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I've met many fine JOMers, and there are many many more I've never met in person I wish I could. Of the second category, Daddy was always at the top. I absolutely loved that man. Thank you to the JOMers who reached out to let me know Daddy passed away. Means a lot. I truly hope everyone is doing well, and that life is good. I love you all. RIP Daddy.

Praying for you today Iggy, as you remember and celebrate the time you had with your beloved Mrs. Iggy, specifically on this day when 26 years ago you stood before witnesses and declared before God and promised each other to be man and wife. You were blessed beyond measure to have found her, and wounded beyond comprehension to have lost her. You are an incredibly strong man to have born such a blow - and having seen you go through what you have in the small way in which we have a glimpse of your life here - I am incredibly humbled by your strength and your grace. It is almost impossible for me to understand how you have gotten through this (even if at times it seems you never will). But of course I know exactly how. You are not alone and your faith is your strength and the Lord is your hope...and HE is faithful. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. --Lamentations 3:21-23 You are a powerful witness of what a life lived for the Lord looks like - a witness that bears out the reality that a relationship with Jesus Christ is not about making life easy, but one that is real and full and challenging and sometimes painful. It is a life that has real purpose, eternal purpose, one that is bigger than yourself. Thank you for living that out for the glory of God, bearing witness to the very essence of John 3:16. May God continue to strengthen you, comfort you, and heal you, all while bringing you closer to Himself.

#8 most commented thread in JOM history. Without a new thread we'll likely end the day somewhere between 4th and 6th.

Miss Marple's 7:24 AM comment moved this thread into 11th for most commented JOM thread of all time. We could go as high as 7th by noon if there are no new threads.

peter: Are we getting near JOM record territory in the length of the thread? Oh hai. The record is 2,086 comments. Right now this thread is 16th all time in comments. Assuming TM doesn't put something up, this one will quickly rise to 11th. Getting into the top 10 is probably a tomorrow morning thing (unless Gus is loaded for bear in JOM After Hours).

Congrats Cavs.

Why else would we spend so much time typing to strangers? Nope. You don't understand. I've met more than two dozen JOMers, and another dozen JOM family members. Not strangers. I love these people. And yet I hate them. Most of them, anyway. Not the ones who know I still love them. They know who they are. Quick (not so quick) story.... Friday night I went to my pool hall after work. Like most nights I played by myself, practicing for hours on end. Then toward the end of the night, a couple comes up and starts chatting. Whatever, sure, I'll play the dude a few games. The girl was Chatty Cathy like you've never seen. Wouldn't shut up. So we ended up talking about other pool halls in town. We got to Gate City - the place I play Saturday tournaments (or used to, it's been a while) - and she made the statement that they let people smoke there. Wait a second. This is the place I mentioned here years ago that battled the state of NC on smoking. The owner allowed smoking while the case was going on, subject to daily fines for doing so. He lost the case in the NC supreme court and decided it was not in his financial interest to pursue it to federal court. That was ~3 years ago. But this girl wouldn't believe me. And like an idiot, I didn't just smile and say "that's nice" - and kept arguing. Next thing I know she whips out her phone and calls Gate City. She's arguing with the bartender about their smoking policy and asks to speak to "a manager". And that's how I ended up on the phone with Gate City owner Don at 1 in the morning apologizing for wasting his time. The only consolation? This girl kept referring to me as "this pool pro who says...." in her conversations with the bartender at Gate City. Pro? Hahahahahaa, as if... Still, I emailed Don this morning to apologize for that call. He got a big kick out of it, especially the idea that she thought I was a pro. I still hate most everyone here.

One reason it has deteriorated is that a lot of good reasonable people like yourself, Jeff and others are not around too much any more. No, no, it's a good thing I'm gone. I'm glad to be gone. I don't want to be not gone. I have too many anti-social tendencies that I suppressed for way longer than should have been possible. I hate everyone. Except you know who. I'm not saying, but you know who you are.

