English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I need to be answering NO all the time to drive the point home what a retarded question it is to even be asked. Presenting it as if he even has the option.

Like WTF. What's next. "Should people face criminal charges for murder?"

No they should not. Of course not. What a silly question to ask!

@Robusto reminds me of the Futurama episode titled "A head in the polls".

Featuring the head of Richard Nixon, mind.

In the words of George Lucas, it's all a circle. It's like poetry.

Anyway I'm not promising I will stay till the end. Indeed I fully expect to not survive the first five minutes.

I can barely handle all the bimbos on the screen already.

RegDwigнt

1:13 AM

Jesus fuck I already can't understand a thing they're saying. Just throwing random numbers at one another. How is Joe Podunk supposed to follow along.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt I don't think you're looking at the same show I am

livresque

I'm trying to make it past the first "Let me finish."

RegDwigнt

Godspeed with that.

@Mitch I'm trying to not look at all.

It's a demanding enough task to even just listen.

Robusto

This is a shit show.

Anything with Trump in it is a shit show.

RegDwigнt

I was about to say, "show" is a big word.

livresque

1:15 AM

Did he just call water cheap?

RegDwigнt

And the fuck is the moderator from Faux News. Couldn't they find a single person anywhere else.

@livresque I think he's talking homeopathy.

Fuck me it's not even entertaining. It's just painful. All pain all the time.

Robusto

I turned it off.

RegDwigнt

You are a wiser man than I am.

Robusto

He's not a debater, he's a troll.

RegDwigнt

It's not even trolling. It's just children's playground.

Except you have to address the biggest stupidest kid as "Mr President" for some reason.

Robusto

1:19 AM

Yeah. He's a playground bully. Exactly right.

livresque

Kids are more articulate.

RegDwigнt

I am waiting for the first "NOU"

How is any of this for real.

CowperKettle

Multiple subglacial water bodies below the south pole of Mars unveiled by new MARSIS data

livresque

No business like shit show business.

RegDwigнt

It's not even Idiocracy anymore. It's surpassed and transcended Idiocracy.

livresque

1:28 AM

@RegDwigнt Is that what he meant about water? Electrolytes preferable?

RegDwigнt

Yeah that's sort of what I mean. He couldn't even articulate that little.

livresque

The semi-literate person for hire question is well-timed.

RegDwigнt

It's not even "plants crave electrolytes". It's not even Jabberwocky. It's not even gibberish. It's below a monkey in a cage going "mumumumhuhuhmuhuh".

And the best part of it is, at the end they'll shake hands and pose for the press.

It's not even an absurdist circus anymore. It's just pixels on a screen.

This is what entropy looks like.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Haven't you been paying attention? They said no handshakes.

RegDwigнt

Nov 17 '13 at 16:10, by RegDwigнt

Attention is the worst paid person in this room.

And I continued to not pay him for another seven years.

More to the point, if I didn't pay attention to that, and I'm not even participating in the shitshow, what do you expect from someone who is.

"Our country is coming back extremely well, setting records as it does it".

Yeah well. The man isn't even wrong. It's setting records of some description alright.

Cerberus

1:41 AM

@Robusto Perhaps not if you have superhuman abilities...

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus he'd have to, as liana swinging is actually not possible.

Robusto

@Cerberus Tarzan wasn't superhuman. Just fairly strong.

RegDwigнt

You can swing on one, but you can't jump from one to the next like they show in cartoons. Preserving momentum or indeed even building it up.

The moment you jump from the one you're on to the other, you just dangle there like some grandpa's scrotum.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Pfft. You ever tried it?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Pfft. You ever did not?

Robusto

1:43 AM

Lianas swung on by @RegDwight: zero.

RegDwigнt

That is correct. That soundtrack was swung by Phil Collins.

"You're the worst president America's ever had, come on".

Trololol.

You can't get down to that level. You'll get beaten with experience.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt It may be if you grab the next one while it is suspended between two trees or branches, snapping one end.

RegDwigнt

3 mins ago, by Robusto

@RegDwigнt Pfft. You ever tried it?

There's videos on YouTube. You could watch.

Cerberus

Why do you think I'm making typos in this room?

