I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

divinemrsm · April 23

I used to drink quite a lot of Diet Coke. After the bc diagnosis with mets to the bone, I quit. That shit is bad for you. I’m not saying it causes cancer, but I do believe it depletes nutrients in the body and bones which is not good. I have an occasional soda. I like Canada Dry Ginger Ale and A&W Root Beer and will have a root beer float every now and then. But mostly I drink water with a 20 oz. travel cup I fill up again and again all day long.

illinoislady · April 23

Good for you Divine. Frankly, with so many things being done to our food supply these days no wonder we seem to have a "magnificent" amt. of health issues. All the more reason to try to fix some parts of it. I think in a lot of cases one should try for moderation. It is not always possible to do totally w/o some things.

I did look up diet soda. Fair Warning: The info was on the Internet, and I didn't source it but it said:

Diet Coke could bring on conditions such as heart attack or stroke.

Metabolic issues such as diabetes and obesity. As a furthur note on this I've not seen anyone really lose much wt. while drinking diet cokes. Won't say they gained, but I did not see any reduction in overall body size.

Brain conditions such as dementia and stroke. Note: That would be enough to cause me to seriously mull over if I wanted to continue using something like diet soda.

Liver issue such as fatty liver disease. Ultimately causing your liver to lose its life=giving mission of helping rid your body of toxins.

ruthbru · April 24

DH is a Diet Coke fiend. Perhaps the 'no soda in the courtroom' rule has kept him from a life of crime! 😄

exbrnxgrl · April 24

If I drink carbonated beverages, I get the hiccups on and off for hours. I grew up drinking lots of soda but rarely touch it now due to those darn hiccups! I have also never liked the aftertaste of whatever sweeteners are used in diet sodas. Is Mexican Coca Cola a “thing” anywhere else or is it just CA? Coke from Mexico is made with cane sugar , whereas Coke bottled in the US is made with corn syrup, or so I’m told. The Mexican version is readily available in my area and Coke aficionados swear there is a difference in taste.

illinoislady · April 24

Hope I can do the fixes on my copy and paste article:

Trump's humiliation deepens: In court, he can't hide from his tabloid roots

Story by Amanda Marcotte • 16h • 5 min read

While this falls far short of the punishment he deserves, there was considerable satisfaction to be gained from reports that Donald Trump spent much of the first week of his first criminal trial sitting in silence listening to mean tweets about him read aloud in court. For hours at a time, potential jurors in his New York "hush-money" trial were interviewed to determine whether they could judge the ex-president with an open mind. In the process, both past social media posts and in-the-moment honest opinions were made public. Trump is such a famous narcissist that he literally has a woman who follows him around with a wireless printer to feed him a steady supply of online praise. Hearing what people outside the paid shills have to say was, all reports suggest, very upsetting for the former president. He glowered and eventually tried to leave the courtroom so quickly that he had to be told to sit down by the judge.

The jury is now impaneled, and no longer will be asked to talk about past social media posts calling Trump "dumb as [expletive]." But, as Monday's trial opening suggested, this trial is set to put Trump's fragile ego through a lengthy battering. It's hard to believe this — considering his ridiculous hair, hideous makeup and comically oversized suits — but by all accounts, Trump seems to actually believe he cuts an impressive figure. He famously spent decades longing to be included in the ranks of Manhattan's social elite, imagining he had a "classiness" they simply failed to perceive. As Elizabeth Spiers of the New York Times wrote last week, "The rich and powerful sometimes invited him to their parties, but behind his back they laughed at his coarse methods and his tacky aesthetic."

