leh-nerd skin-erd

Very well said Fergie. Efficient, precise, biting sarcasm.

This is it—people going about their daily lives, not worrying too much about Pope memes and the relationship between the US and Canada. Most wouldn’t know who Carney is, or that Alberta is a province in Canada with some simmering political issues. Here though, and on X and in the news….worry, doom.l and gloom.

This is actually a pretty decent outline for a story in a Rupertesque publication.

Welp, we know this much for certain: Marc Carney's 2bd screen name is not @Niagara Bill. He didn't say one gosh durn thing about how Canada's problem's were all caused by secret Maga money and DJT.

Well, no, I don’t think you were actually offended. I used the phrase “crocodile tears”, meaning (from wiki) “is a false, insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears”. As for the traits you like in a prez, I addressed that too: circle back to the commentary on authoritarianism. I didn’t know you were a Bernista. He was right there in 2016 when leadership made him stand down, and in 2020 he just wasn’t competitive against a candidate with as much baggage as JB. I guess maybe a bad call in 2016, but the right call in 2020. I can see why you’re a bit sour here some days—getting skunked over a decade plus is pretty rough.

I agree he doesn't care what you think, but he cares about your reaction. That is to say, the crocodile tears shed about this or that. I think he looks at your support for authoritarian overreach in his arrest, while noting your lack of outrage over your guy's pilfering of classified docs, and would just as soon poke a thumb in your eye for your hypocrisy. That it works so grandly obviously appeals to him and is worth whatever risk he feels he's taking. I'm not suggesting it's right, I'm just suggesting it is what it is.

No, I'm correct...I usually am. Generally speaking, a staunch traditionalist wouldn't like Biden for his abortion stance, mockery of the Pope or Holy See, but certainly wouldn't approve of Trump reposting a meme as Pope. I don't think there's all that much anger, though certainly I can see far-lefty-leaning folk like you would pretend to get riled up. But if you're really upset, stop dithering and do something about it. Schedule a meeting with Cardinal Dolan through one of your comic book club contacts. Write the Vatican. Because regardless of our differences--I'd be happy to never see the WH repost a dopey meme again.

@B-Man is a great poster and I enjoy interacting with him. Seems like a good Catholic to me. Some of the outrage is fake, some likely real from staunch traditionalists (though after the Church has been beaten down the last decade or two it’s hard to find more than a few of those people), and many will use the meme as a hammer for political gain. As we see here, Cardinal Dolan’s comments about the meme….he’s credible when issuing statements against the meme here, but “yukked it up” back when it was appropriate to ridicule. Wax on. Wax off.

I agree with you on the Dodgers, and if people are offended by their version of mocking of the faith of others, the appropriate course of action is to protest/boycott/complain/litigate as the situation dictates. Ted Lieu is a Congressman representing collectively all the people of his district. It seems a very logical question to pose to him, and a fair political statement to suggest he’s possibly a raging hypocrite.

If you’re conflating my comments on democrats and their blind devotion to their candidates to a discussion on trade deficits, it’s understandable why you missed just about all the warning signs with Clinton, Biden, Harris.

For goodness sake, you people voted for JB/KH in large numbers because you couldn’t figure out how to pay back money you borrowed for college, and he’s economically illiterate? That’s not bullying, friend, nor is pointing out that you had to be completely dialed out of reality to think Biden was even remotely competent. Or, that he’s pure. Take a knee, kid.

I thought Conclave was interesting until it wasn’t. 2020s predictable 🥱, though it may well represent the process accurately. On the other hand, I’m not aware of anyone who thinks the Eagles are doing a corporate gig at the Vatican while they’re about the work of deciding who will lead the church moving forward.

I wouldn’t say “anything”. He seems reasonably proficient at winning the race for the White House. He also seems quite adept at breaking the hearts and minds of incredibly popular democrats. Beyond demoralizing HRC—the hand-picked successor of BO, he apparently sensed that Joe Biden was maybe—possibly, behind the scenes, known only to the chosen few—struggling cognitively. To this day, no one really knows how he figured it out. Then, later on, of course, he dispatched the Summertime Brat Gurl KH, a candidate so electable and likable that liberal voters actually thought she was unlikable and unelectable when given the chance to like and nominate her. I feel like he knows liberal voters and their tendencies pretty well.

You are very welcome!

You’re free to justify everything you need to about Biden, Clinton etc, but the facts are pretty clear.

You sure covered an awful lot of ground responding to a guy who needs to “troll better”.

Hey Mup, No, he didn’t have to do that and it goes on the pile of silliness in my opinion. However, my friend, while I believe your intentions are noble and true, I have much greater concern about religious intolerance from the left than I ever will about a meme. It is flat out fascinating to me to see liberals expressing outrage over this, and I can only conclude it’s manufactured. On some level, I believe Trump’s team knew this would be the result, weighed out the pros and cons and pushed forward. On top of that….I believe generally that humor is subjective and generally harmless. I respect your right to be outraged and only ask that you respect my right to an opinion where it stops at “it’s pretty silly”. Somewhere between the fundamentalist extremists on the right and the liberal extremists on the left, most of the rest of us reside peacefully. My thought here is that you’re creating a narrative in anticipation of something extremely unlikely to happen and backfilling with anxiety.

Very rudimentary analysis to be sure. Nice.

Speaking of reverence and institutions—-your guy sends armed agents to search his political opponents home, perform a 10 hour search, gather documents outside the scope of an investigation, selectively leak to influence public opinion, all while sitting on his own vast treasure trove of classified documents gathered illegally over a lifetime in politics. This forces his supporters to confront their own version of hypocrisy and selective moral/institutional ambivalence, one of many times they will be forced to do so.

You could look at JBs political career and who he partnered with and have enough to laugh at a liberal pretending to be outraged. The height of silliness was Bill Clinton stumping for the Dems during the #metoo era. Yet here we are, @Roundybout taking about “decorum” and HomeStime and his Twitter feed completely oblivious to hypocrisy.

It’s like Bill Clinton and his enabling wife never happened. Or, that JB never acknowledged inappropriately fondling multiple women’s. Or that KHarris didn’t acknowledge believing Biden sexually assaulted women. It’s a special sort of fantasy these people have created in their minds.

Not that long ago, the analysts were projecting a massive steamrolling liberal swing toward a Clintonesque America. They were wrong in spectacular fashion. Then they projected a swing toward a Bidenesque liberal America, and they were right. Then they seemed to think JBs command of the presidency was too great for Trump to overcome, and when Trump steamrolled JB at their debate, he didn’t even make it to the race. Then the analysts were all about brat summer and Harris liberalism, wrong again. They’ll be right, they’ll be wrong and time marches on. Either way, Australia isn’t the US, and the US isn’t Australia.

I enjoyed Australia when I visited a few years back. Friendly people, cool history, a great trip. If they like their version of government, good for them.

Pulling mussels (from the shell)

I love my Lauren shirts, and have always felt the quality was very good. I’ve had some for many years. I guess I never thought it had much to do with projecting sophistication and wealth, I just like the way they wash/iron/hold form. Side note I seem to recall starting to like the way they wash/iron/hold form roughly around the time my then-gf told me they looked good on me and I would probably like how they wash/iron/fold form.