Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Come on, man.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

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Reader Interactions

230Comments

  3. 3.

    A Ghost to Most

    Racism, misogyny, gender bias, and non-christian bigotry have been baked into christian supremacy since at least the Crusades. It’s a package deal.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    Lovely image in the sidebar, too, in case I’m not the only one who needs to stop, take a breath, and enjoy the beauty.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    Back home. Sprawled on the floor.

    I can’t be the only one who likes to lie on the floor.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    Just starting Reacher as my new treadmill show.  (Not the Tom Cruise movies.)  Wondering if it will be too violent for me, but I’m out of ideas so I’m giving it a try.

  9. 9.

    Sanjeevs

    Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence group xAI has purchased social media platform X for $45bn, as the billionaire entrepreneur brings together two of his flagship businesses.   “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk said on Friday evening, adding that he would be combining the data, models, computing power, distribution and talent of the two companies.
    Musk said the all-stock deal valued xAI at $80bn, although he did not offer specifics about the nature of the transaction. xAI obtained a valuation of $45bn in a $5bn private funding round late last year.

    https://www.ft.com/content/74194702-29f0-407b-89a1-c5a4058d934e

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: ​
    They’re just cartoonish enough for me to balance out the required fight scenes. Reacher himself is as deadpan as he can possibly be, a funny contrast to the more flamboyant characters.

    IOW good popcorn fodder. You do treadmill while eating popcorn, yes?

  13. 13.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Sanjeevs: Good grief. Like if I was to sell my Porsche to myself for 100 grand and declare that it’s worth that much. (it’s actually worth much, much closer to a tenth of that, dammit- but don’t ask me how much I’ve put into it, and I’m not counting the tools or my time… ;) )

    What absolute  bullshit.

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    @WaterGirl:

    Lots of head butts, elbow punches, heads closed in car doors (mostly bad guys).  Not tons of gore, no kids being killed.

  21. 21.

    Pennsylvanian

    WG, I saw your comments in an earlier thread about MAGA family. I can empathize. My sister started a Moms For Liberty chapter, for example.

    The tension and the strain are real. As is the ceasing of all non-essential communication.

  23. 23.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: Wood with a rug.

    When I was a kid, we lived in a house that had raw slate floors in the entryway. There are pictures of me sleeping on it.

  24. 24.

    Scout211

    This has probably already been discussed but I just read it.  Elon says he will be stepping down from DOGE in May. And then he said a bunch of words.

    Musk said he was overseeing a “revolution” in government.
    “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame,” Musk said.

    “The government is not efficient, and there is a lot of waste and fraud, so we feel confident that a 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services,” he said.

    Musk’s team said it saved the country $115 billion by slashing wasteful and redundant spending. Not everyone agrees, but he feels he has the country on track and he can step aside.

    “I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within (130 days),” Musk said. “Our goal is to reduce the waste and fraud by $4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week. And so far, we are succeeding.

    “Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America will sink. That’s why we’re doing it.”

    Ugh.

  25. 25.

    Faithful Lurker

    We’ve been watching Residence on Netflix and enjoying it immensely. It has a fascinating complexity compared to the usual straight line plotting.

  26. 26.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: ​ Ms F liked the first two episodes, she wasn’t too sure about the next one. Give it a try. Like she said “It’s nice to see a big guy kicking ass on your behalf.”

    I read all the books so I’m on board.

    ETA It might make you pick up speed on the treadmill!

  28. 28.

    frosty

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​ “Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairs”

    I hope your Porsche is doing better than my TR-3 from (counts fingers) 50 years back. I owned it for four years. Four generators* two engine rebuilds and a tranny. Plus other little stuff.

    * 1) Joseph Lucas: “Gentlemen should not travel after dark”
    2) Q: Why do the English drink their beer warm? A: Lucas made all the refrigerators.
    3) Three positions on a Lucas headlight switch: Off, Smoke, Flame.

    OK, I’ll see myself out now.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I noticed that Kat lady who’s running against Jan Schakowski in the Illinois 9th CD is still on Twitter. No one seems to mind.

    The Turks I follow on Twitter don’t seem that fazed by Musk’s ownership of the platform either. It’s like for them, some powerful American asshole dominating their news landsape is just another day ending in y.

  35. 35.

    lamh47

    SMH…the fact that federal workers are more likely to get updated information all the bullshit going on from Redditt cause this POS admin is flooding the zone with so much shit…nothing is able to rise to the damn top. I’ve gotten more info from Reddit than my damn “employer”

    This some bullshit.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    @Scout211:

    Musk said he was overseeing a “revolution” in government.
    “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that time frame,” Musk said.

    “The government is not efficient, and there is a lot of waste and fraud, so we feel confident that a 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services,” he said.

    Musk’s team said it saved the country $115 billion by slashing wasteful and redundant spending. Not everyone agrees, but he feels he has the country on track and he can step aside.

    “I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within (130 days),” Musk said. “Our goal is to reduce the waste and fraud by $4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week. And so far, we are succeeding.

    “Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America will sink. That’s why we’re doing it.” in effect, he’s bored with this now.

  37. 37.

    Gin & Tonic

    @frosty: The Mazda Miata is kind of what that generation of British sports cars could have been if they were actually reliable.

  38. 38.

    lamh47

    I have visited the NAAHM 2x since it opened…each time I go I see and learn something new.  I hope to one day be able to take my niecy Zoe to the Smithsonian museums and especially the NAAHM.

    The targeting of the NAAHM by orange demon and couch fu’qer admin has hit me harder than almost anything else, even my damn fed employment termination.

  42. 42.

    Steve in the ATL

    I wish I were a legal headhunter right now.  I would pounce on every lawyer at Paul, Weiss and Skadden who has portables and move them to a firm with cojones for a substantial fee.  Fish in a barrel!

  43. 43.

    frosty

    That’s a great quote up top! And a beautiful picture in the sidebar. I swear it could be one I took in Maine.

