Smell test

Among all the reasons to dislike the Commercial Christmas season: Those perplexing TV ads for perfumes. Are the director and the writers vying for feature-film jobs?

Speaking of Christmas-themed TV, "Doctor Who" holiday episodes show that people all over the universe celebrate with the same carols and other traditions as England.

No, I won't let myself fall for the fallacy of fiction.

-30-

They'll swallow anything

Of course, PEOTUS continues to attack the mainstream news media ... he has to discredit honest journalists, who routinely fact-check and question what they are told.

He has to keep his Army of Suckers believing what he says. He has to pour and pour and pour more cups full of his purple-colored sugar water.

Evangelicals fall for his lies because their religion prepares them to believe anything, without analysis or question. The act of believing in an invisible deity proves they're gullible.

And PEOTUS is King of the Gullible.

-30-

Romple on it

Uber has illegal self-driving cars on the loose in San Francisco. And there's proof a couple have run red lights, after 2 days on the job.

As my father showed me many decades ago, traffic signals in the City are mere suggestions, anyway.

###

After another week of avoiding PEOTUS news in all formats, I realized that it's not just that Trump makes me barf. I would be avoiding HRC news, too. Also Bernie, had he won.

I've filled my life quota; no longer do I have to pay attention.

-30-

Dumbed-down America

From A Word A Day:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." — Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

-30-

Curtain up on Trump tragedy

Now begins the fourth act of Donald Trump's life.

He expects being President will be easy; details are beneath him. Hire a guy.

In storytelling's genre of tragedy, the "main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances," or so Google says.

"The tragic flaw, inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy, who is in other respects a superior being favoured by fortune," says Encyclopedia Britannica, also quoted on Google.

Favoured by fortune. Check.

Moral weakness. Check.

Inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. Check.

Tragic flaws, inherent defects. Check, check.

I fear that the ruin and extreme sorrow will be shared by the Americans Trump's thugs are primed to destroy.

-30-

Freeloader's opinion

I use a Google blog, free, and free email, so I don't have standing to say this, but:

Gmail offers a way to find out where I vote.

Thanks, but if I don't already know that location by 3 or 4 days before Election Day, I'm too stupid to vote.

###

More comments a few days ago about the current Mrs. Trump again plagiarizing a speech.

I refuse to believe that she sits around watching speeches, making notes, even with Mrs. Obama. Or reading transcripts.

Her speechwriters, however, appear to be intellectual midgets.

Maybe Big D will stiff them, like he stiffs other working stiffs out of paychecks they've earned.

On the other hand, maybe they're working only as carefully as they were ordered to. You get what you pay for. Or don't, in DJT's case.

-30-

God is on Trump's side ... on the Comstock

Trump campaign signs sprout everywhere in Virginia City, Nevada, home of Harry Reid-haters and other vaguely educated antediluvians. As I ate lunch in a C Street restaurant, I saw a redneck stuffing this grammar-challenged letter into mailboxes. Curious, I took one. From the tipsy but fierce sincerity on the guy’s face, I don’t think he was kidding.

My most Honored Brothers in Christ

Last night, Our loving God touched my Dreams, compelling Us to support his present-day Prophet, Donald John Trump Sr. seeking the Presidency. Without spirited Effort, the forces of Iniquity surely lead this Country farther and deeper into Wickedness.

In order to help Prophet Trump Triumph in realms where Unbelievers thrive, we must Conjure ways to make our Womenfolk accept the Righteousness of the Lord’s Word.

Because the Republic requires Secretcy Ballots, Evil Touched Womenfolk — mothers, wives, daughters, sisters — pledge to Vote as God Councils through Us but in the Voting Booth these weak-minded Females turn their Backs on our Loving God.

God-fearing Womens’s stubborn Streak assault against their very Souls! We must use that Stubbornness to correct their Thoughts and bring them to Christ.

And to Prophet Trump on Election Day.

I Seek Ideas to Save Female Souls. And This Great Country. Also, funds to rent Piper’s Opera House for a meeting to work on our Soul-saving plan. And other funds to distribute the Word of God to our Brethren across the Republic before its too Late.

Signed, Wilkins Wolfinger, Esq.

I live in the new-painted Green house two downhill from the railroad Depot. No telephone yet. No knocking before 6:30am

-30-

The circle of Google

A personal first: I saw a Google Earth car, camera mounted on its roof, rolling through a turnabout at  Legends at the Sparks Marina around 2 p.m. on 09-22. Until that moment, I thought they were an urban legend.

