Yeah No

Yeah I've noticed that. I watched "Bob Hearts Abishola" too and liked it but it had its weaknesses especially as the seasons wore on. I think part of the problem is that he's not as in touch with what audiences want to see but the other problem is what he can get networks to air. It's probably not as easy for him to do what he wants. I think this show might suffer from that effect. I wonder if the network made him change a few things to suit them. Bookie was great but it's ridiculous how it wasn't promoted at all. Did Max want it to fail?

Interesting theory but I think Lorre has just latched onto gambling as a theme. I'm not sure product placement is his motive. I watched "Bookie" and it was a great show but unfortunately it has been canceled after its second season. It's sad because it was actually a much better show than this is. I don't think it got enough promotion.

If Zelensky is intimidated by anyone it's Putin, not Trump. Putin is holding the cards here because he has Donnie in his back pocket. See below for more. There is no "mutual respect" between them any more than there's honor among thieves. Trump is kissing Putin's ass because clearly Putin has something on him. Even if he doesn't Donnie is afraid of Putin for good reason and Putin is using that to his advantage. What you're seeing his fear, deference and ass kissing, not "respect". Putin is the Don and Donnie is kissing his ring. Trump doesn't know the meaning of the word "respect". Every so-called show of "respect" from him is either ass kissing or a sham to make himself look better than he is. Don't believe me? That's too bad because you know those tests where they show you photos of people's facial expressions and body language and ask you to describe how they're feeling? Well, I ace those. Again, I didn't take a graduate degree in Psychology because I don't understand people. But believe what you want.

Again, speaking of Trump and his total lack of knowledge about how to make deals, I worked for a VP of a Fortune 100 company that was a master deal maker. I learned from him that the real art behind deal making was making everyone feel like they came away from the deal with a "win". That's not what Trump does. Trump thinks he can bully and intimidate people and entire countries into getting what he wants out of them. That's not deal making, that's the mob. And that's why he's not respected by them. And if he thinks he's scaring them into caving into him, he's delusional. Even if they did they have other ways of getting back at him, by making alliances with each other and giving him (and hence us) the screws when they've had enough of his crap. Trump's followers think he's a brilliant genius and that his tactics are going to pan out in our favor. No, they're not. He's that delusional and unsophisticated in his approach. There's no magic in it, it's just his overconfident bravado, which doesn't work in international relations. The only reason he's ever succeeded is by screwing and scaring people. He may be able to get away with that with some weak business people but not with the heads of many of these countries that are like "go ahead, make my day". He doesn't have the power and leverage he thinks he has with them. The old saying that you "catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" is something that's lost on Trump. He thinks he can get away with forcing countries to bend to his will and get nothing in return for it. He thinks they're all taking advantage of us. Even if that were true that's not how you get people to make deals with you. So much for his supposed "genius" about deal making!

I almost replied to that post about "day 1". I don't think Trump even knows what a metaphor is much less how to use one. I don't even think he'd understand the definition above. Also, and this is interesting, but my mother was born on June 14th, otherwise known back in the day as Flag Day and unfortunately otherwise known as Trump's birthday. If anyone knew how to strike a deal it was her. She grew up in a time and place where you haggled with merchants to get the best deal. She would go into a car dealership and just as the salesman thought he had the sale in his back pocket she would say the price was too high and get up and walk out if they weren't willing to lower it. Usually they would follow her to the door begging and pleading for her to come back. As a kid I was mortified. Whose mom acted that way, especially back in the 1960s? But my mother had nerves of steel and held out for the best price. I have to hand it to her, because it WORKED. But looking back on it and knowing how she felt about Trump even back in the day, I am sure she would say he has no clue how to make deals. His idea of a deal is really more like "Winning by Intimidation". In fact that's what the title of his book should have been, not "The Art of the Deal". What he does is no "art". And it's definitely not what you do with entire countries whose people stand to lose from your actions. Again, what works in business doesn't necessarily transfer over to global politics.

I've searched on several terms and even the whole quote and have come up with nothing.