Alas, getting elected president allowed Trump to finally swaddle himself in the pomp that allows him to delude himself into believing he has an air of dignified stature. During his time in the White House, of course, he enjoyed the state dinners and other grand ceremonies meant to imbue the office with solemn authority. Granted, Trump's clownishness made all of that seem ridiculous to those looking on, but his attempted stern-faced expressions and chin-up pride suggested that he really believed he was finally being taken for th

Even after leaving the White House, Trump went to great lengths to keep himself in this elevated atmosphere. Unfortunately, he gets a lot of help keeping up the illusion of majesty. The presence of Secret Service protection allows him to travel with pricey black-car entourages at the taxpayers' expense. He also sees a steady stream of Republican politicians visit Mar-a-Lago, allowing Trump to play the part of a king greeting supplicants who kiss the ring.

While the outcome of the trial remains weeks away, the process of being a criminal defendant has already stripped Trump of most of the trappings he uses to prop up his delusions of nobility. He has to sit still and do what he's told, which he whines about ad nauseam when outside of court. He keeps reportedly falling asleep and believable rumors suggest that his personal odor is difficult to bear.

On Monday, the humiliations continued to pile on Trump with opening arguments and the first witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. Even in this truncated day of court, the picture painted of Trump was not the regal leader of his fantasies, but who he actually is: A sleazy poseur who belongs to the world of trashy tabloids and scheming hucksters. The whole thing is a harsh reminder, to his face, that Trump is more suited to wallowing in the gutter than sitting

The prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, did not hold back from the salacious details in describing the alleged crimes that led to Trump sitting at the defendant's table: the extramarital sex, the hush money payments, the alleged out-of-wedlock child, the conspiracy with the National Enquirer to pay women off in a practice with the tawdry name "catch-and-kill." He spoke of Trump as such a miscreant that he required a full-time "fixer" to "take care of problems." He read aloud the various National Enquirer headlines crafted to help Trump, a reminder that Trump's natural home is in the most prurient gossip rags. And, of course, Colangelo spoke of Trump's crude bragging on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape about how he likes to sexually assault women.

Regardless of the air quality around his desk, defense attorney Todd Blanche had a stinky job on Monday: Trying to portray Trump as somehow above the shady people he surrounds himself with. Blanche sanctimoniously called Trump "President Trump," as if saying it makes it true. He tried to humanize his glowering orange lump of a client with, "he’s a husband, he’s a father" and "a person, just like you and just like me." In contrast, Blanche attempted to discredit Michael Cohen, the aforementioned "fixer" who has already served time for his role in this conspiracy, by calling Cohen a "cr

It may work, of course. Jurors are people and people can be bamboozled, as Trump's entire career demonstrates. But Blanche's argument just doesn't make sense. If Trump is such an upstanding citizen, then why would he need someone like Cohen to commit crimes on his behalf? Nor is Trump "just like you," unless you, ordinary person, do so many terrible things on a regular basis that you literally need a full-time fixer to clean up your messes. Most of us go our entire lives without once needing a tabloid magazine to cover up a sad-sounding adultery. As Colangelo's opening statement showed, Trump practically kept the National Enquirer on retainer.

Pecker only spent about 20 minutes on the stand before the judge called recess for the day, but in that brief time, the jury got another glimpse into the vulgar environments that are Trump's natural home. Pecker described his business as "checkbook journalism" and agreed with Colangelo that he traffics in "juicy stories." This is why the location of the trial in New York City matters so much. Tabloids are ubiquitous in the city, which means the typical New Yorker is quite aware of how they function and why they're not considered as respectable as traditional newspapers.

Despite Trump trying to tell reporters this trial is going "very well," reports from inside the courtroom are that he was seething. No surprise there. Prior to this, Trump spent all day, every day inside a bubble, surrounded by flatterers and sycophants, always ready to tell him that he's a mighty man who definitely doesn't weigh an ounce over 215 and wins every golf game with ease. Now he's spending his days in a dingy courtroom, staying silent while other people talk about his real self: A pathetic figure who pressures reluctant women into sex, and then runs to his seedy friends and barrel-scraping employees to bail him out of trouble. If there was a hell, Trump's punishment would be to look into a mirror for all of eternity. Having to hear people tell the truth about him for hours a day is as close as we're going to get on the mortal plane.

betrayal · April 24

Great story.

minustwo · April 24

Tonight I opened my bookmarks and found 45 waiting. Most from this thread. Gee whiz - I read every day and thought his thread had gone away. Glad to see you all still here.

illinoislady · April 24

A seeker searched for years to know the secret of achievement and
success in human life. One night in a dream a sage appeared bearing
the answer to the secret.
   The sage said simply: "Stretch out your hand and reach what you can."
   "No, it can't be that simple," the seeker said.
   And the sage said softly, "You are right, it is something harder. It is
this: Stretch out your hand and reach what you cannot."
   Now that's vision.