#

I was wrong about succeeding in turning off the password function on my laptop. Now, it demands the password at random intervals.

#

Shook my head in weary amusement at the news of the Yahoo violation, then realized I had a Yahoo account many years ago. Back in the 20th century.

Tried to log in; no joy. It offered to send me a code to use, but both phone numbers they've got no longer exist, and the recovery email addresses I tried were rejected.

Went around in circles three times with the "help" button, but it kept returning to the phone numbers and recovery email. Hey, hacker for the Enemy of America, go stick your head in a wood chipper.

-30-

Same sh**, different OS

I think I found the way to turn off the auto-login for my laptop running OS X El Capitan.

I think.

As with every upgrade, I encountered a half-dozen changes that enrage me.

On the other hand, I just sent an email with 3 emoji.

🇧🇧: Where I wish I was.

-30-

Meeting? What meeting?

In "The Rhesus Chart," Charles Stross's main character, Bob, struggles with a bizarre bureaucracy that loves committees. Bob's labels for people on committees:

WOMBAT: a Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time

As the IT network expert, he encounters:

PEBCAK: a Problem that Exists Between Chair and Keyboard

"Rhesus"is set in the UK, but the US has the same idiots.

-30-

 

The wheel of Mac grinds on

My laptop's fallen behind in the Great Race: Firefox will no longer update itself because of my old OS.

Same with my best friend's laptop, which won't update anything; error message is scary.

Off we go to Mac-O-Rama.

Thence onward to whatever the heck Apple calls the newest  OS.

-30-

Get off my back ... pack!

Back-to-school commercial on TV shows children celebrating their new backpacks.

Their imagination leads the girls to fun ways to use backpacks. The boy uses his the standard, unexciting way.

Or, as male America sees it, the girls fool around, act stupid, and waste time, while the boy gets on with business.

-30-

Get your Columbus out of here

Quit messing with my mind, Google Maps!

It's been a few days since I visited the site. Today, Interstate 80 through Sparks-Reno, Nevada, has a new label: "Christopher Columbus Highway."

Uh ... no. New Jersey labels I80 that, and I10 gets the name for miles and miles and miles.

Not in Nevada. Google runs it onward to California, throwing in Dwight D. Eisenhower.

TMI. One highway, one name.

-30-

Ship deserts the sinking rats

Mass murder in Japan today, by knife. I think humanity has reached the "behavioral sink" point in population levels. First mice, then rats, now us.

##

From today's Word A Day:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil. 

- Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

-30-

 

Winning numbers

If that Orlando bastard killed three people in a gay bar, would the country notice?

Social media would shrug. What's three dead gays?

But 49 dead?

That's news, baby!

Size matters.

-30-

I'll miss them when they're gone

The TV show "Rizzoli & Isles" is on its last legs, which is a good thing. The show's fun; occasionally the murders investigated actually give a viewer a challenge. Briefly. The characters have depth.

However ...

The show's logic is slipping. In the first three episodes of its final season, the Medical Examiner's Office issued reports on forensics such as fingerprints, automobiles, and ballistics.

Cheap and lazy ...

The producers didn't want to pay actors to play forensics experts. That's the cheap part. The lazy part is not writing the script to credit the fictional facts to an off-screen forensics department and let the on-screen cops and doctors discuss their meaning.

I still love the fact that the show is set in Boston, with main characters born and bred there. Hilariously, Rizzoli sounds like she's from Texas, just like actress Angie Harmon. Nobody even tries the Boston accent.

Lazy at the start, lazy at the end.

-30-

Meat Trump

News reports are brimming with women boo-hooing over insults from D. Trump.

First, if you parade around in a bikini in a beauty contest, expect crude remarks. You're in a meat market, price tag across your forehead. Or, if you offer any kind of competition, expect crude remarks. The primary rule of competition: find a weakness and use it to destroy your enemy.

Second, Trump's "base" is composed of men who wish they could get away with the shit he pulls. Do you think that cracker who cold-cocked the black man at the Trump rally is appalled by Trump's treatment of women? Hell, no. He wants a piece of the action. Trump speaks to all males who ever struck out with a female.

Third, how does a man insulted about his physical appearance—for example, orange skin and "it's alive" hairdo—react? He doesn't pay a moment's attention.