  45. 45.

    Marc

    @frosty:  I’ll mention my 50 year ago ’74 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 iniezione, a beautiful car that made beautiful noises while hitting 120+ a few late nights on random New England interstates.   But, there are good reasons not to drive Italian cars during New England winters.  Plus, SPICA mechanical fuel injection systems suck.

  48. 48.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: @Faithful Lurker: We just started Residence too, and we’re liking it a lot. I like it that a) more than half the cast is black and the white ones are all idiots. b) the speech by the White House Chief of Staff to the staff: “This is our House. Other people move in and live for 4 or 8 years but this is our House.” c) the detective is a birder and pulls her binoculars out at random in the middle of doing something else.

  50. 50.

    bbleh

    @Scout211: @different-church-lady: so in other words, by May he expects to have grifted all the assets and contracts he can before the damage starts catching up with him.

    I suppose there’s something to look forward to.  When he leaves, guess which orange guy gets left holding the bag.

  51. 51.

    Pete Downunder

    @frosty:

      I had a 1957 Austin Healy back in uni days (mid 60’s). Spent an hour under it for every hour in it. Replaced most of the Lucas electricals with Delco so it would at least mostly run in wet weather. Pulled the head four times. Taught me a lot of auto mechanic skills all of which totally useless now. Anyone want a set of feeler gauges for setting the point gap? Open the hood on a modern car and I have no idea what’s going on even if I could reach anything. Helped a friend swap a starter motor on a 10 year old Mazda pick-up, took way longer than it should as it was almost inaccessible.

  53. 53.

    frosty

    @Suzanne: I’ll pass this on to Ms F! I don’t do treadmills – I have a Concept 2 rowing machine that I don’t use often enough. And when the weather breaks I plan to dig out my (lightly used) running shoes and try Couch to 5K again.

  54. 54.

    lamh47

    @frosty: I binged The Residence last Sunday.  Started watching just the first ep and ended up bingeing all 8!

    I hope Shonda Rhimes gives up an Ep2.  Love the entire cast, and Uzo and Randall on my new day Sherlock and Watson…LOL

  58. 58.

    frosty

    @Gin & Tonic: ​ And that’s why I bought a Miata from the dealer’s third shipment in 1989. It was one of the first 5,000 made, based on the VIN number. When Ms F read about it and told me about it I said “A rear-wheel drive, two seat, ragtop, rice burner? I’m buying it!” We had it 23 years before it got totaled on the Baltimore Beltway (at 35 mph, no injuries).

  60. 60.

    Steve LaBonne

    @lamh47: I am kicking myself for not having been in DC since it opened and now it may be to late. They will make it innocuous like the American Indian museum, which pretends that genocide never happened.

  61. 61.

    Pete Downunder

    @Craig: ​
      My brother ( a published author of mystery books) recommended the Reacher books. I read three and decided Reacher was a psychopath who just looked for excuses to kill people and gave up. Never saw either the movie or TV series. The idea of casting midget Tom Cruz was laughable.

  62. 62.

    frosty

    @Marc: Triumph and Bugeye Sprite aside, the least reliable (and most expensive to fix) car I owned was a ’67 Alfa Romeo Duetto. I ended up trading it to an Alfa mechanic for his TR-3.

  64. 64.

    Ohio Mom

    @Suzanne: Whoever else likes to lie on the floor isn’t me. I like to lie on my side of the bed, head on the pillows that are just the right amount of not-firm.

    Which is where I am right now, recovering from hosting my sister and brother-in-law for three days (they came down from Detroit). I find them both difficult and stressful to be around. I much prefer spending time with my personality-disordered brother, who I can be very direct with. But he doesn’t travel out of Brooklyn very much.

  65. 65.

    frosty

    @Pete Downunder: I tried to change the headlamp bulb in a Mazda 3. I wormed my hand down through everything, and even managed to touch it, but there was no way I could get the new one back in.

    Paid our mechanics a half hour of labor to do a simple job.

  66. 66.

    rekoob

    @frosty: As much as I loved the Miata as a Lotus Elan replacement (my Emma Peel fantasies chief among them), I wound up with a 2008 Honda S2000 CR, a rare beast that I still have.

    There are those who say that Miata is an acronym: “Miata Is Always The Answer”. A fine car, to be sure.

  67. 67.

    Pete Downunder

    @Steve in the ATL: ​
      Never heard the song before nor heard of the group. I could not really make out the lyrics on the video so I’m afraid I can’t be much help. I can usually translate to Aussie to American so if there is a specific phrase or two let me know and I’ll give it a try.

  68. 68.

    Hoodie

    @Scout211: And full self driving is just around the corner.  Musk is as much a bullshit artist as Trump, if not more.  He’s getting out because he can’t produce those kinds of results and the fact that he’s making such claims is the tell that he wants to be long gone before anyone really notices.  Probably has gotten most of what he thought he could get in the way of graft (e.g., new contracts for Starlink and Spacex) anyway.

    Some of us were discussing on the preceding thread about what this Greenland bullshit is about.  It’s about making a sale irrespective of what the substance of the deal actually is.  Yes, it’s outrageous and destructive to fuck with the sovereignty of a country, but what’s really fucked up about the US “obtaining” Greenland (whatever that means) is that it is a really dumb idea.  What the fuck does the US need Greenland for that we don’t already have?  Nothing.  Minerals are fucking commodities and extracting anything from Greenland will likely not be cost effective.  Just like making Canada the 51st state is a stupid idea.   Canada was already a close friend and ally and we would stand to benefit from any development there anyway.

    Trump is like a scammy used car salesman  (note: my dad was a used car salesman and they all aren’t scammy).  He just wants to close a deal irrespective of whether the deal is dogshit.  Think about the great “deal” he made with the Taliban; it was a fucking disaster that put Biden in a terrible position.

