This is Sunday so now most likely old news but it's been on my mind the past several days.
Earlier we saw Trump in his office showing his plan for AF1 featuring darker blue colors, more red, white and blue, and more closely resembling his own Trump plane. Everything that you might encounter online about this argues from appeal to tradition that it's always been done like this. I think there is a fondness for the sky blue color scheme because those colors were chosen by Jacqueline Kennedy. To writers of the pieces I've read, the colors represent her. Changing the colors means ending the loyalty of affection to Jacqueline Kennedy so change is felt with some resentment.
Trump responds the new colors can be considered Melania T colors instead of Jacki O colors although there is little to suggest Melania has anything to do with them.
What was striking right off about that interview was the presence of George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office confabbing with Trump in friendly terms.
My first thought was what is he doing there?
Why did Trump invite him?
Trump told the story of the snake that bites its benefactor then says, "you knew what I was before you picked me up and helped me" at least a dozen times at his rallies.
And now we see Trump picking up a snake and carrying it to Idaho and then to the Oval Office and granting an exclusive interview. With a known Hillary supporter. With all the appearances of letting down his guard in friendly animated revealing conversation. Why give Stephanopoulos an inch when you know in advance he will take a mile and that he is definitely not a friend?
Then, all that we hear about them together is Stephanopoulos asking Trump if he would accept damaging opposition research from a foreign entity.
Boom.
The whole week is saturated with liberal fury.
That other people who aren't me listened to. I skipped a million things about that over the last week.
There was one interview on the Daily Caller with Media Matters representative that I skipped half a dozen times. Apparently, the Media Matters representative argued ridiculously that there is no comparison between Trump accepting damaging information during a campaign (and reporting it to the FBI) and Hillary Clinton actually contracting foreigners for damaging opposition through three firewalls that was then offered United States Intelligence services by several avenues then useed for FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign. US intelligence services spying on campaigns. Then used to investigate.
Trump supporters insist this is Trump trapping liberals in exposing their hypocrisy.
But what good is that for the national discussion when 90% of reporting in avalanche doesn't acknowledge it, and the 10% of reporting that does show how liberal hypocrisy is exposed is also dismissed? It is not possible to shame the shameless. Not possible to outshout professional shouters.
Why even bother?
He knows more than I do. He knows better than I. He has a much larger picture than I do. Apparently he has his own reasons to endure this abuse; being bitten by snakes.
Is Trump thinking he can get out his message on platforms broader than his usual ways and deliver his own snakebites as he does so? Is Trump reversing his story so he is the snake who bites the reporters who help him get out his message while poisoning the journalists who help him?
What I saw is Stephanopoulos just got bit. But all that I hear is impeach, impeach, impeach. With zero acknowledgment what Trump suggested is legal while the things that Democrats actually did is high crimes.
David Shahar, a health scientist at the University of The Sunshine Coast, Australia, told BBC.com that in the last decade of his 20 year career he has noticed more patients have the protrusion which was once considered rare.
Shahar and his co-author wrote that their findings could be explained by the rise in the use of hand‐held technologies from early childhood, and said ways to prevent and treat the growths should be considered.
Describing the phenomenon dubbed "text neck," Shahar told BBC.com that as we look down at devices like smartphones and tablets, our necks must work to keep our heads in place. Prolonged straining could lead the body to build new bone to increase the surface area holding up this mass.
They take fifteen minutes to show how to do something done in three minutes. They're all yakitty-yakitty-yakitty.
Long ago I started a new job at the FRB. Night shift. After work a bunch of young guys went to the tiny house of one of the employees. He most closely resembled a skinny motorcycle gang member. A few of them were second generation Mexican immigrants. He showed us how to make huevos rancheros.
I was all, "wow."
He used flour tortillas, fried eggs, standard pork chile, and cheese.
This is great. It's like listening to a guy at a bar unload his full rumination, except Trump doesn't drink.
And you can intuit the producers speaking into the ears of the hosts to interrupt him. "Introduce the Pelosi clip, introduce the Pelosi clip." So they interject a clip of Pelosi saying something disgusting. I have no idea what Pelosi said *skip* this thing Fox keeps doing of showing people I don't want to see, in order to make their point and get a reaction, is unacceptable. I despise this common Fox practice. If I wanted to see Pelosi then I'd tune into Pelosi. Stop showing me irrelevant people. But that's Fox. Trump is on Fox so we put up with Fox annoyances.
