Yeah No

@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.

Their self sacrificial devotion to Trump is almost parallel to that of the early Christian martyrs who would die for Christ. Only Trump is not worthy of sacrificing one's life and livelihood over. These people are rather cutting of their noses to spite their faces. We can only hope that future events will make them realize that, although at this point I don't hold out much hope of that.

Yeah I wonder about that myself but I usually land on it being a little bit of both nature/nurture. In his case I can see where both come into play. It's interesting to listen to his niece and nephew (Mary and Fred III) who were born to the lesser successful alcoholic brother in the family, Fred Trump, Jr. It is said that Fred Jr. succumbed to Donald's incessant jabs which ate away at his self confidence. He left the real estate business and became a pilot but that didn't stop Donald from putting him down and supposedly that helped drive him to alcoholism. So this shows that even being born to successful parents doesn't guarantee what kind of character a child has. Donald is basically what I would call a "bad seed" and was born that way.

Yes, as stated I agree completely. I'm not one to stand on formal diagnoses but many professionals get fussy about claiming that someone has been diagnosed when technically they haven't. And the reason there's so little real diagnosis of people with NPD is because they rarely put themselves in a position to be formally diagnosed. They are slippery characters and know how to avoid any kind of responsibility for anything. Even when caught red handed they blame everyone else and take the attention off themselves. Unfortunately in Trump's case he has many devotees that are willing to believe him no matter what. It really gets me how now you're hearing about Republicans that are willing to let Trump risk their financial futures and take a financial hit in the stock market for his tariff BS. These are the same people that would scream bloody murder if they were told a Democrat lost them ONE PENNY of their hard earned money even if it was proven that it wasn't the Democrat's fault. And heaven forbid they should lose a little more in taxes to go to people they don't think "deserve" to get government benefits. No, it's better to lose 50% of their fortunes or retirement money to Trump than let one penny go to a poor, unfortunate minority.

I remember when I felt that way and quit choir in my Episcopal church. There were more rehearsals added all the time. In my case we had a new choir director that hired paid singers and treated the rest of us like we were also getting paid a salary. He asked too much from the volunteers and insulted and pushed out some of them who he didn't think were "good enough". That and I was being asked to participate in other church committees. It was too much for someone working full time and I was half my age at the time! It's one of the reasons I haven't participated in a church since.

Yes, unfortunately therapy works best with "garden variety neurotics" and not people with full blown, advanced personality disorders like NPD. I've always heard that it's because neurotics are more likely to take responsibility for their actions and wellness, while those with personality disorders instead blame everyone else for everything they do and how they fare in life. And we see an awful lot of that coming from Trump. I almost can't believe what an incredible example of narcissism he is. Seeing him in action is better education for what that is than anything I ever learned from a textbook.

I agree with you 99.9% on everything here, except Trump has not been formally diagnosed as a narcissist or with NPD. Many, many psychologists think he is one and have even written letters to the NYT and made commercials to alert the public on their opinions, but they don't amount to a formal diagnosis. He has not ever been assessed and diagnosed by professionals. That involves more than observation at a distance. Even Allen Francis, one of the writers of the DSM IV is against people calling Trump that even though he agrees that he seems to fit the definition. I know professionals take their diagnoses very seriously and refrain from calling people something unless they've been assessed up close. I see where he's coming from but I disagree with him that psychologists and non professionals shouldn't make their unofficial opinions known. In Trump's case it's so blatantly obvious that it doesn't even take an advanced degree in anything to see how he fits the definition to a T. And he himself seems to apply the word to Trump despite what else he says. Here's an article on Allen Francis and why he wants people to stop calling Trump a narcissist: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3984065/stop-saying-trump-has-narcissistic-personality-disorder-says-psychiatrist-who-defined-it-1.3984073 Again, I understand his position but I don't agree that we should all stop calling Trump that. He is also quoted in the article as saying this: In a letter to the New York Times, Frances, a retired Duke University professor, wrote that Trump "may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn't make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder." I agree that narcissism and NPD are not mental illnesses (they are personality disorders), but given that he said this in 2017 I wonder what he would say now as I know people are starting to see more real signs of some kind of mental impairment with Trump. He is also down as saying this on X, which is very prophetic of what we see Trump acting out today:

