Of course, Trump will not win the presidential election. This time.

But the people who support him now, this segment of the population that feels lost and confused and experiences intense anxiety when hearing the incomprehensible words “capital gains tax”, this group of people that finds reassurance that the world can be understood and doesn’t have to be scary in Trump’s childish “Ha ha, he puts on glasses to look smart but we are bright, we see right through this ruse” – with the erosion of the nation-state, this group of people will be growing.

And one day we will have to begin to notice them. Losers, idiots, ignoramuses – we will continue to make fun and feel so much more sophisticated and brilliant than these stupid country bumpkins. But one day somebody will turn to them and exploit their fear, rage and impotence in the face of a confusing world. And then we’ll see who’s the real idiot.

Is Netanyahu a greater threat to Jews than Iran?

It’s weird that people would confuse upspeak and vocal fry. The former is weak but the latter is not. The two speech patterns serve very different purposes.

Poor sad Russian – speakers will twist themselves into the weirdest contortions to avoid placing their uniformly horrible parents under critical scrutiny. In reality, there’s no problem for a healthy Russian – speaker (e.g. me) to say “I’m proud of myself for this.” I say it a lot because I do have many things to be proud of.

Jeb Bush is doing all he can to tank his candidacy.

The UN Human Rights committee directs the UK to outlaw beating children.

Well, it makes much more sense for the UK to start looking out for its children instead of wasting resources on arbitrating disputes between Russian bandits.

Professors can also be very special little snowflakes whose feelings are hurt by existing in an adult reality.

People keep wondering why all of the mass shooters are always male. That’s because women experience this kind of murderous rage vicariously, through men, and connect with it sexually.

A great way to help yourself fall asleep. I’ve been using it forever.

The myth of the skyrocketing childcare costs.

People’s surroundings impact them a lot, if you’ll pardon me for uttering such a platitude. N, for instance, tells me that he’s been feeling exhausted but has no idea why.

“What do you mean, why?” I say. “You haven’t been on vacation for two years. Of course, you are exhausted.”

“But people are supposed to be able to go for years without a vacation and not feel tired,” N says completely seriously.

I can guarantee to you that even a couple of years ago he wouldn’t have said something like this.

Cultural influences are a big deal, folks.

This is a photo my husband took for me in the men’s bathroom of the Busch Stadium:

That stadium is very cute. I would have loved to visit it if baseball were not so excruciatingly boring. They sell hot dogs and sauerkraut, which would make almost anything tolerable. Not baseball, though.

N has been sending me streams of text messages. The poor fellow is at a baseball game with his colleagues and he’s going crazy with boredom.

This is the second sports game he’s watched since I met him. Both games were part of his professional obligations.

Americans, please help me settle an 8-year-old dispute with my husband. Are the guests on Jerry Springer real people or actors?

N insists they are actors because identical Russian shows only ever have actors posing as regular people on them + “no regular person can be this way.”

And I insist that it makes no sense to compare Americans to Russians because Russians have a much higher self-censorship because of how fake and hypocritical Russian-speaking cultures are (and please note that I said “cultures”, plural. I’m obviously including my Russian-speaking subgroup with its obnoxious “let’s keep up appearances above all” strategy.)

We’ve been at it for 8 years even though we don’t watch the show. There is obviously something much greater than TV at stake here.

I might have been the only weirdo to like Clippy (the MS Word paper clip assistant), but these people are simply deranged:

Most of the women thought the characters were too male and that they were leering at them. So we’re sitting in a conference room. There’s me and, I think, like, 11 or 12 guys, and we’re going through the results, and they said, ‘I don’t see it. I just don’t know what they’re talking about.’ And I said, ‘Guys, guys, look, I’m a woman, and I’m going to tell you, these animated characters are male-looking.’

When an animated paper clip in a Microsoft program begins to look male and starts leering at you, that’s your clue that mental health assistance is urgently needed.

The US South would be nearly uninhabitable 6 months out of the year — especially for doing any sort of modern cognitive work — without AC.

Absolutely true. And with the global warming, most of Midwest is now the South. I came back from the UK to a heat wave of +44°C. Since then, the heat has subsided somewhat but there’s still no chance I’d be able to get any work done without an AC going on full blast all day long.

I do intellectual work and I have no idea how to make it happen while stewing in a puddle of sweat and feeling my brains melt.

Now Trump is channeling Elizabeth Warren.

Is it possible that he was hired by Democrats to demolish the Republican field?

Basques in Spain overwhelmingly oppose the idea of seeking independence. As usual, Basques turn out to be smarter than the rest of Spaniards.