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Nov 20, 2023
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Sounds like "My parents are looking down at me from heaven, 'We're so proud of you son'" said specifically in reference to his 91 criminal indictments. He's a roomful of monkeys with typewriters, given enough time he will say literally ANYTHING*

*Offer excludes anything intelligent, humane, kind, or honest.

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LOL. Every single day I’m more appreciative of BlueSky, and if maybe a half dozen more of my follows moved over there, I would delete Twitter.

I was talking with people over the weekend about what Musk’s master plan is, and while I think he was originally backed by people who don’t want a reliable, centralized social media news site to still be operational before the 2024 election, I think that’s only part of it. I don't think there is any "master plan." I think mostly he’s a bigoted nut, and very, very bad at his job. If he hadn’t been born to money, he’d be working in a cubicle somewhere, desperately trying and failing to be the office clown who nobody finds funny, nobody really likes much, and everybody finds a little weird.

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My sentiments (w/r/t Bluesky) exactly, especially after the German diaspora

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"I don't think there is any 'master plan.'"

I think you're right about that, it all just looks reactive to me: The ADL issues a report saying Musk is doing a sucky job at tamping down the antisemitic hate speech on his platform, so OF COURSE there can't be even a millisecond of, "Huh, maybe I should look into this?" Nah, just react: "You come after me, I'm coming after you."

Then, in reaction to his reaction, more advertisers flee, which will probably be reacted to as well, with "Oh, I intended for that to happen."

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Oh, he has a plan. Once his satellites sufficiently clog the skies he'll charge everyone a fee to enter space.

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Crazy how there's still absolutely no international regulation of that shit. "Sure, throw up however many you like! There's plenty of room!"

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The same kind of intelligent usage plan we've used on the Earth, writ large--infinitely large, even. What could go wrong?

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There's so many trees, we'll just NEVER run out!

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I’m still waiting for a BlueSky invitation, though I gotta say, being completely weaned from Xitter and its imitators might actually be a good thing. I’ve tried Threads and it’s largely okay, but mostly I don’t care and don’t feel the need to visit daily—which might ultimately be healthier.

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What's good for humans is bad for the website.

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No wait needed, have a code: bsky-social-tdzzg-asswp

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Thank you! I got in. I was wondering if it might be a joke (or a pointed comment) when the last code segment was “asswp” 😂

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Ha, I had to check the 2 remaining. No potential hidden meanings in those for me to beware of.

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Welcome! Pink Collar beat me to the punch with a code (I was offline at meetings all afternoon). I'm SundayStyle over at BlueSky as well.

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Thank you both. I’m still getting acclimated and will do my best to find you both over on the New Frontier. (Now I’ve got the Donald Fagen song in my head.)

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Anything Steely Dan related is a good thing.

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I watched the latest Starship attempt over the weekend. Before liftoff, I joked with Mrs. Derelict that I thought this time he might make the edge of the atmosphere before the thing blows up.

So it was very satisfying to see the first stage blow up immediately after separation. Followed by the Starship itself blowing up a minute later. And to hear the pathetic "Well, we weren't expecting continued communication with the ship because, um, ground stations and the Pacific Ocean, and um, we, uh, meant to do that."

And, of course, the ensuing stenographic media coverage repeating the company line: It was a tremendous success because it blew up and we got data that it blew up!

Anything that makes Elon look bad makes ME feel good. Does that make me a bad person?

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The only thing that makes this guy more than a pathetic joke -- I mean, really, he's such a cartoon villain I'm surprised he doesn't live in a "lair" -- is the fact he actually has government contracts. While still a joke, that makes him a dangerous joke.

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Nov 20, 2023
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His self-made myth is he sleeps on friends' couches.

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"Friends"

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I assume k meant on the couch from Central Perk in the TV Show Friends that he got through ebay

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"got thru ebay" is cherce.

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"Live in a lair"! LOL

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Great Story, I see some similar storytelling techniques that I also found at https://searchsynonym.com/creative-storytelling/

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"We, uh, we are reporting all systems nominal, good orbital insertion, uh, good data, nominal rapid vehicle disassembly, and we will continue to monitor the situation"

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You have to admit, if "Move fast and break things" is what you're after, he's your guy. The fastest! The breakiest!

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Pardon me stewardess, I speak Engineering.

They said they got VALUABLE DATA on the causes of the earlier explosion (which also gave them VALUABLE DATA) pointing them to solutions for the problems the launch was intended to address. So those explosions were successful at giving them VALUABLE DATA.

