"If you decorate it,
they will climb it."

My dad used to wire the top of the tree to the massive beams in the ceiling for just this reason. I think that the wires are still there.

These lackwits appear to believe that it's something like going in for optional cosmetic surgery.

Deciding where the lines are and then either holding them or changing them as warranted must be an enormous stress.

It would come with a lot of guilt but I expect that prompt intervention should have the best chance at reducing the long term harm to everyone.

Prompt <> Judiciary's normal pace.

I believe that the $1,776 is coming from their "housing allowance", already appropriated by Congress,

It's not new.
He's just wiping his arse with it before handing it to them.

If you move sand from the larger piles to the smaller piles more may get washed away if the tide comes in higher than expected.

By analogy with the Standard Model,
MAGA has a very low "cognitive cross section" with Truth and Logic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear...

The US Constitution was written in the same century as Newton's Laws.

What are needed are the sociopolitical equivalents of Einstein's Theory Of General Relativity and The Standard Model.

Then you have to figure out how to reconcile them in the DJT Universe.

The Founding Fathers did not fully appreciate how someone like DJT could come to power.

He's as dangerous as The Mule in Asimov's "Second Foundation" (1953).

The money is coming from their own "housing allowance".

He just wants to wipe his arse with it before giving to them.

Here's a "Constitutional Crisis"

1 - Project 2025/GOP/MAGA lose both House and Senate, badly, in 2026.
2 - Thomas & Alito retire.
3 - DJT or JD (per 22A after a quick 25A) tries to install a 6-3 SC(R)OTUS through 2052.

Nov 3, 2026 through Jan 3 2027 may not be a picnic.

Though the survivors should not have to, we can hope that they denounce any omissions.

SC(R)OTUS ™️ since '22, Dobbs, Chevron & Enron rulings.

The $1,776 is being taken from their own housing "allowance".

Substance abuse, domestic violence and other dark factors often force grandparents to take on burdens that they should not have to.

Many realize that, in the case of addition, they are enablers but they cannot abandon the grandchildren.

Many feel shame.

Then there's crummy earning power.

Background to the Cold War and espionage efforts by all parties,
A good feel for just how hard it was to do some of the work.

Agreed, but fun is not always the point ;-)

I've read "War and Peace" (ugh) and "Crime and Punishment" (ugh to the ughth power). May not do so again but happy I did.

/2

more complacency in US today, IMHO.

'95 Quebec Referendum turnout was 93.52%. Margin NOT to start going to secession : 1.16%, lower that the 1.82% of "invalid" ballots mostly "found" in the predominately "NO" ridings.

Had 1 person in 50 not voted, then Canada might not exist today.

Sure, complacency wasn't the only or necessarily major factor.

Lincoln chose a senior cabinet that disagreed with him so that he could better hone things.

Should more have been done? Yes?
It's less clear more could have been, at the time.

Optimism, backsliding, bad faith, exhaustion also hurt.

ASL may not be an appropriate "vehicle" for what comes out of his nozzle.

complacency?

ottercam?