March 3, 2020

thread of the week

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Mar 2
I was criticized by the Democrats when I closed the Country down to China many weeks ahead of what almost everyone recommended. Saved many lives. Dems were working the Impeachment Hoax. They didn’t have a clue! Now they are fear mongering. Be calm & vigilant!


Palmer Report @PalmerReport
Replying to
@realDonaldTrump
Literally not one word of this happened, you lying banana pudding face!


·
Mar 2
Replying to
@PalmerReport
and
@realDonaldTrump
Please. Butterscotch Face.

March 3, 2020

London couple comes up with a 'lap' hack to deal with clingy cat

https://nypost.com/2020/03/03/london-couple-comes-up-with-a-lap-hack-to-deal-with-clingy-cat/

After they began working from home, Ziggy’s adorable antics became too much to handle.

“I’m all for clingy cats, but there are times where some kind of measures need to be taken,” May wrote on Reddit.

Ziggy’s habit of climbing all over May’s workspace and laptop were thwarted by her husband’s sly hack — by stuffing a pair of pants and shoes, and placing the dummy lap on the couch.

The curious kitty immediately fancied the fake legs.

“[Alex] thought that creating a decoy would be funny, but I don’t think he expected it to actually work,” May told The Dodo. “Harley [Ziggy’s sister] was totally uninterested, but Ziggy loved it.”

People on Reddit were overwhelmed by the couple’s cute predicament.

March 3, 2020

Rabbit Eating Juicy Cucumber ASMR

March 3, 2020

Retired, or Hoping to Be, and Saddled With Student Loans

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/business/retirement-student-loan-debt.html

Retired, or Hoping to Be, and Saddled With Student Loans
Americans older than 60 are the fastest-growing group of college loan debtors — the vast majority of them borrowing for others — a consumer agency says.

When Patrick Donohue retired in May after a 20-year career in customer service at AT&T, he and his wife, Kay, didn’t celebrate. Instead, they argued over which pension option was better: obtaining a large portion right away or scheduling small monthly payments.

At issue was whether the lump sum might free them from paying further interest on the $97,932 they borrowed from the federal government so their four daughters could attend college, or if doing so would mean sacrificing their long-term financial stability. Ultimately, they settled on the monthly payments, guaranteed for both their lifetimes.

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In all, more than 2.8 million Americans over 60 are contending with student debt, a number that has quadrupled from 700,000 in 2005, according to the bureau. The cost is swelling, too: Between 2012 and 2017, for those age 60 and older, the average amount of student loan debt almost doubled, ballooning to $23,500 from $12,100.

The Donohues’ situation is typical. According to that 2017 report, which uses the most recently available figures, 73 percent of borrowers over 60 are paying off student loans they either took out or co-signed to help children and grandchildren through college. Only 27 percent are chipping away at their own or their spouse’s education.

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A 2019 AARP Public Policy Institute report found that 15 years ago, borrowers 50 and over held $47 billion of the nation’s $455.2 billion in student loan debt. By 2018, that figure had risen to $289.5 billion of an overall $1.5 trillion.

There are big risks to taking on this debt, and painful consequences if you fall behind: A person’s Social Security benefits can be reduced up to 15 percent if the borrower defaults, not to mention serious quality-of-life issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/business/retirement-student-loan-debt.html

The kind of issues Kimberly Weihl, 55, of Midland, Mich., is facing, for instance. When Ms. Weihl took out a loan for her daughter to attend Saginaw Valley State University in 2007, she was already paying down $60,000 of her own student debt. Now she owes $77,000. Her daughter, who dropped out after two years at Saginaw State and is living at home, is working as a waitress and not yet able to help with payments, which come to $500 a month.

Ms. Weihl cannot foresee a future in which she is able to retire from her nursing job. “I’m convinced I’m going to die before I resolve this,” she said. “I can’t sleep at night. My stomach is in knots.”

March 2, 2020

Billy Porter Writes Touching Note To Conservatives That Criticized His 'Sesame Street' Appearance

Billy Porter responds with empathy after One Million Moms called out hiDespite the bigotry and ignorance at play here, Billy Porter decided to respond to One Million Moms and did so with grace and empathy. No clap-back needed.


“One of the highlights of my life has been the opportunity to sing on the set of @sesamestreet with my new pal, Penelope the penguin. Together, we sang about the possibilities of new friendships with those who may not be exactly like us,” Porter wrote on Instagram.s PBS appearance

Last month, Sesame Street revealed that the radiant and fashion-forward Billy Porter would guest star in the upcoming season of the iconic PBS series. During his episode, Porter wore the epic tuxedo gown that he wore to the 2019 Academy Awards and while most people were like, “YAS!”, One Million Moms — an organization that makes it their mission to hate anything that isn’t straight — called for a boycott of the network for “pushing” the “LGBTQ lifestyle.”

“PBS recently announced that Sesame Street will feature a drag queen activist wearing a gender-bender tuxedo gown in one of its episodes this year,” One Million Moms wrote on their site. First of all, a “drag queen activist” in a “gender-bender tuxedo gown” sounds awesome, but One Million Moms *sigh* took offense to it, like they do all things.