    What matters to Trump is his meme; he’s a “deal maker.”   Musk is similar.  He wants to push the meme of his being a “genius” even though he’s kind of a weirdo and moron.   He’s getting out before DOGE turns to shit when something like revamping the code base at Social Security turns into a train wreck.

  70. 70.

    Marc

    @frosty:  The funniest (not!) reliability fail was the time I was sitting at a red light and my passenger asked why there was smoke coming out from under the hood.  I opened it and one of the rubber high pressure fuel injection lines had split and was spraying gasoline directly onto the exhaust manifold.  Luckily, it did not ignite.  Wrapped some tape around it, replaced the fuel lines with stainless reinforced ones the next day.  Just another Alfa ride.

  72. 72.

    lamh47

    @Steve LaBonne: it’s truly a crown jewel for the Smithsonian museums.  I read somewhere that the NAAHM gets a number of donor funds, and TBH, I’m hoping some “illumunati” of Black celebs, pols or whomover part of the richer Black elite will band together and help keep the funds coming to keep the museum staff able to fight this bullshit for next 3.5 years.

  75. 75.

    Montanareddog

    @Marc: I went to a wedding in Germany once with my then girlfriend, now wife. The car rental agency at Munich airport regretfully informed me that the car I had booked was unavailable and would it be OK if they upgraded me to an Alfa Romeo.

    We topped out at 235 km/h (i.e. a whisker short of 150 mph) on the autobahn. But not for long – it was just too scary, even on though the road was quiet.

  77. 77.

    Martin

    @Pete Downunder: A family friend who was an immigrant from the UK said that the broad mechanical skill of a society is inversely proportional to how good they are at making cars.

    He told me this shoulder deep in a Range Rover.

  78. 78.

    frosty

    @rekoob: My brother got a Lotus Elan about the same time I got the Miata. We have a picture of us with our sports cars that my Mom called “the boys and their toys.” His favorite story of the Lotus is Colin Chapman talking to the engineers about alternatives to the design: “What’s the warranty on that part?”

    He had a Healy in the early 70s; we kind of covered the waterfront on fun but unreliable cars. My only reliability success before the Miata was a Datsun 510. Fortunately it was in California so it didn’t rust out from under me!

    ETA Yes, Emma Peel has a lot to answer for!

  79. 79.

    WTFGhost

    @Soapdish: Hardwood or carpet *reacher*? This exchange just started to sound interesting. Unless you’re actually discussing flooring, and not in the Biblical sense.

    @different-church-lady: Futon pads can help with that. Oh, wait. Never mind.

    @different-church-lady: They’re hoping artificial intelligence is better than authentic stupidity. (Are you trying to throw straight lines :-) ?)

  80. 80.

    Redshift

    @Scout211:

    He seems to think making up ever more grandiose claims will somehow make people hate it (and him) less:

    “Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America will sink. That’s why we’re doing it.”

    Riiight… the country hasn’t “sunk” for 250 years with our quaint system of having its actions decided by elected representatives, but it’ll definitely go under in mere months without a billionaire asshole deciding most of that stuff is unnecessary.

  85. 85.

    Pete Downunder

    @Martin: ​

    @Martin: ​
      Old British cars are great as training aids for repairing old British cars; not so great for reliable transportation.

  86. 86.

    Betty

    @lamh47: Rubio is out to smear Cuba, but the countries that accept this assistance need it. This effort is going nowhere from what I can tell. Sadly, as the Jamaican Prime Minister noted, doctors and nurses in the English-speaking Caribbean often migrate to the US, Canada and the UK for better pay and better working conditions.

  92. 92.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Pete Downunder: I haven’t read very much of the Reacher books, but knowing how most authors of that variety tend to work, it wouldn’t surprise me.

    The movies…Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie caught lightning in a bottle with that first one, and then promptly took that magic to the Mission Impossible series.  The second entry was aggressively mid, and they (being his production company) probably shouldn’t have even bothered.

    The TV series…I have only seen clips, but one thing that has turned me off from trying it more is one of those clips being from the first season where he gets a Desert Eagle from another character and immediately function-tests it by shooting a tree stump at his feet, on the spot.  As a bit of a gun guy myself, that one bit had so many red flags that I kinda lost interest after that.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Pennsylvanian:  Thank you.  It’s really hard sometimes.  Not one of them would identify with MAGA.  They just vote for it!  head-desk.

    They are otherwise very nice, kind people.  The mind boggles.

  95. 95.

    frosty

    @Marc: My (and my twin brother’s) best friend had a 50th birthday party with many of his friends. The guys were sitting around swapping these kind of car stories and someone mentioned a fire. Then someone else did. My bro says “Is this the car fire part of the conversation?” EVERY ONE OF US HAD ONE!!!!

    ETA You triggered a memory. During a commute home I had a leaking SU carb dripping gasoline on the exhaust manifold. My carpool mate was smoking beside me. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still alive.

  99. 99.

    rekoob

    @frosty: I test drove a Lotus Europa in the late-’70s — it was something to be more-or-less supine behind the wheel. I’m a big fan of what Colin Chapman wrought — “add lightness”, something our Electric Vehicle designers should embrace.

    I’d be all over a Westfield XI (Lotus 11 kitcar) as an EV…

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @Scout211

    As he is (ostensibly) classed as a special government employee, it’s the law.

    SGEs may only be “retained, designated, appointed, or employed” by the government for “not more than 130 days” during any consecutive 365-day period.
    Does anyone think his grubby fingers will not continue to be in the pie after May?

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: I will confess to being turned off by Kat’s photo.  It screams influencer and not serious person who wants to serve the people.  Shallow judgment on my part, I know.  The photo was on mistermix’s site.

    It’s not like my opinion matters.  I don’t live there!

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @Craig: Oh, excellent, thank you!

    Is he kind of like The Equalizer shows?  Helping regular people with problems they can’t handle on their own?

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    Oh my. Fix.

    @Scout211

    As he is (ostensibly) classed as a special government employee, it’s the law.

