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Next week's movie is ๐Œ๐š๐ ๐‡๐จ๐ญ ๐๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐ฆ. https://open.substack.com/pub/ziggywiggy/p/wonkette-movie-night-aug-31-mad-hot?r=2knfuc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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{Apologies for being tardy}

It's 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Sunday in Chicago. Open up a tab for the great show ๐˜”๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ ๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ฏ on wdcb.org/internet-stream.

Here is WDCB's program description: "Host Renรฉ รvila carries a long tradition of Sunday afternoon Latin Jazz on WDCB into the future as he brings you along on a weekly trip to the ๐˜”๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ ๐˜๐˜ฏ๐˜ฏ. Tune in every Sunday from 4 - 6pm for 2 hours of jazz with clave, as รvila reaches back to the classic Afro-Cuban sounds of the '40s & '50s and explores Latin Jazz styles along the way to the current sounds of today."

In case of streaming difficulty, go here: https://wdcb.org/streaming-support

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author

Don't forget to join me later for ๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐’๐ฎ๐ง๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ on my Substack.

1pm PT, 2pm MT, 3pm CT, 4pm ET. The post goes up one hour before the start time.

https://ziggywiggy.substack.com/

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It is 11:11am.

I have *just* woken up.

I am convinced my own mom slipped me a mickey, in her homemade chicken soup.

Also too...W T A F?? (I do not know why I'm putting a line break after every sentence. Time to reheat the cold coffee.)

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Homemade chicken soup can just be that good for you.

Maybe momma knew.

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founding

There needs to be a whole new category of RFKjr stories. Some sort โ€œpolitical scandal that violates the laws of god and manโ€

https://www.threads.net/@barbaraj.sobel/post/C_E2QrkNOCf/?xmt=AQGzPLDdaPJN5RBefX4riXlFFx9n4UTSwx12FnsM7UVcxw

Mitt Romney suddenly breathes a sigh of relief as the stories of his dog shitting on his car roof seem rather wholesome.

Iโ€™m about 70% convinced RFK has consumed at least one human being

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Only a matter of time before Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs says that The Clintons killed Elvis.

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Then Elvis comes BACK !

As the R-Vice Pr running mate.

October Surprise.

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Iโ€™m feeling a lot better about my dad and his unusual jaunts off into whimsy. Because - wow what would be wrong about renting a truck or something to haul this thing home in? Why did it have to go on top of the minivan with the windows open? My dad would have planned this out a lot better than RFKJ

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What the actual fuck.

Also, it's illegal to harvest parts of dead whales, per the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

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This can't be real. Right?

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TBF it was probably when he was doing environmental work, but this is not a kid-friendly activity and also yuck.

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I just bought an art print for $3,800.

I don't know whether to jump for joy or to puke, LMAO.

This is the denouement to the "interesting story" (the conclusion to a 20+ year "story") I was too tired to post last night and will post the entire thing on the Open Thread today. I think it's interesting and I hope you all will, too.

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I can't even imagine *having* $3800. I think the only time that has happened in my +50 years is when someone died. (I was first a loser in the career dept., and later disabled).

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I'm sorry to hear that. :(

I also justified it on the basis that I'm getting ready to no longer have to pay $2,500/month in rent, so it should work out.

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Ah, it's all good. Sorry, I didn't mean to stick a Sad Sack story in there - I had just woken up a minutes before. I *try* to have a good sense of humor about my own deal...it works, most of the time. That said...speaking of art. I have some really nice original pieces...becase I've made myself known as the Unwanted Art Repository. It's known that if you have a piece that didn't work out as planned, you hate it, and are gonna can it...I'll take it. Free art is good. :)

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No worries at all! And (other than being disabled) I've been there, sadly.

And that's really cool! I've never seriously collected art at all but I may pick up a few pieces from local artists after I move to the Phoenix area next week. My cousin is an artist there and does some interesting work. XD

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Hey, I lived there half of my life, almost, and know lots of artists; let me know if you need anything, EQ.

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I just ordered a new laptop for $1100 because I will only use overkill machines. I felt queasy for about five hours.

