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DemoCat's avatar

Rented Enchanted April after reading positive reviews, eager for 90 minutes of escapism. I liked the concept, the idea of 4 ladies renting an Italian villa on the ocean surrounded by flowers and dining on coffee and rustic bread sounds like a beautiful month. I enjoyed the characters. The book may be the way to go. I personally found the movie frustrating after a promising opening few minutes. The movie seems intent on creating some mild conflict between the 4 women from the first day they arrive. Perhaps that’s necessary for them to have more to do than read, relax or eat? And by day 2, the character who seemed most desperate to escape her unfulfilling marriage is writing her husband to invite him to join her there. I was expecting less conflict and complications and more simple bucolic atmosphere. That’s the trouble with expectations. :)

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RogationDays's avatar

I loved the movie and the book!!

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Slamber's avatar

Me too!

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

You already did. Just can't keep your mouth shut, can you?

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Opalescent Riddles's avatar

Just a little overflow from another conversation.

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Vagenda and Peeara's avatar

Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel: "it's scientific that babies feel pain when they're being murdered by their mothers at 15 weeks. Democrats want to kill babies at 38 and 39 weeks." RRM seems to feel that "common sense" legislation is the answer. That's weird, because the GQP in my state wants to execute women who have abortions at any time, for any reason. I'm not talking about the GQP party, I'm talking about the ELECTED officials. They were stopped by REPUBLICAN women.

RRM seems to feel that the REAL problem is bad messaging on the GQP's part. I guess dumb bitches, and the men who love them, just don't understand what "we want to outlaw abortion" actually means. If they just keep doubling down on this abortion bullshit, I'm sure the country will follow them down that path.

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

Also, I felt pain when I had a procedure done on my arthritic neck recently. Those doctors should be locked up!

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Mysterysurf's avatar

If we can't block anyone, I wish we could at least tag people so we're reminded of why we think they're an idiot when we encounter them in the future.

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

Everybody's an idiot once in a while. Everyone.

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Mysterysurf's avatar

True. But sometimes it's egregious enough that I want to be able to take it into consideration in the future.

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

True dat.

I'm pissed that a useless college football coach got fired for crap job performance and got a $75M payout. I actually have been released from a meaningful job and got $0.

Crapitalism sucks!

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AIB's avatar

I’m guessing his agent negotiated a good deal going in.

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RogationDays's avatar

75 MILLION!!!! Holy Mother of Baby Jesus

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jte's avatar

In most states, especially in the South, the highest paid public employee is almost invariably the State U football coach.

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Nov 12, 2023
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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

You are the bait. Get serious.

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Bupkus231's avatar

Another attempt at a marketing coup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGfkwWTllyo

Heinz is attempting to market its ketchup as "runner's fuel"

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

Given TFG's affinity for using it on walls, maybe they should market it as wallpaper paste.

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calliecallie, aka pollyanna's avatar

Thanksgiving is the very best holiday. Fight me.

1) Gratitude is the purpose of the thing

2) No gift-giving pressure

3) Lots of good food

4) Many people get a four day weekend.

What could possibly be better than that?

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AIB's avatar

Right there with you.

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

A single day on Harbor Island?

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

A 5-day weekend and more food?

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Bupkus231's avatar

A horrifying ( to me ) story at the NYT this morning:

𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐀𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒.

[gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/army-ammunition-factory-shootings.html?unlocked_article_code=1.90w.boDa.EGv4-894xZ7P&smid=url-share

The contractors running this plant are allowed to sell "excess" ammunition in the commercial marketplace. Casings containing the plant identifier have been found at many crime scenes, even some of the most notorious mass shootings in the US:

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐴𝑟𝑚𝑦 𝐴𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑡. 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑊𝑎𝑟 𝐼𝐼, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒, 𝑖𝑛 𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑀𝑜., ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈.𝑆. 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑛𝑎𝑚.

𝐼𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑦-𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡, 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑌𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 “𝐿𝐶” 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠, 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛’𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠.

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mvario's avatar

Thanks for that.

I suppose they're just trying to counterbalance for all the 1033 Program military weapons they're supplying the police with.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

If America would stop manufacturing and selling all of these deadly weapons a lot of these mass shootings as well as fucked up terrorist attacks and outright wars in OTHER nations would diminish substantially.

I HATE capitalism.

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Pope Scipio Newburyporticus's avatar

My dad was a Silent Generation ('34) and my Mom was between Silent and Boomer ('43) and I'll say this: They were both kind of immature. They partied, drank, and socialized like I did in my 20's their entire lives. They weren't alone - they had dozens of friends - and were pretty typical for their generations. Gen X parties less than the Boomers did and Gen Z barely drinks or fucks at all. If anything, I think every generation is more mature than the next.

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calliecallie, aka pollyanna's avatar

Here's a thing for your consideration, based on the small sample size of my blended family. Generalizations, obviously. No offense meant to anyone. Feel free to add your suggestions.

When entering a room...

Early Boomers: Turn on the lights and the teevee, and leave them on when they leave.