    SGEs may only be “retained, designated, appointed, or employed” by the government for “not more than 130 days” during any consecutive 365-day period. Source

    Does anyone seriously think his grubby fingers will not continue to pollute the pie after May?

  107. 107.

    Steve LaBonne

    @OldDave: Even my old beater ’14 Civic has three pedals as God intended. I dread the day when the mechanic shop I use has nobody left who can move it into the garage.

  108. 108.

    ironcity

    @frosty: to #28

    A few years ago working on the refrigerator in an RV we owned.  Made by Dometic  Oshawa ON, Canada.  A division of Lucas.   No wonder it didn’t work.

  109. 109.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: ​Well … kind of. But the problems the people are in are going to require a big guy willing to do violence and kill some of the ones giving them problems.​

  110. 110.

    Marc

    @rekoob: I’d be all over a Westfield XI (Lotus 11 kitcar) as an EV

    Strangely, one of my dream cars too, but I no longer have room to build one.  There was a guy in San Francisco that used to have one (I assume with a 4 cylinder of some sort), at least I think it was a replica and not the real thing, one never knows in San Francisco.  I remember when what appeared to be a slab-side 289 Cobra pulled up next to my Alfa in Worcester, MA circa ’76 and did the rev thing. I declined.  No replicas back then.

  111. 111.

    rekoob

    @frosty: By the way, the new Apple TV+ series “The Studio” has Seth Rogen tooling around in a late-’60s MGB in an attractive khaki and a dark blue/black mid-’60s Lancia convertible. Fun!

  113. 113.

    Redshift

    @lamh47: Like most of the things he’s trying to do, the president doesn’t have any authority to dictate the content of the Smithsonian. (Congress does have some, which is why Gingrich was able to do some damage.)

    The Smithsonian’s relationship to the federal government is weird and complicated, but it’s definitely not part of the executive branch. But some of its funding is federal, and some of its employees are federal employees, so there are pressure points. It’s like so many other agencies – technically they may be able to resist, but having to figure out which things are illegal or not allowed, which is definitely Not Normal.

  115. 115.

    frosty

    @ironcity: Dometic is a division of Lucas????? I haven’t bought a trailer with any other kind of refrigerator. Fingers crossed, they’ve all been OK so far. Maybe the Canadians filtered out the Lucas jinx.

  119. 119.

    Martin

    @Geminid: Part of Kat’s thing is trying to reach Republicans with counter-programming, so yeah, you kind of have to be on X to do that.

    I don’t understand why social media personalities might be seen as less effective representatives. AOC and Maxwell Frost got their seats in no small part due to their social media presence.

  121. 121.

    rekoob

    @Marc: The Westfield XI usually has a Austin Healey Sprite/MG Midget as a donor chassis, and often uses the 4-cylinder Austin/BMG/Leyland engine. More recent versions have used Subaru horozontially-opposed engines and Suzuki Hayabusa engines.

    I think a lightweight EV motor and battery would be super.

  122. 122.

    cain

    @Pennsylvanian:

    My cousin is a fan of Elon Musk (which seems to be a tell) and I guess to some extent Trump. Which is very weird because he is an H1B with a family. I’m not sure why he would support someone that is gunning for him.

    It’s quite a real possibility that he could get kicked out if he leaves and comes back.

    I think for a lot of people they are all triggered by people who scold them about LBGTQ+/trans stuff.

    I get that from my other cousin – like she was telling me that her company tells folks to say their pronouns before a call. That seems weird. I wouldn’t do that now because trans and lbgtq+ are no longer a protected class. But if you are a straight male or female I don’t see why you would state your pronouns, it’s his/him by default.

  123. 123.

    rekoob

    @NotMax: True. As I believe Peter Egan at Road & Track once noted, the Lotus Seven is the rare car where you can be in the driver’s seat and place your hand flat on the ground. He also said that if you drive over an embossed credit card in the Seven, you could feel every digit.

  124. 124.

    Marc

    @rekoob: Yes, I was thinking about it back in the days when you could get a running Spridget for next to nothing.  Electric conversions are relatively easy these days.

  127. 127.

    Randal Sexton

    @frosty: I had a datsun 510 — it was featured in ‘The Reckoning’ by David Halberstam.   I think the car had 100000 miles on it when i bought it ( odometer only went to 99999!) and I rolled that odometer twice!  Everything non-essential on that car stopped working, and all the essential stuff NEVER broke. Kinda loved the reliability of that beast.  Took me from dirtbag climber construction worker to research lab guy.

  128. 128.

    Steve LaBonne

    @cain: The reason is to avoid singling out people whose pronouns are not “obvious”. That’s why at my UU church, as at many others, my name tag says “he/him”.

  130. 130.

    Marc

    @cain: My cousin is a fan of Elon Musk (which seems to be a tell) and I guess to some extent Trump. Which is very weird because he is an H1B with a family. I’m not sure why he would support someone that is gunning for him.

    Elon makes heavy use of H1B employees at all of his companies.  They’re cheap and easy to control as they have to leave the country if they get fired.  Modern wage slaves.

  131. 131.

    jackmac

    @WaterGirl: Reacher is pretty violent but tells a great story and Alan Ritchson portrays out the character very well. (I didn’t seem the Tom Cruise movie version and couldn’t imagine him as Reacher anyway). The first two seasons got me interested in the books and now I’m in the middle of a Lee Child-Reacher marathon.

  132. 132.

    Randal Sexton

    @WaterGirl: Lots of fun stories about peoples cars — would make a good theme for an open thread I think.   Imma sure I have at least a half dozen of those stories.

  133. 133.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Pete Downunder: If you want something similar that feels better, the film Rebel Run is pretty fun.  A black man gets harassed by racist, southern cops and they don’t know that he’s a special forces guy.  Sort of a more modern update of First Blood.  Kind of ridiculous but also really enjoyable.  Don Johnson is damn good at playing a racist cop!