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I'm trying to comfort myself by knowing I have about $5-$10K in Magic: The Gathering cards from the 90s that I can use to help pay for this. XD

But, yeah. Big ticket items always make me queasy.

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founding

I've moved on from the Wilco portion of my morning listening into the Erik Satie zone. Here's an hour's worth of Vexations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTgoVcP3YDs

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New thread

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No-one told Fleming today is Sunday.

Of course, having just awoken from a coma...it may not BE Sunday...

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The milk I put in my coffee may have been bad...

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Iโ€™ve been a very naughty milk . . .

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Iโ€™ve bought 2 half gallons in the past month that had a date 2 weeks in the future, but were going bad when I opened them. I thought about returning them, but that seemed like a lot of work.

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Bad milk! Bad milk!

**smack smack **

Sir, if that milk gives you any more trouble, you just let me know.

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I never even knew we had a Dairy Discipline Dept. Huh.

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A disappointment out of all proportion, but I understand.

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๐—ž๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—”๐—น๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—บ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—จ๐—ฆ ๐—ด๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜

https://apnews.com/article/kroger-albertsons-merger-ftc-antitrust-3ba6eba066636626c4bdc6cd4f73fa29

The article goes on to generic argument around "Is monopolistic behavior good for consumers?", a question answered decades ago by every single first world nation, but resurrected by billionaires who believe that actual competition is costly stupidity.

What the article does ๐˜•๐˜–๐˜› note is that Kroger has so little confidence in the facts of their merger case that they're suing the FTC because UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!

โ€˜๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ณ๐˜.โ€™ ๐—ž๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟโ€™๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/business/kroger-albertsons-ftc-lawsuit/index.html

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"Is monopolistic behavior good for consumers?"

There are two answers to this question, NO and FUCK NO.

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The exact opposite should happen. The sub brands (Safeway, Freddie's, etc) should be spun off out side of Albertson's and Kroger control Break them up. Let's let the free fucking market have a chance. Corporations HATE competition, because less money for executive yachts.

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Independent Freddie's was a kind of department stor-ish plus food- some things cheap, some not, but you could find what you needed usually, including home improvement. Since Kroger bought them out they are not so much stuff anymore. I am shifting as much home improvement buys to a local lumber store that is slowly expanding its offerings to include a lot more hardware.

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I'm looking forward to the bread lines.

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They have no reason to do this beyond "will make Some Guy a lot of money."

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"Some Old Whyte Guy In A Suit"

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I sincerely hope Dems go after this shit. America has become a joke about their antitrust shit and its PRETTY obvious at this point.

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fuck....

Kroger's bought up the PNW regional chain of Fred Meyer's stores. At first there wasn't much change, but over the years the stores have changed quite a bit. Some is probably common to stores of its type: multi-department grocery stores which (once) also featured clothing, housewares, furniture, hardware, paint, garden, etc etc etc. But while the grocery departments have continued to be fairly good, the other departments have become much less well rounded than they used to be. My once beloved Freddie's has become something less than the sum of its whole, if you will. I don't see this as being any kind of good move.

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This is a lawsuit tailor-made for todayโ€™s SCOTUS and their hostility towards regulatory agencies like the FTC.

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Built from the opinions of previous appeals court decisions...

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They merge. This results in stores getting closed, often in areas where there are nothing left except for gas stations to get food.

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They have fruit, now, some of them.

(they want us dead)

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<Dollar General has entered the chat>

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Gotta feed the underpaid and overworked staff, you know.

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In hopes they die early before Social Security & Medicare kick in.

For the children.

Was that cynical?

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It's horrible - and I have read extensively about all the lawsuits and pricing schemes, etc. Sadly (?)...I'm one of those who relys on DG for a LOT. I'm lucky tho - my local store has that hen's teeth rarity in DG...a long term manager who actually cares about what he's trying to do. You can only do so much with that POS company, but he tries. And, since I can't walk much, I can park right at the door there...so I'm stuck with DG.

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They are planning to close at least a dozen stores within my locality if the merger proceeds. Sure, prices will go down at the remaining stores.

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'cause, competition, and the free market.