He and a lot of investment houses think certain less risky stocks are still OK for people in my age bracket because we may live another couple of decades or more and can benefit from earning more. Admittedly stocks are a small piece of my investment pie compared to the other parts of it. Bonds are the biggest chunk. I spoke with my financial advisor yesterday. He says he will tell me when it's time to get out of stocks altogether. I am not withdrawing from the account yet. This is from Yahoo Finance but it's much like what I've read elsewhere too: So far I'm trying to heed the advice to stay calm and not do anything too rash at this point. Of course that's subject to change depending on what the loose cannon in office does in the near future. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he is going to refrain from scaring investors and causing a recession.

Wow, anyone that had to work in a hospital during the pandemic has my respect and sympathy. That had to be a very difficult time. I was petrified of getting Covid since my Dad died of it and I'm a natural germaphobe from way back so I can't even imagine that. I basically retired at age 58 in 2016. Not formally, but I stopped working because of being wrongfully terminated while on workers' compensation. Then I was supported by workers' comp. for a few years because of my lawsuit and I was still recovering from my serious arm break and a gallbladder operation for some of that time, so I didn't start looking for a job until 2018. That didn't go so well thanks to age discrimination and being shunned because of the way I left my job - and don't anyone tell me it wasn't that because I had never had that much difficulty finding a job. My husband finally hired me to work for him in his very small limo. business in 2019. I helped him with his paperwork and billing. That was going pretty well when suddenly BOOM, the pandemic happened and no one was traveling so we were suddenly out of work. Then my father died of Covid and I didn't start looking for a job again until 2021. By that time I was over 60 and things had already changed a lot because of the pandemic. I eventually gave up looking for work completely in 2023. My husband was lucky enough that one of his rich clients gave him a job driving his family. The salary is very good so we are OK on his salary alone. Thank God or I don't know what we would have done. I only just applied to start receiving my Social Security in early February of this year. It's already been over a month and I haven't heard anything yet. I can see it's gone on to step 2 but it's past due by now by about a week. My husband said he'd already heard by this time when he applied a couple of years ago. I am hoping things aren't being delayed because of Trump/Musk but that's where my mind is going. Anyway, retiring when it isn't your choice is not ideal. I have a friend that also retired because of the pandemic and we both went through the same feelings of not really having much direction and feeling isolated from friends because of the fear of Covid. We feel like we've been bouncing back and forth from all the blows since then and not very much in control of things. I was just starting to feel like things were settling down and enjoying myself more when Trump became president again and now it's once again a roller coaster ride. I'm soooo tired of it. As my grandmother used to joke, "Stop the world, I want to get off", lol.

I'm not putting anyone on ignore but I sat this one out. Besides, others took up the cause and said most of what I would have said anyway. I'm going on a Mediterranean cruise in the Fall. Fortunately on cruises most people don't want to talk about politics but we will be taking a lot of time in ports around locals so this is something I've thought about. The last time I was in Europe was 20 years ago and I remember feeling like I didn't even look like an American because I don't dress like a typical one. I naturally dress more European or even more Canadian than American. But have I changed since that time? I don't know. I'm older now and age and body and comfort issues have made me change some of my clothing choices and who knows what I look like now to anyone? Maybe my best defense is my face. My mother was of Sicilian descent and I resemble her a lot so when I'm in Italy and Greece I know people will look at me and think of my heritage rather than whether or not I'm American. I even get that when I go to Italian and Greek restaurants here in the States. Waiters will tell me I look very Italian and even Greek. My mother's family was from the East coast of Sicily which was settled by the Greeks. So that makes sense. I'm going with that, lol. When I was in Mexico last month a man trying to sell perfume on the street told me as I walked by that I had to be either Italian or Jewish. As I passed him I turned my head and said, "Actually I'm both", which is true. My Dad was half Jewish. His other half was all Yankee. Mayflower descendant, the whole nine yards.

