New routines.

Yeesh, it is but Tuesday and I’m already hitting the wall. Part of this is, I have taken another half-time job. Two halves = one whole income, more or less, and about 50 percent less energy for me.

But once again, I’m going downtown on the bus with my bike on the front rack, and that puts a merry song in my heart. I love working at home, with Wendy as my constant companion, but there’s a lot to be said about coming into a downtown office building, and not one of those hipster co-working places with the free coffee and pop-up lunch opportunities, but an old-school lobby canteen with regular old coffee and snacks.

My boss has been bringing me a small bottle of Perrier every morning, which he picks up there. The proprietor gives him half price on the bottle, because he’s a regular. This is my new goal: $1 Perrier because I’m a regular.

I’ll post my stories when I start producing more of them. Never fear.

I think now is the time to discuss the North Korea agreement, right? As I see it, we got real concessions out of the Iranians, but that was a bad deal. From the Norks, a vague promise, but this is Nobel material. I give up.

Just a little bloggage:

Did you know that, in addition to being Prime Minister McDreamy, Justin Trudeau is also a boxer? You didn’t? Now you do.

Also, what do we think of the DeNiro thing at the Tonys? My feeling is Meh, but I got an outraged email from a Bernie supporter quoting, of all things, a Federalist piece claiming Bob gave the right a great gift by potty-mouthing the president in New York City.

Sorry for the Tuesday/Wednesday blahs, but I’m sleep-deprived. Damn birds are waking me up at 4:30 a.m., but I’ll take the longer days.

Posted at 8:15 pm in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

47 responses to “New routines.”

  1. Brandon said on June 12, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    Re: Justin Trudeau

    People have been talking about his eyebrows a lot recently in what’s known as #eyebrowgate.

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  2. basset said on June 12, 2018 at 10:32 pm

    Not much actually happened, though… all show and flash:

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/243fc45e-6e71-11e8-85ce-4c0c3fdda365

    Congrats on the second half-time. I’m falling out the other end, retiring in mid-September.

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  3. Deborah said on June 13, 2018 at 12:02 am

    I’ve had a couple of glasses of prosecco after a long day of various obligations but I read someone’s Twitter about a photo of Kim and Donny shaking hands, paraphrasing, two dictator pant loads with weird hairdos. That’s about the extent of it for me. I’ve discovered these little cans of Prosecco, they’re genius because when you open a whole bottle and pay for it the next day because you have to drink it all or throw half of it away because you can’t save it which is a crying shame.

    I always liked working downtown in a genuine office building with traditional amenities.

    Have you seen the black and white photo of Prime Minister McDreamy, shirtless with raised boxing gloves? Swoon.

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  4. alex said on June 13, 2018 at 7:10 am

    I say mad props to DeNiro and hope others follow suit. With rational argument completely lost on the right, there’s no better gift than language they can understand.

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  5. Pam said on June 13, 2018 at 8:25 am

    My feeling is that Un is using Trump. Once all of the American soldiers and arms are out of S Korea, he’ll strike. He yearns to be emperor of both united Koreas.

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  6. Mark P said on June 13, 2018 at 8:45 am

    Trump wanted NK to give up their nukes and NK wanted the US to stop joint military exercises with SK. Trump said, “OK, sure.” Kim said, “We’ll think about it.” What a deal!

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  7. Suzanne said on June 13, 2018 at 9:05 am

    Pam, that is exactly what I thought. Get the US out of S Korea and then reunify by force with no one to stop them. Even more interesting because most of the Korean War era vets I know likely voted for Trump.

    It just keeps getting nuttier and nuttier.

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  8. Sherri said on June 13, 2018 at 9:36 am

    I’ve been out of touch with news the last couple of days, but a quick read of the stories around the North Korea summit suggests that reporters still haven’t figured out that you can’t cover trump with the same outlook as other presidents. I read stories about how at least talking reduces tensions and nonsense like that.

    Here’s what I see. North Korea was an enemy of Obama’s, so a potential friend for trump. South Korea was an ally of Obama’s, so screw them. The press still operates as if trump is representing the US; trump is representing trump and his interests. In his mind, yes, they are one and the same; ‘L’etat c’est moi’.

