffin's a "he."

    ReplyDelete
  156. TGuerrant7:32 PM

    http://tinyurl.com/laebc62



    Shannen Coffin before pussification overcame him. Come back, Kim du Toit, come back!

    ReplyDelete
  157. TGuerrant7:47 PM

    But make it "incontinent granny porn yeti" it falls to 71,600; "incontinent granny porn yeti Jesus," 29,500. I think you just need to specialize. Hone the idea further.

    ReplyDelete
  158. M. Krebs7:53 PM

    Wow. The fact that all of those fuckers are so negative on gold means that they're probably already short, which makes me wonder if it might be a good time to buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  159. Brainpicnic7:59 PM

    This may have something to do with corporate political donations. Costco has been kind of liberal there in the past at least. But a good reminder, everyone should know the political sympathies of the companies they shop at. For example, Chik-fil-A is fascist, and so on...

    ReplyDelete
  160. AlanInSF8:21 PM

    Costco. Sounds like the kinda place that Pope guy would go, you ask me.

    ReplyDelete
  161. AlanInSF8:22 PM

    Go drink a triple-hopped Belgian-style IPA and calm down.

    ReplyDelete
  162. Jon Hendry8:23 PM

    But do they have a lube steward?

    ReplyDelete
  163. Jon Hendry8:25 PM

    One trick is to go when the free samples aren't being made available. A person handing out free food is a major bottleneck.

    ReplyDelete
  164. Franciscan is the new Alinskite.

    ReplyDelete
  165. arter1308:56 PM

    I read your post hoping to read something of interest. But all I saw was sneering and tribal hatred and then it ended. Obviously you aren't a very good blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  166. tigrismus9:18 PM

    So why don't you write a better blog post defending how terribly interesting and rational the current Costco hate is? Nothing tribal there.

    ReplyDelete
  167. Better that, than the cutesy "dumplins" and "fixins" and all the other idiotic shit Cracker Barrel tries to foist on a discerning public.

    Well, I guess if they were truly discerning, they wouldn't go to Cracker Barrel, but y'all know whut Ah mean, darlin'

    Fucking crackers.

    ReplyDelete
  168. RepubAnon9:52 PM

    It's all because Mr. Brooks spends too much time at the Applebee's salad bar...

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  169. kindness10:00 PM

    Wall Street has told Costco several times that they are paying their employees too much and that they could make more profit if the operated like a Walmart. To it's credit Costco's chief told them to stuff it. He feels he has better employees this way.

    ReplyDelete
  170. There's no need for that, they only sell it in 55 gallon drums.

    ReplyDelete
  171. redoubtagain10:13 PM

    For the record: That Chik-Fil-A shares a parking lot with a Wal-Mart. (We've had this discussion before.)

    ReplyDelete
  172. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:27 PM

    Not arugula again! Do these clowns realize...


    No. This has been another edition of Simple Answers to Simple Questions...


    They also don't realize that Devil Quiche is fucking scrambled egg pie, of which there are 57 varieties, just like some other famous American foods. These people just aren't big on realization, mostly, I think, because of the "real" that word starts of with. "Real" implies, to the implicable, "facts". Those stupid, stupid things...

    ReplyDelete
  173. freq flag10:46 PM

    And take CNBC, FauxSnooze, & Clear Channel with 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  174. freq flag10:49 PM

    ...and/or Jonah Goldberg's last bowel movement.

    ReplyDelete
  175. freq flag10:51 PM

    They hate/ignore/create their own fa

    ReplyDelete
  176. Hello. To win, make your points up front, short, persuasive, easily learned, memorable, repeatable by your students.

    ReplyDelete
  177. freq flag10:58 PM

    Amen. There is no one better than Driftglass at taking Brooks apart with such detail and such care. He's pretty good at going medieval on Andrew Sullivan, too (for many of the same reasons).

    Between Roy and him, there's a whole lot of righteous slicing & dicing going on (on sadly but a few of those who most deserve it).

    ReplyDelete
  178. Teresa11:17 PM

    Conservatives are never happy unless people are miserable. It's what make them the assholes they are today.

    ReplyDelete
  179. judybrowni11:18 PM

    I'm in Los Angeles, and the local closet Costco was in a fairly bad neighborhood for about 20 years, until that neighborhood got slightly better with gentrification.


    Big store needed lots of area, which face it, wasn't going to be affordable in Beverly Hills, duh.


    So the denizens of the low rent neighborhood also got the advantage of Costco shopping along with the middle class who could drive there.


    A neighbor on disability goes there, even if he's not a member, for the treat of the low cost hot dogs and pizza.

    ReplyDelete
  180. incontinent granny porn yeti Jesus dildo Mormon Tabernacle Choir


    yields 31 hits ... and I call dibs.

    ReplyDelete
  181. And I buy gas there when I happen to be there and need gas.


    You already mentioned the cheap metamucil-equivalent.

    ReplyDelete
  182. Psst! You hit the back button on your browser. This is no longer the Alec Torres NRO post.

    ReplyDelete
  183. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps12:38 AM

    Oh, honey, no: those are quotes.

    ReplyDelete
  184. TGuerrant7:58 AM

    Hi. Welcome to Alicu. The arugula is on Aisle 9. Have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete
  185. TGuerrant8:02 AM

    Weekend party size. Note the free lube pump that's included.

    ReplyDelete
  186. coozledad9:11 AM

    Spoon River Mythology.

    ReplyDelete
  187. Kim du Toit Vs. The Ace of Spades.

    Two go in, only one comes out!

    ReplyDelete
  188. TGuerrant9:17 AM

    More Chins than the Hong Kong phone book!

    ReplyDelete
  189. One of the enormous benefits of USPS-based banking, is that you could lose that feeling every time you make a deposit you're handing your $$$ to a grinning con man.

    ReplyDelete
  190. XeckyGilchrist10:57 AM

    Sing it. I live in Utah and get a bit sick of the snickering over shit I can't control no matter how hard I, and the liberal population of hellishly-gerrymandered Salt Lake City, vote.

    ReplyDelete
  191. XeckyGilchrist11:07 AM

    Rule 34. DO NOT GOOGLE.

    ReplyDelete
  192. Jaime Oria11:23 AM

    " - and Methodists!"

    ReplyDelete
  193. Mooser11:26 AM

    So who's better at multi-tasking and time management?

    ReplyDelete
  194. Bethany Spencer11:34 AM

    Remind me: Is being rich bad or good? I forget. If I were a cynical person--and goodness knows I’m not--I’d think that conservatives only think wealth is a good thing when it belongs to rich people.


    Also, I’m not sure how this squares with the all liberals being moochers meme. It sure is confusing following the logic of wingnuts!

    ReplyDelete
  195. Bethany Spencer11:43 AM

    ROFL. I want to enter Thunderdome with this comment. (Wrong movie, I know, but, hey...)

    ReplyDelete