Outside the Beltway

Midday Monday Tabs

Steven L. Taylor
27

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Trump was at the fry station for about five minutes and spent about 15 minutes at the drive-through window, much of it taking questions from reporters.

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27 responses to “Midday Monday Tabs”

  1. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    To Trump’s way of “thinking,” if Harris wins it can’t possibly have been a fair election, because only elections he wins are free and fair.

    1
  2. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Another one of those times when history comes in handy.

    Over the XIX century, the US took over the vast territories of the Louisiana purchase, many of which were Spanish possessions. They also took Florida, another Spanish territory. Then they took Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Utah from Mexico.

    So there are oodles of people with “Hispanic sounding names” whose families have been American citizens for over 100 years.

    That’s just part of it. There has also been a lot of legal immigration from Latin America for many decades. Not counting people who’ve moved from Puerto Rico to several US states

    And not to mention Cuban exiles and their families, plus Cuban refugees since the 60s. Of course, they are mostly in Florida and tend to vote Republiqan. Maybe someone should tell the idiot vigilantes about them.

    8
  3. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    If I were a major, multinational corporation, I would not look fondly upon a franchisee injecting my brand into a highly contentious political campaign. No good can come from it.

    (I would prefer to donate quietly, without photographs)

    5
  4. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    @Gustopher: Bill Clinton was at a McDonald’s a week or two ago, with a Harris-Walz cap on.

    I don’t disagree with you, but for the most part, as long as it’s a photo opp and they aren’t filming a commercial, these drop-ins are pretty standard for campaign season.

    2
  5. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    @Gustopher: The vast majority of McDonalds are franchised, so I suspect the decision to make it available to politicians rests in the hands of the franchisee.

    1
  6. Michael Cain Avatar
    Michael Cain

    What’s the franchise agreement say about freedom of speech and political campaigns?

  7. Rick DeMent Avatar
    Rick DeMent

    @Kathy:

    I can’t help myself from being a pedantic git.

    The Roman numeral for 21 is XXI
    For 2024 it’s MMXXIV
    The next Superbowl is LIX

    Father forgive me.

    3
  8. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @Rick DeMent:

    I often use Roman numerals for the month when I write down dates.

    In some lists I keep that only I use, I’ll often mix and match. Like (month is in the middle): 2VI/X1/20XXIII

    Now and then someone sees this and gets it.

  9. Moosebreath Avatar
    Moosebreath

    @MarkedMan:

    “The vast majority of McDonalds are franchised, so I suspect the decision to make it available to politicians rests in the hands of the franchisee.”

    Likely not. Most franchisors will have language in their franchise agreement on what types of publicity are and are not acceptable. Use of the franchise symbols in political advertising is typically high on the list of unacceptable ones.

    1
  10. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    Kathy’s post is a good reminder that virtually all lands were seized at some point from those who were there beforehand, and those had simply seized it from someone else. As far as I know, post WWII is the first time in history when going to war to conquer territory isn’t the done thing in most of the world.

    When historians delicately talk about “expansion” or “territorial acquisition” it masks the bloody hell of murder and theft that lay behind it. And that’s true whether it was the US vis a vis Mexico, or the predominantly Spanish Europeans vis a vis the aboriginal peoples, or those peoples vis a vis their neighbors a century or two earlier.

    5
  11. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    @Moosebreath: I read and draft franchise agreements as part of my regular practice. I have never seen a reference to political advertising or sponsorship in a franchise agreement. There are some things that are sufficiently unusual – and just aren’t that big a deal to the brand – that they just aren’t covered.

    2
  12. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @MarkedMan:

    The first people who reached the Americas, whenever that was, took the land only from the local fauna. That’s the only clear cut exceptional case I can think of. It’s likely earlier waves of hominids who migrated out of Africa competed or fought with latter waves of successor species.

    To this day it’s contentious whether modern H. sapiens wiped out the Neanderthals, or whether they went extinct for some other reason. The only thing we can say for sure is there was some interbreeding.

    1
  13. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    @Gustopher: @Jen: @MarkedMan: @Michael Cain: @Moosebreath: @Joe: McDonald’s is an 800-pound gorilla level corporation. Unless the news item is about tainted meat or people dying eating there, they mostly have to take a “no such thing as bad publicity” view. Not to mention that McDonald’s sells more hamburgers each minute of the day, every day, despite the internet continuing to produce articles saying that people always vote their hamburgers as the worst and least healthy.

    And the size of the Big Mac patty is too small, too!

    3
  14. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    @MarkedMan:
    @Kathy:
    Well, there’s also the Polynesians settling uninhabited islands.
    Though, afterward, they were frequently not at all unwilling to invade, enslave and massacre other Polynesian/Melanesian/Micronesian groups.
    And the Australasian indigenes expansion into Australia.

