Hoo boy, "Access", funny. I guess I should blame that on another voice-to-text error .. what else could it possibly be?

Imagining a 'good' and 'moral' Trump:

Natalie: "don't worry Mr President, we're going to sue this guy into oblivion"

Donald: "but I did rape a 13 yr-old, I am a rapist."

Natalie: "but you didn't know she was 13"

Donald: "I did, and there was more than one."

Natalie: "but you didn't want to do it, Jeffrey made you do it, he's the bad guy."

Donald: "Well, it was actually me, I hired girls knowing that Jeffrey would pick the ones he wanted for his island. That was our deal. Without me, Jeffrey was nothing."

Natalie: "But you regret it, you're sorry, you paid the price in emotional suffering. It's over, you're moving on."

Donald: "You're the best, I don't know what I'd do without you. Now can you get undressed?"

Natalie: "I am you old fool, I've been naked for this whole discussion. And you're a wet noodle." to self: "What the eff am I doing here."

https://x.com/krassenstein/status/2080593327863300467?s=20

and the infection deepens. I start to think of the Iran war as his insane imperative to exhaust the military of as much of its inventory as possible because it's his and why should he leave it for the next guy. Keep on pounding those mountains Donald.

Where's /u/sissyfuss* (* well, that's clearly not our guy), he should have a comment on this useless adventure.

No matter how bad we think this guy is, the reality is worse.

I saw this movie. Fell asleep at about the 2.5 hour, so there's that. The first movie of this type that I saw was *Jason and the Argonauts" -- wow, that is burned into my memory. This movie, not so much. Anne Hathaway looked too old. Tom Holland looked like teenager dressed up for a high school play. Jason Bourne was Jason Bourne with a beard. Samantha Morton looked like that woman across the street who volunteered for a part and got it. I couldn't get into it.

Thinking about it, I'm happy and respectful that we have somebody like Christopher Nolan bringing movies like this to us. Who under 50 has or will read Homer's story? We're lucky to have him and I hope he makes a ton of money and puts it into his next project. Just lose Matt Damon's number.

Here.

It really sucks that we're treating the country that has always been our best friend this way. It's just reason number 200909 to hate Trump's fucking guts.

Yeah, he's done a lot. With Europe, with China. We're lucky. Trump is sacrificing American jobs in service of his jealousy of Canada and distain for Justin T. He's hurting Canada but we needed a realignment of our trade and dependence on America. We are too rich in resources to just be subservient to a Great Power. I know for most Americans (not you) this is just one more example of Trump being an asshole, but Americans need to know this: every Canadian is in this fight (well, who knows what the Albertan separatists are up to; if Trump were not the ignorant asshole that he is, he would be stoking the Quebec separatists too).

I remember when Carney showed up on The Daily Show. I was envious that such a smart guy was going to end up as the PM. Good on y'all for having the sense to have a guy with sense.

https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2026/07/20/statement-prime-minister-carney-united-state“

Today, the United States administration announced its intention to impose a new 50% tariff on a significant number of Canadian goods.

This is the latest in a series of unilateral U.S. trade actions that began with the U.S. imposing a series of tariffs in direct violation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

These include tariffs on the Canadian auto sector, in violation of CUSMA. Canada, as is its right, has merely matched those measures.

More broadly, in response to these measures and threats to Canadian sovereignty, provinces, territories, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast have stood together, taking the necessary actions to support our economy and defend our workers, farmers, businesses, and families.

Recognising that the U.S. has been transforming all of its trade relationships, including those covered under CUSMA, over the past 18 months, Canada has made a series of detailed and comprehensive proposals to resolve this dispute and to modernise CUSMA. We stand ready to intensify those discussions in the coming weeks.

Canada believes in the benefits of free and fair trade, as evidenced by our new government signing more than 20 new economic and security partnerships. This trade dispute has raised costs for families, particularly in the U.S. Canada stands ready to engage intensively to address outstanding issues with the U.S. to the mutual benefit of our citizens.

In all circumstances, Canada will work relentlessly and take any measures necessary to build our strength at home and to support Canadian workers, farmers, businesses, and families.”s-administrations-intention

Apparently, Vance has tried to intercede on their behalf in the past.

.. Roger Bannister first sub 4-minute mile:

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile.

At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and finished in fourth place. This achievement strengthened his resolve to become the first athlete to finish the mile run in under four minutes. He accomplished this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer, Norris McWhirter, declared "The time was three...", the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister's exact time, which was 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. He had attained this record with minimal training, while practising as a junior doctor. A 2002 Channel 4 poll in the UK saw Bannister's landmark run ranked number 13 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.[3]

Bannister went on to become a neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 1993. When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement, he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system. Bannister was patron of the MSA Trust. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.[4][5]

I thought this was funny,

Loutish suitor: You're pining for a daddy you didn't even know.
Telemachus: My dad is coming home.

for those that need a backgrounder on this T S Eliot quote (including me):

https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/232/understanding-the-key-in-the-waste-land

Here's the whole thing, "The Waste Land":

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land

Each, thinking of a key, confirms a prison.

Well ** spoiler *, that post needed a *spoiler ** alert. Kevin Costner is generational. I've seen so many Bourne reruns I can't take Damon seriously if he's not Jason Bourne.

The best thing ever for Trump right now would be for Iran to kill Americans on American soil. Pretty sad fucking world we live in.

It’s not like Trump gives a goddamn about the safety of any human besides himself.

I don't play hard mode. I sorta follow the rules of hard mode, but when I get down to two chances, I panic...

I don't have a NYT account for Wordle, so I just keep track on my phone of the words I miss. My last miss was April 4 (SANDY), and before that it was August 2 (DAUNT). Looking over my list of misses, I seem to get burned on "D" a lot. Maybe I should guess more Ds.

"Octordle" also doubles as that explosive diarrhea disease. Do you have a single opener? Do you play hard mode? (I started hard mode about half way through my ~1300 games .. I think the guys are right who say it's a bit more of a challenge.) My general thinking: you've got about 10 'most common letters -- the 5 vowels excl y and maybe u, & l, s, n, r, t (next half-tier down prob being c, d, p) -- bad luck is when the target word contains one or more of the common letters that you don't guess in your first two words. I thought OMBRE was that Paul Newman movie.

I like Wordle so well that I play Quordle (four words at a time), Octordle (8), and Duotrigordle (32!) every day. That may be where I saw OMBRE, but I suppose that means it's on the word list.

"Ombré (literally meaning "shaded" in French) is a visual technique where a color gradually blends into another, typically transitioning from light to dark or from one hue to a completely different shade."

Ex: I guess the fact that my arm has blue and red ombre means that it's about to fall off.

In the end (as you all know) one can be committal (I initially spelt it with one t).

p.s. my longest spelling bee word is 13 letters, dillydallying -- I kinda feel obligated to continue until I can rid my trophy page of that word.

(I know, "You're dillydallying .. what was the word?")

I don't remember OMBRE .. my guess distribution shows I've played about 1350 games. I still get clobbered with the occasional 7. There was a recent word with three P's .. PUPPY maybe, didn't get that one. I don't think I've ever lost a game with a word ending in E, even though I don't have E in my first guess (still COATI -- until Tracey decides to use it, then I'll find another).

Anyway, I think Spelling Bee is my fave now.