@Mik said: Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body. He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked. He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before. This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He and they, by not stopping him, have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth. He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything. Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone

@admin thank you!!!

Wondering the streets of London yesterday I called in here: https://www.knivesfromjapan.co.uk/ Super shop close to Oxford Circus tube, massive range of makers to try in hand, plus cutting boards, sharpening stones. Kid in a candy store! I came out with a tiny Global gsf-18 which has a lovely balance due I think to the forged handle [image: 1774794506698-screenshot_20260329-152111_duckduckgo.jpg] and a French made Laguiole pocket knife, bone handle, small 8cm blade [image: 1774795409628-screenshot_20260329-153923_duckduckgo.jpg]

In London for a few days: [image: 1774792038708-20260329_123037-resized.jpg] [image: 1774792044946-img-20260329-wa0005.jpg] I think this front garden hedge will be bright yellow in a few days

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I hadn't heard about this postal carrier who warned people about a garbage truck on fire. Twice. There was a second fire, no explosion, about two blocks from where the first truck blew up. https://www.dailyherald.com/20260327/news/arlington-heights-letter-carrier-who-warned-neighbors-before-garbage-truck-explosion-gets-national-h/

Somehow this thread reminds me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's bit about all the dolphins having left Earth just before Earth's demolition.

It’s a great program. Dolly Parton is a wonderful human being.

The main industry in Hawaii if you don't count land trusts (and you shouldn't because these are the trusts that used to own agricultural production all of which is gone) and real estate (and you shouldn't because the market has become heavily weighted in the favor of billionaires) is tourism. For one thing, the tourism industry is seasonal in the best of times. It nosedives in times of trouble (e.g. 9/11, The Great Recession). I don't know how it's doing now but my gut instinct tells me it's not a good situation. Dol, I'm sure you're familiar with the iconic American late night comedy show Saturday Night Live. I distinctly remember watching it one night as a child. The skit was that it was Christmas Eve and the American military let it's guard down because it was such a peaceful time. It was then that a fictional Canada chose to invade the US. It was such a good performance. I think it's sad how times have changed. It makes it even worse to me that I can't think of any good reason why it had to happen.

Well, that sucks. BTW, it was a court in the constitutional court (there are about 800 judges) who broke the law (they can judge based on law, they have no basis in law for upholding or overturning an appeal verdict based on the initial trial's findings of fact- as you can see, it's a three tier process) when they overturned the appeal verdict upholding the initial trial's verdict finding of Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend guilty of rape and murder. The boyfriend's family were mafia from Bari, Montreal, and occasionally the Dominican Republic. The court at the constitutional court in this case was controlled by the mafias from the South aligned with the late Prime Minister Berlusconi. In fact, Berlusconi arranged for his office space to be occupied by the defendants' defense attorney. The Knox family (the father) hired a now defunct PR company in Seattle (who also worked for Boeing). It might or might not sound hard to believe but the PR company handed talking points American media outlets. The American media outlets repeated them. This is how the myth of Amanda Knox as a victim of the Italian judicial system was born. A hard look at the evidence and readings of the professionally translated initial trial's transcripts and judges' written verdict (and the same for the appeal) reveal it was an open and shut case. Italy fascinates me (everything about it) but I'm too "Northern European" to have an ability to assimilate. This is academic because I have no way to become a citizen in the first place.

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2019 Hyundai Accent | Carvana https://share.google/t3bMNOiKr6cqln5Wm Practically the same car for sale after last one sold. I'm glad this decision will easy and quick. This is apparently a sub-segment of the market for this year, make, and model. I was talking to a neighbor I know at the pool. We decided to leave at the same time and he offered to give me a ride home in his BMW 3 Series convertible. He's a retired aircraft mechanic and it's his pride and joy. I've never driven or been a passenger in a BMW. I was very pleasantly surprised. I liked his car very much. It was all spontaneous and fun. Oh, and before we left, I complimented a man on his watch, necklaces, and cross pendant. He asked me if I had any watches. I told him about my Casios and told him they don't go under water. He said you like watches? Then he took his Amitron off his wrist and gave it to me. Extraordinary. I felt like I had been blessed.

I'm so sorry, wtg. Do you have any updates?

Those blocks Steve showed are very popular around here. I see them often. I didn’t know they were a Home Depot (cough, Trump donor, cough) item. But likely available elsewhere.

@CHAS said: Would like to take a citizen of that time around today's world. let me know when is convenient for you.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w3e467ewqo OpenAI has shut down Sora, its video generation service. Since the platform's launch, Sora made $1.4m in global net in-app revenues, compared to $1.9bn over the same period for ChatGPT, ... ... it was "a resource black hole" with "limited monetisation". "The platform struggled to prevent the creation of non-consensual imagery and realistic misinformation, not to mention major copyright infringement," ...

Well, it's pretty clear where his loyalty can be found.