Not hostile tonight, despite the Pens loss (good game and they had their chances, nothing to get upset about).
Anyone following the messy British elections?
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.
You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.
I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.
He really is that stupid.
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
Everybody saw this coming.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
Let’s finish the job.
Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
maye
my man Nick made a good showing. will be a hung parliament.
Dee Loralei
I’m toggling between BBC, 538 and here. It’s a hoot that Nate got closer in his calling it than the uniform swing the news organizations in the UK were using. I wonder if he got the same sort of cult following there that he had here in 08
Brien Jackson
This has to be a joke, right? Jane’s just character acting these days?
Bootlegger
@Dee Loralei: Isn’t Silver now projecting a Tory majority now?
kommrade reproductive vigor
Too busy watching the latest Palindrone meltdown.
Pass the popcorn. Also2!
Mike Kay
@Brien Jackson: a little of both. she’s had a jihad against bernie since December when he decided to support HCR. at the same time, her business model (much like talk radio) is based on riding the outrage wave (manufactured or real).
Mark S.
Heh-heh, heh-heh, he said hung.
Insty and Butthead.
beltane
@Brien Jackson: She did call for Bernie Sanders to be primaried, and she does have a soft spot for the far-right, so it’s probably not a joke.
ruemara
Meh. I got no happies tonight. Long week and the economy is wrecking my life. The only thing I’m looking at UK for is potential places to move.
Corner Stone
Just a gorgeous evening here in the Greater Houston Metro Area.
This is the kind of night we dream about here. In the mid-70’s, light breeze and just enough puffy white clouds to make a fantastic orange-ish backdrop for sunset.
We get 4 weeks of these a year so they are precious and valuable.
Soon the lava will come. The moist lava.
KG
@Mike Kay:
Ah, yes, the Michelle Malkin Business Model.
Loon juice
The habs (that is such a weird name) can’t count on the Pens to score for them every night, the Pens will be ok.
Comrade Bukharin
The Slightly Silly Party have held Luton.
Dee Loralei
@Bootlegger: Yea, the exit polls have Cons winning 307, Nate has 312-341 with 326 needd to form a government. LibD’s seem to have had a Dean like crash as one of the 538 posters said.
Mike Kay
what I don’t get about the brits is how #35% of the vote gets you nearly half of the seats in parliament.
Brachiator
@Mark S.:
If anyone has iTunes or regularly listens to BBC programs (I think Radio 4), you might want to check out the upcoming edition of the BBC Friday Night Comedy program. I’m certain they will have all kinds of rude things to say about this well hung election.
More seriously, the Conservatives are doing better, and the Liberal Democrats worse, than some of the post debate polling suggested. So far, the Lib Dems have not even gained enough to have a say in the formation of a government and they may be unlikely to be able to push any of their people into positions of power.
The other thing that some American pundits have missed is the degree to which Labour screwed up their own chances by their outrageous misuse of expense allowances. Unlike here in the US, where people both Democrat and Republican seem to think that they must support their party right or wrong, in the UK many voters looked at their personal economic woes and the arrogance of MPs and said “Stuff that!”
TDE
A messy coalition might leave Labour in charge, albeit without Brown.
Even after the financial crisis, the Iraq War and scandal, the people are not swinging to the Tories. Which is a great relief.
Ella in NM
No, because:
A. I can’t for the life of me figure out what their parties stand for, except that they might be the opposite of their dumb names
B. Even if I could understand what they supposedly stand for, they will still have a more rational form of government after their elections than we have here, right now
C. I don’t see anything at all that relates to me or the friggin’ mess I live in here in the US.
fucen tarmal
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
scariest part of it or funnest, the money might be the motivator, but it could also be her supporting her “woman in politics” motif,including her teaming with bachmann, which would imply she has further political ambitions….
not that i would expect her to peel away many female voters, i have faith in women to know better, but it could be she is thinking about it, or positioning for it.