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We will be down by half. There is a WinCo a mile or so further away that will likely benefit.

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Grocery stores suck anymore. Stores running on skeleton crews, things locked up, no fucking carts (b/c store managers get bonuses for "containing costs" in the stores, which includes not hiring, not scheduling people for more than 20 hours, not buying carts when they are broken or missing, etc.).

Woo hoo! Capitalism!

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Twitter points out another deeply weird thing about Vance: he consistently refers to his kids as if they belong solely to his wife -- "My wife has three beautiful children" -- and not as *their* children.

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Does he refer to her as "the wife"?

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Iโ€™m gonna ask the wife if she minds being referred to as the wife. Which reminds me of when we bought a house in Idaho: When we finally found the house we wanted, and the one that didnโ€™t end up having an offer accepted from someone else before we finished viewing it (2005-2006 was a great year for sellers, a shit year for buyers, in the Panhandle), we talked with the owner and his wife (his second or third) as โ€œthis one.โ€ This one wanted to move out of the house that he had built for his wife (the first one). This one, apparently, was ready for a fresh start, somewhere without so many memories of his wife.

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His audience is incels who think women are only good for two things, fโ€™ing and child rearing, and they already know sheโ€™s attractive, so this is her other selling point. Plus, she is brown, so he also has to prove she has value to the big crowd of racists. Thatโ€™s why itโ€™s her kids.

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Thatโ€™s a dirty damned lie. Everyone knows having sex with women makes you gay! Women are for cooking and cleaning and all the other things mother used to do for you until she kicked you out of the basement for using the curtains as a cum rag.

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Wow ! You are off today.

Course, it is the weekend.

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I did notice that in Welker interview.

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"My father has a son." JDV

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Maybe they aren't his............

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"Just because I know something that you don't doesn't mean I ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ to tell you."

It would be irresponsible not to speculate

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So telling.

My mom stayed at home with me when I was really little while my dad worked outside of the home until I was 5, and then he worked for himself from home...the point is that if I was pretty awful or having a fit or whatever, when my dad arrived home she would thrust me at him and say, "HERE. Take YOUR daughter!" and then stalk off for about an hour with a bubble bath, cocktail, and cigarettes.

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founding

Whose children are they? Did she catch them in the wild, or are they mail-order?

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I think he's just absorbed the same 14-words breeder shit Thiel and Musk go on about, where the man's sole responsibility regarding his family is to spread his seed.

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founding

One of the Prime Directives of organized religion.

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2025 ways Republicans are beholden to billionaires...

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Aug 25ยทedited Aug 25

Last night, I shared with my date something my son taught me!

[Saturday morning]

Me *putting honey on toast*

Son: Did you know bees make that?

Me: Uh yeah I'm not an idiot.

[Saturday night]

Date: Tell me something interesting.

Me: Bees make toast.

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We all know somebody named Mr. Bees, who makes toast, right?

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And who makes delicious homemade butter to go on Mr. Bees toast?

.

Mr. Bees' niece.

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Now Shady is saying that the "childess cat ladies" thing proves he's a normal person, and that people took it "the wrong way."

Sure, Jan.

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That statement is the illegitimate child of "you're holding it wrong" and "please clap "

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Pantsed is graphically demonstrating how Rethuglicons are entirely incapable of honest self-reflection.

It has never occurred to VD to contemplate how his actions and words actually affect people.

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I know this is gross but I have been feeling that Vance sees women as a hole for him to stick it in and nothing more. I don't understand how he has a wife but she must be getting something out of the relationship.

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Money. The women who get hooked up with these stinking turds are mercenary and seem to be only in it for the money.

Or they are hateful turds just like these horrible white beasts.

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Melania. Prove me wrong.

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I think sometimes this, but some women also just want children and a traditional family. I have some lesser friends who all were employed and educated and everything and at a certain point they wanted to just marry any dude who was "serviceable"--like, employed and would do the stuff like go golfing regularly, attend/throw parties with people like them, make stupid small talk, and provide them with a few babies.

It's so far from me I can't even imagine. I'd ask them what they liked about so and so and they'd basically just repeat the stuff I said above. No interest in personality or humor or whatever.