Thank you! This photo is spectacular! My husband took a photo of it in Newark, NJ last night but the sky was hazy so it has a glow around it. Here's the photo:

That was the case when I sang in the choir too - most of the people were retired. I worked full time and had responsibilities at home too. It was too much. Again, I don't blame you. It's too bad that I was so burned out that I never wanted to do it again. Of course there were other issues in that church that turned me off too so that's also a part of it. But to be honest now that I am retired I feel like I don't have enough energy and time for all I have going without also being in a choir. And in the meantime I've kind of moved on from church in general. I got turned off to it for good reason and it's been hard for me to get over that. My husband has sung in choirs over the years since then as he didn't get as turned off as I did. But now he works every Sunday bringing his boss's mother in law to church so he hasn't been going for the past year or so. BTW I miss the older people I sang with in my choir. That was 30 years ago and they're all passed on by now. It's sad, but that's life. I still have photos of us. We were a friendly group and did outside activities and parties together. The choir director and organist and her husband were dear friends of ours for years. 😢

Some beefs and observations I had with this episode: Again they're making the show more like a typical procedural. I still don't like that. I do like that they make the identity of the murderer pretty obvious, though. Elsbeth's clothes continue to be toned down but they are keeping some of the quirky like the bags and her getting tangled in the bead curtain twice. That was a typical Columbo move. I just think they should bring her and the show back to where it was on this stuff. Also, no way would a body be laying right out there on a road in Central Park for 36 hours without anyone finding it. Maybe in the bushes far away from a path, but not where it was. And who would go all the way out to some desolate path in the park to meet someone from a dating site at night anyway? That stretches credibility too. Genuine question - do rich widows still dress in Chanel-eque suits and furs reminiscent of 40 years ago? I guess if you're Jill Eikenberry's age it's plausible. Also I get that the type of arrow used by the "rat vigilantes" was not designed or intended to pierce a rat, but that doesn't mean it might not pierce the skin of a human if delivered at a velocity fast enough to do it. Something for the old Mythbusters to figure out (using that fake body skin/gel thing they used and of course Buster their favorite dummy)!

@DearEvette, I agree with you. And I think having the captain say he thought she had real psychic ability was evidence that the show wants us to think she's at least part legit. Police depts. have been known to use psychics to solve murders with some success. So it's not seen as bunk by everyone. I do believe some people have a gift, but it usually isn't as easily or commonly summoned up as many psychics try to act like it is so they also engage in some unethical practices, which is regrettable because it discredits their own gift. I myself have a touch of it, so I know how that is. There is a lot of evidence to support that some psychics have been right about things but nothing can be proven conclusively as coming from any real psychic ability when you have charlatans muddying things. And of course hard nosed science types will always claim that they could just have had "lucky guesses" or put things together using logic or gut intuition, nothing paranormal. There is always a way to debunk someone's hunches. My contention is who cares what it is or how they got to a correct conclusion if it's right and they didn't commit any kind of fraud in the process? I don't draw hard distinctions between "paranormal", "intuition" and "science" but what do I know? I just spent years studying the relationships between these things. I'm thinking that may happen, but not to reveal that she's 100% charlatan but to have her show that she actually has a genuine gift. I found it interesting that Lt. Connor actually professed belief in psychic ability, which was another vote in a positive direction from the show. Also, Elsbeth was genuinely touched and even shaken by the level of detail the psychic knew about her and her grandmother. There were a few things she knew that were very specific, unknown to anyone but Elsbeth, and would be hard to guess. And Elsbeth would be able to figure out how she knew it if it was bunk. But she didn't pursue that because she knew there was no way she could have known that other than a real gift. Another vote from the show in favor of it not being bunk in this woman's case, at least not ALL of it. Also, the evil figure in a dark robe - obviously the judge. I'm sure that's not lost on Elsbeth and that will give her reason to consult the psychic in the future.