    As far as trump is concerned, North Korea is done. As long as Kim plays him and flatters him, he won’t have to concede anything. Trump will get mad at the media for eventually pointing out that nothing happened, unless they don’t because 13568 other outrages have filled all the space. If nothing ever gets signed, trump will blames the Democrats.

    Replace North Korea with almost anything else, rinse, repeat.

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  9. Deggjr said on June 13, 2018 at 9:38 am

    North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. One of the attributed causes was Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s exclusion of South Korea from the USA’s “Outer Pacific Defense Perimeter” against communist aggression.

    Would anyone bet that President Trump knows about the South Korea exclusion from the “Outer Pacific Defense Perimeter”?

    Would anyone even bet that President Trump knows North Korea invaded South Korea?

    Withdrawal from the joint military exercises seems like the first step of the US’s modern day withdrawal. Too bad President Trump skipped summit preparation.

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  10. ROGirl said on June 13, 2018 at 10:04 am

    L’etat c’est foutu.

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  11. Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2018 at 10:05 am

    The Orange King says we should all sleep easier because he has eliminated the nuclear threat posed by NoKo. I won’t sleep easier until he’s out of office. He’s batshit crazy.

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  12. Mark P said on June 13, 2018 at 10:22 am

    North Korea wants the US military forces out of South Korea. I would not have been surprised if Trump had agreed to that. Ending joint military exercises is the first step in that direction, so who knows where it will go from here.

    Trump-Kim is just one step in what appears to be a process of removing the US as a significant actor on the world stage. But, the show must go on, so when one actor is removed, another will take its place. In Asia, that actor is almost certainly China. With the US out, Japan and South Korea will have to either acquiesce to whatever China wants, or try to form some multilateral self-defense organization. It looks like that might happen in Europe, as well. I think the EU would be fools not to act on that assumption right now.

    I fear that we are on the cusp of major changes in the world order, and I suspect that the US will not fare well in those changes. Even if Trump is replaced by a decent, intelligent, responsible, reliable President, the damage is done, and I’m not sure it can be undone. The world has looked behind the curtain here, and I very much doubt that they like what they have seen.

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  13. Bitter Scribe said on June 13, 2018 at 10:29 am

    If Obama had done exactly what Trump did—stop joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for a vague promise of “working toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” (peninsula, not just North Korea)—the people who are now touting Trump for the Nobel Prize would be screaming that Obama was a traitor who deserved impeachment, if not prison.

    I don’t care how much Anthony Bourdain was charmed by the people in West Virginia. Fuck every last Trump voter in the country, and skullfuck his shills in the media.

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  14. Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2018 at 10:52 am

    I’m with Mark P. The Orange King is doing everything in his considerable power to demolish the existing world order and there is no Plan B. In Europe, this will benefit his dear friend Vladimir Putin. In Asia, as you note Mark, it will benefit China. Once this abomination has been flushed from office, will our one-time friends and allies regroup with us? Or will they decide if a dumbfuck like tRump can be elected once, it might happen again, and lead them to go their own way.

    I’m also with Bitter Scribe. Fuck tRump voters. Fuck the Republican Party. And double fuck Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan for their cowardice in not standing up to this grotesque parody of a leader.

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  15. Mark P said on June 13, 2018 at 11:21 am

    Jeff, if our former allies are smart, they won’t trust us again. They should treat us like an unreliable friend, one who’s nice enough to have around, but you would never consider asking him to help move a couch.

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  16. Jakash said on June 13, 2018 at 11:30 am

    Even a maniac like Kim didn’t pursue nuclear weapons because he thought *using* nuclear weapons would be a good idea. He wanted leverage. He got it. What he could likely never have imagined even a couple years ago is that he’d be able to use that leverage so effectively or quickly against the least informed, least competent, most gullible president he ever could have hoped for. Lots of good comments here today.

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  17. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 13, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Deggjr, I’d bet Trump would wonder what university Acheson was Dean of.