  136. 136.

    cain

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Right, but why announce it at every meeting? I guess I don’t get that. I rather just put that in my nick eg cain (he/him).

    It doesn’t particularly bother me but it does end up become mechanical though like the thought behind it starts rapidly diminishing that it just becomes “overhead”. My wife is a DEI coach and I haven’t really seen her do that in her trainings.

    Trust me, she’s seen more than enough racism against her despite the training.

  138. 138.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Based on people’s reactions to the protests in Gaza, I landed upon a shocking fact:

    Most people stand in solidarity with Gaza and not with the people of Gaza.

    –Mosab Abu Toha (Palestinian poet and Palestine book award winner)

  139. 139.

    Rusty

    @Steve in the ATL: Its just the opposite.  There are articles of lawyers being poached from the firms fighting Trump.  The administration has made clear that if you hire those firms you will be on their shit list.  Not good for government approvals, investigations,  etc.  So lawyers with big billing are are risk of leaving.

  140. 140.

    cain

    @WaterGirl:

    I just started reading the books. I’ve been reading it and the book should be a model on how a book should be written. Just absolutely spellbinding while reading. Lee Child is a wizard with words.

  143. 143.

    Marc

    @cain:  That’s not Musk, though, he wants to leave H1B alone so he can continue to exploit them.  But, if you’re here on any kind of resident visa, this is clearly not the time to be leaving the country, unless you willing to risk it being permanent.  Of course, if they really want to deport you these days, they’ll just send out one of their black bag gangs.

  144. 144.

    WaterGirl

    @cain: Interesting!  I tried to read a Lee Child book when Clinton was president because I had read somewhere that Child was his favorite author.

  145. 145.

    rekoob

    @Randal Sexton: @WaterGirl: That may make for an entertaining/interesting Medium Cool topic at some point:

    What was your first car? Did you name it? What was your best car? Did you name it? What was your worst car? Did you name it?

    What’s the one car you’d most like to have?

    (Those are questions I can easily answer, but I’m sure there are others.)

  146. 146.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @frosty: I was that idiot who bought a “cheap Porsche.”

    Really, it hasn’t been that terrible except for the clutch I burned up- that was ENTIRELY my own fault and I’m STILL kicking myself for it— but once I did a whole bunch of deferred maintenance, it’s been pretty good. (touch wood, crossed fingers)

  147. 147.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Randal Sexton: Bemused Senior owned a Datsun 510 before we were married.  In 1973 (the first oil shock) she put it up on blocks and rode her bicycle to work, didn’t drive it again until years later.  We still had that car (rarely used) in 1990.  You could see the ground but it still ran.

    One time we left it parked at the airport for a weekend trip.  Came back, it wouldn’t start.  I took off the distributor cap, dried it out, and viola!  I was so proud of myself until I realized that cars no longer have distributors.

    [ETA Its name was “VTOC.”  Yes, we were both IBM system programmers.]

  148. 148.

    Marc

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I’ve found a solution, I look at The Guardian front page in the morning to find out the major atrocities, then whatever other details I hear come from these things called blogs.  Haven’t looked at TV news or any of the other major news sites in years.

  150. 150.

    Rusty

    @Baud: Do you want to go seek approval for a merger from this government with a law firm that sucks up to Trump, or a firm that is at odds with Trump?  Companies pick firms that will get them what they want, and those coward firms are more likely to get you Trump government approval.

  152. 152.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @frosty: I’ve wanted a Porsche since I watched “Le Mans,” before I could drive.

    My Boxster is a “poor man’s Porsche,” but being mid-engine, nothing touches it for being able to carry speed through corners.

    Downside? Gotta work on the engine? Up on the lift! 😂

  154. 154.

    lowtechcyclist

    @bbleh:

    the same thought occurred.  Plus it’s an “all-stock deal.”  “Hey we just got a whole LOAD of poker chips for our Monopoly money!”

    What, no magic beans as part of the deal? Somebody got gypped.

  155. 155.

    Marc

    @UncleEbeneezer:  Sorry, I don’t care the least bit about Gaza, I’ve always cared about the shitty way the Palestinians have been treated (by Arabs and Israelis alike) since the 50s.  That’s what happens when your grandfather kept a stack of National Geographic around.  Families on one side looked a hell of a lot more like my own family when I was a kid.  Bigotry at work, I guess, not helped by knowing a number of Palestinians back in my Cambridge days.

  158. 158.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @OldDave: ‘97 Boxster, “Miss Moneypenny” (because unlike Mrs. B, I just couldn’t call her “MoneyPit”)

    Don’t you just LOVE how that mid-engine design lets you carry speed through corners?

    To me, that’s where *all* the fun is.

  159. 159.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Steve in the ATL: It’s not that complicated.

    It’s about a kid in a co-ed high school daydreaming in class about the kind of school he’d like to go to, nude school.

    The writer read in Penthouse about an allegedly nude school in the US.

    The reference to Tasmania refers to the shape of that state being reminiscent of a muff.

  160. 160.

    Rusty

    @frosty: With any luck, my next car is a used Miata.  I’ve got over 200K on a Fiat 500c, a convertible but not a sports car.  My Dad had a MGB when is was in high school and college, I’ve had the bug for a roadster ever since.  The budget is limited, but there are well cared for older Miata’s out there!

  162. 162.

    jackmac

    Last night I completed the latest entry in a urban noir fantasy series that was, um, okay. I just wanted to get to the end. Then I switched to Child’s 2013 “Never Go Back” and before I knew it I was 100 pages in. Great writing and plotting.

  164. 164.

    Eric S.

    @frosty: Please don’t. I love Lucas Electric jokes.

    Do you know Lucas Electric once built a vacuum cleaner? It was their only product that didn’t suck.

  166. 166.

    Marc

    @Professor Bigfoot: I’ve wanted a Porsche since I watched “Le Mans,” before I could drive.