When my father died of Covid in April of 2020 I was told his body was in the morgue at the hospital but I have no way of knowing that because I was not allowed anywhere near the property and was given very little information. I had heard about the freezer trucks and wondered if he was in one but if so no one told me that. I wouldn't put it past the hospital not to tell me. They were overwhelmed and in a state of crisis and I got very little information out of them. At that time 700 people A DAY were dying in NYC alone. I am not naive, I could not imagine that there was morgue space for all of them. My father died in early April of 2020 so there's a chance he was in a morgue but I don't think I'll ever know. His body was held for an entire MONTH because there weren't enough funeral homes and crematoriums for all of them at once. I ended up having no choice but to have him sent to Pennsylvania (paid for by the gov't.) to be cremated. His remains were sent to the funeral home of my choice. I didn't actually pick up his ashes until July as that was the first time I had the nerve to come to NYC after the lockdown. Talk about horrific! I never got his watch or his wallet back either and no one could tell me what happened to them. Fortunately I know he had a cheap watch never kept much money in his wallet. If he had any bank or credit cards in it no one ever used them and I had his bank card canceled anyway. It's a good thing I had his Social Security number on other documents. The whole thing was a freaking nightmare.

No, I didn't blame Biden, but there was no clear link between anything Biden did and the market downturn like there is right now with Trump. There is a clear reason why investors are worried and pulling out and it's Trump, pure and simple. And stocks didn't really crater until 2022, and that is widely seen as being a result of the worst inflation in decades and the Fed raising interest rates as a result, which was directly a result of the pandemic, not Biden. The two situations cannot be compared. When Trump was president the first time his base credited him with everything good that happened with the economy and stocks even though that was largely not thanks to him. Now they're unwilling to see how he's directly to blame for what just happened and may continue if he doesn't cut it the frack out? Give me a break. And they buy it when he slithers out of responsibility by saying we may have to "endure some hardships along the way to a better economy" and how some things are "more complicated" than to fix like he promised. What a total pile of steaming doo doo!!! I mean there is no BS from him his base won't buy!! I don't know about you but I'm closer to 70 than 60 at this point so I don't necessarily have the time to wait for stocks to rebound enough to see a profit, especially not with the low risk level I have elected for my accounts. At this point I'm just concerned with keeping what I have, not being vulnerable to the ups and downs of the market, which incidentally is exactly what any good financial advisor would recommend for someone in my age bracket. Anyway, speaking of that, after days of worrying about how much I lost thanks to Trump I finally took a look at my balances online. I lost maybe 3% overall since the highest point last month. That's actually not bad at all. I didn't really have a sense for how low my risk level was but this reassured me that it was on track. No thanks to Mr. Trump, mind you! My friend that lost 40% is a wonderful person but he's anything but a finance whiz. He was looking at an IRA he opened in the 90s and never touched again. It still has the same money he first invested in it 30 years ago. And because he didn't change anything since then he has basically what he started out with thanks to market ups and downs and a poor strategy. When I told my husband this his jaw fell. After 30 years that money should be worth much more even despite all the ups and downs. Not knowing that and hearing stuff online from people that said they lost a lot, it's no wonder I freaked out. I spoke to my financial advisor today and he told me not to move anything around just yet. But I still worry because Trump is like a loose cannon at this point and we don't know whether he's going to retreat or double down on the tariffs and other policies that will put the market in a panic again. This time it was 3%. Next time it might be more. Or we might see a few downturns over a short period that add up to 20% in no time. We have seen market volatility in the past few years worse than in a long time. It's not fair to just excuse what Trump did based on pointing out the "usual" ups and downs and telling people they need to weather them better. Between the pandemic and Trump's tariff stupidity being in the market has been much riskier than it was since the recession of December of 2007. And speaking of that, who was president then? George W. Bush.

Remember when I said that Trump was one of those people that went through two '50s and went straight to the '70s? I think he got stuck there. Does he really think that's possible today or is he just feeding into the deep wishes of his base for his own gain? It could be both, I don't know.

Oh like the way Republicans close to him were honest about Reagan's dementia and covered it up? And BTW there is zero evidence that Biden has dementia and the memory issues are not considered evidence of that. Psychologists have widely come out to say that he was showing signs of normal memory issues associated with aging, but not dementia or Alzheimer's. And anyway, even if Biden DID have Dementia he would still be a better president than we have now for a LOT of reasons. How sad is THAT? Whatever's going on with Trump is ten times worse than THAT!! Thank you, this was the kind of example I had in the back of my mind when I wrote my post. The situation is FAR more complicated than for punitive tariffs to solve.