Joan Chittister
Seeing with Our Souls

illinoislady · April 24

Glad to know you are still with us Wren.

Hmmm. I hated that I wasn't able to get some of those marks out of my entry. They were X posts and I couldn't find a way to get them out. I did think though from other tidbits here and there that the whole piece sounded like an accurate telling of what is REALLY going on in he courtroom.

Someone described it (and I think it likely) that it is a fairly typical and almost boring event. The hoopla are the actual players meaning of course Trump. Yes, I'll say. When in our entire life did we ever think we'd see someone who sat in the Oval Office for 3 yrs. (the 4th. yr. was all the golf outings) in a criminal trial. The media did its level best but alas — even they could not stop the totally inevitable. This piece sounded even more tortuous on the Loon. As stated, — all the yes people he has had to feed him "good" stuff and now he has to keep his mouth shut while the truth just streams (maybe even gushes a little) forth for the jury to see and hear, and knowing what they see and hear will end up directly in the public domain quite soon.

I really do have to wonder how he will be able to 'listen' to and know it will permeate everywhere, his rather tawdry existence that apparently was kept so crammed full of glamour on his behalf by him and anyone who spent time with him. I can't see him being able to come down to his real LEVEL. He as well as his mental state have never spent much time there. It's alien land. Maybe he will explode at some point.

Otherwise, I just read he was asked how he was going to use today — Wednesday his day off from court and he did not have an answer. He is so out of it he can't figure out it is a day he COULD campaign. He is though doing most of that as usual from the time before he goes into court and when he comes out. It's not really campaign — just endless whining and gripping.

I think it is sinking into him that no one is showing up for him. He will blame the court, security, Bragg and Pres. Biden. I just don't know in quite which order. Well, people who 'love' him have better things to do I'm sure. They know what they are going to hear and it's the same old thing. Not worth getting dressed and going downtown to stand around and wait for the orange blog to lumber into sight. They can stay home and see it on tv. Besides, I really don't think he has that much love left. He says 200 million people love him and walk behind him into the courthouse with him. Wow !! I didn't notice. Guess I'll have to look a bit harder.

illinoislady · April 24

Is that a sight or what?? Amazing updo with the hair.

illinoislady · April 24

It's the orange showman himself.

illinoislady · April 24

illinoislady · April 24

illinoislady · April 24

illinoislady · April 24

from Balance of Power — and it says it all.

After all of their talk of fake news, Trump had an agreement to manufacture fake news in his favor with the National Enquirer.

So all his talk of fake news was mainly that which he and others were producing. When they accuse others, it is something they are doing and why they work so hard to hand the guilt to the other side.

illinoislady · April 24

illinoislady · April 24

Just try to splain that and by the way — Pres. Biden looks a lot younger than this man who seems to have lost control of his mouth and brain cells at the same time.

illinoislady · April 24

illinoislady · April 24

You can say that forever.

illinoislady · April 24

Hard for me to believe anyone would believe these kinds of publications, but I guess there are plenty or were. I think subscriptions may be falling off after this. Sure hope so.

illinoislady · April 24

Always has been and always will be. He should be sent to Cancun permanently.

illinoislady · April 24

Works for me, how about you??

exbrnxgrl · April 24

It is interesting how some people have always been attracted to rags such as the Enquirer even after much of its ridiculous “news” has been exposed to be untrue. Do they really believe these stories or are they attracted to the salacious and tawdry descriptions of possible scandal that these stories contain? No one in my household, childhood or current, ever bought the Enquirer but it was always for sale near the supermarket checkout stands. Even as a very young girl, I would simply chuckle when I read some of the silly headlines but it is mind boggling to think people take this publication seriously 🤷🏻‍♀️.

illinoislady · April 24

We'll have to keep showing him till he gets it.!!

illinoislady · April 24

mavericksmom · April 24

OMG, love the memes! What rally did he cancel?