Trump says he doesn't know why Obama left so many judge positions open for Trump to fill. Did I catch that right? I was doing something else in another window. I heard 138 judges. We all know Mitch McConnell refused to process them. I read that somewhere on the internet.
Anyway, happy birthday, Mr. President.
We all do our best Marylin Monroe imitation singing this song to you. Real slow and breathy and alluring. Once you start doing it, then everyone does it. It's infectious.
Except at the end not the beginning and from the doctor not from a lady.
I mention this not to brag, rather, to to share information I think is important. It's not just me thinking it either, rather, it's the feedback I'm getting that didn't happen before. The feedback is surprising me because it's so odd.
I had to go back to the clinic for the doctor to sign a state form regarding vee-hickle license plate registration.
I thought that I had to go back. It's possible that wasn't necessary. The form is both threatening and ambiguous. The doctor read it differently than I did. His interpretation makes sense because he is a sensible person, but the form he is making sense of is not sensible. I can describe the non-sensible portions that make it indecipherable but all that is boring.
I waited a very long time, then finally he saw me about the form. He signed it now I'm good.
On the way out he said, "The ladies here really like your shoes."
That's two compliments from the same place. It shows they talked about it when I was gone. The ladies told me themselves the day before, now I see they told him too.
The shoes look like the shoes featured in this video.
Except mine are 10X less expensive.
Here's the thing:
I have three pair of shoes from this company, Thursday Boots.
Wait! I have to read comments to the video before clicking off.
Ew. They're all negative and contradictory and presumptuous. Most the comments are ridiculous.
I'm very happy with these three pair. All three evoked comments from people who don't usually notice. But this company is a bit weird. They know their sizing is off. All three of mine are in different sizes. The size that works best for me is one full size smaller than usual.
First I ordered my real size and I'm happy with that. Although there is a bit more room in the toe.
The second I ordered 1/2 size smaller per their suggestion plus in wide. I like that one a lot too because they fit best when my feet were swollen, although laced up to the maximum width possible.
The third in normal width and one full size lower. I think this fits the best.
However, I like them all.
A lot.
The first one was complimented on at a funeral when I was standing around in a circle. That made everyone look at my boots and discuss them.
The second pair was complimented at somebody's home. "Your boots are gold." And they were, in that light at that moment.
The third pair was discussed at the doctor's office. The compliment was the first thing a woman said to me. The second day the doctor relayed what the woman talked about after I left. This was the first time I wore them in public in the daytime.
Here's why they stick out and get this unusual attention.
Because the shoes that men wear today totally suck.
Everyone is poncing around in athletic shoes, even non-athletes. I suppose for comfort. I don't know. I don't get it.
So it's very easy to stick out by simply not doing that.
Shoes were a big f'k'n deal growing up. I hated it. "Shine your shoes, shine your shoes, shine your shoes," all the time, week after week, year after year. It was essential our shoes looked great.
My brother and I had to shine our dad's shoes.
Oh, man, I hated that.
His shoes were so BIG!
(They were actually smaller than mine would become eventually, by 2 + 1/2 sizes.)
Shine the shoes, shine the shoes, shine the shoes. What a drag. There was a whole box of crap that goes with this task, filled with polishes and brushes too big for my hands, and rags. Like my brother and I were two little shoeshiners. How degrading.
"Son, do you want to shine my shoes?"
"FUCK NO!" I thought each time. While my mouth said, "Okay."
Such a slave. Ew, I hated myself for never challenging the pussy-ness of issuing an imperative in the form of interrogative." Quit asking me if I want to do something we both know I don't want to do. That's just so mealy-mouth. It's a thing Air Force officers do. Apparently. It's a thing done to me the whole time growing up. It's the thing that made me the asshole that I am today.
Do you want to mow the lawn?
Do you want to wash the car?
Do you want to trim the bushes?
Do you want to clean up the yard?
Do you want to pick up all that dog shit?
Do you want to rake up the leaves?
Do you want to shine my shoes?
Do you want to brush your teeth?
Do you want to shine your shoes?