This is not about other Americans, it's about the president of the United States, who I think should be held to a higher standard than just anyone. And at one time so did Republicans, at least more than now. But how low the Republicans have sunk to make exceptions when it suits them for Trump. If a Democrat did any of this they'd be calling for their heads on a platter. They couldn't even get Biden on anything illegal so they targeted his SON. How pathetic. Meanwhile Trump has how many felony convictions and that's somehow OK? Unbelievable.

He has NOT done "exactly what he said he would do" during his campaign! In fact he's done just the opposite and abandoned his promises altogether! Examples include that he promised to "fix" the economy, specifically to lower egg prices on "day one" and address grocery prices. Newsflash: Both grocery and egg prices have continued to go up and Trump has backpedaled on this promise, claiming that "it's more complicated than it looked". Well DUH anyone without their head up their ass could have seen that and I'm sure he knew it too. But he used that promise to get millions of people to vote for him. This is how an unethical person screws you over. And you and millions of Republicans believe it! I just don't get it! His tariff scheme is also backfiring and despite his "guns a blazin'" start he's had to backpedal and scale them back, changing his mind and introducing exceptions to them that have created market uncertainty and stock market prices tumbling. And now he's backpedaled on that and said that we'll just have to accept some hardship along the way to "manufacturing jobs coming back to this country". What a load of BS! You can't slap punitive tariffs on the world without it coming back to bite you in the rear. The world isn't going to belly up for him that easy. This is something any sane person and politician would know better than to do. He thought everyone would just bow and scrape to him. They're only fighting back and putting the US in economic danger. He's put us and our livelihoods at risk. He keeps trying to sell that the tariffs are going to "bring manufacturing jobs back" but it's clear that he has no clue how it's not as easy or as possible as it sounds, nor even desirable under the present world climate. His level of knowledge about these things and the approach he's taking is like a 3rd grader thought it up, and that's an insult to 3rd graders! I know next to nothing about this stuff but at least I know that it's a complicated situation and there is no "magic button" to press to make things change. I don't even know if I believe that he believes it's possible, but it sounded good to his base so he sold it to them not even caring about the rest. The tariffs are grandstanding and acting like he's going to intimidate the world. It may have worked with his brother but it's not going to work with the world. He's got another thing coming if he thinks that. And we're seeing the consequences of that now. I could go on. Birthright citizenship is not something he can just change without government approving it. And forget it, that won't happen. Most of what he promised he should have known was not possible to deliver. Much of it was unfeasible, unconstitutional and even illegal. Oh but it sounded good to his base so it got him elected and that's all that mattered to him. And if it got government tied up in knots and in a tizzy fighting it, so much the better as he worked off his grudges with them and took the attention off the real evil stuff he does behind the scenes. The only reason he wanted to get reelected was to avoid prosecution and jail. That's all that matters to him now. You and your life and success do not matter to him AT ALL. Republicans just refuse to face this. They still think he's fighting for them. He only knows how to fight for HIMSELF.

I love Canada too. Boy has Toronto grown since I went there 30 years ago! I thought Vinnie's dish looked like a winner right away. I hope he doesn't turn out to be unlikable. I have a lot of Sicilian cousins in Montreal so Massimo intrigues me. I felt bad for the woman that went home but wow, was her dish a clunker. I got the impression that the time management and other issues some of them faced had something to do with how cramped they all were in that kitchen. And that's too bad. Yes to Gail's stylist not doing her any favors. And yes to the chyrons needing to stay up longer. I had this gripe last season as well so they're not getting the message. And where did they find the Buddha Lo almost-lookalike? I seriously almost thought Shuai was him when I first saw him. So far it doesn't seem like it will be a bad season but it's too soon to tell.

Hah, good one! I agree but it was good to see her and Dale though. They were the best parts of this episode. How sad is that? This show can't stand on its own. It needs the cast of "Young Sheldon" to make it even a little interesting.