CJ
@Comrade Bukharin:
There’s a swing here, but how big I’m not going to tell you.
burnspbesq
@Brien Jackson:
Dunno, it’s been a while since I agreed with Miz Jane about anything, but she may have a point here. A little more transparency could be a good thing, so long as it can be done without compromising the Fed’s independence.
Comrade Bukharin
@CJ:
Can I say that this will be the last time I will appear on television?
beltane
@TDE: The Brits must have a longer memory than their American cousins as to the utter suckiness of conservatives. Thirteen years still has not been quite enough time to rinse the taste of Margaret Thatcher from their mouths.
South of I-10
@Corner Stone: Same here. I can live with the heat during the day when it cools off at night. You have to enjoy it while it lasts.
It has been a fantastic day, Little South has strep throat. So glad I decided to take her to the doctor.
Loon juice
@Ella in NM: Ella, your answer is brilliant in it’s simplicity and accuracy.
Comrade Kevin
@Mike Kay: The same thing can happen here. You can win one seat with 80% of the vote, and lose two with 48% of the vote in each, have received more votes, yet only get one seat out of three.
maye
Lib Dems won eastbourne.
madmommy
@South of I-10:
Ugh! And so close to the end of school, too :(
I’m afraid that even cooler nights are going to be scarce before long. Even on the northshore it’s not cooling off enough for my taste!
burnspbesq
Looking forward to seeing Ahn-drew trying to explain the concept of a hung Parliament to Colbert tonight.
Brachiator
@Ella in NM:
Many of the Goldman Sachs people who hatched the financial schemes that almost brought down the world economy work out of Sachs’ City of London office.
CJ
@Comrade Bukharin:
This is largely as I predicted, except that the Silly Party won.
Although I can’t fit the LibDems into the silly/serious dynamic.
malraux
Just got done installing several hundred grass plugs so I’ll have a back yard instead of weeds. Diner tonight was a Natchitoches Meat Pie plus periogies sautéed with caramelized onions served with the cheap supermarket wine, which isn’t that bad. Just got the julia child french chef dvd set. Going to see ZZ Top in concert tomorrow. So I should care about about my home state being smited once again, but I won’t.
TDE
@beltane
It’s no joke, Thatcherism I mean. The UK is a largely progressive country and it was only a divided left that handed the country to the Tories in the first place.
The Tories have secured a big swing to be sure, but their starting point was so poor, they might not do it. There’s a chance they will of course, and then it’s worth pointing out that as steeped in privileged as they and their policies are, they’re nothing like the GOP.
+4
Comrade Kevin
@CJ: The Slightly Silly candidate?
Mike Kay
@Comrade Kevin: yeah, but it never does.
we’ve never had a situation were one party loses 65% of vote and ends up controlling congress. the only other place I’ve seen this happen is when the minority Sunni (33%) controlled Iraq.
Comrade Bukharin
@CJ:
They would be the Very Silly candidates in the slab of concrete.
PeakVT
Unlike here in the US, where people both Democrat and Republican seem to think that they must support their party right or wrong,
The two US parties are much further apart than the 3 main UK parties. If, say, Ben Nelson represented the extreme right, then US voters would probably be willing to shift their allegiances a bit more often.
Comrade Kevin
@Mike Kay: Al Gore won more popular votes in 2000 than did George W. Bush. Electoral votes work the same way.
maye
@Brachiator: I believe it was the London office of AIG that led that global behemoth into the toilet as well.
Sentient Puddle
@burnspbesq: But really, the idea of auditing the Fed is such tiny potatoes that to even make a stink about Bernie Sanders “selling out” (or whatever) shows basically no understanding whatsoever of the whole idea of financial reform.
At least TBTF sounds good as a primary issue.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
I have enough trouble staying tuned into our politics without howling at the moon. Watching the whacky Brits do it also is about too far a bridge for me. I think the meanness they have is of a different and less dark flavor than we have here, but they are just as whacky in general. I am going to watch the Civil War to hopefully pick up some clues as to what is going on in this country right now.
John Cole
@Brien Jackson: More like slamming the Overton window on her own head.
