Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

We still have time to mess this up!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

T R E 4 5 O N

Consistently wrong since 2002

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / The Sweetest Thing

The Sweetest Thing

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This primary seems like it is never going to end. Oh, and to balance out that hair on fire Bill Curry piece, here’s a Kevin Drum piece on Hillary and Wall Street that is pretty fair.

At any rate, on to the sweetest thing. Steve woke us all up at 5:30 this morning, barged into my room, and started screaming that it was time for breakfast. He does that from time to time. The house doors shut and stay closed, but they don’t lock because the house has shifted a little, so the animals have learned they can just push on some of the closed doors and make their way in.

So I got up, fed Steve, and even though I had been up way too late last night (past two), I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep again any time soon, so I made some coffee. Stumbled my way to the desk and sat down to start reading and checking email, and after about 45 minutes, Lily came into the office and started jumping up onto my leg with her front paws, and yipping like she wanted to play. So I skritched her ears, and went back to what I was doing. She did it again, I pet her, paid some attention, and went back to work. She did it again. Finally, I said what’s wrong, Lily. She turned around, walked out of the office, and jumped back into bed and looked at me. So I said fine, and we went back to bed for another hour.

I guess she just wasn’t ready to wake up and wanted her heater back.

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  2. 2.

    Roberta

    My daughter has a four legged friend like that. She comes down when my younger daughter is eating breakfast to beg scraps, but once daughter is on the bus and dog has had a pee, it’s back to bed for her until the afternoon

  3. 3.

    Eric U.

    Nice. Our oldest dog has it figured out that he can get us out of bed in the morning by shaking his collar and whining. But not before about 6:30 or so

  6. 6.

    CaseyL

    D’awww. Strangely, my cats never wake me up early for breakfast – I get up at 6:00 am, and they just peer sleepily at me like “You’re up? Now? Why don’t you sleep in like we do?” (If only I could.) Eventually, once I’m downstairs, they arrive and sit expectantly by their food dishes.

    Maybe it’s because their kibble bowls are always full, so they’re never all that hungry….

  7. 7.

    Baud

    @Wrb:

    The bailout worked, with Mexico edging away from a crisis, allowing it to repay the loans, at profit.

    Excellent.

  8. 8.

    April

    Your critters have you well trained. They laugh at what they can get their hairless pet to do for them ;)

  9. 9.

    Guachi

    I liked the Drum piece when I read it yesterday or whenever it came out.

    To be fair, I’ll call for transcripts/video of Clinton’s speeches. Just as soon as every democrat and Republican running for president produces video/transcripts for every speech they’ve given to every private organization, whether paid or not. Seems fair.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    My cats get food in the evening, because I have learned from prior overlords that it’s not smart to feed in the morning, because they will want me to get up earlier and earlier.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel

    What a sweet story.

    Seems to me it’s been a while since we’ve seen a picture of Lily.

    Or Rosie, for that matter.

    Or Thurston Howl.

    And Steve. WHAT ABOUT PICTURES OF STEVE??

  17. 17.

    beltane

    @efgoldman: Ha! I am in the NH media market and am looking forward to the respite. (I haven’t seen the one where W pleads his brother’s case).

  19. 19.

    magurakurin

    @efgoldman: Things are going to change mightily come March 1st. Some polls coming out this week, two in Michigan, New York, Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina and all with Sanders 20 or more points behind. The one poll in Michigan has him 32 behind and the other 29, and both are after Iowa. The delegate math is too brutal. The media is spinning the horse race narrative, but there is no way Sanders can replicate what he did in Iowa and New Hampshire. He has been campaigning heavily in both states since April. Now, the race begins for real. After South Carolina there are only two days before Super Tuesday and then tough races scattered through early March and then the utter brutality of Mini-Super Tuesday on March 15 will probably be the death knell.

  22. 22.

    Marc

    @magurakurin: That was the Clinton 2008 logic too. It’s more likely than not, agreed, but Clinton has a demonstrated skill at squandering large advantages.

  26. 26.

    beltane

    @efgoldman: I’ve seen that Christie ad dozens of times and have never found it moving. In fact, when he mentions that he became US Attorney on September 10th, 2001, all I can think of is that maybe the attack was somehow his fault. Either that or he’s just a bad luck charm.

  27. 27.

    laura

    And . . . . . . you were better for having gone back to bed, to rest, if not to sleep with the still sleepy?
    Asking for a friend.

  28. 28.

    Loviatar

    @magurakurin: & efgoldman:

    States with 90% white population have a total of 345 delegates. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of primary delegates.

    Vermont 96.2% (24)
    Maine 95.5% (30)
    New Hampshire 95.0% (32)
    West Virginia 94.3% (37)
    Iowa 92.9% (52)
    Idaho 92.1% (27)
    Wyoming 91.6% (18)
    Minnesota 90.94% (93)
    North Dakota 90.9% (32)

    Out of a total of 713 Superdelegates, Hilary Clinton has 357 and Bernie Sanders has 14 committed with 340 uncommitted. The Iowa caucus apportioned 23 delegates to Clinton and 21 delegates to Sanders with 8 uncommitted (she did win after all).