Fuck you, I don't want to do any of those work-related things. Leave me alone. Why was it so necessary to see me being industrious all the time? What was it about seeing me relaxing or doing my own things that got on his nerves to badly? Quit bossing me around all the time by asking me if I want to do things that I don't want to do.
No, I'm busy making a kite.
No, I'm busy drawing a picture.
No, I'm already busy putting together a model airplane.
No, I'm reading Mad magazine.
No, I'm changing my aquarium.
No, I'm reading comic books.
No, I'm making a clay castle.
No, I'm soldering these wires.
No, I'm copying Japanese.
No, I'm playing with my lenticular photo of King Tut's burial mask.
No, I'm melting crayons.
No, I'm making a Boston cream pie.
Shoes. All the time shoes. Take care of your shoes, clean your shoes, polish your shoes.
On Air Force bases we were total freaks about shoes.
They had to be polished.
And not just regular polished, no, they had to be highly polished.
And then that whole shoe-system collapsed.
And that's how you can really tell a guy by how they are put together.
Regular, ordinary shoes make you stick right out because everyone else has taken the slipshod path.
Literally, slip shod.
The easiest shoe-route possible.
So when you don't do that then you stick out and women in particular notice you. I think because they have a shoe-obsession too.
A woman I dated kept all her shoe boxes. She identified her shoes in her closet by their original boxes. She still does this presumably. That is her system.
And they're all very good shoes. Women's shoes are amazingly expensive compared with men's shoes. She described to me why they are worth it. She went over all the details like this video. It got down to the itty-bitty delicate stitching all around. Stitching on men's shoes is a lot more clunkier, 15X more heavy-duty.
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[Incidentally, that doctor called back at my home.
He told me he's looking at results of the blood draw done two days ago and he sees my kidney function way down below acceptable.
He told me to stop taking medicine and start drinking tons of water to prepare for being tested further elsewhere.
He mentioned dialysis and that word freaked me out.
He thinks my kidneys have stopped working, or they are working very poorly for some reason. He was alarmed. And he made me alarmed. He thinks this is the cause of why I am feeling so low energy. So, all of that's coming up right now.]
The penalty maximum set by state law is a guideline not an absolute. The jury exceeded the maximum significantly. The judgement will most likely be challenged.
The jury also awarded attorney's fees which are considerable.
David Gibson reacts:
Daniel McGraw adds a report with details over at Legal Insurrection. With photographs of the courtroom, the family, and team, and a few people you might rather not see.
To the contrary, this professor writing for Forbes understates the malevolent actions of Oberlin and understates the damage done to Gibson's. Although generally fair, he omits important elements that would affect a jury whether or not it's admitted into evidence. (The jury wasn't sequestered, if we know about Oberlin memos and messages to students, then the jury does too. Evan Gerstmann doesn't mention those incredibly damaging items presumably because they weren't actual court evidence.) He thinks the jury went too far.
I wish this were better quality recording. This is one of Martin's best repeated characters. If I kept looking I'd probably find one.
YouTube commenters love every aspect of this segment, they repeat every line of it. They latch onto things that I missed like the song Martin is singing as his character enters and the barbs he delivers to both women. Each line is hilarious to them. He is unrelentingly antagonistic toward both women and they play off him excellently. Notice how he makes Pam self-conscious about her breath. That's very Trump-like, actually.
He accuses Pam of being transgender. Martin keeps insisting Pam is not feminine enough.
I love all of Matin's characters. I wish there was more of Martin on t.v. This show was fun.
* "Don't" is thumb under the chin that juts forward
* "Believe" is an index finger at the forehead, thought, that is compressed with both hands like "marriage."
* "watch* is the thumb and curved index finger held at the eyes and pulled forward as if watching something. These guys say "watch" in front of the torso with no relation to the eyes.
All interpreters show this song quite differently.
In most I don't see "uptown" and I don't see "funk."
I don't even know what is meant by the term funk. Originally, an off smell. Later, a music genre of the 60's that focuses on rhythmic grooves. How they show it appears to be similar to "money," or "thing" or "dirt" I don't get it.
* these guys do "uptown" as "town" + "advancing blocks up the arm"
* "dragon" is fire coming from the mouth and expanding.