RegDwigнt

I am genuinely confused what that has to do with lianas.

How does typos help with the swinging?

Oh Jesus. Biden is losing it.

livresque

1:49 AM

"This guy"...does anyone ever say "this guy" without meaning "this fucking guy"?

RegDwigнt

"Manufacturing was in a hole. Manufacturing was in a hole. Number one. Number two: number three."

I want that on a T-shirt. "Number one. Number two: number three".

livresque

"No you're number two!"

Robusto

Shut off his fucking mike when it's not his turn.

RegDwigнt

Yeah people on Twitter started suggesting that three minutes in.

Now even they are tired.

livresque

@Robusto Seriously, Zoom has taught us that much.

RegDwigнt

1:52 AM

It's ABC or whatever. Those guys (read: those fucking guys) don't even know how anything works.

livresque

Let's review the rules now; it's only been an hour!

RegDwigнt

There's rules?

Lol @ "Is this what white thanksgiving looks like" and "they should've made Jerry Springer moderate this"

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt How uncharacteristic of you.

I'm swinging all the time.

RegDwigнt

Swing when you're winning.

So is round six a boxing match?

I'm kind of secretly hoping for that.

Why don't they fight it out with fists.

There's not a lot missing till they do.

livresque

No touching! This is arrested development.

RegDwigнt

1:58 AM

Yeah yeah, you forgot about the part where we all forgot about that.

Lol "Why isn't there a fact checking service for this show". Because it would melt every processor in the world.

Alternatively, just draw a big red arrow about the guy that is wrong, lying, or both 100% of the time.

Not that it would help, mind.

livresque

That's why they aren't using an applause-o-meter either.

RegDwigнt

Haha.

tchrist

Just give him an off switch for the mike.

RegDwigнt

You're like an hour behind everyone else with that suggestion.

Robusto

Well, our country is a racist place.

tchrist

2:02 AM

Okay, there should only be one mike then.

He'll have to wrassle Biden to the ground to take it from him when he wants to overtalk him.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Yeah that's what I don't understand. Why would you accuse Trump of doing racist things. Half the country will go orly, cool. I'm voting for that.

Talk economy. That hurts everyone.

Even the racists.

@tchrist yes, that should also help with the fistfights.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Half the people would vote for more lynching.

@RegDwigнt The point is that he wouldn't be allowed to physically assault someone this way.

RegDwigнt

My bad, I forgot that people don't do things they're not allowed to do.

tchrist

He could take out his gun and shoot him right here and now in plain view and half would still vote for him.

livresque

Either could and we'd have the same results.

tchrist

2:07 AM

Pistols at dawn.

RegDwigнt

How is this a discussion between any two adults anywhere ever. Let alone two people that wanna be fucken President.

skullpatrol

Shoot out at the OK corral

CowperKettle

> The NYT says Mr Trump has paid about $400m less in combined federal income taxes over the last two decades compared to a very rich person who paid the average for that group each year.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt You can't have a discussion with a tantrumping toddler.

CowperKettle

At least Trump has been using legal loopholes and not stealing outright, like Putin. But they are a "pair of boots" like the Russian saying goes. Два сапога пара. Meaning they are very close in their nature.

tchrist

2:12 AM

Maybe.

Cerberus

What's the tax rate on wealth?

tchrist

Whut?

RegDwigнt

@tchrist I actually can. And I always win.

And in the end they can even play piano.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle I think we have a similar expression in Dutch! But I can't think of it.

livresque

Biden takes deep breaths and makes it through two minutes without interrupting....

CowperKettle

2:12 AM

@Cerberus " in 2017, the average federal income tax rate for the highest-earning .001% percent of tax filers was 24.1%, according to the IRS." bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54323654

Cerberus

But I think the focus of taxation should shift from income to wealth.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus then Trump would pay even less, for he has been bankrupt for the last 30 years.

Cerberus

Inaequality of wealth has increased dramatically, much more so than (official) income, I believe.

livresque

@CowperKettle Like peas in a pod?

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt If he were truly bankrupt, all his assets ought to be liquidated.

tchrist

2:14 AM

@RegDwigнt In part because he's incompetent, in part because that's his scam.