New dog is keeping me busy. She has bonded with me and is always by my side, even as I type this!

I haven't been watching much news, and have little interest in the court case. I am glad it isn't televised! I do hope Trump is convicted and gets something more than a slap on the hand. They said they expect it to go on for at least 5 more weeks.

I should have gotten a dog a long time ago, I feel so much less stress, not having time to watch much news!

miriandra · April 24

I too used to be a regular Coke drinker. I never liked the diet version, I hated the chemical taste of aspartame. I cut out colas all together a few years ago. But I occasionally indulge every couple of months.

In one of my high school classes, a classmate would bring in the Weekly World News (famously the platform for reports of Batboy). He would read aloud some of the more hilarious articles. We no longer have WWN, but at least The Onion is going strong.

illinoislady · April 24

MM — I think it was a Pennsylvania one because it was raining. He hates the rain for destroying his carefully (I'm not so sure these days it seems as careful) combed over and sprayed to the farthest degree with hair spray. I would imagine those people (save for the ones who showed up) didn't really mind. Seems he got confused talking about Pennsylvania and just sounded as senile as he is. Huge blunder which he makes often and why his handlers are likely glad he is in court. Less time in front of cameras and crowds to make himself look disastrous.

Good for you having something else to focus on. I do think it will be a long enough trial and often somewhat boring although I'm awaiting the 'penalty' for the gag order. I think since penalties are progressive, I'm more anxious to find out what will happen if he starts doing what he has been doing. He likely is somewhat careful in what he chooses to repost — but he shouldn't be re-posting anything. I think Trump being Trump it will be spelled out in an exact manner — that may be much harder for Trump to find his way around and definitely harder to re-post someone else's post.

He likely (per Lisa Rubin and others) is pushing the envelope. He wants to dominate the room and proceedings as he always has and he is being directed by what is a normal and regular and pretty un-changeable court proceeding. He is an indicted person (innocent until proven guilty) but not given much leeway at all for the special person he has always thought himself to be. It is a magnificent come-down. He walked away from his (to him anyway — four years of glory where people called him Sir) and now he is just Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump is making a major fool of his lawyer (Blanche) and I'm wondering how that is going to play out. Perhaps Blanche is just doing to have to do what he can and let the chips fall. He seems to be finding out that if he is to earn his keep, he may have to sacrifice his reputation and credibility. All the money in the world and he has to get his being snared by the orange blob. Get hired in haste, lose your standing slowly and painfully. That said — I really don't know anything about Blanche or whether he was good, bad or in-between before, but it will likely be to his detriment anyway.

divinemrsm · April 24

Dh and I don’t normally share memes, but I was telling dh that not one family member is in court to support the Orange thing and he sent me this.

divinemrsm · April 24

I think of note is President Biden has won the endorsement from the North America’s Building Trades Unions. Their leadership plans to spend money and time to get the word out to their members in states that matter to vote for President Biden. I highlighted and italicized parts of the following article that I found promising and noteworthy.

Biden scores major union backing as its leaders attack Trump

Edward-Isaac Dovere

CNN

Joe Biden landed a major union endorsement Wednesday from North America’s Building Trades Unions, whose leaders say the president has his infrastructure bill largely to thank for it.

In making one of their earliest ever presidential endorsements, NABTU leaders are kickstarting an eight-figure organizing program to try to deliver their 250,000 members in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin for Biden.