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  18. Bob (not Greene) said on June 13, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    Today’s GOP is a fucking circus

    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/pimp-dennis-hof-wins-republican-primary-in-nevada.html

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  19. Bitter Scribe said on June 13, 2018 at 3:50 pm

    Fucking circus, next chapter:

    https://www.wonkette.com/neo-confederate-alt-right-racist-to-face-off-against-tim-kaine-in-virginia

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  20. Jeff Borden said on June 13, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    We have a Nazi running in Illinois as a Republican, Bitter Scribe. He’ll get crushed by his Democratic opponent in a blue district, but still, the Illinois GOP couldn’t find a non-Nazi to run.

    In the immortal words of Jake Blues, “I hate fucking Illinois Nazis.”

    Who knows where all this is leading? Is it the backlash of a fading group of angry, old white men stomping their feet and yelling at the clouds? Or, dog help us, is it simply an illustration that our nation has a much more sizable number of racists, bigots, sexists and general all around haters than we thought?

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  21. Colleen said on June 13, 2018 at 6:28 pm

    Jeff B, I fear it is the latter…

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  22. David C. said on June 13, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    tRump doesn’t have anyone in his administration who knows anything about nuclear weapons except thinking it would be really cool to use one some day. He has no science advisor Rick Perry is the Secretary of Energy. The guy who thought the job was too travel the world promoting American coal and oil. The bombs are made and can be easily hidden. The rockets are developed. All the theatre of blowing up test facilities and destroying rocket engine test stands is pointless to anybody who knows anything.

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  23. beb said on June 13, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    While Ted Cruz remains the most punchable face in Congress, Rand Paul is right up there on the punchable list. This article from Slate suggests why a neighbor of Paul’s got into a fight with him last year.
    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/rene-boucher-describes-attack-on-neighbor-rand-paul.html
    After reading this I think Paul has moved up a bunch on the punchable list. (By the way, Mitch McConnell is #2 on my list, the worst unhung traitor in the country.)

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  24. Little Bird said on June 13, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    No punching those guys; shit splatters.

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  25. Deborah said on June 13, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    This is obviously obvious that none of this is about anything but power (not values) and China is setting itself up fairly brilliantly to be the next world power, leaving the US in the dust. Trump is being played like a fiddle.

    It actually rained in Abiquiu today so I didn’t need to go this evening to sprinkle the “mistake garden”. Yay! I love Abiquiu but driving 50 miles out and 50 miles back everyday gets old.

    We did a lot of errands today in Santa Fe and loading and unloading the wheelchair in the back of the Jeep at every stop is giving me a much needed upper body workout. LB got her approval for another disabled parking placard so tomorrow we go to the DMV (or as they call it in NM, the MVD) to get that rolling, it comes later in the mail. It will be greatly appreciated.

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  26. Deggjr said on June 14, 2018 at 8:22 am

    Jeff TMMO, Trump doesn’t have the intellectual curiosity to wonder that. What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.

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  27. basset said on June 14, 2018 at 8:45 am

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-and-north-korea-what-dissidents-think-fzhh0dwwx

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  28. Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2018 at 8:48 am

    Little Bird for the thread win!

    I pushed my sister in a wheelchair whenever we went someplace that didn’t have a scooter available, and will testify what hard work it is. Now we just got Mom a walker, which isn’t all that easy to fold up and schlep in the car. But it’s worth it to keep her going places. This one has a chair seat, because standing makes her tired. And room for her water bottle.

    Speaking of Mom, today we fly out to Iowa for a couple of family reunions. At almost 86, she thinks it will be the last time she gets there. Me, I’m just hoping she doesn’t collapse or get sick. Plus we’re seeing the hateful right-wing religious fanatics. I’ll be VERY glad when we’re back home again.

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  29. Peter said on June 14, 2018 at 9:18 am

    I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – while I have no doubt that NK will invade first chance they get, the fight will be over the minute the NK troops reach the food court at the outlet mall and try the free samples.

    It will be just like Eastern Europe – the GOP thinks it was Reagan’s military build up that doomed the Soviet Union, but it was McDonald’s, Coke, and porn. As Mike Royko said: You know what? People want you know what.

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  30. Suzanne said on June 14, 2018 at 9:33 am

    I’m about 99% sure that N Korea will invade S Korea once the US military presence is gone. It seems so obvious.