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Successful test is any test that gets a result. Whether it's the result you wanted is immaterial (assuming you are still alive).

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Well, as any pilot knows, a successful landing is any landing where everyone dies but the NTSB gets good data off the black box.

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I'm just tickled by the level of inside-family jokes you and the missus engage in.

And as far as it got, that rocket still didn't reach high-status-sphere.

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Wow, two of my least favorite people. It’s like a face off between scabies and jock itch, smallpox and flesh-eating bacteria, projectile vomiting and bloody diarrhea... Anyway, there was a neonazi march in Madison, a dozen guys in red shirts and black pants like a geek squad from Target. I’m sure this will turn a few hundred young voters against Biden because something something he’s old. Actually, the NYT had a useful article about how Shrub and Obama won second terms by painting their opponents in negative terms! The useful part was that in both cases the polls said people thought the economy sucked and the country was going in the wrong direction, just like now, because Americans always think the economy sucks and the country is going in the wrong direction. There’s a lot of interesting theories that could explain that, but you won’t read about them in the Times.

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Nov 20, 2023
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"Have you tried turning it off and then turning it on again?"

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I hear plugging it in might help

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We're all so partisan! So divided! What we need at this precarious moment is a tough leader, a strong man, if you will, to bring us together as One Nation and One People, and secure a future for etcetera etcetera, and who will recognize Mexico is historically part of the United States of America!

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Many years ago, when the Nazis came to Madison, they held their rally on the Capitol steps behind a chain-link fence surrounded by a few thousand yelling counter-protesters.

Now we have free-range Nazis.

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Nov 20, 2023
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Crass-fed.

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ass-bred

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Could maybe use this to scare kids off anal: "If you stick THIS thing THERE, you might end up with Nazis."

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Crude, but effective.

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You should give them the Spode treatment like Bertie Wooster did! No one will understand when you say Eulalie or that they are messing around in football baggies

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Jean-Paul Laurens, Le Pape Formose et Etienne VI - Concile cadavérique de 897*(“Pope Formosus and Stephen VI” - The Cadaver Synod), 1870, oil on canvas

We should have more post mortem trials...

When the supergenius billionaire villain launched the Twitter takeover, I posted the tweet of the Saudi wealth fund celebrating it and for their +$2billion contribution..One Musk fanboy tried to get it removed: it wasn’t “significant “ and “gave the wrong impression”.

The mods, of course, laughed their ass off.

This fellow has left the group, or changed his handle.Sunday, “bigoted nut” sums it up,

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"We should have more post mortem trials..."

Well, you're never gonna get Henry Kissinger that way, because HE'S NEVER GONNA DIE.

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He's almost enough, on his own, to make me buy into the MAGA crowd's Lizard People conspiracy theory. No way is normal human blood still coursing through those veins.

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Nov 20, 2023
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LOL.

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CAMBODIAN children.

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Although some nights when he wants variety he sends out for Thai.

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For me, the worst thing about the Chief Xit there is this:

One's been hoping for years -- well, since 2015 -- for fPOTUS' final meltdown which, finally, may be already starting.

But hope underlying that is that he'd be the end of a toxic narcissist making the discourse toxic in so many ways.

But, no, we have Trump 2.0 who has, what? 20, 30-odd years ahead of him and us? 🤮

BTW: I'm sure Jared doesn't give his father-in-law lip the way he gave it to America's Most Beloved Afrikaner Fascist.

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Well, yes. One of my discoveries in this character exploration is that Jared is not as craven with other powerful people because, thanks to "Dad" (and Dad) he's powerful too -- but Trump scares him to his core.

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So much this, as the kids used to say. It's been interesting to watch bits of the Republican Party oh-so-slowly realize what Trump is and what he's capable of, and how it (finally) has scared the shit out of them.

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But keepin' their yaps shut for security reasons.

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5% Think he's a monster, are terrified

50% Think he's a monster, don't fucking care

45% Think he's a monster, but "He's OUR monster, so it's GREAT."

Republicans have their divisions, but for the question "Is Donald J Trump a monster?" everyone has the same answer.

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I don't buy anyone "not caring" about Trump. I think that 55% are terrified, but of different things. That 5% (Liz and Mitt) are smart enough to see that Trump will burn the Republican Party to the ground and salt the earth. The other 50% are terrified of being 1) primaried and 2) murdered. Totally on board with that description of the other 45%, he is their Godzilla fighting Ghidra, the 3-headed Deep State.