Late Boomers: Turn on the lights and the teevee, and turn them off when they leave.

Gen X: Turn on the teevee and the computer, but not the lights, and don't leave the room until they can no longer avoid doing so.

Millennials: Turn on the lights, teevee, computer, laptop, and phone, and leave the room only when they have finalized their brunch arrangements.

Zoomers: Turn on the lights, teevee, laptop, phone, and only leave the room to get the takeout they have ordered.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

What frustrates me is the increasing sense of entitlement and complacency in younger generations. A community that feels as if their "owed" certain things and isn't motivated to get up and actively seek to instigate change isn't going to last very long.

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EyeQueue's avatar

Maybe more mature, but (on balance) with each generation we are headed toward creating a generation with the attention span of a gnat.

Which is very, very fucking sad and dangerous to our democracy.

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abbienormal's avatar

My undergraduate and graduate students have a serious IT addiction problem. It's not just that they pick up their phones whenever they are stressed or bored (which is constantly). They walk into the street without even looking up from their phones. Not a week goes by that I don't have to slam on my brakes for some student that does this.

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

My wife and kids are constantly looking at their phones when we go out to eat, or even eat at home. It is rather annoying. Of course, I am the one whose phone will be dead for a week before I realize I haven't received a call or text in a while.

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EyeQueue's avatar

Sadly, I do the same. :( And I have noticed my attention span has dropped over the past X years (since I started using a smartphone).

Since the pandemic, I have cut way down on how much I tinker with it, though, and I have gotten back to the habit of reading.

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EyeQueue's avatar

Yup. All of this, too.

I hate it. I have had the same thing happen (I live in a uni town, so there is LOTS of this shit. They DON'T EVEN FUCKING LOOK and I swear to god I don't understand the mentality).

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

TLDR -- summarize?

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EyeQueue's avatar

Attention spans and the ability to tolerate lengthier modes of discourse are dropping constantly. I saw it happen in real time while teaching uni between 2000 and 2022.

My students could tolerate reading long articles back in 2000. When I quit teaching, they could tolerate like 3 pages.

It correlated very strongly with the rise in smartphone use. I also blame Tik Tok and Twitter for getting people accustomed to extremely short sound bites and a limit on characters.

You can't explain or understand complex topics with that as your standard, and that appears to be what Gen Z mostly likes.

I suspect it will get much worse.

And yeah, naysayers will claim this all happened with TV, the base-level Internet, etc., but no it didn't. Not this quickly and not to this extent, and I really think it doesn't bode well for preserving our democracy in this country.

ETA: And.........ISWYDT, LMAO!!!!! I'm not caffeinated yet this morning so slow on the uptake. XD XD XD XD XD

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

like 3 pages...

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

'sokay -- I think an even longer post in response to TLDR is the perfect revenge. I can't remember the name of the network or app or whatever, but a few years back, some studios tried doing short-form shows (was it called ShortForm? Probably. Maybe. Who knows?), each episode somewhere around five minutes or less. I am guessing they failed because they were too long.

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EyeQueue's avatar

And I feel bad that I have a LOT of contempt for people who don't have a very long attention span (if it's not medically caused).

My last couple of courses I taught I had students talk about the reading being "boring" and I would tell them they were there to learn and learning includes slogging through some material you don't immediately find exciting.

I think Nirvana was wrong re: Gen X. Gen Z is more like the "here we are now entertain us" generation. *sigh*

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

It is annoying that it took 55 years, but I am glad I finally found a medical reason for me basically never making it through a 50 minute lecture without getting lost in daydreams at least halfway through. Now that I am down to the last three courses in my Masters degree, it will be interesting to see in January if my focus truly improves while medicated, or if I now need to unlearn all those decades of bad habits before the meds make me a more focused student.

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Nov 12, 2023
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EyeQueue's avatar

That's really awesome (and yeah my daughter learned with the "whole language method," which I thought was less successful than phonics, which is how most of Gen X learned).

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

Pretty soon, we'll have an entire generation born with pockets full of Werther's Originals, and shouting "Get off my lawn!" as they come out.

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Sister Artemis's avatar

Their little lisps from their incompletely formed pallettes will be so adorable. "Get off my wan!!!" they'll warble as they shake their fat little fists at the clouds, right before they ask "do you want a wuthers, wittle chiwold?"

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Parakeetist's avatar

Whee

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Nov 12, 2023
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EyeQueue's avatar

DUIs are laughably easy to avoid. (aka don't fucking drink and drive and I'm not sure why people have such a hard time with it).

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Pope Scipio Newburyporticus's avatar

I agree, although that means I have not been able to drink at a bar for the last 20 years.

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EyeQueue's avatar

:(

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Nov 12, 2023
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EyeQueue's avatar

I totally agree, and I think you're right. My daughter is Gen Z and there was practically zero drinking among her and her friend circle or any of the group of that age that I worked extensively with in local community theater.

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1st light's avatar

What's the story behind Grimes (what an awful name) being unable to serve Musk with child support papers? He's richer than rich, why is he hiding?

