He’s a sleazy furniture salesman at heart

In a sane country, this latest brag would be the kiss of death for his entire party.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is standing by President Donald Trump’s latest, and most eyebrow-raising, renovation yet: a full-blown marble makeover of a White House bathroom. Posting on social media Friday afternoon, Leavitt gushed over the president’s flashy revamp, writing, “President Trump is making the People’s House more elegant and beautiful for generations of Americans to come!”

While we’re in the midst of a government shutdown, while we’re expected to support a budget that destroys health care and brings great profit to insurance companies and billionaires or starve the poor (or both!), Trump is focused on interior decorating and remodeling a bathroom, and on tearing down part of the White House and building a lavish ballroom.

While I agree that the original institutional green bathroom looked dated, I A) expect the president of the United States to be focused on more significant issues, and B) and think the boring, ticky-tacky idea of slapping marble and gold all over everything is no less cliched. I’d say I want the next president of the USA to bring on a wrecking ball and strip out all the gold plated fittings, except that what really should happen is that they will instead focus on repairing all the deep structural damage done to the country, cleaning up the raging corruption and firing the carpetbaggers reigning over our institutions.

Does the current president have nothing better to do?

I don’t know if I’m ready to teach genetics again

I always wonder where they get their unwarranted confidence from. This person seems to have confuse the Y chromosome with the entire genetic complement, or something. I don’t want to have to untangle their thinking right now.

That’s not how DNA works. Your brother would have his father’s DNA and his mother’s DNA. You, as a girl, would have your mother’s DNA and your father’s mother’s DNA. You have only half of your father’s DNA. You do not have your father’s father’s DNA.
And this is why (if one’s father has any brothers) it’s difficult to prove a girl’s paternity. All the brothers would have the same X chromosome so any brother could be the father. It’s been pivotal in the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemmings controversies.

You don’t necessarily have the same X chromosome as your brother. It’s not hard to figure out a girl’s paternity because there are all these autosomes. I think someone got a vague hint of how sex is inherited and garbled everything up beyond that. But they still get to tell someone else they don’t understand how DNA works!

Post-Hallowe’en shopping day

I made a quick run to St Cloud today, to visit Spirit Halloween after Hallowe’en, when they are busy dumping everything left over at half price. Get out there quick! Like any mysterious fantasy shop, it’s going to vanish, leaving only a dusty empty space off an abandoned alleyway — our local stores disappear on November 3rd. I stocked up on weird fake spider crap for next year’s celebration.

More importantly, my wife sent me on a mission to get a new vacuum cleaner, because our old one is busted.

It’s Tim Curry time!

It’s Hallowe’en. It’s a dark and rainy night. I’m home all alone. The trick-or-treaters have been sparse — I’ve only had twenty kids all night, so I’m handing out great fistfuls of candy to each. You know what that means…

It’s time for Rocky Horror!

I’ve turned the sound way up and am soaking up the vibes. I’d put on fishnet stockings if I had any.

This movie is right there in my happy place. I’ve been watching it yearly since about 1976.

Uh-oh. The elevator scene just started. Bye.

Tasteless suits made to fit

Just in case you wanted to wear an ugly costume every day, here’s a bluesky thread about where Jordan Peterson gets his suits.

I wouldn’t mind getting a free suit, but I’d turn down those ugly-ass freak suits. They’re made by a guy who doesn’t know much about tailoring — he just takes your measurements and outsources everything to machines in India, after adding his weird tastes to the mix.

I do wonder what kind of suit Mr Peterson has picked out to be buried in, once his fevered brain disintegrates.

Cancel that Nobel Peace Prize

This could have been predicted. The cease fire in the Middle East is falling apart.

Israel on Tuesday carried out military strikes in Gaza after the nation accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by attacking Israeli troops and not returning the remains of Israeli hostages killed in Hamas captivity.

The Trump administration claims that the peace deal still holds, even though the persistence of military strikes means there is, by definition, no peace in the region.

The ceasefire deal “doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday during a visit to Capitol Hill. “We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli] soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.”

JD Vance is such a slimy little toady.

At least Trump can fall back on his other 6 or 7 war-ending negotiations. Can anyone name them?