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I'm not thinking about the politicians or "leaders" (LOL), just the regular voters. You can't underestimate Americans ability to completely tune out reality and not give a shit about stuff, it's truly epic.

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Absolutely. The hoi-polloi I understand. They believe the federal government is a reality show that doesn't affect them until it does, and then they promptly forget once whatever got their attention goes away. Government shutdown, COVID, whatever. The politicians, though, have a more direct relationship. They get paid to be there, it's their livelihood. The Freedom Caucus types, I get. They think they can surf the Chaos Wave and stay on top, fuck the hoi-polloi. But if you don't have that level of self-absorption, you gotta be aware that the Chaos Wave is gonna do some serious damage, and a little more thought leads you to the George W. Bush insight that "the whole sucker could melt down", starting with a Great Depression and no idea where that leads. I'm ignoring the whole end of democracy thing because other than the guys who want that, I don't think they're capable of conceiving it. They're thinking of everything staying the same, they just win every election. Blowback, what blowback? We won, it's over. Deal with it, snowflake.

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There's an article in the Post I think yesterday though where they interview all these top Republicans who say "My god, Trump is plotting a lawless, revenge-driven second term that would shrink the country economically and morally and plunge the international order into danger... but a second Biden term would be worse!" So even the Republicans who have figured out T's a monster still have some important figuring out to do.

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The reporter never gets a quote about what Biden is actually doing that's worse, iirc. But I suppose it's the idea held by my Republican relations; if the Democrat standing for election is palatable, they find they can detest him anyway, because a vote for him would only enable all the Oberlin students and Piss Christ artists and whole-city-burning-down race rioters. (tldr; they are called "reactionary" for a reason.)

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Well, just look around you at all the destruction caused by the first four years of Biden! Our country is DESTROYED, is it not? Can't tolerate another four years where it gets even DESTROYIER!

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Yeah, Biden will force everyone to be Woke and trans. And more importantly, they lose their phony-baloney jobs. Now that's worse than the end of representative democracy.

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This is the thing that drives me fucking nuts: The guy has ALREADY been President for four years, and for the first two of those years he and his party had control of the whole damn trifecta. Now look around you, is everyone woke and trans? Are even half the people you see woke and trans? I mean, I know he's old and old people can be a little slow getting started, but don't you think he would be a little farther along by now if this was his plan?

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Holy screaming yellow zonkers, I despise John Hagee. Hateful bastard, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Wrote a book about how the invasion of Iraq was the beginning of the End Times, and how's that working out for you, John? Guess the Last Seven Years must be reverse dog years or something. Anyway, he's Rush Limbaugh with more overt Christianity, and I hope he follows Pigman into the undiscovered country tout suite.

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"about how the invasion of Iraq was the beginning of the End Times"

And it was, for at least a million Iraqis! Give the guy a little credit, OK?

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I think you're gonna need more virgins...

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Putting maniacs in charge isn't a very good idea. And yet.....

Seems like we could test for that.

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But the guy who's not a maniac is old! What choice do you leave us, huh?

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I know I'm like a broken record with this point, but TRUMP IS ALSO OLD, there is only a THREE YEAR DIFFERENCE IN AGE. I can't tell you how much it chaps my ass that this is almost ignored. I honestly think Trump's shellacked hair, spray tan, and the robustness of his fascist ravings makes him appear more "youthful" to a lot of people.

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It's like an intelligence test for the American people: "We took two old guys, but with one we DYED HIS HAIR, now which one is old?"

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Nov 20, 2023
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He's certainly entertaining, you've got to give him that.

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We certainly know how he appears to Ben Garrison.

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I'm sorry, but today the age difference is now four years, the NY Times has an entire front page article about it:

For an Aging President, a Birthday With a Bite

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/us/politics/biden-birthday-age.html

And that's how it will be reported, probably even after June when Trump's birthday occurs.

BTW, remember how on any given day of his reign, you could do a search for "Trump" on the front pages of the Times or WaPo and get at least a dozen hits? This article about Biden's age is the only mention of the president today.

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Old or Nazi? It’s a coin flip!

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Claudius is too old, let's get this new guy Nero in there!

P.S. I know nothing of Roman history except what I learned from this one PBS series on Masterpiece Theater.