Fern
@Mike Kay: Not going to happen in the US because you only have two parties. The minute you have more than two parties, all sorts of interesting things can happen. We end up with minority governments all the time in Canada.
South of I-10
@madmommy: Yesterday when I picked her up from school, her cheeks were bright red like usual, cause they have been running like crazy in the 90 degree heat. I got her home, we did homework, and after 30 minutes or so I noticed her cheeks were still bright red. Took her temp, it was 102. The teachers didn’t even notice cause her face is always red at the end of the day! It is getting too hot too fast. I hate it when it’s 85 at night!
Nicole
So my brother, who lives in Nashville, and who has lost the first floor of his house to flood, found out his, complete, so he thought, insurance policy doesn’t include flood- apparently it wasn’t an option based on where he lives. And he’s looking at about $100,000 worth of damage.
Can someone explain to me why insurance companies can choose to not offer flood insurance? I’m not being sarcastic; I really don’t understand (having been a renter my whole life). I’m trying to find out what their options are, if any, but generally am just feeling sick to my stomach for him and his neighbors (the whole neighborhood is in the same situation). What do people do in these situations?
Mike Kay
@John Cole: You big bully. Hippie-puncher. How can you pick on someone who’s had so many medical concerns.
burnspbesq
@Sentient Puddle:
Fair enough, except that for purity trolls on both sides, any compromise – even a teeny weeny one – is a mortal sellout, and the penalty for sellouts is immediate excommunication.
Brachiator
@PeakVT:
It’s hard to come up with accurate comparisons. If the US had a multi-party system like the UK, the tea baggers would be an independent party.
In the UK, there is the right wing nationalist BNP Party, which has been largely kicked to the curb by the British voters. Here in the US, the wingnuts just might succeed in hijacking the GOP.
On the other hand, this kind of crap, where a BNP candidate fights with an Asian voter, might be the kiss-of-death for a US candidate running for public office.
madmommy
@Nicole:
So far as I know, no homeowners policy covers floods. This is why there is the Fed flood insurance. Most people don’t realize this, sadly, so when they have a loss such as your brother’s it’s quite a blow. The Fed rates vary on where you live, but it is surprising just how many people live in what is considered a flood plain.
As to why insurance companies choose not to offer it, well, it’s because they can. Floods are dicey things. A person can live in a flood plain and yet there has not been a flood there in decades, so having flood insurance is just not considered necessary. Unfortunately, all it takes is a perfect storm of circumstances like what has happened recently in Tennessee and all that goes right out the window. I believe they’re calling this a “500 year flood”. Considering that most of the city and suburbs are nearly surrounded by the Cumberland River and tributaries, you might think that flooding would be considered more of a threat.
This is what always bugged me about the nasty things people said after Katrina. A hell of a lot of people live in flood plains, they’ve just not flooded. Yet. The sad fact is that most of the US is subject to some sort of catastrophic weather event at some point, be it hurricanes, tornadoes, flood, fire or mudslide. It can happen to anyone, anytime. I grew up in Nashville, it’s been astounding to see the pics of how much is underwater, even though it’s been decades since I’ve lived there. My condolences to your brother-after cleaning out a wet house myself, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
South of I-10
@Nicole: Wow, that sucks. There may be a couple of insurance companies that write flood, but it is excluded on most policies. You have to get flood through the national flood insurance program. I know here that some people here were able to get low interest loans, but that is a huge loss. I am so sorry for them, floods suck. I hope someone else can give you more info.
Ahasuerus
Apropos of looming apocalyptic global environmental disaster, there’s an interesting link over at Mother Jones about how a lucky decision by DuPont may have prevented total destruction of the ozone layer. Happy fun time for old chemistry geeks.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Corner Stone: not sure if you are still reading, but just chowed some 100% Taquito. SO GOOD!
Corner Stone
@John Cole: You can talk mess all you want, but what’s to be made of this?
Jane may or may not be an existential threat to the Republic, but shouldn’t someone hold a flashlight on this kind of shit?
Fed review
Corner Stone
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: Sounds more like 100% deelishous.