“PBS KIDS should not introduce the LGBTQ lifestyle to young children,” they wrote before claiming that PBS should not use taxpayers’ dollars to “indoctrinate children to the LGBTQ lifestyle.”

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Despite the bigotry and ignorance at play here, Billy Porter decided to respond to One Million Moms and did so with grace and empathy. No clap-back needed.

“One of the highlights of my life has been the opportunity to sing on the set of @sesamestreet with my new pal, Penelope the penguin. Together, we sang about the possibilities of new friendships with those who may not be exactly like us,” Porter wrote on Instagram.

“I know people are all up in arms about me wearing the gorgeous custom @csiriano tuxedo dress,” he added. “If you follow me, however, you know the impact it had. The emails, DMs, and messages of good will I received that day (and continue to receive) from parents and their children who have been bullied all over the world and desperately need to see someone like me, being their authentic selves on mainstream media, is far more important than anything #onemillionmoms could ever say. Friendship, kindness and inclusivity shall triumph. And often, it simply starts by saying hi.”

Earlier this month, Porter’s Sesame Street appearance caught heat from Republican Arkansas Senator Jason Rapert who wanted Arkansas to pull its funding from PBS, inciting the exhausting “promoting the LGBT agenda” narrative again, and honestly when will these conservatives get some new talking points?

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/billy-porter-writes-touching-note-173744636.html

March 2, 2020

police find gator in Ohio basement

The homeowner said her son bought the gator at a reptile flea market 25 years ago and had kept it in the basement ever since, police said.
The voluntarily surrendered the gator and the Ohio Department of Agriculture removed it from the home, police said.
The gator from Groveport was in good condition.
"It didn't require any special care," Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Shelby Croft told CNN.
Alligators are banned in the Ohio, thanks to Senate Bill 310, which prohibits the possession of hyenas, lions, tigers, alligators, bears and several other wild animals.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/us/ohio-alligator-found-basement-trnd/index.html

March 2, 2020

homeowner uses motion-activated sprinkler with 'impressive amount of pressure' to thwart thieves

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-homeowner-sprinkler-thieves-porterville-spray-water-pressure

The Porterville resident recently decided to deter potential thieves in her neighborhood by setting up a motion-activated sprinkler.


"Our flood light didn’t seem to scare them off, so we decided to have a little fun with a motion-activated sprinkler that has an impressive amount of pressure," Katie Camarena wrote on Facebook.


According to Camarena, there have been recent issues with thieves coming into the neighborhood to "try and steal tools out of vehicles" in addition to "anything else they can get their hands on."

March 2, 2020

CNN settled lawsuit with smirking teen. I hope he didn't get one penny

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NEW YORK (AP) — CNN has settled a lawsuit with a Kentucky teen who claimed media organizations falsely labeled him as a racist following a well-publicized encounter with a Native American last year at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The network confirmed the settlement Tuesday, as did Todd McMurtry, a lawyer for Nicholas Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky. Neither side would give details of the settlement.

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/cnn-settles-lawsuit-with-kentucky-teen-in-demonstration

March 2, 2020

SNL trolls Trump perfectly... within hours #TrumpSlump is number two trending topic on twitter

But on this week's episode, the show took it a step further and intentionally trolled Trump —and they did it by taking a page out of Trump's own playbook and then getting it to trend on his favorite social media platform: Twitter. In a word, "SNL"'s trolling of Trump was: Perfect!

The master class in Trump trolling took place during "SNL"'s Weekend Update segment, co-hosted by comedians Colin Jost and Michael Che. Jost, with an image over his shoulder of the stock market chart showing last week's massive drop with the words "Stock Market plunges" adjacent to Trump's face, began by telling us, "The stock market this week posted its largest point loss in history, which a lot of people are now referring to as the 'Trump slump.'"

He then adds, "And by a lot of people, I mean me. The same way when Trump says 'a lot of people' are saying something, he just means he is."

Jost, to big laughs, continued, "So now all these people are coming up and saying, 'Trump Slump' and everyone is talking about this 'Trump Slump.' And how there's a 'Trump Slump.'" With the laughs growing, Jost closed, "And I can't even talk about the 'Trump Slump' without someone saying, 'How about Trump Slump?'... Anyway, that's the economy..."


Lo and behold, within hours of that segment airing on "SNL," the term "Trump Slump" as well as #TrumpSlump were trending on Twitter. In fact, by 9 a.m. ET on Sunday the term was the number two top trending topic on the platform as people gleefully amplified the term, including well-known comedian/actor Mike Birbiglia tweeting, "People are saying there's a #TrumpSlump." That means Trump could have woken up to the words "Trump Slump" trending on his beloved Twitter.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/01/opinions/snl-trump-a-lot-of-people-are-saying-obeidallah/index.html

March 2, 2020

line to get into parking lot, line to get into store, then dedicated toilet paper line