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Sure, Caligula’s a little erratic, but he’s got a spray tan and cotton candy hair, and Ben Garrison thinks he’s dreamy. We can’t lose!

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A real "Traditional Family Values" kind of guy, sure to Make Rome Great Again!

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Well Trump will BOLDLY obliterate the Constitution and the future while Biden preserves both but LOOKS frail.

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Only one answer: Bring an 80-year-old Corn Pop out of retirement so Biden can kick his ass.

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"And who better than you to speak for the Jewish people! [Small pause] Really, I’m asking. Who better? Because we can call that person up, and get him in a car right now."

Norman Podhoretz, right?

(Right, I know I'm a ghost from the 80s, but...who, by Elon Musk's standards, better? I mean, we've been stuck in 1987 at least since 9/11/2001, the only real difference I can see is that men don't wear cowboy boots any more.)

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I had to look up Skid Lid at the start fo this one. I don't know why and image of that guy in that helmet with a crusader cross works so well, but it's perfect.

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I'm seeing a Pickelhaube, given Musk's predilections. . .

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Thank you! I never knew what that was called before!

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Yeah, Roy had me at Skid Lid. And it is perfect Elon – can't cosplay worth shit, and everyone knows it but him.

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Yeah, all of this. Slenderman was a greedy, grifting grabber when L. Ron Musth was a no-name with a receding hairline.

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Last night Musk Xitted out congratulations to Argentina's new far-right-loon President Milei:

“Prosperity is ahead for Argentina”

Oh yeah, another brave new Libertarian experiment for the people of Argentina. You know, like Chile: "The people must be imprisoned so the dollar can be free."

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Nov 20, 2023Edited
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All the tech reporters whose ONE JOB is to know their field and not get taken in by charlatans like Elmo, and yet none of those savvy tech reporters managed to do it. It’s almost like they’re willfully gullible over every new tech messiah.

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Yeah, sounds like even Michael Lewis, who was prescient enough to see the big crash in CDO's coming, was apparently taken in by SBF's charms, thought the guy really was a genius. It's like they have such a desperate desire to see a genius that they seem them even when they're not there.

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Economists still pretend Larry Summers isn’t chronically wrong too (in addition being misogynist), so I guess it’s just a matter of which club you belong to and how desperately you want to believe.

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Generally, neo-classical and related economists are chronically wrong about economics

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Oh, you just wait til they get their hands on Argentina, you'll see an economic miracle for sure!

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The funny thing is, their chronic wrongness is patently obvious to even some of us who are unschooled in the Mysterious Black Arts of Economics.

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Looking forward to the surprise on the face of every Milei supporter whose reasoning is "Well, he says he'll destroy our rights, but when he gets in office he'll have to focus on fixing the economy first."

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First round of austerity cuts, unions go out on strike, bring out the army to break the strike, once the army's out of the box might as well go all the way, right? And then who's talking about the economy? Not in public they aren't.

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I for one am not crying. Parent-blaming, sure, but my tears are precious bodily essences, not subject to jerking...

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Ah, but is Argentina crying for YOU?

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Bern != Evita

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[sigh] I never get e-vited to the swell parties.

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You probably don't own a pair of Marsèll blue cassapelle sneakers

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It's a fair cop. But if I ever did get an e-vite, the very first thing I'd do is hire Roy to kit me out.

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"And who better than you to speak for the Jewish people! [Small pause] Really, I’m asking. Who better?

Based on this, maybe Henny Youngman. Alas...............

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LMAO. I don't usually go in for this kind of over-the-top stuff, but I needed this on another manic Monday.

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You had me at "gut yontif." But seriously: My brother-in-law agreed (3 years ago) with the description of Musk as "a bullshit artist who delivers." And so did I. But now? How astute do you have to be, to not be an anti-semite on an international social media platform that you own? At least your average Bond villain knows how to be fucking *discreet*.

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At least when Howard Hughes was wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet and storing his urine in mason jars and watching Ice Station Zebra every day he didn't make us watch.

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Joining the Masons has a new meaning...

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With him, it was all just Mormons and Masons (you needed the Mormons to empty out the Masons).

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I wonder if the Mormons have baptized him yet.

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He aten't dead, yet

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I knew about the boxes and the jars, but not the movie. This place is educational!

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Yes, and all in the days before VCR's! So he had to own a 35mm print, the life of a billionaire, it's really something!

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Now I really want to read the discussion between Elon Musk and Jon Lovitz.

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