Mnemosyne
I’m heading off into the mountains tomorrow to go on a weekend knitting retreat. Bow before me, all of you, because I am officially Queen of the Geeks!
(Actually, I will probably be outranked by the spinners once I get there, especially the ones who use their drop spindles on public transportation, but in the present company, I am clearly Queen.)
Nicole
@madmommy: @South of I-10: Thanks, that’s really helpful. I did find a government site that lets people know for what programs they may qualify and sent the link to my brother. I did not know about the federal flood insurance and that most policies don’t offer it. Living in NYC, I don’t know that home ownership is ever going to be a possibility for me, but this was quite the education- again, thanks for the info; very informative and I appreciate it.
Yeah, it just sucks for him and his wife. On the bright side, they’ll have war stories to trade with my aunt and uncle, who went through Agnes and lost the first floor of their house.
Corner Stone
@South of I-10: We get 2 weeks in Spring and 2 weeks in Fall.
These are the days.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Corner Stone: Have you been? Just off 59 by Greenway Plaza. It is very authentic Mexico City style taqueria. The Mexican expats I know here say it’s the real deal. It was started by a Rice U biz student as a student business plan several years ago. The tacos al pastor are incredible.
Corner Stone
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: Yes, several times. I have a good friend who steers me through a lot of similar culinary experiences.
AKA dives, or what a lot of people would call dives.
My 5 yr old was asleep when you posted it or I probably would’ve driven the 20 minutes to get a little.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Corner Stone: regarding the weather, it has been pretty awesome for about 10 weeks now, wouldn’t you agree? By awesome, I mean highs 60’s to 80’s and lows in the 50’s to 60’s. low humidity and not all that much rain.
Strangely cold winter here. Coldest in the 9 years I have been here… (Note: this is not a complaint! I realize many reading this with Northern zip codes had it pretty bad this year!)
Mark S.
@Brachiator:
It would be interesting what would happen if the US had a multi-party system. I think you would probably have center-left and left-left parties, but it would be fascinating how the right would break down. Are there enough libertarians to make a viable party? I would guess yes, they could probably get 10% of the vote. You’d have a social conservative party. It seems teabaggers lean more to libertarian than so-con, but I don’t think enough of them would make the plunge for Prime Minister Nick Gillespe.
burnspbesq
So Time magazine does this special double issue profiling “The 100 Most Influential People in the World,” and who do they choose to put on the cover? Bill Clinton, Lady Gaga, and Didier Drogba.
WT ever-lovin F?
Mike Kay
@Corner Stone: I don’t get it.
There are 2 BIG hippie diaries over at GOS saying bernie is God
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/6/142725/7782
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/6/125321/9065
who am I to believe.
madmommy
@Nicole:
Unfortunately, it’s might not help much with their current situation. Since the state has, I believe, declared the flooded areas as disaster, they should be eligible for FEMA funds. Have him apply for any and everything they think they might have a remote chance to get. It never hurts to try, and it might help mitigate the loss.
There were lots of pepole after Katrina who lived on their second floors while gutting the first because of the flood waters. Inconvienient for sure, but for many, still a better option than paying the mortgage while also trying to rent another place to live and paying to fix the flood damage. There are still people, 5+ years later, who are fighting with insurance to fix their houses.
Mark S.
@Mnemosyne:
Well yes, Your Majesty.
Have fun. Hey, you missed Mclaren being in rare form tonight. I think there might have been a medication mix up at the hospital.
Actually, you didn’t miss much at all.
scav
@Mnemosyne: Ok, your serene highness, but you need to provide details of your (admittedly presumed) classes so that your exact flavor of geekdom can be assessed and/or admired. And I wouldn’t be so quick to acquiesce to mere public spinners. Have they got their own sheep? (I’ve only known one person nuts enough to go that far and I actually think in her case the spinning/knitting was the excuse to keep sheep.)
Corner Stone
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: 10 weeks sounds excessive. We had a really rainy and windy April.
But yeah, I’ve been making the most of it. It’s when you come to the tips of hell that you really start appreciating what you’ve had.
