Canada, they are yours, for free!

[Crackpot]

* when there is a Republican President.

[Big RR]

Nah, I've seen overreaching on both sides of the aisle--although the current president even makes Nixon look like a model of self restraint.

[Crackpot]

You said that Republicans in Congress want less control over the President. That is only true when there is a republican President. If there was a Democratic president they would be screaming about overreach. the statement only applies on a partisan basis.

[ex-khobar Andy]

So it seems that H and M were in Miami this week giving a talk to the assembled folk at some sort of JP Morgan do. Reports of their fee vary from a low of $100,000 to a high (which I cannot believe) of $1,000,000. Afterwards they had dinner with JLo and ARod. There is no truth to the rumo(u)r that hence forth they wish to be known a HWal and MMerk.

P Harry - with the most expensive HS education in the world - achieved two "A" Levels in Art and Geography. A Levels are what British kids take when they are 18 or so in order to determine if they are cut out for University. Art is hardly taxing and Harry had help - the teacher who blew the whistle on his cheating unauthorized unorthodox didactic assistance unavailable to all examination participants was later awarded £45,000 ($60,000 or so depending on the then exchange rate). This was to compensate her for being sacked when she spoke up about it. Two A levels at that time probably placed him in the top 50% of schoolkids nationwide so he's obviously and clearly qualified to give a million bucks worth of advice to all those cretinous bankers.

What perplexes me is that the US is supposed to be the country that tossed away all those facile notions of how one's birth - high or low - is an indicator of one's value to society. The UK is supposed to be the place where all that still counts. How is it that this unspectacular young man seems able to command this sort of fee this side of the pond?

[BoSoxGal]

We live in a sickening cult of celebrity wherein moronic pretty people who are good at pretending and playing with balls rate miles above hardworking highly intelligent people with demonstrated skills in sciences, arts, rhetoric, trades, etc.

I should have realized this as a teenager reading People magazine back in the 80s, and saved myself the high cost of higher education which only served to separate me further from the sneering masses. I think a life of willful ignorance as a member of the sneering masses, adoring the likes of the Trump family and Harry/Meghan (sorry not sorry, they aren’t much different) is a far easier proposition.

[rubato]

The arena of celebrity has its own rules. The Kardashians et al would not be considered successful in any area of human effort which was consequential.

yrs,
rubato