    My movie was Grand Prix, my Dad was anticipating that movie so much that he took us to some practice movies at the Boston Cinerama theater so we could scope out the best seats.  Those were also the days when going for a drive sometimes meant the four of us were piling into my Dad’s short-lived Alfa Guilietta Spider to go see races at Lime Rock.  Mom made him get rid of that car after my sister hit the dashboard (needing a few stitches) once on a sudden stop while sitting on the transmission tunnel.  Next car, Chevy II Nova with 4 seat belts.  He hated that car.

  167. 167.

    frosty

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​One of the nicest things about the TR-3 was the tranny replacement. From the top, pull the seats. Pull the tranny tunnel. Reach back, disconnect the driveshaft, reach forward, unbolt the tranny. Pull it out from between the seats.I called my dad in MD from SoCal and told him I lunched the tranny. He says “I think I have a friend who has Triumphs.” A week later I had a crate at my door step with a TR-4 tranny inside it!​
    The only thing I had to get under it for was oil changes. Oh, and the engine rebuild with my dad – but our neighbor had a garage with a pit!​​

  168. 168.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Martin: ​But it was an out for Fidelity and the other institutional investors who were in the initial Twitter deal.

  170. 170.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Rusty: Do it, you won’t regret it. I bought mine new, but I had the money (which I actually held onto, because Mazda was offering 0.9% financing.)

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    I guess sending Kristi Noem to the dogsled race was a bridge too far for even this tone deaf regime?
    //

  173. 173.

    Jay

    Back when I was studying Automotive Mechanics at PVI, had a girlfriend who bought a fair condition late 60’s MG. All the problems with that car were electrical. Wires were random lengths and colours, crimps weren’t crimped, nothing was soldered properly, some wires were rotted out because the insulation covering wasn’t waterproof,

    Oh well, got to spend a lot of time with her, in the garage.

  174. 174.

    frosty

    @Marc: ​Yeah. I bounced my youngest on the dash while driving both boys to school in the Miata, him sitting between the seats. Not long after that I bought my brother’s Jetta with four real seats.

    Funny, this was after our high school years when my brother and I were driving to school with us in the seats and the Girl Next Door sitting on the transmission tunnel … with no problems. Whew!

  175. 175.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Eric S.: 97 Boxster base. Doesn’t even have speed control.

    I’m lucky, I have a local independent shop that does GREAT; and they’ve done right by me.

    But with that said, I still have to pay the “P-car tax.” (my shop is great with cross referencing Audi and VW parts, so that’s nice too.)

  178. 178.

    NotMax

    @Marc

    Oh lawdy, Le Mans. Played for more than a month at the movie theater where I was an usher. Came to the point of begging to work the ticket line outside rather than continue being on the receiving end of the headache inducing drone showing after showing.
    ;)

  179. 179.

    RevRick

    @A Ghost to Most: Racism, classism and misogyny were baked into the system way before Christianity appeared on the scene.
    For instance, the pre-Socratic philosopher, Thales, used to say that he was grateful to Fortune: “ First, that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes(slaves); next, that I was born a man and not a woman; thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian.” And roughly contemporary, attributed to Rabbi Judah:

    There are three blessings one must pray daily:

    Blessed art thou, who, did not make me a Gentile;

    Blessed art thou, who did not make me a woman;

    Blessed art thou, who did not make me uneducated.

    Now contrast those attitudes with this early baptismal creed alluded to by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28:

    “There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

  180. 180.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rekoob:

    What was your first car? Did you name it? What was your best car? Did you name it? What was your worst car? Did you name it?

    What’s the one car you’d most like to have?

    That would be a good Medium Cool.

    First: a ’71 Super Beetle. Named it Arthur. No reason, just the name that popped into my head.

    Best: a tie between my 1982 Ram D-50 pickup (bought for $3000 in 1987, sold it for $600 in 1996) and my current 2016 Honda Civic.

    The Ram 50 was the car that I learned to drive a stick with; the Beetle was an automatic stick shift. A stick, but it did the clutching itself, so it doesn’t count. Fortunately, I was living in wondrously flat Newport News, VA when I bought the Ram, so I didn’t have to deal with hills until I had a fair amount of practice with it.

    The Civic is also a stick, and it’s just a sweet, sporty little car.

    The car for my most memorable car trip was, of all things, a 1970 Buick Skylark that I bought for $750 in the spring of 1983, and drove it across the country from east to west, up the West Coast from L.A. to the Olympic Peninsula, and back across the country again. Grand Canyon, Yosemite, redwoods and sequoias, San Francisco, Glacier, Badlands, several stops with relatives in various parts of the country…amazing trip.

    I have no idea what car I’d most like to have, other than the one I’ve got.  There’s a good chance I’ll drive the Civic right up to the point where I shouldn’t be driving anymore.  And cars are really just transportation to me, so I just don’t think about other cars much until I realize I’m about to need a new one. But that may never happen again, so that subject may never come up!

  181. 181.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Eric S.: I taught all three of my children how to drive a car with a real transmission. I viewed it as an essential skill, like swimming.

  182. 182.

    frosty

    @Eric S.: That’s a great one! Here’s a ton more if you’ve never seen them.
    https://forums.jag-lovers.com/t/xj-a-compendium-of-lucas-jokes-borrowed-from-a-jalopnik-forum/205895

    Lucas–inventor of the first intermittent wiper.”I’ve had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob…”

    True story: On one of my two TR-3 cross-country runs I stopped at a dealer in Texas to buy one part or another. My friend there (a Norton Commando owner) looked into the hood of a … Land Rover? Jag?, pointed and shouted “Lucas!!! You’re selling something this expensive with Lucas Electrics!!??!!”​​​​

  183. 183.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Montanareddog:

    I have a 2018 Giulia I bought in 2020.  I don’t drive much since I retired but one day a man approached me in the grocery store parking lot and told me he liked my car and asked if it was fast.  My reply was “it does the speed limit”.

    That’s my car story.