Side note: I think it was Larry Wilmore who remarked about "future impeached President Trump" the other night.  Sweet.

-30-

Arboretum's baby bald eagles were officially named Freedom and Liberty, after the social media campaign.

It would have been nice to have the freedom and liberty to pick something memorable.

I'm glad the birds will never have to answer to names ... unless animals name themselves?

-30-

Pardon my ... ... ... pause

Please, please, please, masterminds of the Ted Cruz campaign: Hire Bill Shatner to teach your guy about using pauses in a speech.

Or, make him listen to a bunch of Obama speeches. He gets it right.

And, Senator, keep Carly away from your children. Also, why are they on a bus instead of in school?

-30-

Creativity on the wing

There's a contest on to name the two baby bald eagles in a nest at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The parents are uncreatively named Mr. President and The First Lady. Ho hum.

Choices for the babies: Stars and Stripes; Freedom and Liberty; Anacostia and Potomac; Honor and Glory; Cherry and Blossom.

Vote at dceaglecam.org.

These names are pathetic. Eagle McEagleface and Birdie McBirdieface would be better.

-30-

Farewell, noble heart

As the Bard lay, dying, in his wealthy man's bed in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which death among the many in his plays did he decide should have been re-written?

400 spins since around Sol ... 

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winters rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done ...

Exit, pursued by a bear ...

-30-

Phone home, Tamara

According to Charter/Spectrum, Henry Thomas stars with Tamara De Treaux in "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," which is running on a Showtime sub-channel.

Whoever does Charter's on-screen guide has deep sources. Tamara De Treaux, 1959-1990, was 2 feet 7 inches tall, and spent time inside the animatronic E.T.

She's not in IMDB's entry on the movie, and the movie's not listed among the actress's few credits in IMDB's short entry. Sorry, brief entry.

Wikipedia's more-detailed article, with photos, says she was the world's shortest actress. Her original name: Tamara Detro.

Wiki wins this month's obscure-actress award. Congrats.

-30-

How did these people get so twisted?

Newest anti-freedom fad is legislating who can use which public toilet.

People are starving in the USA, homeless, mentally ill and North Carolina's worried about bathroom privileges?

I wanna meet the SOB who thinks he's gonna check. Pervert.

-30-

They're doing it again

Remember those "bankers" who drove hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes after selling them mortgages they couldn't pay? Balloon payments? The banks that shuffled around sub-prime mortgages, screwed over each other? That cost U.S. taxpayers multiple millions of dollars? Remember how their greed crashed the U.S. housing market starting 10 years ago? Which took the rest of the economy with it? Nobody was punished ... except the victims.

What looks like another housing boom is inflating, starting with ads on TV telling you to get a mortgage over your phone. Easy peasy. Anybody can buy a house. Realtors waiting by the phone. Download the app.

Well, no.  The remains of the lower middle class can't afford mortgages, but finance companies want to sell them. How long before the house buyers' finances crash and burn?

Money aside, if everybody in America gets a house, there will be no farmland, no wilderness. Only little boxes made of ticky tacky, occupied by people on the edge of bankruptcy.

They're doing it again.

-30-

An impossible mission

Slate.com reports: 

"The former director of a pro-Donald Trump Super PAC officially defected from Team Trump on Monday with an essay on xoJane about how she lost faith in her candidate of choice. Stephanie Cegielski, a strategist and communications specialist, says she was brought in to run the Make America Great Again Super PAC last summer, but ultimately came to realize what everyone who hasn’t fallen under the Trump spell could sniff from the very beginning: Trump is wholly unprepared to be president and is only out for himself. ...

"Trump campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, issued this response to Cegielski: This person was never employed by the Trump campaign. Evidently she worked for a Super PAC which Mr. Trump disavowed and requested the closure of via the FEC."

Why does Donnie Boy "disavow" so many people and organizations? Is he the "Secretary" who runs the Impossible Mission Force?

-30-

What's radio, Grandpa?

A U.S. car maker has a TV ad touting teen driver technology, including a function that mutes the radio until the seatbelts are fastened.

Somebody should tell Chevy that teens of 2016 don't listen to the radio. They prefer tunes played from the cloud.

##

I wound up re-watching "Inside Out" with friends a few days ago and realized the father is obsessed with his daughter's happiness. He never permits Riley to have any other emotion.

Creepy. Controlling. Patriarchal.