    Regarding the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a bit of historical trivia I cherish is that the Aztec heirs of Emperor Moctezuma became the Dukes of Moctezuma de Tultengo
    And ended up moving to Spain.
    The current duke is Juan José Marcilla de Teruel-Moctezuma y Valcárcel.
    As a Duke, he is also a

    “Grandee of Spain, a distinction granting further privileges, essentially to be treated as if he were a distant cousin of the king (for instance, the right to wear a hat in the presence of the sovereign).

    Not the only example either; a lot of Mixtec nobility got Spanish titles and land grants as well.

    The Spaniards made a practice of trying to co-opt the local nobility; as did the British, quite often.
    And the overwhelming majority of the “conquistador” army that took Tenochtitlan were, in fact, the soldiers of other Mexican city-states hefting clubs and muttering “Payback time, bitches.”
    The Aztecs had not made themselves well-loved among their neighbours, to put it mildly.

    Similar applies to the Incas, come to that.

    Also, if you ever look at the Old Prussian nobility of Germany, its quite striking the number of them that had Polish-derived surnames.
    Or, vice-versa, the number of Russian nobility that derived from “Baltic German” ancestry.
    Nobilities are frequently rather pragmatic about switching allegiance according to shifting frontiers.

    Come to think of it, the number of Irish families that have Anglo-Norman surnames (“Fitz-whatever” etc.
    Including my own, according to some versions of the tale.

    1
  15. Michael Cain Avatar
    Michael Cain

    @Kathy:
    It’s always interesting to look at how the other French colonial holdings wound up. A fair number are overseas departments today, so they are an official part of France and residents are full French citizens. Residents of French Guiana in South America, for example, vote for members of the French legislature and for the the French president. While the Brexit weirdness was in full swing, and the UK was so concerned about their land border with the UK, I always thought it was amusing to recall that the EU (via France) has a fairly lengthy land border with Brazil.

    1
  16. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @JohnSF:

    I’ll bet you know one country the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha reign over.

    And the overwhelming majority of the “conquistador” army that took Tenochtitlan were, in fact, the soldiers of other Mexican city-states hefting clubs and muttering “Payback time, bitches.”

    I sometimes wonder why they couldn’t unite in rebellion against the Aztecs absent the Spaniards…

    @Michael Cain:

    The record for the longest domestic flight was held by Air Tahiti Nui Papeete to Paris

    The current longest domestic flight is shared by Air Austral and Air France between Paris and St. Denis in Reunion.

    I wonder if the Sun ever set on the French empire.

  17. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @MarkedMan: I read somewhere that the Old Testament is a largely made up tale of the Jews conquering Judea because at the time bloody conquest was the only recognized claim to possession of territory.

    @Kathy:

    Then they took Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Utah from Mexico.

    That. Somebody cracked a week ago that Columbus Day commemorated the first illegal immigrant. They drove the indigenous inhabitant of North America into oblivion or poverty on reservations. They had millions of Africans kidnapped to come here for unpaid labor. And as you note, they stole half of Mexico, complete with Mexicans. Now they want to have a white nationalist nation and monoculture? Sorry guys, too late.

    1
  18. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    @Kathy:

    I’ll bet you know one country the house of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha reign over.

    Ah, reigned.
    The House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha technically, according to the old-style reckonings of such, was succeeded last year by the House of Battenberg.
    (Or possibly Hesse-Darmstadt Battenberg; I lose track, lol)

    …why they couldn’t unite in rebellion against the Aztecs absent the Spaniards…

    Like a lot of such, it takes a spark to light tinder.
    And the Spanish had proven they could meet the Aztecs in the field and win, at the Battle of Otumba, whereas previous revolts had been crushed by the Aztec armies.
    As well as the conquistadors being utterly ruthless in putting down any “allies” who tried to back out or in any way cross them.

    1
  19. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @JohnSF:

    Also, if you ever look at the Old Prussian nobility of Germany, its quite striking the number of them that had Polish-derived surnames.

    I’ve noticed that in World War history. A lot of German officers and troops had Polish surnames. I forget where, but a few days ago I saw a map of Germany and Poland showing that almost none of Prussia is still in Germany. We have a copy of H. G. Wells’ The Outline of History. It has a page with a series of maps of Poland over time, as it waxes and wanes and moves around. Is there any location that was continuously Poland over the course of several centuries?

    1
  20. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @JohnSF:

    Ah, reigned.

    I didn’t know that. It does make sense, since Charles’ father probably wasn’t related to Victoria’s husband (though I gather all European royals are related to the prolific queen).

    Like a lot of such, it takes a spark to light tinder.

    Or guns, germs, and steel ? 😀

    @gVOR10:

    It has a page with a series of maps of Poland over time, as it waxes and wanes and moves around. Is there any location that was continuously Poland over the course of several centuries?