The Teamsters, whose endorsement is being pursued by both Biden and Donald Trump, are members of NABTU but abstained from Tuesday’s board vote, according to people briefed on the proceedings. They will endorse after the Republican and Democratic conventions.

The backing from NABTU, which has 3 million members nationwide, is more enthusiastic than its 2020 backing of Biden. And it comes at a moment when a significant slice of union rank-and-file has split from traditionally Democratic-aligned union leadership in ways that are reverberating through elections. That’s raised questions about the political future of the next generation of union members.

It’s “almost like the perfect leader was sent at the perfect time for working people,” NABTU President Sean McGarvey told CNN about Biden in an interview announcing the endorsement.

Biden appeared at the union’s conference in Washington on Wednesday to officially get the nod – which union leaders also want to be seen as a stark rebuff of Trump, who eagerly solicited support from union members and leaders during his time in office, but, their leaders say, didn’t deliver. NABTU had called for Trump to resign after the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

In praising Biden’s efforts for working people, McGarvey cited the investments and union protections built into the infrastructure act, the Covid-era American Rescue Plan, the CHIPs Act to increase technological production nationwide and the Inflation Reduction Act. He acknowledged that, for the moment, Biden’s support is stronger among his union’s leadership than it is among many of his members, whom he said were close to evenly split in 2020 between Biden and Trump, and generally remain so.

“They think now Joe Biden and Trump are running again, they think it’s just two politicians, ‘Same old, same old,’” McGarvey said. “Lo and behold, it’s not the same old, same old.”

The building trades union has a long history with Trump in the private sector, going back to working on projects together directly and even partially financing, through a union-owned financial services company, several of them in the 1980s and 1990s.

“He was one of the worst clients we ever had, because he rarely kept his word and it was a fight to get him to pay us back,” McGarvey said.

The financial relationship ended with the Trump tower in Chicago, for which the project manager search featured in the first season of “The Apprentice.”

The union was eager to support Trump’s promises of an infrastructure bill while he was in the White House, and McGarvey said he talked with Trump about getting support for multi-employer pension funds in the first Covid-19 relief bill in 2020.

“All your people are going to love me, right Sean?” McGarvey recalled Trump telling him by phone.

But none of that came to pass, which McGarvey said has made the contrast with Biden even clearer, along with the union jobs that have been created and the long-term worker protections and apprenticeship programs that have been written into law.

“Donald Trump talked about infrastructure once a week, once a month, once a year. He was committed to it, it was going to be easy for him,” Brent Booker, the president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, said in a mocking tone.

Trump came into office promising a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which he repeatedly returned to over his years in office but never put forward an actual bill or plan.

McGarvey added that his conversations with Biden have had a different feeling than those with Trump: The president has twice grabbed him by the shoulders and made him promise to take the benefits of all the bills passed during his administration and make sure he is spreading training centers to both rural towns and inner cities.

Booker said that “it’s a persuasive argument” to those members who are not drawn to Trump for other reasons – whether because of his positions on immigration or his general promise to blow up the usual way the government does business.

“When they know what he’s done for them, everything points to moving the needle dramatically,” Booker said of Biden.

The outreach programs the union will now fund will hit hundreds of thousands of members and their families in the blue wall states that Biden flipped from Trump in 2020 and that will be crucial to 2024, connecting members through their local union halls, social circles and at home.

“When you have the time to explain where these opportunities come from, their eyes light up, they say, ‘I didn’t vote for him last time, but man, he’ll have my vote next time,’” McGarvey said. “I will assure you that we will do the work that’s necessary in the states that matter, with the capital investments and the feet on the ground to make sure that everybody who needs to know the story knows the story, to vote in their economic interests for the first time in a generation.”

As for Trump, union leaders hope the former president feels their brushback in particular, laughing off the potential of an angry response on Truth Social: “I really don’t give a f**k if he’s pissed,” McGarvey said.

A Trump spokesman didn’t respond when asked for comment about the endorsement and McGarvey’s comments about the former president.

I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

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