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

If he paid her, he'd have to pay them all, and then he'd be slightly less rich. Plus, Excel still doesn't permit enough columns and rows to include the full list of women he's knocked up.

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EyeQueue's avatar

Well, dontcha know she "went out and got herself pregnant" so why should he pay? /s

I hope she gets what she needs for her kids, but at this point.....you kind of know what you're getting if you want to ride the Musk Pole.

His first wife spilled the beans in that Vanity Fair article years ago about what a piece of steaming shit he is to women, so there's really no excuse anymore.

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

He refuses to accept responsibility.

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Mighty Little Dog's avatar

Bc he’s a raging dick.

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Thesaurus Wrecks's avatar

Opinion | Is Ok, Boomer the new N-word?

NYT

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

I thought it was a sign you were a fan of Battlestar Galactica.

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CripesAmighty's avatar

No, it's just reductive, simplistic, vapid, stupid, trite, shopworn and cliche.

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V4Virginia's avatar

I wanted to create (have created by someone for me, that is) a kind of Yelp app for seniors called, OK, Boomer!

Copyright 2023, all rights reserved, see me for licensing.

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ziggywiggy's avatar

Is Substack working really slowly for anyone else?

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CripesAmighty's avatar

Same as usual--lurching about like a drunk on a pogo-stick before having a petit-mal seizure--freezing the device and shutting off the wireless radio--until regaining consciousness--to resume lurching...

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

Everything on this site is for me today.

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Bradthe🤖's avatar

It just took about 5 seconds to reload the page for me; normally takes a second or so, so I vote yes.

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SayItWithWookies's avatar

I noticed it being slow this morning. And yesterday on my laptop (where I just go to Wonkette rather than Substack) the page wasn't rendering right. I figure they're doing some sort of update this weekend.

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Chicken ate my Ballot's avatar

Sometimes when Substack gets sluggish it helps to delete cookies and restart the computer.

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ziggywiggy's avatar

Listen to you giving me computer advice, that's awesome.

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Chicken ate my Ballot's avatar

heheheh, did it work?

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ziggywiggy's avatar

Haven't done it, I think it's a Substack issue not a me issue cause everything else is good. But I love that you knew what to do!

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

Yeah, everybody has it.

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Bub the Displaced Zombie's avatar

I just came across this joke in a book on Stalin:

Stalin is in his his study and cannot find his favourite pipe. He is convinced it has been stolen and calls KGB chief Lavrenti Beria in a rage, demanding that the thief be found.

A few days later Stalin's maid finds the missing pipe and gives it to Stalin. Stalin calls Beria and says to call off the manhunt - the pipe has been found.

Beria protests: "But Comrade Stalin, we have already arrested 10,000 suspects!"

Stalin thinks for a moment and says: "Oh. Well then - sentence them all to 10 years."

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mvario's avatar

Lead pipe?

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Land Shark 🇺🇦 🏳️‍⚧️'s avatar

Change "pipe" to "hamberder" and "Stalin" to "Donnie Dipshit" and it work even better!

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

But to be in character, misspell some words.

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

But to be in character, misspell some words.

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

"It was stollen!"

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V4Virginia's avatar

I'm listening to news with earbuds while Mr. V starts bread. I keep muttering "fucking idiots" and "these assholes, seriously" and so on. I think he finds it disconcerting, but at least he can tell what I'm hearing, more or less.

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Thesaurus Wrecks's avatar

If Biden gets re-elected he plans to be a completely normal president.

If Trump gets re-elected he plans to turn America into a dystopian authoritarian hellscape where there is no freedom of the press.

Media: We will act like Trump’s campaign manager.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

If the Deposed Despot is returned to power it's over for the democratic experiment known as America.

And there won't be any going back. Anyone who believes that Drumpfenfuehrer would relinquish the Oval Office after the proscribed two four year terms is out of their fucking mind. Elections as we know them will become an "old fashioned" method of selecting leaders. That process will be abolished and our leaders will be "chosen" for us.

Regardless of what it takes we must NOT allow any of this to happen.

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Thatsit Fortheotherwon's avatar

Next election is a tipping point. He's already got the Supreme Court

and both houses of Congress are iffy.

Vote like your life depended upon it.

It does.

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SkeptiKC's avatar

That is simply all too terrifyingly accurate.

This is one fuckered up timeline.

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abbienormal's avatar

They have been doing it for 7 years now. Getting really good at it.

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1st light's avatar

Not that good. Remember last Tuesday?

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RocktonSam's avatar

I'm waiting to read and hear the word AUTHORITARIAN when the msm describes the PAB.

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

According to the latest style manual, that word is spelled either QUIRKY, BOLD, or UNCONVENTIONAL.

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Satanic Pancake's avatar

Media: Trump's plans for a future America are unconventional, and guaranteed to shake up the status-quo! Here are five reasons why we should give him another chance . . .

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RocktonSam's avatar

Corruption and murder also, too.

And getting rid of the media...

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