    I think Poland as such vanished for a while some time after the fall of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, which was then partitioned between the bigger empires of the late 18th century.

    Remember in the 90s when the USSR and Yugoslavia broke apart? The map of Europe changed radically then. Its was more or less like that on a constant basis through much of Europe’s history. IMO, one reason that nostalgia for the Roman empire persisted for a long, long time, was that the Romans kept things more or less stable for a few centuries (ironically after a few preceding centuries of Roman revision of Europe).

    1
  21. Grumpy realist Avatar
    Grumpy realist

    @Kathy: the whole Yugoslavia-breaking-apart drove a bunch of us crackers since we were desperately trying to keep our clients’ trademarks valid and had to keep nagging the new split-off countries about whether they had got their own trademark offices up and running and could we please, please, PLEASE transfer over what was a Yugoslavian trademark dating back to 1959.

    Which is why we were so happy when Kosovo finally got its very own trademark office. (Most of the above has become irrelevant for new trademarks, since now the standard procedure is to go for a CTM trademark, which covers all EU countries.)

    1
  22. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    @JohnSF:

    Though, afterward, they were frequently not at all unwilling to invade, enslave and massacre other Polynesian/Melanesian/Micronesian groups

    You got that. I was about to give you grief for using Polynesia as an example for peaceful expansion but you headed me off. We are animals, after all, and fighting and killing for territory is the norm among animals. The miracle is that we have managed to move beyond that in even some fashion.

    I was probably an adult before I realized that the “glory of war” was code for raping and pillaging your neighbors. That Napoleon, Shaka Zulu, Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionheart, and every other inglorious bastard were just mass murderers who were unusually successful at their trade.

    2
  23. gVOR10 Avatar
    gVOR10

    @Grumpy realist:

    the whole Yugoslavia-breaking-apart drove a bunch of us crackers

    When the Soviet Union broke up there were jokes about the situation room at Rand McNally.

    1
  24. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    Even NPR got the McDonalds thing wrong, reporting that Trump had served “customers” at the drive-thru window. No mention of it being a staged event with Trump people, not actual McDonalds customers.

    Journalism is dead.

    1
  25. David S. Avatar
    David S.

    @gVOR10: “I read somewhere that the Old Testament is a largely made up tale of the Jews conquering Judea because at the time bloody conquest was the only recognized claim to possession of territory.”

    Alas, not really. The OT is several made-up tales intended for different audiences with different political aims. IIRC, the oldest of these exists for the purpose justifying the unification of Judah and Israel. And a chunk of them were written with a return-from-exile fantasy in mind. The Moses/Joshua return to Canaan was probably part of that. It’s less about conquest and more about coming home, because they were maintaining an identity-in-exile, so they wanted a shared dream. Post-exilic literature didn’t really need to justify their claim: Cyrus already legitimized their claim by edict. Like, in medieval Europe times, if the king says, “you hold this land from me now,” you don’t go and invent a story about how you conquered it yourself. You talk about what a good vassal you are. Same here: Cyrus “gave” Israel to the Israelites. So they’re more concerned with saying Cyrus was great than with claiming they did some conquest themselves.

    Now, if you’re talking about Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, well… they were justifying the actual conquest of Israel by Judah. More specifically, pretending that it never happened. So, kinda the opposite of what your source is claiming.

    It’s a fun rabbit hole to get into, if you’re into that. But tl;dr: we know a lot more than people realize about this stuff.

  26. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    @gVOR10:
    Poland as a political entity has varied; the Polish state has at times included Lithuanians (and for some time its main title was Lithuania) Latvians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Galicians/Ruthenes, Slavo-Prussians, and Germans.
    Then in the 18th Century it was partitioned between Prussia, Russia, and Austria.

    What stayed reasonably constant was the core area of Polish settlement, centred on Warsaw.
    Quite similar patterns of changing states but more constant peoples was a feature of Europe post-Dark Ages until the World Wars.
    England was arguably the first “national state” to crystallize out; then France.

  27. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    @JohnSF:
    Also, another point re languages: they sometimes blurred into each other, or might be so divergent in “dialects” as to be virtually mutually incomprehensible, without effort and patience. German and Slavic had more basic differences, therefor more “one or the other”, but High German, Low German, and Dutch, for example were fuzzy categories. Or versions of Spanish, Occitan French and Portuguese.

    It seems most peasants had little concept of nationality as a political community under a “national” sovereign for a long time; and for town dwellers the urbes was often the focus of identity.

    Aristocrats sometimes had a sense of “nation”, but it was rather different to the modern: it was inherited laws, privileges and networks of obligation that bound kindreds, greater and lesser lords, and the sovereign.

    Language and a common national culture had less relevance: an aristocrat of one nation would probably be culturally closer to those of another nation than to a burgher or a peasant.

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