    Oh, my first car was a red Ford Pinto (with the exploding gas tank).  I named it Redford.

  186. 186.

    frosty

    @Jay: My brother bought a Spit and replaced the wiring harness. Then in a fit of ambition, he dropped a GT-6 engine into it, creating the only 6-cylinder ragtop Spitfire.

    Totaled it, sadly. Ran into a curb and the tinfoil frame couldn’t handle it.

  188. 188.

    RevRick

    A week ago I had minor surgery on my right thumb, because of recurring infections. Today, the pathology report came in. They found squamous cell carcinoma. My hand surgeon sent me straight to x-ray lab to see if bone is involved. No. But now I have to have MOHS surgery, where they shave off slices until they see no cancer. Then my hand surgeon will immediately repair the wound. So, they’ll call me when it’s scheduled.
    Needless to say, I have been discombobulated.

  189. 189.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @They Call Me Noni: I think the Giulia is the most gorgeous sedan available in the States today.

    Prettier than my DD, and I love how IT looks.

    And it’s really, really fast.

  191. 191.

    Eric S.

    @Professor Bigfoot: I’ve got a good, independent shop too. As you said though, there is a premium. Mine is still air cooled. Oil changes require 10 quarts. They ain’t cheap but that’s what I signed up for.

     

    Ps, at times I ce thought about trading for a Cayman with the mid engine. 😈

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @RevRick:  So distressing.  I’m sorry.  Great that it’s not in the bone.  My best friend has had to go through that 4 times.  On her face.  She looks great, they can do amazing things.

  196. 196.

    frosty

    @Marc: That’s pretty much my solution too. I can’t bear to read past the headlines, I get my news here. For details of the fuckery I have daily emails from HC Richardson, Krugman, Waldman, and Fallows. On days that I can stand to read them.

  199. 199.

    frosty

    @RevRick: I had MOHS on my nose. It’s not that bad. But bring something to read to pass the time while they send the slivers to the lab.

  202. 202.

    exbarrowboy

    I have a few old sports car stories.  My car on fire story is for the MGB and a previous owner’s shoddy wiring additions.  My toolset still includes the mallet that I’d carry in the boot/trunk for tapping the fuel pump whenever it failed to start.

    Later I had a Lotus Elan Sprint, where I remember the sudden clang as the passenger side window dropped halfway into the frame.   It might have had power windows but the Chapman lightness philosophy had them operated via piano wire and nylon pulleys that looked as if they belonged in a model aircraft.  There was also the design quirk where replacing the water pump required removing the cylinder head.

    I’ve had a ’94 Miata for the last twenty years and more.  Through benign neglect of any cosmetics it has gradually become more and more like the old British sports cars it was modeled on, developing all sorts of rattles and an intermittently functioning radio.  I really ought to get something more civilized, something with a/c would be a start, but the thing I most like about it is the feel through the manual steering and with the increased weight of modern cars I doubt we’ll ever see such such things again.

  203. 203.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty: I said because I’m not a car guy, but clearly many jackals are.  And fair point about the F-150!

     

    @WaterGirl: We’re lawyers.   We’ve heard it all. Plus, I have a wife and daughters so nothing can hurt me!

  205. 205.

    Steve in the ATL

    Regarding cars, I had a 1984 Audi 4000S that committed suicide.  Drove it for ten hours, parked at a friend’s place, went back out 15 minutes later to go on a beer run, and when I started it back up the entire electrical system fried itself.  Good times!

  206. 206.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    I bought it because I liked the look and size of it.  My oldest grandson had a fit when I bought it.  His exact words were “I can’t believe my grandmother drives my dream car”.  Finding reverse was kind of a challenge.  I had to look it up on you tube because I got tired of just fumbling.

  208. 208.

    Sally

    @rekoob: My then boyfriend taught me to drive on his Lotus Europa! (Greater love, etc, etc …). First time I have seen them mentioned. Everyone talks about the Elan – owned by my skating teacher at the time!

  209. 209.

    Steve in the ATL

    @rekoob: that’s true (as frosty noted supra—no Toyota pun intended), but I interpreted Medium Cool as relating to media such as film, television, books (excluding graphic novels), and such, based on its roots.

  210. 210.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @exbarrowboy: Do you remember that Armor-All commercial, where the Armor-All Viking would show up, declare “Yew din’t d’serve tha’ car!” and proceed to take the car AND the girlfriend?

    That’s the biggest reason I wash my roadster— I do NOT wanna see that MF in my driveway. 😉

  211. 211.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @They Call Me Noni: Come on, Noni, that’s a WIN! ROFLMAO!

    And for real, they are gorgeous. Beautiful Italian lines. <swoon> I don’t blame your grandson one iota. LOL

  212. 212.

    Pennsylvanian

    @Faithful Lurker: Agree completely. The Residence is the best “anything” I have seen so far this year. Script, casting, location, all so well done. Competent, campy and can’t wait!

  214. 214.

    Randal Sexton

    @rekoob:

     

    @rekoob: What was the situation where the car saved your ass ? When did it betray you the worst?   What were the wierd mechanical oddities that were maddening/charming.   (My old datsun 510 had a HOLE in the floor – some rubber gasket/plug fell out, you could see the road go by )

  215. 215.

    West of the Rockies

    I had a brand new Honda del Sol (samba green).  It was a hoot!  Gave it’s life for me on I5 near Orland, CA when a drunk in an F150 drovd through the oleander divide and over the corner of my engine compartment at 65 mph.

    It was not as stylish as a TR3 (more in line with a Miata really), but I loved it.

  216. 216.

    OldDave

    @exbarrowboy: I’ve had a ’94 Miata for the last twenty years and more … but the thing I most like about it is the feel through the manual steering …

    I’m thinking the only ’94 Miata with manual steering was the ‘R’ version.  I wanted one, but they were rare.  I did drive Miatas for some eighteen years – a 91 NA, a 01 NB, and an 09 (10?) NC.  Traded the last one in when I bought the Cayman.  There are times I wish I had kept it.

