In my head, the baby/cherub sounds like Zach Gallafinakis singing Cotton-Eye Joe

I just lost my mom a month ago, and I wasn’t sure if it was them being blatant or me being sensitive.

More and more I think Egwene must have been under some form of compulsion to fall for him… every decision he makes is the wrong one. Every time.

I am 4’11”, and a complete squishmallow, but I have stared down men a foot taller than me and made them blink on multiple occasions. Even if you have a chihuahua body, you can give demonhound face.

Yeah his “when there are even more robots that need servicing we will finally fix the shortage of qualified trades workers” rhetoric is even dumber than “great news, we’re doing Snowpiercer child sacrifices”

When I tell students about the realities of pre-New Deal industrial life — where it was so commonplace for workers to die on the job that a Pittsburgh newspaper once celebrated that “only” 127 had died the previous month — they can’t believe it.

That’s the world Trump wants us to return to

I guess the core of my blather is that you should never trust anyone who looks to shape the future by recreating the past. Memory is an unreliable narrator.

And even if the factories come back, they won’t be staffed like they were in my grandpa’s day. There won’t be unions, or pensions. Robots will do most of the line work. Any humans will be highly trained in specific technical skills. HS dropouts like grandpa need not apply.

My cousins work a mix of white and blue collar jobs. Two have grown kids of their own now. I don’t know what they do, but I’m pretty sure no one in our family is mourning a lack of factory work for them.

My uncle also became a machinist after high school and military service, in the 70s. The unions got weaker, and so did benefits. He raised 3 step kids, but he & my aunt had to work 2 jobs to keep the same standard of living as my grandparents. An accident almost ripped his arm off once. No pension.

These jobs will never come back, even if the factories do. The labor will be done by machines.

Boyenca

As I read it in HS, I came down with the flu. Coincidence or “viral” marketing tie-in? No one knows…

You dress like it’s still 1993 and you are adorable.

Cerebrovascular dementia took her from us months ago, and in the end, I was just the custodian of her body. She is at peace, and I am relieved.

Gonna photoshop in the Best VP Ever mug later

Oh geez, that never even occurred to me! I need to go to Dad joke jail!

Won’t spoil it. Derp

Ooooh, you may change your mind by the end. I wonton it for you!