Merry Christmas, if you’re into that sort of thing!

@kupo
Ya, Didi allows you to pet and rub IF you warn her beforehand (like call her name before putting your hand close) and IF you’re ready to pull your hand back when she’s hitting the limit, which can be rather low. If you pull when she’s starting to give a hurt/sour look, she’s quite forgiving and will let you pet more later.

But both of them love the thumb-rub on forehead, kind of mimicking mommycat’s tongue-wash.

Trump Warns That President Oprah Would Force Americans to Read

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump issued a stark warning to the nation on Monday that, if elected President, Oprah Winfrey would force Americans to read.

“This is a woman who, every chance she got, told people to join her book club,” Trump told reporters. “If she were President, you better believe that she would make every single American join that book club.”

Claiming that Winfrey “never met a book she didn’t like,” Trump accused her of planning to institute an “individual book mandate,” which would require non-reading Americans to pay as much as two thousand dollars a year for refusing to read a book.

“People were worried about Obama coming to their homes and taking away their guns,” Trump said. “Oprah will come to your homes and leave books there, which is far, far worse.”

Joining Trump in his remarks was the Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, who warned about the dangers of Winfrey’s pro-book agenda.

“I am a firm believer in school choice,” DeVos said. “And central to that is the choice not to read.”

Because these days it’s hard to know, I will tell you: This is satire.

I’ve been SMHing over right-wing attempts to argue that Hillary Clinton’s campaign’s attempts to find out about Russian ratfucking were so much more CRIMINAL than the Trump campaign’s pathetic attempts at collaboration with the ratfuckers.

@Mish For some time I’ve wondered whether Kim Jung Il is delusional, or if he just finds it convenient to pretend so that people think he’s too dangerous to mess with. Or partly so – being surrounded by Yes-men does tend to harm your relationship with reality. The last couple of days I’ve been wondering whether he’s concluded, “Holy crap, Trump really is what I’ve been pretending to be, and I need to be careful not to start a nuclear war.” He’s certainly done less stirring lately.

In other news, behold this announcement from my uni administration about future parking fees at Viikki campus, Helsinki:

Viikkiin on tulossa maksullinen pysäköinti (ks. liitteet). Kommentteja voi lähettää minulle tällä viikolla; kokoan ne sitten yhteen ja laitan eteenpäin.

Parking feels will be charged in Viikki starting in a few months. The attached documents are unfortunately only in Finnish. I will collect comments this week.

The typo in English translation is hilariously appropriate, considering how staff members here have been increasingly complaining about inadequate and complicated parking arrangements 🙂

Sheila Crosby:

@Mish For some time I’ve wondered whether Kim Jung Il is delusional, or if he just finds it convenient to pretend so that people think he’s too dangerous to mess with.

Kim Jong-il is no longer very dangerous, having died six years ago. Kim Jong-un, on the other hand… well, I think his pronouncements are aimed primarily at the domestic audience, so I think you’d have to ask people who have escaped from North Korea whether they think the leadership is delusional. For the most part, I think that they don’t say this. When you’ve been brought up to think of Americans as devils who tried to destroy your country, and might try again at any time, and your race and country are the best on Earth, the rhetoric from the leadership probably sounds a lot different to how we experience it.

Sorry, double posting yet again

@Katamount,

It’s lovely to have you back – I hope you’re starting to feel human again.

Sometimes I worry that I derail things though… I’m the kind of guy who only says something if I feel it’s worthwhile for others to hear.

Speaking for myself, I don’t think you’ve ever derailed. Everyone here has different styles and different contributions, which is one of the things I love. I always enjoy your posts.

Re the “tenor of threads” – I agree that David is an excellent moderator, and I miss him a lot. But I’m not sure the latest conflict was because of his absence, or a manifestation of cabin fever. I’ve seen much more intense and longer-lasting disagreements here in the past, during regular posting.
In any case, it prompted me to ask my boy about privacy and such, so that was good. Although we talked after watching Gintama, so he may have been delirious 😀

When you’ve been brought up to think of Americans as devils who tried to destroy your country, and might try again at any time, and your race and country are the best on Earth, the rhetoric from the leadership probably sounds a lot different to how we experience it.

… I dunno, sounds a lot like the folk who elected the current leadership here in the U.S., and the leadership’s rhetoric is pretty much the same as well.

@Makroth – it’s satire.

Though does it still count as satire if it’s completely believable?

I’ve come to understand that sometimes reality outdoes satire.

Last year would tend to make that point – rather farcefully. 😛

Edit to add – I’m not changing that typo. Fingers are smarter than brain sometimes. 🙂

Have you seen the “go fuck yourself” letter from Wolff’s attorney, responding to the threat of legal action over the book? It’s a thing of beauty, particularly the third page. And the attorney is a woman, which probably won’t go down well with Trump.

To summarise:

1. You’re full of shit.
2. You don’t even know the law.
3. Bring it!

Moggie,

Oh, that’s beautiful. Hahahahaha!

@Moggie

The dude just wants headlines. Milo’s that kinda guy I really hope gets frogstomped by reality to the point he’s no longer worthy of ink. And that frogstomp needs to come from a higher authority than CPAC.