    After Sander’s expected win on Tuesday, in a winner take all scenario, he’ll have at the most 67 delegates to her still commanding 357.

  29. 29.

    Wrb

    @Baud: that is not what
    the data says. Now, I know, that a crowd of people who have made their carrears deriding those who ignore the data to agree with those in their affinity groups are suddenly ignoring the data, engaging in magical thinking, going with their guts, and seeking union with their affinity groups. But the data does say that Hillary would lose to Cruz and be neck and neck w trump (before he took this new approach). Meanwhile Sandars would beat everyone and trounce Trump. But let us adjust the polls to harmonize with the wisdom of our guts. That did work out so well for Romney.

  31. 31.

    PurpleGirl

    Cole — that is cute and sweet. Hugo (the Doberman pinscher in Peekskill) did stuff like with me. He liked to align his back to my back and sleep that way, each of us a living heating pad for the other.

  32. 32.

    magurakurin

    @Wrb: Then you better send Sanders some more money and start phone banking in Nevada and South Carolina…stat. Because Sanders is actually losing this primary at the moment…badly. That’s not an endorsement or non-endorsement, that’s just the numbers.

  34. 34.

    Emdee

    The house doors shut and stay closed, but they don’t lock because the house has shifted a little

    FWIW, if you do want to keep the critters out one day, try either lifting up or pushing down on the doorknob as you close the door. Shifts the door slightly so it lines up better with the…doorknob striker hole thingy.

  37. 37.

    Wrb

    @efgoldman: BS. That has been recent spin from the Hillary Campaign, and such as Paul Krugman gave picked it up, bringing shame to their fantastic records, but such thing as likability, and perception of honesty are very hard to move when a person has been in the spotlight for decades. Momentum is also important. Sanders and Trump have surged from nowhere., reflecting in part real things. Disgust with Wall Street, with the the suffering inflicted on Main Street, and the sense that the system is rigged to benefit those who inflicted the suffering- insiders like the Clintons, Bushes and Romneys. Those who overturned the New Deal protections, outsourced jobs, became wealthy, and burned down the lives and communities of those not in on the vig. IMO people should look closely at the data, and consider the reasons why it is as it is, and why it has been moving as it has been.

  38. 38.

    John Revolta

    @Wrb: Anyone who comes around quoting the Washington Examiner is either a fool or…………… something even worse.

  40. 40.

    Loviatar

    @James Franks:

    Most of Hilary’s super-delegates are PLEO delegates. They are allowed to change their mind at the convention.

    The superdelegate count may or may not change, however as of today Clinton has 380 delegates (357 super + 23 Iowa) while Sanders has 35 delegates (14 super + 21 Iowa). If Sanders gets all of NH he’ll still have less than a 100 delegates. All this will be before we get to the states where she will be favored.

  41. 41.

    Wrb

    @magurakurin:
    Yea, I think he probably will lose and the result will be a Republican president. Virtually everyone I know who could be a swing voter will pick Trump over Hillary, and a lot of those who were Obama voters last time around will too, due to still seething anger over her PUMA surrogates and her failure to curb them. I like her, I think she’s weathered unfair attacks with considerable grace, but I can’t see her winning the general, and the data, the trends, and the word on my streets support that.

  42. 42.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    My late and much missed Phoebe, the World’s Most Affectionate Cat, used to climb on the bed and meow when I was up too late, to tell me it was time for bed.

    My husband walks Iggy and Muppet at 4:30 AM before going to work. As soon as they come back in they head straight back to the bed, cuddle up against me and go right back to sleep.

    I can’t imagine life without pets.

  44. 44.

    gogol's wife

    Well, there was a dog in War and Peace, so —

    War and Peace blew me away! It was fantastic! I have been crying for two solid hours.

  45. 45.

    Wrb

    @John Revolta: I would normally agree, but this was an account of a meeting, delivered with considerable alarm. He is going to destroy conservatism! It was an anti-Trump piece. However, reading the description of the presentation that had so alarmed the Examiner writer my reaction was “holy shit, if he actually adopts this populist strategy, he is going to be very hard to beat.”

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    The horrid year for Bay Area music continues. Along with two members of Jefferson Airplane (on the same day no less) we also lost Dan Hicks last weekend. Once you kids vacate my lawn, find yourselves a copy of “Striking it Rich.” Amazing guy and a wonderful band.

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    Sometimes I look at Balloon Juice because I want to see the stupid things that people say.

    And sometimes I look at Balloon Juice because I just want to kill some time and have a pleasant virtual conversation, and I wind up seeing stupid things that people say anyways.