I'm having a very rough day myself. I went to visit a friend and cried in his office for an hour straight after he told me his investment account is down by 40%!!! I still have not looked at my account. I can't bear it. But I lost it when I heard about his. In the past I have criticized it when people wished harm on Trump and his MAGA minions but I can no longer do that. He and his henchmen should be brought to justice but I despair of that ever happening. Trump has too much power and slithers out of everything. My friend was telling me about all the cases against him as if that's going to stop him. He will take us all with him to ruin and NOTHING will stop him! I have never felt this way in my entire life. I always had hope for a better tomorrow. If I lost money I had faith that I'd make it back. I had time. I was laid off in 2009 and living hand to mouth, charging my groceries. We almost lost our house but no problem, we'll find a way to keep it. I'll get another job and pay off my debts somehow. And yeah, I got another job and somehow survived and bounced back. But I am not so sure about that now. I have serious doubts that I will ever bounce back from this. I am too old to find a job - I spent years looking for one after my wrongful termination and never got one. I am 66 and a half now. I have medical issues. We still owe money on our house. What are my odds? Not good. I have been screwed over so many times in my life, especially financially, that I can't take one more time. And now that I am too old to make up for it this happens. I have never believed in Hell but right now I hope there is one especially for people like this. My parents gave me the best life they could but they didn't have money to give me. They stumbled into a co-op conversion in the '80s and I ended up inheriting it. It was all they had of any value. And despite being in NYC it wasn't worth that much and needed a total renovation. But I really needed the money and was so grateful that I finally had something to retire on as I entered my 60s. So I dutifully put it in investment accounts rolled my 401Ks into retirement accounts. Since 2021 when I opened them they went up and down but never really made much money. I griped about it but didn't really get angry. I spoke with my advisor after Trump was reelected and he told me the usual crap about staying the course. I was ready to pull the money out but he convinced me not to. Can you just imagine how furious I am with him right now? And how upset I am that the only thing my parents had to give me has probably gone up in smoke? How angry would they be right now?? It is killing me thinking about it. I know my mother. If she were alive she'd go right up to Trump and wring his freaking neck. She hated him years ago before most people outside of NYC knew who he was. I mentioned our friend's financial account loss to my husband and he told me he's "not worried" and that he looked at his account and it only lost 8%. I didn't ask him how long ago that was. I have a feeling it was not today. I dropped the subject. Both he and my friend think I should look at my account but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't want to get that upset again and lose another night of sleep. People might not understand why I am so upset. I am a woman. I don't want to be completely dependent on my husband. I never was, and I don't want that to start now at this point in my life. I worked hard for many years. I don't want to have to go back to work and who would hire me now anyway for any kind of money? I did everything and then some to make sure I could retire and I am angrier than I've ever been about ANYTHING in my entire life! I have been poor - really poor and I couldn't bear it again. Every time things look like they're finally going my way I get cut off at the knees and I'm back to square one. I have never given up and every time I fell I got up and tried all the harder the next time. But I just can't bear it again, not now, not at this age. And I don't have children to take care of me in my old age. Anyway I am sorry to download all of this on all of you but thank you for listening. Right now you are all worth the world to me because I know you all understand.

I'm already under the bed. The markets hate the uncertainty. His on-again-off-again antics are what's making investors pull out and stocks plummet. The markets supposedly mean a lot to him but he's acting like he doesn't GAF. He is really coming unhinged if he's letting this happen. All for the attention? I don't know anymore WTF is motivating him. This guy is seriously mental.

I'll tell you one reason why they are waiting it out. Because they have the money to spare. So they lose a few mil., to them that's chump change. They're filthy rich, it doesn't hurt them. It's not that they don't have the guts to call out the gov't. It doesn't affect them that much so why bother? I worked for C-suite executives. My husband is employed by a mega-millionaire (we think he's a secret billionaire). For them it's "don't worry, be happy". And when things turn around they have the money to risk on buying up whatever's hot. So Kemper, you're right that in the end they will still end up making money.

Has anyone had the nerve to look at their retirement/investment accounts to see how much damage has been done to them? I am still deathly afraid to do it. It's eating away at my stomach but I fear that I'll feel even worse if I dare to peek. And I'm holding my tongue with my husband about it too, which makes it even worse. I don't want to get him upset too. I have been talking with friends about it but they too have been afraid to look at their accounts.