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I actually do remember that. It was the culture at the time

Get along, go along.

It worked for some people.

If it didn't...

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That is just so bizarre to me. :(

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She's a professional woman WTF does she need him for? I can only conclude she is a horrible as he is.

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That is a scathingly accurate assessment. Pantsed virtually personifies the pretentious, patronizing patriarchy.

Piss on him.

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Even in my brain it feels so dirty that I think of a person this way but he is making it clear he has zero respect for women.

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"Nice haircut Fucko, your barber have cats?"

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Don Rickles could have said that and it would have been funny. You, JD, are no Don Rickles.

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"I knew don rickles, sir, and you are no don rickles.,"

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Look no further than JD's totally *normal* interaction at the Donut Shop!

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I can be awkward as fuck, but I could have done a way better interview. Where were the follow up questions? "What's *your* favorite donut here? What would you recommend? What do you like best about working here? What are your eventual goals?"

No. Just "Ok. Good."

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Yes, everyone orders donuts as if they're Dan Rather doing a 60 Minutes expose.

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"Whatever makes sense"

- That doesn't make sense, so Lemon is cool?

"OK. Good"

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It says something about him that he has made this same defence several times before, but nobody seems to have paid attention.

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That excuse is getting old. Typical scumbag "I'm sorry you can't take a joke" punching down bullshit.

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no words. we do have donut shops in ohio, it's not like he's never seen one before.

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Aug 25ยทedited Aug 25

Sammiches, all day, every day.

I noticed this with the Vance donut debacle. His "small talk" reminds me of the cop talk I used to get as a young man. "Your tail light is a little dim, not out though. Where are going tonight?" And then follow you to the town line after they were done with the stop. Standard hick town shakedown stuff for us fresh faced, long haired, they have to be up to no good kids.

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Assumed, No Good.

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The reason I stopped you is did you know that the slots in your license plate's screws don't all line up the same way? Driver's license, insurance and registration, kid.

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Some southern states have laws against anything that obscures a license plate. This includes the common types of surrounds like dealers put on or Cat Moms use. An easy stop and search, especially for Colorado visitors.

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Who have DRUGS !

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Pretty much. I got pulled over for "weaving" on a road with no lines of any kind. He said I was too much over the center and of course there was absolutely no one else around. There was very little to do or places to go when you had no money in small town '80s New England so we just drove around or hung out in some secluded spots. I didn't even drink or smoke back then.

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Years ago (in the 80's) my boyfriend and I were walking to the corner store and were stopped but the cops. We both had black trench coats on (remember I said 80's). He was CERTAIN we were up to no good.

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It was the '80s in my time, too. All of our cars were '60s and '70s heaps and the cops knew who you were but they had to make some stops to show they were useful. The towns were really small and some had part time departments, meaning off duty but would respond to calls.

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This was right after Phil Donahue had the show with all the goth kids with the white pancake and the black lipstick and the victorian dress and their parents wanting to deprogram them.

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Did "It's just a phase" become demonized or something?

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The parents were up in arms about all the black and the listening to Bauhaus and The Cure, or maybe it was the vampire shit. I have no idea. I was already listening to Bauhaus and the Cure and a variety of other bands. I still love goth music. I will die a goth.

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After Colombine, my fellow classmates that wore trench coats stopped wearing them.

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This was WAY before Columbine, 1983. We were Goth kids of the first order.

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Runza!

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I want one!

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There's one near my parents' place, where we'll be in a few days--you want I should mail one to you?

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Hmmm.....Cold cuts have tons of nitrates, cheese is cheese, and microwaves were made to revive stale bread. I'll Venmo you.

Mail it to

Smudge c/o Primer Gray

123 Fake St.

Wakanda, NH 01010

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Mmmmm...

Donut sandwich.

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Deepfried donut dammicj!

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author

Don't forget it's ๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐Ÿ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐’๐ฎ๐ง๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ on my Substack https://ziggywiggy.substack.com/

We start watching at 1pm PT, 2pm MT, 3pm CT, 4pm ET.

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