Just got my driving license! And it's all in French!

We moved here in 2018 and started the driving license exchange process in Jan 2019 -Finally after much, much, much worry, our new licenses arrived today!
And they are valid until - wait for it - 2035. I doubt that I'll still be driving then, but hey, 15 years of validity is great.
And I can drive a 125cc motorcycle or scooter with no additional test. Though Mrs GoS would veto that.
So, yay!

So glad we had PA licenses - if we'd had California ones we couldn't have exchanged.

Some folks are getting very creative about going out in France

Here's a story from The Guardian about a guy who filled out his 'attestation' with his name, the time, and his reason for going out.
Unfortunately for him - going to bash some guys face in is not a good reason. And neither is needing to buy three limes for your aperitif.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/man-fined-for-breaking-french-covid-lockdown-to-smash-a-guys-face-in

Thanksgiving dinner. I'm cooking a big Schadenfreude so that I'll have cold leftovers

to eat on 20 Jan. I was going to use Tr**publican tears for the sauce, but realized that they would make it too bitter.

Just ran across the Bill Buford apple tart piece in the New Yorker.

He's given my a whole new outlook on pastry dough.

The video is a hoot - well except for the annoying son.

If you want a sweet pie, this is not for you. But a good tart tart? It's the real deal.

Kneading: Never. After gathering up the dough into a ball, you are allowed a smoosh. One. Not two.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/kitchen-notes/a-french-answer-to-american-apple-pie?

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials

We should never forget.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20201120-germany-commemorates-75th-anniversary-of-landmark-nuremberg-trials#_=_

I'm trying to renew my Star membership. I have a PayPal account.

The problem is that I go to the DU screen, enter the one time amount, click pay, and it takes me to the PayPal welcome page.
I log in, and then there is no option for making a payment to DU.
I've searched PayPal neither DU, DemocraticUnderground, Democratic Underground LLC nor any variation comes up.
I want to renew, and yes, I could send a check, but it's going to take two weeks to get to you. And I want to avoid that, if I can. I'm in France.

Website for the Donald J Trump Library at 1 MAGA lane, Nogales AZ is up. Worth a visit. Satire site.

Why We Can't Be Friends - A response to those who believe that their Trumpism is merely a political

... position or a matter of personal opinion.

This was written by a guy in South Jersey - VanDrew territory. He's got a great take on it.

Why We Can't Be Friends

Any way to moderate the DU Facebook group? Too many trolls.

Perhaps make it only accessible to star member of DU?

So, over on Facebook this topic came up. I came up with some thoughts.

The big problem with secession/partition is that there are large numbers of people in the 'Red' states who don't share the political, religious, or cultural values of the people 'in control' in those states along with POC and LBGTQ folks. Then there are those people with 'Red' state values in the 'Blue' states, though their situation would not approach in any fashion that of people with Blue state values in a Red state. Sure, there are 'Purple' states, but that's a discussion for another time.

Secession/partition - call it what you will - throws a lot people 'under the bus', in a fairly awful way. Some people have ties to the area where they live: familial, business, sentimental, etc. Huge sacrifices are involved.

It's easy to say 'People can migrate', but it takes a lot to completely pull up your roots, get rid of everything, and start in a new place. Enormous numbers of people really don't have the resources, physically, financially, or psychologically, to do that. Splitting the US up would end up causing far more harm than can be imagined. Think North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Bosnia, Armenia, the first American Civil War, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

There would disputes over borders, water rights, licensing of products, etc, etc. And the 'Law of Unintended Consequences' would apply in ways that at this stage are not even being considered.

The US needs to be fixed. And there are mechanisms to fix it. It's just that at the moment those mechanisms need some serious adjusting. And there are a lot of people who have a vested interest in seeing that those adjustments aren't made. Sure, we have a borderless world electronically, but how long will that last with partition/secession?