I've said this before but I think the fact that you don't really know what exactly Musk would do with the information is already a red flag. But again, Dems. don't think he's necessarily plotting anything but misuse of information can just be based on not having the sense to protect it from being misused. Musk is a private citizen. He was not anyone's idea of who should have such control over things. I still can't get over how seeing the richest man in the world, who by a lot of people's estimation doesn't have much common sense about real world things having access to your private information doesn't concern you. My mind boggles on how Republicans trust anything Trump does without any question. That in and of itself is in my opinion dangerous and ill advised and there are many examples from history to illustrate why that is. I question everything from everyone. Democrats questioned Biden. They didn't just belly up for anything he wanted to do. That's not how Democrats roll. Otherwise they would have let him run and not advised him to step down. Trump has found ways to game the system and skirt on the edge of laws to his advantage. While he has been able to do that without it being illegal (although I think it should be) it is still unethical in my opinion. No I have witnessed no grand scale pushing by Democrats or any Democratic journalists or TV personalities of grand scale Republican conspiracies. Sure, people theorize but the kind of conspiracy theories I'm talking about are something I only see Republicans invent. And they make their entire platforms based on their belief in some pretty far-fetched schemes engineered by Democrats. Trump uses Republican's fears to make them believe in things that are pretty preposterous. I see none of that with Democrats. Biden never pushed any such stuff. When Democrats suspect something, there's a very good reason and it's by no means something Democrats in general run with as gospel. Democrats don't have to imagine things to suspect with Republicans. They're too busy being shocked by what they're actually DOING without hiding it to have to imagine all sorts of things going on under the table.

I like Amy Klobuchar but I am realistic enough to know that she couldn't have stood up to the likes of Trump. No reflection on her in a normal universe, but he would have decimated her and she would not have been enough of a draw to lure independents and other non-Democrats into voting for her over him. And I've already discussed why I thought choosing anyone but Harris under those specific circumstances at that specific time would have backfired on the Dems. And I don't even think Amy would have had much chance of winning the nomination under the normal process.

It's cute that you think Musk being the richest man in the world means he wouldn't steal money. I actually think that makes him more of a suspect especially since we didn't ask for him to have access to our information and what kind of clearance does he have to access it anyway? Because Trump, someone I already don't trust owes him a favor? And if you try to tell me I should trust Trump, forget it. I have more reasons not to trust him based on his established lying and misleading the public. Even in the past few weeks since he became president again. Lists a mile long with examples could be written. But it's not necessarily about stealing money anyway, but using information that Musk has no right to use for purposes that the people whose information it is have not authorized for his use or that use, whatever it is. The fact that he would just go in there and access it without any real authority or hesitation is already suspect. And I've already gone into why I don't think "knowing about business" gives anyone a better grasp of dealing with matters of government. The two are very different. And I actually question his grasp of business too after reading about him. Same with Trump. These people latched onto a scheme to become rich but that didn't mean they had much real knowledge about business. Trump has proven over and over again that he has money in spite of himself. He just got lucky and used less than ethical ways to screw other people out of their money. Interesting given that Republicans are by far the main sources of conspiracy theories, especially involving Democrats. When I hear what some of them are I shake my head. They ascribe way more organization and deviousness to Democrats than they are even capable of. Democrats are just not capable of such incredible, far-fetched schemes as have been ascribed to them, especially the one Trump himself pushed about how they "stole" the 2020 election. You can't even unite Democrats on anything much less are they effective enough to accomplish something as far reaching as that. But that is by far not the only far-fetched conspiracy theory Republicans widely believe about Democrats and get themselves all tied in knots over. Believe me, Democrats don't have to invent conspiracy theories like this about Republicans. We are witnessing things that are being done publicly right now in front of our faces that are far worse than any theory.

Yeah, that was a weird episode and I didn't like it that much. I actually detest it when shows resort to song and dance to show off the talents the cast doesn't normally get to use. The only time I liked it was on Big Bang Theory because they always managed to make it plausible and part of the plot. I was thinking about how many great actors there are on this show and it still basically sucks. Even they can't redeem it.

You know, living in CT I never was the biggest Chris Murphy fan based on personal things I know about him through my friend in local politics, but he is redeeming himself in my eyes in a BIG way lately.

I just realized that this pink upside down triangle and the red one I posted earlier are related. If you look at the image in the article I posted on the use of the red upside down triangle in a Trump campaign ad on Facebook in 2020 you'll see the chart below, which shows different colored upside down triangles to mark people as different things. The red one marks political prisoners and those that rescued Jews, but the chart posted also includes the pink one that is said to denote LGBTQ. I wish my father was still alive - I'd have him translate the German for me. He knew a lot about the Nazis having served in WWII. Don't tell me Trump doesn't know what these symbols meant. BTW, the red triangle was removed from Facebook as offensive but now Trump can post whatever he wants and he knows he can get away with it.