-30-

Scary woman runs again

Sharron Angle, who failed to unseat Harry Reid in 2010, has filed paperwork to run for that U.S. Senate seat again, in the Republican primary, against the establishment's favorite and seven other people.

A couple days after the Nevada primary in 2006, in which Angle lost a close one for a U.S. House seat, I found myself seated a row ahead of two men talking about the election, on a flight from Reno to Las Vegas.

One man had worked for the Angle campaign. What I remember from what he said (didn't hear much, what with jet engine noise) was that he was happy, beyond happy, to be done with her.

You won't believe me, but Sharron Angle makes Sarah Palin look smart. Smart-ish. Not quite so dumb.

Honest.

-30-

I'm not gloating. Honest

Did you see the story today about the Carnegie Mellon University study that compared current presidential candidates' language and grammar in texts of campaign speeches? Trump's vocabulary matches that of children ages 11 and under and his grammar children ages 13-14. They threw in Obama, G.W. Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and Lincoln for balance. Highest overall: Lincoln. Trump came in next to last, ahead of Bush.

 I finally finished reading Steven Pinker's 1,009-page "Better Angels of Our Nature." He wrote:

"There’s no such thing as the IQ of a speech, but Philip Tetlock and other political psychologists have identified a variable called integrative complexity that captures a sense of intellectual balance, nuance, and sophistication. A passage that is low in integrative complexity stakes out an opinion and relentlessly hammers it home, without nuance or qualification. Its minimal complexity can be quantified by counting words like absolutely, always, certainly, definitively, entirely, forever, indisputable, irrefutable, undoubtedly, and unquestionably.

"A passage gets credit for some degree of integrative complexity if it shows a touch of subtlety with words like usually, almost, but, however, and maybe. It is rated higher if it acknowledges two points of view, higher still if it discusses connections, tradeoffs, or compromises between them, and highest of all if it explains these relationships by reference to a higher principle or system. The integrative complexity of a passage is not the same as the intelligence of the person who wrote it, but the two are correlated especially, according to [psychologist Dean] Simonton, among American presidents.

"Integrative complexity is related to violence. People whose language is less integratively complex, on average, are more likely to react to frustration with violence and are more likely to go to war in war games.

"Working with the psychologist Peter Suedfeld, Tetlock tracked the integrative complexity of the speeches of national leaders in a number of political crises of the 20^th century that ended peacefully (such as the Berlin blockade in 1948 and the Cuban Missile Crisis) or in war (such as World War I and the Korean War), and found that when the complexity of the leaders’ speeches declined, war followed.

"In particular, they found a linkage between rhetorical simple-mindedness and military confrontations in speeches by Arabs and Israelis, and by the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War."

I'd still vote for Trump over Cruz: better away-from-home violence than at-home coerced Christianity.

-30-

Uphill climb

Is jogging/walking in a bike lane, facing into car traffic, safe?

I'm lazy, so I won't check with city laws, but it's not illegal, it should be.

I've seen this twit of the female persuasion three times now, trudging uphill near my apartment, facing traffic, in the bike lane.

When she gets hit by a car, will the driver be punished? Probably, even though it will be her fault.

There's an asphalt-paved sidewalk on the other side of the four-lane street. Maybe she can't see it because of the elegant bushes and trees in the median and on that side of the street. They are budding out right now.

Related question: why do people out running or jogging for exercise never look happy?

-30-

Tone deaf

It seemed like a good idea, I'm sure, at the advertising agency that talked Jet.com into using video of people's heads exploding when they realize how wonderful Jet.com is. Blowing their minds.

Blowing up people, top of skull or any other body part, isn't entertaining, what with Boston, Iraq,  Syria, Libya, and Israel and a dozen other places.

Another company recently used the same thing—blowing off tops of heads—for a product I have forgotten. The blowing up, I remember.

##

New season of "What History Forgot" has started on American Heroes Channel. Patriotically stupid name. Calling it AHC doesn't help.

I am grateful beyond words to the people who convinced history buff/teacher Joe Moniaci to tone down the hand gestures. They were so fake, I lost track of what he was saying, waiting for another hand-chop, or something else out of his limited repertoire.

Maybe he visited a theater department and got tips from the drama coach.

##

The Net is awash in arguments over who is the stalking horse for whom.

Trump working for Cruz? For Clinton?