@CowperKettle I don't believe it's all been legal. It just hasn't been convicted yet. That family has been doing this for many, many decades.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus all his assets belong to the Deutsche Bank, who to the best of our knowledge right now secretly sold them off to some unnamed Russian bank a decade ago.

livresque

Does anyone else say China with a /dʒ/?

Hurts my ears every time.

tchrist

@livresque No. He says lots of dings wrong. Chickago.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt In order for wealth to be properly taxed, all those opaque constructions need to be dealt with.

@livresque Vachina?

tchrist

Shicawgo has no chick in it except in his mouth.

Cerberus

2:18 AM

An Italian cow lacking a c, methinks.

livresque

@Cerberus That's what I've always suspected he intends.

Cerberus

This is Trump's pronunciation?

tchrist

@Cerberus mua?

@Cerberus Listen to him say Djina or Chickago.

Cerberus

> VaChina - Chinese Feminist Society

Please click 'Add to Basket' to join the Society!

We are a UK based Chinese feminist group with ties to feminist activists in Beijing.

No joke.

@tchrist Quoi?

livresque

Not at all his agenda, that.

Cerberus

2:20 AM

@tchrist No, thanks.

Turns out vacchino/vacchina is a cheese.

From a cow, no doubt.

tchrist

Bos taurus

Il toro (Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758), chiamato talvolta impropriamente bue (denominazione riservata al toro che ha subito la castrazione), è una specie di mammifero artiodattilo appartenente alla famiglia Bovidae. La femmina del toro domestico, la vacca, viene allevata per trarne il latte, liquido secreto dalla ghiandola mammaria per l'alimentazione del vitello, molto usato nell'alimentazione umana sia come bevanda, sia come materia prima da cui ricavare formaggio, panna, burro, ricotta e altri derivati del latte, sia come ingrediente per alimenti più complessi. I vitelli (cioè i maschi entro il...

RegDwigнt

Well that's where the word vaccine comes from.

As I am sure everyone knows.

Cerberus

Vacca.

livresque

@RegDwigнt Took the words right out of my mouth.

Cerberus

We do.

tchrist

2:22 AM

@RegDwigнt A cowpox upon both their houses.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus That will suffice for my definition of "everyone".

tchrist

Variolation.

RegDwigнt

Haha "Perhaps we should also debate by mail"

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt As it ought to.

RegDwigнt

Some of this Twitter shit is funnier than it has any right to.

CowperKettle

2:23 AM

tchrist

Why are you Russians still awake? Isn't it tomorrow there already?

RegDwigнt

It is never tomorrow. It is always today. Discuss.

tchrist

Right now it's tonight.

RegDwigнt

I'll check back with you on that again in 37 hours.

tchrist

Russian hours?

Or Martian hours?

livresque

2:28 AM

Daylight saving hours?

RegDwigнt

Well according to American hours, Joe Biden was Vice President of the US for 47 years.

If you don't believe me, turn on American TV.

That is what is being publicly broadcast right now without getting questioned.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that.

RegDwigнt

They should've let Ahhnold run when he still had a chance.

tchrist

I'm pretty sure 47 years ago we had Spiro Agnew as the Vice President of the US, but I can't quite remember exactly when he got booted for his crimes.

RegDwigнt

I wonder what future crimes of mine I'm getting booted for by watching this.

tchrist

2:31 AM

@RegDwigнt We don't allow Australians to be President. Too queeny.

CowperKettle

@tchrist It is 07:30 am in Yekaterinburg. I'm proofreading a GMP compliance report of a European drug factory.

livresque

Hooray for new math. Two minutes is two minutes.

CowperKettle

I need to turn it in by 17:00

RegDwigнt

Good thing they moved the drug factories to Europe. All those planes getting shot down were really cutting into my profits.

Hooray for new meth.

tchrist

What are the Afghans going to do for money now?

RegDwigнt

2:34 AM

Invade Azerbaijan.

tchrist

Is that where Putin hides it?

RegDwigнt

Putin's new strat is to not hide anything.

Macron is certainly helping with that.

Robusto

Sweetest words of the night. "That's the end of it."