Days in the low ’80’s, nights in the low ’70’s. Just a hint of the pain coming around the corner. That’s when you really value these days.
IMO, the winter wasn’t that cold. We had an early, freakish, snow but after that it seemed pretty standard except for the Feb snap freeze that busted all our suburbs in-ground sprinkler systems BFP valves…so maybe you have something there.
But like you – I’m not complaining!
Loon juice
@Nicole: Your brother, unfortunately, may be screwed as far as the insurance goes. Homeowner’s coverage routinely excludes flood coverage from any source and coverage from water damage from flowing water usually has to be purchased seperately.
I handled a case about a year ago for a client insured by Allstate for damage from a fire hydrant that was run over and the policy exclusions were clear enough that I could not defeat them.
He needs to review his policy carefully to see if there is any way to force coverage on the insurance company, it is unlikely but perhaps there is a vagueness in the policy that can be used against the insurance company to force coverage.
Another alternative is to pursue a claim against the insurance broker for failing to include or offer flood damage insurance but such a claim is difficult to pursue successfully.
The bottom line is that he needs to talk to an attorney who has experience with insurance claims to see if there’s a way to force the coverage out of someone.
South of I-10
@Nicole: Flood is cheap if you don’t live in a flood zone. I really don’t remember exactly how much it was, I should be getting my yearly bill in July. It was under $400 for approximately $150,000 in coverage. I live near a coulée, and if it backed up, I could flood pretty easily. This has happened to me before (when I was renting), so flood is too cheap not to have it.
Nicole
@madmommy: That’s what I hope for for them (FEMA).
Though my aunt and uncle had a head-smack story from the fallout from Agnes. They qualified for a low-interest loan from the gov’t, but one of the conditions was purchasing the federal flood insurance. Which they did, although it apparently was both expensive and minimal in what it covered. Then later, their area was declared not a flood plain, but not being aware of this, they continued to pay for the insurance for some years, even though it was no longer necessary until they happened to find out about the change in status for their area.
J. Michael Neal
@Nicole:
Because flooding is what is called an uninsurable risk. Providing insurance is based completely upon actuarial methods, and those depend upon modeling the probability of independent events. There’s nothing independent about the need for flood insurance; floods happen to a large number of people in the same locale at the same time.
You can’t model insurance for something like that. The only two outcomes are that the insurance company gets to keep all of the premium money and pay out nothing to a geographically concentrated set of people, or they have to pay out far more than they collected in premiums. There’s no in between. Insurance is about minimizing risk, for the insurance company as well as the policy holder. If there’s too much concentration, there’s no way that anyone will be willing to sell those policies.
I know that it makes everyone feel good to bash the insurance companies, but they aren’t the villain here. It’s just the nature of the beast. There’s been a lot of publicity on a number of occasions that homeowner policies don’t include flood coverage, and that there’s a federal program for it; pretty much every time the Mississippi River decides to swallow up half of Missouri it gets mentioned.
In fact, the federal flood insurance program almost went belly up a few years ago, because the premiums they were charging weren’t high enough. Several consecutive years of major floods in the Midwest crushed them. The simple fact is, if you live on a flood plain, it’s going to cost you.
Mike Kay
@Corner Stone: on bernie’s audit, isn’t it everything we wanted. nobody wanted a camera during FOMC meetings. didn’t bernie just perform classic bargaining, start out high, and get what you really wanted. Nobody wanted to audit the books back to 1916, they want an audit of the meltdown. I’ve heard over and over if the dems only started out demanding single-payer and ended up with a version of the public option everyone would have been happy. Bernie did this, and now he’s a bad guy.
Nicole
@Loon juice: Thank you; I’ll be sure to pass that information along to him.
madmommy
@South of I-10:
We’re on the northshore of Lake Ponchartrain, in flood zone X, which is the best ranking you can get in this water-logged state. We pay a bit under 300 bucks a year for flood insurance, on a seperate policy from our homeowners. We’ve got it set up to pay through the escrow account with our mortgage, just like the homeowners. Of course, I make completely sure that the premium gets paid every year, since our policies renew in April. Hurricane season starts in June, and I’m not taking any chances!