Lexicon.ft.com (Financial Times) says a stalking horse is an offer or bid designed to test the market for an asset often ahead of a formal auction. It effectively places a floor underneath a proposed asset sale.

Apple Dictionary adds that it is "a false pretext concealing someone's real intentions."

As we've been told, Trump is the best businessman ever. 

Best stalking horse? Doubtful. The equine has the bit in his teeth.

Right-wingers turned their "base" into terrified fanatics. Reap what you sow, slimeballs.

-30-

Bluffer-in-Chief D.J. Trump?

 I'm still working my way through Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature," and found this:

A subtype of self-serving bias is "positive illusions," considered a bargaining tactic, or a credible bluff.

"In recruiting an ally to support you in a risky venture, in bargaining for the best deal, or in intimidating an adversary into backing down, you stand to gain if you credibly exaggerate your strengths. Believing your own exaggeration is better than cynically lying about it, because the arms race between lying and lie detection has equipped your audience with the means of seeing through barefaced lies.

"As long as your exaggerations are not laughable, your audience cannot afford to ignore your self-assessment altogether, because you have more information about yourself than anyone else does, and you have a built-in incentive not to distort your assessment too much or you would constantly blunder into disasters.

"On the other hand, no individual can afford to be the only honest one in a community of self-enhancers."

 So, proportionality is vital. If I were a wine-o-phile, I'd pour a glass of Trump-brand wine and read Trump Magazine. Oh, wait, its Web page says it is not affiliated with Donald J. Trump, and the magazine's out of business. Is Donnie Boy running out of real things to brag/bluff about?

-30-

Ideologically speaking

Chapter intro in Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature:" 

Macbeth’s self-justifications were feeble—and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare’s evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Oh, to fervently wish for a shortage of ideology in the USA. 

And, perhaps, a shortage of volume in Mr. Pinker's 1,009-page (digital) tome.

-30-

 

Out of the mouth of goblins

 “Think about this, Mister Trev. Don’t be smart. Smart is only a polished version of dumb. Try intelligence. It will surely see you through.” 

— Nutt, the goblin, “Unseen Academicals,” by Terry Pratchett

-30- 

Blowed up real good

The end of "Mythbusters" is in sight.

While the show should have ended some years ago, around the time that they starting calling movie stunts "myths," I already miss Adam and Jamie, just as I still miss Tory, Kori and Grant after their unwarranted dismissal.

The Mythbusters made, not quite by accident, a flying torpedo, the most wonderful unexpected contraption ever.

They gloriously created goo and gunk and gratuitous destruction.

Power, harnessed to educate.

One stoic, one manic (but in a good way), exploding their way into rerun history.

If failure was always an option, they never exercised the option.

-30-

Amendment re TV commercials selling catheters: They are elsewhere in the cable-TV spectrum, rather than on RetroTV. The creep factor continues, however.

-30-

The Amish versus Doctor Who

RetroTV shows the oldest "Doctor Who" serials Sunday evenings. I never noticed before: William Hartnell's Doctor is a laughing fool, at least in the episodes tonight. A creepy, laughing fool. Keeping in mind that the actor was presented with a script and had to cope. But that laugh is a thing of nightmares.

###

Also, RetroTV has the creepiest commercials.

One advertisement for disposable catheters shows a customer receiving home delivery in a box that's big enough to hold a litter of puppies. The company (I think it's the same company) promotes its catheters as fitting in your pocket; video shows a man putting one into his pants pocket. If you have to carry catheters with you, gentlemen, I wish you success in their use. And privacy.

Another commercial touts Amish Cleaning Tonic by Dutch Glow, for cleaning surfaces such as stoves, outdoor grills and so on. Also, there's Dutch Glow Amish Wood Milk.

So, people who eschew modern technology create chemical cleaners?

Before Christmas, it was impossible to avoid commercials and newspaper ads hocking Amish-style electric heaters. To fill all those electrical outlets every Amish building has in abundance?

"Amish" is a perfect word for marketers: short, familiar without specifics, and Christian.

 -30-

Pardon my language

If I were a political activist, I would be busy documenting the clusterfucks that blew up at the Democratic Party's caucuses Saturday.

Next caucus season, I would file all sorts of lawsuits asking the courts to make Nevada return to honestly run primary elections, or make the parties run them professionally.

I'd even ask Jimmy Carter's voting-rights group to come to Nevada to observe, like it did across Africa.