RegDwigнt

Fuck me it's over.

livresque

Collective sigh or whimper?

RegDwigнt

2:40 AM

@livresque I'm not invested in any of this.

I'm going to go watch some video game reviews or something.

tchrist

It is not over until the fat lady sings

►

RegDwigнt

The fat lady has sung a long time ago. That's the thing.

Now it's all just old men shouting.

That's not a kind of encore you stay for.

tchrist

It's curtains man, it's curtains.

RegDwigнt

Make them iron, please.

tchrist

No maid for ironing.

RegDwigнt

2:42 AM

Helps with the fires, too.

I'm off to bed. You go drinking or whatever.

Nighty-night and cheers.

tchrist

I have a new house guest.

Mephitis mephitis.

And I'm not stuttering. Hard to breathe though.

livresque

PU.

tchrist

Really a cute and playful little creature. Bit of a stinker though.

The real problem is that I already have two cats and a dog.

livresque

Tomato juice, they say. Yikes.

tchrist

One cat considered being territorial, for about 6 seconds, then thought far better of it.

But the puppy wants to prance and play. She just does not understand that not all cats are into that.

livresque

2:46 AM

Just hope that Pépé doesn't fall in love.

What kind of puppy?

tchrist

It hasn't been super exciting yet, but the cuddly little think has indeed taken up residence beneath my front porch and deck.

@livresque Acts like a terrier-mix, white but with long legs. Actually poodle and cocker spaniel and bichon and chihuahua.

Endless energy. Endless.

Damn it now I smell the fires too.

Cats don't get sprayed. They aren't that dumb.

But dogs? Again and again and again and again. And never learn.

livresque

Are there any natural predators that could help?

tchrist

Lynx rufus and Ursus americanus and Puma concolor come by often enough.

You don't usually see the cats. You usually see what the bear has done. I have some twisted shepherd's hooks out back yet from a few days ago I haven't cleaned up yet. I am not Superman to unbend them.

I doubt the bobcat would make a go at it. But bears often smell like skunks for reasons I leave entirely to your own imagination, which is why I was instantly alarmed last night when the little critter moved in and almost had an argument with my littler cat.

livresque

You must have to keep a close eye on your pets, then. Is ecotome the word I'm thinking of, when people and animals live with overlapping boundaries?

tchrist

The dog isn't allowed out at night; she'd be like a sacrificial goat.

livresque

2:55 AM

Yes. Yikes again.

tchrist

The cats usually go out to pee, but they'll come in when I go to bed. They're just right in front of me on the back deck and porch. But that was the case last night when you know who moved in.

A couple blocks away from me some folks really did have a tied-up baby goat out back of them facing the nature preserve and lake. Of course it was eaten by a bear.

Kids were really freaked.

There's a little goat microdairy a couple blocks the other way from me, not more than 20 animals. They used to have problems with the neighbors because they used geese for guards to keep the coyotes away. In fact, that's where I first saw our local bobcat before my neighbor took a picture of it right in front of my driveway in broad daylight.

livresque

No one wants to see that. Kind of like what was just on TV.

tchrist

But they would still lose lambs, and the neighbors were unhappy with the noise. Now they have llamas for guards, who kick the crap out of the coyotes without waking the neighbors.

They rent out the wethers for weed control.

livresque

That's smart. I wonder who will take out Monsieur LePieu.

tchrist

I'm sure a golden eagle could pluck up the skunk if so inclined. And we have great horned owls and large redtails and Swainson's. But I don't know that skunks fall prey to terror from above all that often.

> Coyotes, foxes, dogs, bobcats, mountain lions, badgers and big owls can all eat skunks but rarely do. Gehrt's research shows that less than 5 percent of skunk mortality is caused by predators.

So no.

I've seen golden eagles snatch up prey from the ground.

Maybe a mile away, over past by where the kid got eaten.

livresque

3:05 AM

A car, then.

tchrist

No cars.

I live in something of a cul-de-sac, a bag-end if you would. No traffic.

livresque

I hope it politely wanders off. I should do the same soon. Thanks to all for helping me stomach the talking/screaming/polemics.

CowperKettle