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  31. john (not mccain) said on June 14, 2018 at 9:45 am

    “Who knows where all this is leading?”

    We, as in the United States, of which I am and have always been a citizen, are kidnapping children from their parents and storing them in tents in Arizona in a summer with projected record high temperatures. History shows time and again where that leads. I can’t do anything about it, but I sure can treat every last conservative I come across like the worthless shit they are.

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  32. Jolene said on June 14, 2018 at 9:47 am

    That Illinois Nazi is running because the district is so strongly Democratic that no sensible Republican bothered to run. Still, the party was stupid to allow this to happen. They should have found somebody who was willing to take one for the team.

    The Virginia senate candidate will also lose, but it’s embarrassing that he won the primary. The party didn’t want him, but apparently, the people did. Though his victory was narrow, he campaigns with a Confederate flag as a backdrop, so it’s clear who he is appealing to.

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  33. Mark P said on June 14, 2018 at 11:08 am

    Nazi, child molester, who cares, just as long as he’s a Republican.

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  34. Jeff Borden said on June 14, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    The approval rating for the Orange King among Republicans is absolutely astonishing. It is very close to the level George W. Bush enjoyed in the aftermath of 9/11, when the nation as a whole rallied behind its president. Why is this?

    The appointment of the abominable Neil Gorsuch thrills social conservatives with the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade, but that was all the doing of Mitch McConnell, the racist bastard who denied our first black president his appointment to SCOTUS. I suppose the tax cut –even though it is minuscule and temporary for the vast majority of Americans– tickled the faithful. Again, this was the work of Paul Ryan and his merry band of fellators to the rich.

    So, why does the Orange King inspire such fervent loyalty among the GOP faithful? My theory is that he has given them permission to openly hate the people they have usually hated in private. And I suspect there is a very healthy portion that loves the idea of an authoritarian strongman even though that is anathema to American democracy. (And an obese old man with dyed hair and a ridiculous spray tan ain’t my idea of a strong man, but then, I’m not a Republican.)

    Any other ideas?

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  35. Suzanne said on June 14, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    I think that is part of it Jeff. Also, the ignorance of history and the need for simplicity. As I’ve mentioned before, people out here in rural America, for the most part, work very hard, love their families, will help their neighbors at a moments notice, but they are not deep thinkers, they don’t ponder things. They are like Martha in the Biblical story, not Mary. They see all the changes in the world as scary and can’t process that their way of life is changing because having an inner thought life in not how they work.
    Again, I’d recommend the book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Hochschild. As I read it, I found myself nodding my head over and over.

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  36. Deborah said on June 14, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    Jeff B, it’s a cult. He played an important man on the teevee and he says he’s rich. Lots of people mistake richness for talent and competence. “If your (sic) so smart why ain’t you rich”. Poor dumb people are fooled by his ridiculous opulence. I can never understand how people can be duped so easily by religious scammers that live in outragous mansions paid for with donations by the meek minions. It blows my mind that people can be so clueless.

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  37. Deborah said on June 14, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    Here’s another chapter in “Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover”. When I need a haircut in Santa Fe I go to a salon not far from us, I don’t ask for a specific stylist, just ask for who’s available. There’s one guy who works there who is the scariest looking dude you’ve ever seen. He has tattoos all over him and they’re all large (1″ to 3″ in diameter) black dots that cover his arms, legs, neck and scalp (he’s bald). They’re very symmetrical across his body so he has a grand plan for them. He also wears old shirts that he cuts holes in where his dots are on his back and chest. Every time I’ve gone there I’ve been afraid that he will be the available one and I’ll be at his mercy. Well this morning he was the designated one and it turns out he’s fantastic, as nice as can be and one of the best stylists who has ever cut my hair. He and his husband lived and worked in Chicago for many years before they moved to NM and they used to own a semi-famous salon here in Santa Fe that I had even heard of in Chicago that they had to give up because of his husband’s health. Anyway, another lesson in not judging people because of the way they adorn themselves in whatever manner.