Sound systems, people. Somebody in your caucus group must have a karaoke machine. Clear rules, published a month before. Multiple training sessions for leaders. And yes, I know you're dealing with volunteers and volunteers frequently have their heads up their asses. Bring in third-grade teachers to run the show!

Neither the GOP or the Trumpies needed to create this demolition of grass-roots democracy. You clowns did it for them.

What's the saying? A country gets the government it deserves rather than the one it wants.

-30-

Male supremacy on display

After multiple times of ignoring a commercial about “the settlers” and their cable TV instead of satellite TV, I realized: 

The father calls the girl “daughter,” defining her as his possession, but he calls his son “boy,” defining him by his genitalia.

Boy given male power, girl kept down.

-30-

I dreamed a dream

Wouldn't it be sweet if the actions of the Las Vegas caucus chairman who prevented a translator from turning English into Spanish Saturday, breaking federal law, got the votes of that caucus thrown out?

Lost Wages is Hillary's Nevada stronghold. One racist fool could wipe out a bunch of votes, and maybe wipe out some of her delegates.

The video is out there.

Sweet.

-30-

Is it over?

Can I come out now? Is it safe?

I talked, briefly, with 6 nice people calling on behalf of Senator Sanders, in the last five days.

Two of them called within 30 minutes of each other.

Three computer calls supporting Secretary Clinton.

Zippo calls from Repub candidates.

Maybe they understand about being registered non-partisan in Nevada. Lo, those many years ago, I could not face signing up for the political party of Lyndon Johnson, who was sending my classmates to die in South Asia jungles on behalf of despots. Nor could I sign up for the party led by Richard Nixon, whom I had a chance to see up close at a news conference. Cold eyes, no human behind them.

For Prez 2016, you clowns duke it out. I'll choose between your winners.

Trump-Rubio vs. Clinton-Sanders.

Thanks, Canada, but you can have Teddy boy back now.

-30-

Politics, revealed

  

A.Word.A.Day, by Anu Garg, wordsmith.org:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

 

Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.  

— Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918) 

-30- 
 

Time out of sync

A 21st century luxury: Reading comic strips published before I started paying attention.

A drawback: When the strip's seasons are all mixed up.

An example: "Peanuts Begins" is running Halloween strips in January.

Side note: It's better than I expected; I gave up on "Peanuts" long before Schulz did.

-30-

Machiavelli's advice for Prince Trump

Niccolo Machiavelli, "Discorsi,  II" 1531:

"It is prudent for a man to abstain from threats or contemptuous expressions, for neither weaken the enemy: Threats make him more cautious, and contemptuous remarks excite his hatred and a desire to avenge himself."

Consider me excited, sir.

-30-

Memo to self: When you take over a federal building, stay inside it. The cops are outside.

-30-

I know that look!

That grimace on D. Trump's face while Silly Sarah babbled on was the exact face my father sported while sitting through the mandatory piano recitals my teacher staged.

I know Pops loved me because he sat through three a year for four years. Oddly, Mother always had an emergency at work.

The Half-Gov's incoherent babble was akin to the tripe vice-principals, coaches and teachers spouted while trying to whip up enthusiasm for, well, everything. Anything.

Does D. Trump know Sarah's a Loser? Electoral College votes: 173 to 365?

Memo to self: Calling the cable TV-Internet failure a moron is an insult to morons everywhere.

-30-

The job for the man

I'm fascinated by Scott Adams' analyses of Donald Trump.

Which led me to a thought:

Who's going to tell Mr. T that, when things go bad, the President cannot declare bankruptcy and walk away?

-30-

Solo, we hardly knew ye

Finally saw "The Force Awakens"... I'm still confused as to why Han's death didn't bring even a tiny tear to my eyes.

(Professor Proton's ghostly attempted suicide by light saber might have ruined it for me.)

The movie's better than I expected.

Carrie, dear, it was worth the pain of shedding all that weight.

Mark, dear, you showed up for work for, what, one day? Great job.

I'm too lazy to look up info on the actor playing Ben. And I'm embarrassed to insist that he isn't as handsome as Leia and Han's kid should be.

-30-

Donald the Nuker

Could aides to Prez Donald Trump use the same tactic that Nixon's aides used for foreign affairs negotiations? The one where they privately said Nixon was so nuts they could not guarantee he wouldn't use nukes on any country that got in his way?

-30-