Nicole
@J. Michael Neal: That makes it clear. Thanks.
Mnemosyne
@Mark S.:
I fast-forwarded and, yes, mclaren was in rare form. “Republicans are going to take the majority! I didn’t say that! Except where I said it! Why are you all picking on me?”
I wouldn’t have had the patience to deal with that in real time today, though. Too much to get done at work before I left.
@scav:
It’s more demonstrations than classes. Classes are for Stitches West. ;-)
This is supposed to be a nice, relaxing trip into the mountains, though I will probably (a) try my hand at crockpot dyeing if I can find a cheapo one before I leave tomorrow and (b) try to find someone who can teach me how to crochet so I have something yarny to do on jury duty. Knitting needles are not allowed at the courthouse, even my lovely wooden and acrylic Knitpicks Options. If not, I guess Nixonland will be coming with me.
Mnemosyne
Oh, and I’m way too excited that I can stop and have lunch at Sonic after having them torment me with commercials for, like, three years even though the closest one was in Riverside.
Sentient Puddle
@Mike Kay: I don’t even know what the hell anybody expects to get out of an audit to begin with. It’s like they want an audit, then a miracle happens, then Wall Street is magically fixed.
I know Ron Paul wants a Fed audit because he wants to kill the Fed. I’d like to think that those of us on the left are smarter than that, at least.
burnspbesq
@Sentient Puddle:
So would we all. Some days it’s easier to believe that than others.
frosty
@J. Michael Neal:
Water resources engineer here. Just wanted to note that the floodplain for federal insurance is based on hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of the 100-year flood.
BTW that means a flood that has a 1/100 chance of happening in any one year: 1% chance, in other words. It could happen in two consecutive years.
If Nashville got the 500-yr flood that I read upthread, a lot of those property owners would not have been in the floodplain as delineated on FEMA insurance maps and would not have been advised by either mortgage companies or insurance brokers to get Federal flood insurance.
I guess what this means is that you ought to look at your property and the floodplain maps, check the topography, and if you’re within a few feet of elevation of the floodplain, think about insurance.
Mike Kay
@Sentient Puddle: I’m not against a perpetual audit, but I have no idea why so much weight is being placed on one. Auditing the fed on ongoing basis won’t prevent the next private equity firm disaster.
Mike Kay
I just went through krugman’s writings, and he doesn’t mention auditing the fed once. not once.
now he may support an audit, but he doesn’t think it’s important enough to write about it.
J. Michael Neal
@frosty:
Guy with a statistics degree here, so I’m aware of this.
Sure, it can. However, it isn’t that a 100-year flood happened two years in a row. It’s that the Red River had three 500-year floods in a decade, and the Mississippi had several 100-year floods in the same time frame. One of three things happened:
1) we got ridiculously, stupendously unlucky;
2) the models were wrong;
3) they priced premiums below what they should have based upon what the models were telling them.
My money is on a combination of all three, but mostly the last two. One of the side effects of global warming is that the variance of the distributions has increased dramatically, but his wasn’t well accounted for. There was also political pressure from Congress not to raise the rates of their fine constituents too much.
Brachiator
@Mark S.:
It’s funny how many of the Founders hated the idea of political parties and thought that the system they had developed might prevent the formation of factions. They missed that one big time.
I think that some liberals yearn for a multi-party system because they believe that this would allow “progressive” candidates who otherwise couldn’t catch a cold to magically get a toehold in government. But it might be equally likely that extreme rightwing parties would get a chance to influence a coalition government as well.
In the 2008 presidential election, Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr got 0.4% of the national vote. A multi-party system might magnify this result, but it would still be trivial.
snarkypsice
@Ella in NM:
Actually their names pretty much do describe what they stand for.
Labor is generally supported by the working class and is to the left.
The conservatives are conservative
The Liberal Democrats are liberal democrats.
It’s really not that hard.