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  38. Sherri said on June 14, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    I had the chance to talk with Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project (and the lawyer who argued the recent Jane Doe case involving the undocumented minor being held in Texas who was being denied an abortion.) it is her belief that Roe v Wade is unlikely to be overturned, short of a dramatic change to the Court. Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas would certainly be willing, but Roberts’ MO is more about hollowing out precedents than overturning them. Kennedy won’t vote to overturn.

    The nightmare scenario is Kennedy retiring and RBG dying, of course.

    Meanwhile, the Republicans are nominating judges who aren’t even willing to affirm that Brown v Board was decided correctly.

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  39. Sherri said on June 14, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    Watching this video, I’m struck less by the stupidity of trump saluting a NK general as by the absence of his usual silly dominance games with Kim. I said earlier that trump wanted to allies with Obama’s enemies and enemies with Obama’s allies, but now I’m thinking there’s something much simpler going on. Trump just likes leaders who kill their rivals and critics with impunity. That’s who he wants to be when he grows up.

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  40. Sherri said on June 14, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    I’ve succumbed to the dark side. Despite my hatred of the whole system, and my privacy concerns, I’ve signed up for TSA Pre and go in Monday to give them my fingerprints. Since I’ve been training, I’ve been carrying food with me everywhere I travel, and my bag always gets pulled out for further screening unless I happen to get TSA Pre. On my recent flight to DC, on the way out my bag was pulled, I was patted down, and my hands were swabbed, and that’s not the first time. On the return, TSA Pre came up on my boarding pass, and I sailed through security.

    The nonsense we go through in the name of security in our airports just drives me crazy, especially in contrast to our utter refusal to do anything about gun violence.

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  41. Dexter Friend said on June 14, 2018 at 4:48 pm

    A Facebook pal took a train sojourn to Montreal and Toronto this week and just before the border, he posted he was hoping for a smooth crossing. I jumped into the mix and asked a long-time friend who lived in Toronto in the 70s and now lives in Montreal what the mood is, what does she hear from down on the border…she posted this: “There’s a pretty effective ‘no non-essential American trips’ policy going on among Canadians right now.” And thank that fucking Trump for it, I might add. J.T. probably probably said. “Security risk are we? I’ll fucking SHOW you who’s the goddam security risk!”

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  42. Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    Pre-check is marvelous and so worth it! It’s hard not to sneer at the peons in long lines. Plus you never have to take off your shoes again. I’d pay double for the privilege.

    We’re on a 3.5 hour layover at O’Hare. When you’re flying one small city to another you have limited flight choices.

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  43. Icarus said on June 14, 2018 at 6:23 pm

    Pre-check is marvelous and so worth it! It’s hard not to sneer at the peons in long lines. Plus you never have to take off your shoes again. I’d pay double for the privilege.

    I remember the days before all of this and miss it. We shouldn’t have to do this to fly. Especially when we aren’t willing to do anything to stop school shootings.

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  44. Deborah said on June 14, 2018 at 7:06 pm

    Republicans are supposedly pro-family but I guess that only counts if the families aren’t brown.

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  45. Joe Kobiela said on June 14, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    Interesting conversation on TSA, you don’t think we need it? What do you suggest we do instead?
    God do you guys wake up every morning and look for things to piss you off?
    Pilot Joe

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  46. Dexter Friend said on June 14, 2018 at 9:29 pm

    Since I am a disabled veteran who uses canes and a rollator, at curbside check-in my rollator is checked as baggage and I am pushed in a wheelchair, to the TSA checkpoint. I get patted down and screened, using a glass cane for stability as my cane is checked. I also always get my bags tossed. I may have told yas a couple years ago about the screener in LAS finding a small multi-use pocket knife in a hidden compartment in my backpack…it had been there about 20 years…I had forgotten about it. I just surrendered it to them, no problems, whew! In Columbus I told a skycap and he said a regular small pocket knife is now allowed, then he told me how TSA finds pistols weekly in luggage. Scary!

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  47. Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    No one patted my mom down. I shudder to think if that would happen, she is super modest.

    You also don’t have to take off your belt, or take out the baggie with your liquids. In Orlando they made us take out our tablets, but not in the Fort.

    $88 for five years.

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