Wait?! You have a store now?! When did this happen?! Why didn't somebody say something?!

Donny doesn't have an ideology or a philosophy, just a modus operandi. His only three skill sets are fraud, extortion, and SA. This is an example of extortion.

And of course the Chinese for crawfish is "little dragon shrimp" (小龙虾).

Definitely Chinese, simplified characters: 品客/Pin Ke = Pringles; 乐事/Le Shi = Lay's.

The best part is that the artist who sculpted the Don Colossus, Alan Cottrill, is still being stiffed for about $90,000. He's holding it hostage until paid in full. Perfect.

On it. I'm planning on having maybe three iconic characters and she is now one of them.

(raises hand) It's my stupid game project. I'm well along with the rules which are sort of my blend of Tiny D6 and the Year Zero Engine to power a high-action game. Of course it's a furries game. Also lots of explosions.

The US auto industry seems full-focus on monster carbon-fuel pickup with massive profit margins. China will roll in and crush them the way Japan did in the 70s and South Korea in the 90s. Japanese and Korean cars still have higher quality. The US companies aren't really trying.

For cars, the Japanese 1st wave hit in the 70s, then the Korean 2nd wave in the 90s, and now the Chinese 3rd wave tsunami is approaching the beach.

(Raises hand) It was me. My daughter and I started bingeing Antiques Road Show in the evenings as something calm and friendly to watch.

Yeah, just watched it happen. It was scary just watching him up there, but congrats to him.

Why does anyone still think a deal with Donny is a deal? It's always the same: 1) Donny talks up something as huge, 2) idiots put their money/careers/reputations on the line for it, 3) Donny rakes off a bunch of cash, 4) the obvious scam collapses and the idiots lose everything.

What? It's not like the U.S. national debt is $38 trillion and still exploding or something. Heck, they'll probably vote to fund three Golden Domes and a whole extra Golden Fleet with all that money just lying there on the Tariff Shelf.

I usually do my hour walk on the treadmill. For me it's a great time to catch up on podcasts. More time on treadmill = more podcast enjoyment = more time on treadmill. It's a positive feedback loop for me.

Kind of like those American conservative types who moved to Russia...and found out what it was really like the hard way.

American culture has always had big streaks of anti-intellectualism. China hit a patch of that under Mao, but they've been back on track for 45+ years now and powering forward. I don't see American turning that around anytime soon.

There are two kinds of Americans: 21st Century First Worlders who want renewable energy, the metric system, universal health care coverage, etc., and 19th Century Third Worlders who want more coal, spanking paddles in schools, and are pretty sure negroes and women don't "need" to vote.

Thanks for this, it's great. I've been enjoying your Doomslakers stuff for a while now. All the cool Black Pudding stuff in one handy game and setting book. Just goes to show you don't need like five 300-page books to have fun.

Three main reasons: legacy of white paranoia about a black slave uprising in the Confederate South, legacy of white paranoia about Native Americans (and Mexicans) in the Frontier West, and the Honor Culture fear someone will make fun of you if you can't threaten them with lethal violence.

I had a long train commute for several years and it was the perfect time for reading. I don't miss getting up in the dark pre-dawn, but those long reads were nice. Also, thanks for the recommendation.

Feeling a bit depressed. It's five years to the day a mob of Confederate hostiles stormed the capitol. I had been relieved to see many of them jailed for assault, vandalism, etc. But then Donny pardoned them. I thought we learned our lesson about pardoning Confederates the first time. Guess not.

And, if China bombed the Ministry of Defense on Taiwan and forced their President and First Lady onto a military plane and flew them back to the mainland and announced it on state media, would that also be called a "capture"? The U.S. President just gave them a precedent for that.

Goals for 2026
- Do some exercise every day, even if just a little.
- Keep working on my sleep difficulties.
- Publish an RPG book.
- Visit the library once a week.
- Pitch my China course to a college.
- Finish watching Story of Yanxi Palace.
- Work on my pile of unread books.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and best wishes to you all for whatever you need right now and all into the New Year.

For some reason I'm getting more photos of old school audio stacks in my feed. Really takes me back to my dad's audio set up in the 1970's. Also makes me nostalgic for listening to music on my "stereo" instead of headphones all the time now.

I love how the viral posting of bootlegs of the 60 Minutes' CECOT piece is guaranteeing it will see a much larger audience that if it aired normally.

Mike Lee is trying to create a new type of Sheriff's posse. Fine stroppy white men can saddle up and take care of those (non-white) varmints, outlaws, and desperadoes who are obviously guilty. No need for due process, evidence, or any of that nanny state nonsense. It's ocean-going lynch mobs.

Snowing here in Maryland this morning so I restocked the buffet for my Early Bird customers.

Yup, on our rare trips back to the US my mother would drag me around to Bloomindales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and Bonwit Teller. Living in a tiny oil town in Saudi Arabia meant she did all our shopping in one huge annual spree. I also remember they had actual human elevator operators.

So, I'm pretty sure those of us born abroad to U.S. parents are on the "remigration" list. We're just low priority right now.