I’ve never understood the way these numbers are calculated. What is vacation vs working time? How much did his campaign fund kick in? When the presidents is gone, are there cost savings at the White House?

God I love that movie. “Let us in! Let us in! Let us out! Let us out!”

Some do and some don’t.

Ah, so the charitable reading would be to think he wanted to prepare for a very important international meeting. My take will be that he did, in fact, want to go golfing.

He’s meeting Xi Jingpin of China there, I think it is a 3 day trip. Fun fact: the Chinese communist party considers golf a sign of corruption, its members were banned from playing until a couple years ago. I’m curious to see if Trump ditches Xi to go play Saturday morning.

Jeez. That is some next level shit. I think it demonstrates poor judgement on his part to introduce pretty hardcore activities in such an early conversation and over text where he couldn’t proper judge your response to the rapidly escalating level of intensity and danger to his fantasy. Everyone has a bridge too far,…

Congratulations! Good luck and enjoy your new position!

Ugh. I started reading these and couldn’t even get through two. I fucking hate pranks. I don’t even really like surprises, especially if they involve making someone feel bad that you forgot a milestone or prolong a feeling of fear, like surprising kids with the return of a deployed parent, so you can surprise them, in…

Hello fellow dermatology patient. I have very sensitive skin and roseacea and employ a similar washing strategy to you. Prescription facewash, very gentle non-foaming cleanser for the bits, and if my legs or other not very sweaty parts of my body are dirty, I wash them. My skin def. prefers a policy of…

I know it well, as I have those qualifications and was *fortunate* to have one of the higher paying postdocs at $62k. My comment about resources wasn’t strictly money, I was talking about language skills, professional and personal networks inside the US, employers who understand that dealing with immigration is a…

I don’t think it is melodramatic, it is a longstanding tension in our immigration system and one Trump has definitely chosen the side of favoring workers with special skills, basically that we only let in people who we have decided will provide a benefit to the U.S. It is the kind of rule that would have kept my…

Huh, wonder if I was reading the staffer comment too negatively? I read it as “if we get a conservative justice, electing a feckless and cruel autocrat will be worth the risk”, rather than just a wish to somehow, some way get through this mess.

The freedom caucus has been its own party for years now and it is time for the republicans to recognize and deal with it. They have bent again and again for these guys (and I believe they are all guys) in the name of party unity and in fear of primary challenges. These people don’t believe in republican priorities,…

Hah! Politicians always seem better when they are not running or out of powe. Trump? He was an ass before he ran, while he ran, and now. I can’t imagine that will change. I wonder what someone would have to do to be considered worse.

Mitt Romney does look really good now. I think he looked pretty good before he went through the republican primary process that turned him into a liar who disavowed Romneycare, his greatest achievement as Governor of Massachusetts. I disagree with him politically and I think he is out of touch with average Americans,…

It is perfect commentary on the speech and Trump’s presidency. I think Trump is a train wreck and is making dreadful choices for our nation, but mostly he and his advisors just believe some really bizarre theories about how the world works.

Yes. It has always been a hard, dangerous, and low paid job. Now it is a rare job. Modern coal mining techniques require far fewer laborers than traditional methods, both for mountaintop removal and underground mines. Thrown on top of the environmental mess that is coal mining is the reality that fracking and…

I would trust this kind of endeavor from a democratic administration. I think there are legitimate ways a more market driven or business approach can be used to improve government services; cap and trade emission markets for example. The Obama administration identified technology as a major area for improvements…

That and calling anyone who disagrees with them hysterical. It straight up gives me the vapors. It’s interesting seeing Koppel, long a terror of the smug, criminal, or dishonest, interacting with Hannity. I think Koppel was deliberately gentle here, as it makes Hannity look like even more of an ass. This is also a…

Huh. I never gave the song too much thought, but I always took it as a little romance you cook up in your mind when you are bored on the subway. Am I a crazy stalker? I do this all the time, where I see someone on metro, and two stops later I have an elaborate story of how we meet, fall in love, etc. it’s kind of…