Happy Anniversary of Getting in the Race, Mr. Trump

Rocco: I don't think the pics are photoshopped but perhaps taken in public spots or on tours? Hey look, here's me and the family behind the podium in the WH press room... (this was 2006 - when Bush was pres, and before a press room remodel - it was an absolute dump back then) Public WH tours arranged through your congressman do not take you to the briefing room. But you do see it on a "West Wing Tour" available either by invitation from the White House or if you are hosted by a WH staffer (in our case my cousin worked at the WH). The White House has a log of everyone who has been on a West Wing tour in Obama's terms. https://whitehouse.gov1.info/visit/tour.html (scroll to about half way down the page) I downloaded the file. No record of Mateen on the list. I doubt that means much, but who knows.

What you attempt here is as entertaining and predictive as astrology. Now I'm just deleting my account. :(

It's still early, but so far the protest here in Greensboro looks pathetic for the Trump rally. And goodness golly, this sign is a hot mess: Hey, but at least it's not a pre-printed astroturf sign. That person seems...um...dedicated.

Drats. Deleting my spreadsheet. ::sigh::

JMH: I must be holding my mouth wrong, because I can only find the exit poll data in percentages, not actual numbers, and I didn't see any demographic data at the Dave Leip site. Where did your numbers come from? You didn't add up all the data from individual states, yourself, did you? I have a big ol' honkin spreadsheet. It's easy. In fact, it's in the same spreadsheet that I tallied your 2012 Haruspicy contest. (congrats again to Sue and TC for being the overall winners!) Top first two blocks are % and vote totals for 2012, next two blocks are 2016 and the final block at the bottom is the difference between the two. All the caveats about how unreliable exit polls are hold true - and there are going to be variations in any numbers because of rounding - it's silly to display the totals as if you can be accurate down to the individual vote, but it is what it is. Theo: I did the math myself, by taking the raw vote totals and applying the percentages from the exit polls. You are encouraged to check my math. Yup, same here. For the most part, they stopped there and assumed that they were conservatives who had voted for McCain but did not find Romney appealing enough. (Seems unlikely to me, but who knows?) Ideology, the case of the missing Moderates:

I had to leave work early to come home, otherwise I could have seen Trump Force One land at the Greensboro airport today from my office (he landed about 20 minutes ago). Here's what looks like a pretty good local liveblog from our Fox affiliate... http://myfox8.com/2016/06/14/live-blog-donald-trump-in-greensboro/ I have not tried to keep up with local news generally or about the rally, but Greensboro can be a bit um energetic in the protest department especially the SJW types with several local colleges. Not sure if anyone is organizing anything, but if any group wanted to, they would find people ready to be um, organized. Hopefully whatever protests are planned get drowned out by what appears will be a pretty impressive crowd.

Happy Birthday Mr. Trump Happy Flag Day

I'm not the one who said Obama pledged loyalty to ISIS, Obama's former speechwriter is the one who literally said it. English. How does it work?

It appears sbw is the only JOMer who has actually attended a Trump rally? I will remain in solidarity with all other JOMers in not attending the one here in Greensboro on Tuesday. No way I can justify leaving work early to get down there. It is Trump's 70th b-day though. I do feel bad that he'll be celebrating it without me. I assume other attendees will serenade him.

Lookie there Trump will be here in Greensboro on Tuesday. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/schedule/register/greensboro-nc/ I haven't been around much, so maybe I've missed any reports -- have any JOMers been to a Trump rally?

Pool and beer. Why do you ask? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2786753/Want-live-grand-old-age-Drink-beer-play-billiards-claims-researcher.html

Ig: Reluctantly on topic comment, but I'm not entirely sure why the angst over robotics. Virtually every comment section I have visited I know, right? Only h8rs get angsty over automation when it comes comments. Makes me wistful for the time back when I controlled 1/3 to 1/2 of the "people" on JOM as a secret, personal army of automated trollatrons. Unfortunately my machinations were discovered and exposed by my dear friend sylvia. Ah, what could have been. But on the upside, she never shot me in the face either, so that's nice. #ThanksSylvia #MissYou #CallMeIfYouSeeThis

OMG

Deb: All the people available for him to demonize and he picks veterans of foreign wars who he imagines are dissing his wonderful economy in their private gatherings? Think of the Rolling Thunder rally in DC over the Memorial Day weekend and the yuge support they gave Trump.