  217. 217.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I think we’ll get to see a lot more of Kat Abughazaleh. Her campaign launch was covered by Axios,TheHill, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair Chicago area media sites including two based in Evanston. Also, The New Arab* and Algemeiner which is a Jewish oriented publication.

    Most of the articles said that Rep. Schakowsky, who currently represents the Evanston-based IL09, has yet not decided whether she will seek relection. If Schakowski doesn’t run I rxpect there will be several candidates besides Abughazaleh, which might be to her advantage as she is building a sizable war chest.

    * The New Arab looks like a good site for Syris news.

  218. 218.

    Geminid

    @Martin: There was a lot of contemporaneous reporting on Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win against Joe Crowley in June, 2018. These articles can still be found on national and New York state and local media sites.

    There was little if any mention of Ocasio-Cortez’s social media efforts. Instead, her 17,000 to 13,000 vote victory was commonly credited to extensive door to door campaigning by Ocasio-Cortez and a large corps of volunteers.

  219. 219.

    Marc

    @Geminid: There was little if any mention of Ocasio-Cortez’s social media efforts. Instead, her 17,000 to 13,000 vote victory was commonly credited to extensive door to door campaigning by Ocasio-Cortez and a large corps of volunteers.

    The first place I heard about her was on social media during the primary, but I don’t live in NYC.  I don’t think the media had yet accepted that social media campaigns were a thing back then.  Where did all of those volunteers come from, did they just show up at her door?

  220. 220.

    exbarrowboy

    @OldDave:

    I’m thinking the only ’94 Miata with manual steering was the ‘R’ version.  I wanted one, but they were rare.  I did drive Miatas for some eighteen years – a 91 NA, a 01 NB, and an 09 (10?) NC.  Traded the last one in when I bought the Cayman.  There are times I wish I had kept it.

    Mine is indeed an “R” package, in the rare Laguna Blue color (or at least it was until the sun got to it and half the clearcoat flaked away).  But as I understand it the very base models, the ones with steel wheels, also came with manual steering up to the very first of NBs.

    I have half a memory of a rumor that Mazda created the “R” package cars in large part because they’d misjudged the sales mix of the various models and had a large stock of otherwise unusable manual steering parts.

    I bought mine for $3800 back in 2003 with the excuse that it would keep the miles off the family minivan.  That was easily the best car purchase I’ve ever made though it doesn’t get used much nowadays as I go just about anywhere local via bike.

  221. 221.

    Geminid

    @Marc: I read that the volunteers were mainly from the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was and is a member.

    Justice Democrats were also instrumental in Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory, but they were a relatively small outfit that mainly handled finances and national outreach.

    Saikat Chakrabarti, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager and chief of staff for her first 8 months in Congress, has announced a primary challenge to Nancy Pelosi for 2026. I have a hunch she will retire though, and Chakrabarti will face a different opponent.

  223. 223.

    BellyCat

    Just read the “Paul Wuss” thread. Some thoughts posted several floors downstairs (copied here):

    This topic is WAAAAY bigger than the attention being given to it by the MSM.

    Upholding the rule of law is the very last bulwark standing between democracy and autocracy. To rationalize reasons Paul “Wuss” capitulated to Trump is the sort of shit that paves the way.

    Same for Columbia University’s capitulation. We lose higher education’s freedom of inquiry and the entire pipeline for innovation gets choked. Shocker that putting Big Money people on University Boards, instead of academics, would lead to such bullshit. //

  224. 224.

    BellyCat

    Musk is “stepping down” because — all desired government data has been harvested for xAI. Full stop.

    The cost saving bullshit is and always was  a pretext for his scam. Breaking shit to get contracts was goal number two.

  225. 225.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Steve LaBonne: you probably have a year or so – I developed exhibits for the Smithsonian, so know that federal funding only covers the buildings and personnel.  So unless Elon writes a giant check, existing permanent displays will be safe for a while.  I expect upcoming temporary exhibits which don’t meet Trump’s propaganda criteria will be canned or re-written.  The Kennedy Center will have more immediate issues – guest performers for next season will either quit or be cancelled.  I also expect many members of the National Symphony Orchestra to leave.

  228. 228.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    He is not a normal human. He has way, way too much money and possibly because of that he doesn’t think like normal, every day humans do. You know, work for food and shelter, can I afford a replacement car for the one I/we wore out. Possibly at a job that doesn’t pay as well as needed and at a minimum of 40 hrs a week. He’s never had to worry about money his entire life. Most humans do have to worry about regular income, even in old age. And he wants to destroy Social Security. Even though we paid into it for our entire working lives. Some with large bank accounts earned that money. Did elon? Likely mostly not.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    How can he pull the numbers out with his head stuffed up there?

    @Eric S.:

    I have a car with a 6 speed manual transmission that shifts itself. Better milage than a hydraulic automatic transmission and I’ve had zero issues.

  229. 229.

    Ruckus

    @RevRick:

    I’ve had two types of cancer and am fine many years later. If they find cancer early enough many of them can be treated. I understand that early diagnosis is one of the keys to beating cancer. Another reason why at least reasonably good healthcare is vital to becoming an old fart. Which is far better than not becoming one.

  230. 230.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I don’t even get (and haven’t for about a decade) regular TV. I bought an indoor wall antenna when I moved where I live now (approximately) 9 years ago and kept it up for approximately 2 days. I decided to never watch broadcast TV ever again. I’m positive this was a very good decision. I have a big screen TV but watch Netflix or DVD. If there is nothing I want to see, it’s off. And my parents had a TV when I was very young. 9 inch B&W which was haunted – it had be to have had more ghosts on the screen than in the Disneyland haunted house. TV has gotten slightly better since…..  Now the other side is that I have internet so I can get the news any time I want. And there is a huge upside to this. I can also not look at the news if I don’t want to. And life still goes on. Amazing!

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