  49. 49.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    We are on our second and third cats (2-cat family) who eat like dogs: Never a piece of kibble left in the bowl.

    Considering possibility, since all our cats are shelter kitties, they have had that “where’s my next meal coming from” memory held on real tight.

  50. 50.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Omnes Omnibus: I enjoyed the book – I read it twice. In college, the prof who taught our small class on it, said that Tolstoy wrote more drafts of it than total times he (the prof) had read it. 8 drafts, IIRC.

    /trivia

    It’s an amazing piece of work.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who found Anna Karenina more moving, though.)

  51. 51.

    shomi

    Jesus titty fucking christ on a stick. Anyone been to the orange satan dkos lately? It’s worse than right wing fringe sites. Sanders is all that is holy and righteous and Hillary is the equivalent of the the swamp thing from Wall Street according to those morons

    Fuckin hell, the dillusional left as demonstrated on Dkos is every bit as fucked up as the whack jobs as the right. Dkos has convinced me of that.

  53. 53.

    Wrb

    @efgoldman: yep. I don’t think Hillary is electable, and the data supports that. I like her, but she’s too badly damaged, is too threatened by scandal and fails to inspire passion. This is just a terrible year to run a candidate linked to Wall Street and financial deregulation.

  56. 56.

    magurakurin

    @Omnes Omnibus: We can see now, the Michigan polls are from yesterday and the Georgia poll from three days ago. He’s not moving the needle outside of his comfort zone. In the one Michigan poll he is losing to every demographic group including young, white, males.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SarahT: It was odd. I happened to turn on the TV and was scrolling through the channels and stumbled on the beginning of the first episode. Fortuitous.

  58. 58.

    Death Panel Truck

    My younger cocker spaniel, Chico, loves to take naps with me. I don’t sleep worth a damn at night, so I usually set aside 90 minutes mid-afternoons to crash. I look at Chico and say, “It’s time to take a nap, buddy,” and he’s in the bedroom and on the bed before I get there.

  61. 61.

    J R in WV

    Being in Arizona for a few weeks, it’s funny to see the eastern half of the country already in tomorrow when I’m still in you easterners yesterday. Like being in a Dr. Whoo with that Tardis gadget he has.

    How come we haven’t seen a female Doctor yet? Has there been a black Doctor? I’ve only seen a couple of episodes, and without knowing the back story, it really is neither comprehensible nor interesting. But I can still use it for metaphors.

    I’m finding it hard to believe that a Republican, spouting all the absurd crap they are expected to accept, could really win against someone who isn’t both crazy and stupid. Like Hillary, or Bernie, or even MoM whose real name I have temporarily forgotten. Must be getting old!

  62. 62.

    Sherparick

    @Marc: “Open the Pod Bay Doors Hal.” “Sorry Dave, but I can’t.” “Sorry Dave, but I can’t.” “Sorry Dave, but I can’t.”

  63. 63.

    Sherparick

    Back on the subject, the house tomcat, Gizmo, (also known as Lord and Master), has me so well trained that he will wake me up around midnight for a short nightly excursion, and then around 3:00 for his second nightly excursion. Unlike John, I go back to sleep like instantly. He wakes me by scratching magazines and or newspapers to wake me up (I leave them out so he won’t scratch books and furniture.) When I get up for work he then eats his first breakfast and jumps up to the bathroom cabinet to get petted and ask for his treats while I shave. As I say, I am very well trained.

  64. 64.

    Bobby Thomson

    How very fairandbalanced to “balance” an unhinged screed with Drum’s mushy fumbling toward a neutral truth.

  65. 65.

    DCF

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Given that I’ve developed a severe allergic reaction to equivocation, generification, and bothsiderism since 2000, here is another ‘screed’ for you to peruse:
    Feeling the Yern: Why One Millennial Woman Would Rather Go to Hell Than Vote for Hillary
    http://www.villagevoice.com/news/feeling-the-yern-why-one-millennial-woman-would-rather-go-to-hell-than-vote-for-hillary-8253224
    The economy is rigged.

    Democracy is corrupted.

    The billionaires are on the warpath.

  66. 66.

    mere mortal

    “The house doors shut and stay closed, but they don’t lock because the house has shifted a little, so the animals have learned they can just push on some of the closed doors and make their way in.”

    That may be the best endorsement of Sanders over Clinton that I’ve read, particularly in regards to your link to Kevin.

    The metaphorical link between pets taking advantage of weak barriers and “The financial sector viewed her as neutral. Not helpful, but also not harmful.” is simply masterful.

  67. 67.

    Wrb

    @efgoldman: No, I haven’t been to LGM since the Bush administration. I’ve been in and out of here since Cole’s essay describing why he quit the Republican Party, but usually only during times when there is an emerging drama. Between times, there is too much of saying clever things about depressing acts by those on the right. There also used to be too many tiresome imbedded trolls. You and I have conversed many times in the past.

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